SPS dominated reefs

[jeff.l]

I see a lot of people out there doing SPS and have decided that as I rebuild my 150 that is the route I want to go. What are some of the tips and tricks that people are using.

My setup:
150 gallon tank
6 full spectrum par 38s spaced well enough apart. Have had luck with sps in the past with these. 
Euro reef RS180 protein skimmer
Marine magic auto Doser ( currently offline)
Apex controller ( currently offline)

5 foot sump with skimmer cgamber, empty chamber, deep sand bed/refugium chamber and stand alone pump chamber.

Looking for opinions. I don't have a huge budget but am considering upgrading some aspects of the tank, so suggestions are welcome.

Sent from my tube on the lazy river

 

[Salty Cracker]

Get the tank running, and put some softies in there until the tank is established (I say 6 months to a year).

Add in Carbon and GFO to your mix.

Otherwise it looks like you are farther ahead than most.  If your bulbs are more than 6 months old, grab new ones, and someone once told me how to check the output on your ballasts, but I lost the link... Even good bulbs don't do well with bad ballasts. 

 

[theyangman]

Take everything that I did, and do the opposite.

 

[jeff.l]

The system has been running for about a year and 3 months as a softie LPS system. The par 38s are LED, should they still be changed every 6 months?

Sent from my tube on the lazy river

 

[unibob]

Get the tank running, and put some softies in there until the tank is established (I say 6 months to a year).

Add in Carbon and GFO to your mix.

Otherwise it looks like you are farther ahead than most.  If your bulbs are more than 6 months old, grab new ones, and someone once told me how to check the output on your ballasts, but I lost the link... Even good bulbs don't do well with bad ballasts.

He's LED like you, so bulbs should be fine.

Stability is the key I have found. Once you think your there try some easier to keep species like montiporas/stags/birdsnest to see how things go.

 

[jeff.l]

What parameters am I looking for stability in? My nitrate and nitrate are all nice and stable. My calcium, alk magnesium swing a little bit but I am getting the autodoser online soon which should help.

Sent from my tube on the lazy river

 

[Poseidon]

Gfo, bio pellets , lots of flow, good lighting and like Jerry said, stability is the key, and a good set of test kits helps a lot

 

[draper]

4 watts per gallon of metal halide , the extra watt in actinic. move your water around good. i use 2 mp40's from vortec, a return loop and of course the returns. i don't have a dead spot in the tank. good movement, good lighting and keep your salinity stable. use a good quality salt and change 15% of your water every other week. i dose calcium and carbonate to maintain that constant.  you see salinity and trace elements are common in the seas. youj can fluctuate your temp with very little harm if any. i good salt is important or you will have to dose magnesium and that's a pain. (testing). no magnesium, no calcium in solution, its that simple.
good luck

 

[unibob]

Stability/balance in nutrient import/export as well as calc,alk mag, nitrate, phosphate.

 

[jeff.l]

Thanks for all the opinions so far. I'm going to play around with the autodoser soon. Also going to up my water changes to 15% bi weekly. I am using fluval sea salt, I have really liked it, I've tried salinity from seachem and hated it.

Sent from my tube on the lazy river

 

[Salty Cracker]

Hagen salt...  never thought I'd see that.


Get reef crystals.  Lots of good extras for coral. 

 

[Poseidon]

Hagen salt...  never thought I'd see that.


Get reef crystals.  Lots of good extras for coral.

Or just use the normal instant ocean like Darryl and plenty of other reefers

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

im on my 2 nd big bucket of salinity salt

 

[Reef Hero]

Get your major parameters stable....this is alk, ca, mag, salinity, and temp. From there go after the nitrates if you have any......this is gonna require you to do some form of ULNS (pellets, prodibio, dosing carbon, etc..)
The ULNS should help with any po4 but you are gonna want to get that as low as possible too....
I'm not sure about your lighting.....I run t5s....but some on this forum are growing sps no problem with LEDs....

I use IORC salt

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[theyangman]

REEF CRYSTALS!!!!!!

Taste good on bland food too!

 

[Salty Cracker]

[quote author=Salty Cracker link=topic=6631.msg65318#msg65318 date=1382479891]
Hagen salt...  never thought I'd see that.


Get reef crystals.  Lots of good extras for coral.

Or just use the normal instant ocean like Darryl and plenty of other reefers
[/quote]

Darryl is likely a bit more OCD when it comes to additives and water change schedules.  However, you keep going on with your "are you sure that is red planet?" IO salt, and I'll stick to my RC. 

 

[Poseidon]

[quote author=Poseidon link=topic=6631.msg65321#msg65321 date=1382480291]

[quote author=Salty Cracker link=topic=6631.msg65318#msg65318 date=1382479891]
Hagen salt...  never thought I'd see that.


Get reef crystals.  Lots of good extras for coral.

Or just use the normal instant ocean like Darryl and plenty of other reefers
[/quote]

Darryl is likely a bit more OCD when it comes to additives and water change schedules.  However, you keep going on with your "are you sure that is red planet?" IO salt, and I'll stick to my RC.
[/quote]

HA!
Ill Just throw some royal blues up and then mine will look the same as yours

 

[Salty Cracker]

[quote author=Salty Cracker link=topic=6631.msg65345#msg65345 date=1382483177]
[quote author=Poseidon link=topic=6631.msg65321#msg65321 date=1382480291]

[quote author=Salty Cracker link=topic=6631.msg65318#msg65318 date=1382479891]
Hagen salt...  never thought I'd see that.


Get reef crystals.  Lots of good extras for coral.

Or just use the normal instant ocean like Darryl and plenty of other reefers
[/quote]

Darryl is likely a bit more OCD when it comes to additives and water change schedules.  However, you keep going on with your "are you sure that is red planet?" IO salt, and I'll stick to my RC.
[/quote]

HA!
Ill Just throw some royal blues up and then mine will look the same as yours
[/quote]

You also think the Leafs are going to win the cup in your lifetime.  You are an optimistic little gaffer I'll give you that

 

[Darryl_V]

Take everything that I did, and do the opposite.

You probably don't remember Tony but I tried to warn you.  I have always asked a few questions of people who have come down to buy frags like how long they have been in the hobby, how long they have been keeping SPS and how old is the tank.  I do this to guage experience level.  If you remember I suggested that you might want to try a few nice frags in the cheaper/more common category to make sure they they are doing well.  Than when they have proven to grow and colour for you, you can always buy the rarer/more expensive ones later when you are more confident.  I always give this advice to people who are getting into SPS or have new tanks.  NO point sinking lots of money into corals until you know you can keep them colourful and growing.  Patients is a bitch though and I know how it is......so I dont fight when someone who has an unproven system and lack of experience wants to give me a fist load of money.  Some people have to learn the hard way.  I was like that, but than again when I started there wasnt as much information available and very few were successfully keeping SPS in a major way (no one locally).

 

[jeff.l]

Well I still have three buckets of fluval salt. So I will switch to IORC when I'm done this. ( was planning on it anyways just due to cost) I will be on the lookout for some cheaper easier to grow sps frags then.

Sent from my tube on the lazy river