New to SPS

[Guest Snulman]

Hey guys, I picked up a frag of a green slimer and 2 Acro frags the other day. This is my first venture into SPS.

 

I have a 55 with 2 X 175 10K MH and 2 X 96 PC (one actinic and one 10K). I also have 2 MJ 900's and one Seio 620 along with the returns from my sump/fuge in as well.

 

Can anyone tell me What I should be doing and looking for.

 

My caclium is around 560

And not sure about my alk since I only have a dipstick test and it only reads in ppm.

 

I haven't been home to see if the polyps extend with the light or not. But I don' see it when I'm home and it is dark.

 

I don't want these to die, and I should have checked up on them before picking them up, but I got these from a good friend for a steal on his tank before he moved.

 

Thanks

[Caribbean Jake]

few hints

keep your CA stable, keep your PH and ALK in range, replace the bulbs every 6 to 8 month and make sure you have the right par needed to provide sufficient light. Run your lights at least 8 hours a day continuosly and supplement with Actinic 03 if possible. keep good flow of water around the SPS. Try to add Tech A and Tech B if not ION parts every other day or week to keep suplementing the CA requirements. And yes, go back to the begining and start reading on the SPS you bought, to understand their needs, requirements and care.

Good Luck

[Guest Snulman]

I have seen Tech A and B not sure of what they do though. And what do you mean by "Ions"?

 

few hints

keep your CA stable, keep your PH and ALK in range,  replace the bulbs every 6 to 8 month and make sure you have the right par needed to provide sufficient light.  Run your lights at least 8 hours a day continuosly and supplement with Actinic 03 if possible.  keep good flow of water around the SPS.  Try to add Tech A and Tech B if not ION parts every other day or week to keep suplementing the CA requirements.  And yes, go back to the begining and start reading on the SPS you bought, to understand their needs, requirements and care.

Good Luck

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[unninair]

Also, change your light schedule so you can enjoy your tank when you get home <_<

[Caribbean Jake]

Tech A and Tech B are basically supplements of CA and other minerals necessary for your SPS to grow. If you don't have a CA reactor, then you need to dose Tech A/B to supplement the minerals taken by the SPS. The Ion is another brand and basically does the same as Tech A/B

[Guest Snulman]

What if I dose Kalk? Is there anything else I really need to dose?

 

 

Tech A and Tech B are basically supplements of CA and other minerals necessary for your SPS to grow.  If you don't have a CA reactor, then you need to dose Tech A/B to supplement the minerals taken by the SPS.  The Ion is another brand and basically does the same as Tech A/B

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[fishface]

FWIW, you sound as of you do have a good setup with enough light, and the right flow. But you may have heat problems from the lamps and evaporation problems.

 

1. Make sure that your temp isn't swinging high during the day. I've had that happen (twice, dammit!) last year and then I forgot and it happened again this year because in the summer the avg temp in the house was around 75.

--Because I was supposedly saving money and energy by having the air cond. set-back during the day. Bleached many bulletproof corals. Now that it's winter, you're probably fine but that still alot of watts on a 55g.

If it a pendant instead of a canopy, that would help a bit. Mine open and I still roasted 'em. Doh.

 

2. Make sure you have an auto top-off, or keeping the water level proper and the salinity constant will become a burden.

 

Otherwise, sounds great!

 

FF

[Caribbean Jake]

What if I dose Kalk? Is there anything else I really need to dose?

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Snulman

Kalk is good for keeping your PH, Alk stabilize but does not provide replenishment of nutrients and necessary Calcium or Essential Elements greatly required for growth by SPS corals. Tech A & B supplements the Calcium requirement that the SPS need.

[ErikS]

Not exactly - kalk is a balanced supplement. It supplies both ALK & calcium. It does not however supply trace elements such as strontium (whether or not a calcium reactor supplies enough is open to debate).

[Folta]

Sounds like one would be pretty well of with regular water changes and a kalk reactor.

 

 

 

 

 

Not exactly - kalk is a balanced supplement. It supplies both ALK & calcium. It does not however supply trace elements such as strontium (whether or not a calcium reactor supplies enough is open to debate).

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[ErikS]

Well......sort of As with most things in this hobby there are no certain answers.

 

I know of one member *cough* Lee *cough* who drips Kalk & adds a bit of Mg when he feels necessary - his water parms are spot on = even kalk & water changes can't quite keep up with demands & needs a bit of supplement. I'm pretty sure he uses IO....if you were to use ReefCrystals which have higher content to begin with????? (most likely you'd still need a bit of supplement)

 

It's very hard to give definitive answers, each tank & it's associated demands are unique.

 

Note: neither a kalk reactor nor a CA reactor (w/o adding dolomite) can provide Mg which is critical for Ca/ALK balance.

 

Confused yet? (reef chemistry gives me a headache )

 

The true issue with Kalk is that if you have a huge demand you can end up with a very high PH (Kalk has a PH of approx 12) - same for CA reactor - the PH goes low due to the constant supply of 6.8 PH water.

[Guest Snulman]

Well I do dose the kalk and keep my ca in range, but I'm not sure of what my alk is because the dip test I have only measures in the ppm. so I don't know how to convert it!

 

As for the temp. I have 2 fans blowing over the bulbs and my temp never gets above 80, especially since I added the sump. The water flowing down drops the temp significantly. So temp isn't a problem

 

As for essential elements, I have the Kent version of that, which is kinda blue/purple. But I haven't added that since I didn't see any improvement with my last tank. But I guess I could start now!

[Lee Stearns]

Shulman,

If you are in the burke area or Nothern Va stop by and i will show you a very simple system that has worked very well for me. Eriks has got it down- mostly lights and Kalk should be enough for your system to keep some SPS for quite some time. It is not until your system becomes heavily dominated by SPS will you require additional Calcium. And even that could be added with a very simple Calcium chloride that comes in its cheapest form as Dow's flake deicer- My system is becoming slowly predominated by Sps after almost two years and I have yet to run into too low of a calcium situation, just using a cheapo drip Kalk reactor (two liter water bottle) replaced once a month with fresh pickling lime(missippi lime now). Occasionally I will have decreased ALk and that is when I add baking soda-This is not a very often situation if you can keep your kalk drip steady- Before setting up the drip sytem I just hand added the clear Kalk water from a cup in batches whenever I had the time this would cause swings in PH and ALk and I am sure Calcium which I did not measure often. On the ALk testing I would get a sea test kit, or fast test kit- It is a titration of adding a couple of drops of the fluid to 10 ml of water- each drop is .5 meg/L ALk so 5 drops is 2.5 meg/L and 6 drops is 3.0 meg/L.... takes less than a minute to check and a kit will last you a very long time. If you can keep alk stable your calcium will remain fairly stable and I beleive many sps are more suceptible to Alk and Phos swings than almost any other parameter. Softies and Fish can tolerate much greater swings in nearly all the parameters we measure.

[Guest Snulman]

Lee,

 

I would really appreciate that. However I'm in the Annapolis area. So that may be out of the way. I just don't want the 2 frags of sps I have to die. Its been almost a week and I haven't seen any polyp extension from them. So I'm kinda nervous!

 

 

Shulman,

If you are in the burke area or Nothern Va stop by and i will show you a very simple system that has worked very well for me. Eriks has got it down- mostly lights and Kalk should be enough for your system to keep some SPS for quite some time. It is not until your system becomes heavily dominated by SPS will you require additional Calcium. And even that could be added with a very simple Calcium chloride that comes in its cheapest form as Dow's flake deicer- My system is becoming slowly predominated by Sps after almost two years and I have yet to run into too low of a calcium  situation, just using a cheapo drip Kalk reactor (two liter water bottle) replaced once a month with fresh pickling lime(missippi lime now). Occasionally I will have decreased ALk and that is when I add baking soda-This is not a very often situation if you can keep your kalk drip steady- Before setting up the drip sytem I just hand added the clear Kalk water from a cup in batches whenever I had the time this would cause swings in PH and ALk and I am sure Calcium which I did  not measure often. On the ALk testing I would get a sea test kit, or fast test kit- It is a titration of adding a couple of drops of the fluid to 10 ml of water- each drop is .5 meg/L ALk  so 5 drops is 2.5 meg/L and 6 drops is 3.0 meg/L.... takes less than a minute to check and a kit will last you a very long time. If you can keep alk stable your calcium will remain fairly stable and I beleive many sps are more suceptible to Alk and Phos swings than almost any other parameter. Softies and Fish can tolerate much greater swings in nearly all the parameters we measure.

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[Lee Stearns]

my experience is the green slimer is fairly easy and prolific in growth for an acro - The acros can be some of the tougher sps in needs. Polyp extension on these sps is a bit of a guess. They do not have that large of fleshy area to put out into the water column. Color is a bit better judge as to how they are reacting to thier environment- Lights and water params. If they go totally white they are said to have either bleached out by dumping their zoanthele, or the flesh itself has died leaving just the white coraline understructure. They generally require slow acclimation to new water params- which is one major reason for loosing then. And as I said earlier they do not take changes in ALk and Phos very well. Temp and salinity changes will also affect their transition but to a lesser extent- Their coloration is highly dependent on lighting- How green, blue, pink ect or colored they get is dependent on good lighting. You did not mention your phos levels but many do not have problems there if they have been keeping mixed reefs and kept their feeding fairly minimal. The Green Bali slimer should be keepable for you if you just watch your alk and adjust your PH with Kalk(limewater). On another note once you are used to watching for these water parameters- - if you loose the bali- let me know I can always cut one for you to try again with. It is the SPS weed of my tank. Actually grows fater than the digitatas.

[Guest Snulman]

Lee,

 

Thanks! I have some polyp extension on the Slimer, they aren't out that much, but noticeable! One of the acros is bone white, but its been that way before I got it, and there are 2-3 areas of small feather like polyps that extend and contract in the current. The other acro has no Polyp extension and is starting to turn brown. I went to look at it in the dark and saw 4-5 amphipods crawling on it. Is that bad?

My Phos is 0. So I don't really know what could be causing this!

 

 

my experience is the green slimer is fairly easy and prolific in growth for an acro - The acros can be some of the tougher sps in needs. Polyp extension on these sps is a bit of a guess. They do not have that large of fleshy area to put out into the water column. Color is a bit better judge as to how they are reacting to thier environment- Lights and water params. If they go totally white they are said to have either bleached out by dumping their zoanthele, or the flesh itself has died leaving just the white coraline understructure. They generally require slow acclimation to new water params- which is one major reason for loosing then. And as I said earlier they do not take changes in ALk and Phos very well. Temp and salinity changes will also affect their transition but to a lesser extent- Their coloration is highly dependent on lighting- How green, blue, pink ect or colored they get is dependent on good lighting. You did not mention your phos levels but many do not have problems there if they have been keeping mixed reefs and kept their feeding fairly minimal. The Green Bali slimer should be keepable for you if you just watch your alk and adjust your PH with Kalk(limewater). On another note once you are used to watching for these water parameters- - if you loose the bali- let me know I can always cut one for you to try again with. It is the SPS weed of my tank. Actually grows fater than the digitatas.

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[Caribbean Jake]

Snulman

When you introduced the new Acro's, what type of acclimation procedure you used? A nother note: once the Acro turns brown is going down hill. sorry.