SPS Newbie Success
- Thread starter JasonD
- Start date
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LakeEd
Achilles
Looks very nice and healthy!
CONGRATS!!!
CONGRATS!!!
MarineTeng
Reef Padawan
very nice, i tried monti cap within the first few months of starting my tank and it died after some chemi clean for some reason, i think it may have been fading before that, and i haven't tried it since, that's a very nice purple rim monti, you should frag me a piece, i'd trade you something or another for it, and your orange cap in the background looks like it has good color too
Damsel13
Well-known member
The purple and green is my favorite. I have two frags of the orange cap.s in the background as well as a light pink that is much thinner. The oranges are doing really well but the light pink seems to be struggling. They are under PC's so maybe the frag I got that is light pink (it was light pink under halides too) is just more delicate. It reminds me of the monti cap. that SueT posted a picture of. The colony was just georegous and really cabbage shaped. I hope mine lives.
Does anyone have any advice (besides buying halides )?
Thanks,
Does anyone have any advice (besides buying halides
)?Thanks,
Jan
Well-known member
Great looking green monti-cap! How did you succeed in getting it this way?
I am trying not to frag it. I want to grow a monster. It started from a 2" frag and now is about 8" across. I probably will eventfully frag some small pieces. I will let you know.
The purple and green is my favorite. I have two frags of the orange cap.s in the background as well as a light pink that is much thinner. The oranges are doing really well but the light pink seems to be struggling. They are under PC's so maybe the frag I got that is light pink (it was light pink under halides too) is just more delicate. It reminds me of the monti cap. that SueT posted a picture of. The colony was just georegous and really cabbage shaped. I hope mine lives.
Does anyone have any advice (besides buying halides
Thanks,
I am certainly not the one to give advice on SPS. I have had a few "easy" SPS for some time. I had PC lighting, did not do much more the water changes. My SPS frags all lived and looked pretty nice, but did not grow. I upgraded to a new 120 gallon system. I upgraded to 2x250watt 12k reeflux halides. I absolutely love these bulbs, great color with no supplements. Even with the upgraded lighting I still was not getting much growth. My prior system was dominated my zoanthids. I maintained parameters by doing weekly water changes. My calcium always hung around 370-400. I got really lazy with testing. After adding a clam and a few more SPS, I checked the calcium and alk levels. My calcium was 270. I tried to raise the calcium with no luck. I started doing a lot of reading. There are some great threads on RF addressing calcium/alk imbalances. After getting my levels in check, I now dose Kalk daily. What a difference. I have had more growth in the last 3 months, than I have had in a year. I feel pretty dumb for overlooking the obvious. For the first time I am seeing some of the color difference on new growth. My dark green monti cap now has white rims and of course the neon green monti now has a purple rim. I thought maybe the purple was just a lighting thing. When I was moving the coral. I pulled it out of the water and the purple even looked more vibrant out of the water. I am starting to see what all the fuss is with these SPS. I still like my zoanthids better though
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What is next
One other thing that I did not realize, was that salt mix did not have the desired Calc and Alk levels right out of the can.
What is next: Buy a Magnesium test kit, replace rio 2500 with 2 high flow power heads (to go with my closed loop seaswirl), sell/trade/move most softies especially leathers, acquire more brilliant SPS, upgrade reflector to full size lumenarc III's, grow my 1.5" Oregon tort to long like Dang's.
One other thing that I did not realize, was that salt mix did not have the desired Calc and Alk levels right out of the can.
What is next: Buy a Magnesium test kit, replace rio 2500 with 2 high flow power heads (to go with my closed loop seaswirl), sell/trade/move most softies especially leathers, acquire more brilliant SPS, upgrade reflector to full size lumenarc III's, grow my 1.5" Oregon tort to long like Dang's.
Jan
Well-known member
Jason,
That's interesting. Do you dose kalk daily as your sole source of calcium or in addition to something else (such as a calcium reactor)?
That's interesting. Do you dose kalk daily as your sole source of calcium or in addition to something else (such as a calcium reactor)?
Just Kalk at night from a drip. There is a good website that gives the dose to use. I will have to find the link.
I use dry-z-air (found in sporting goods, $1.20 a bag) to adjust the calcium in the salt mix or to adjust calcium imbalances. It does not effect Alk.
I use dry-z-air (found in sporting goods, $1.20 a bag) to adjust the calcium in the salt mix or to adjust calcium imbalances. It does not effect Alk.
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Damsel13
Well-known member
Hummm, got a great sporting goods store near here.
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