Help Me Prepair for SPS

E

eman

Hello Guys and Girls,

I am in the process of trying to rebuild my reef after 3 years of neglect. I have been in the hobby for 7 years now and understand something’s needed to keep a tank alive. However, there must be more to keeping SPS than good lighting, flow, skimming and water changes.

I am looking to build a SPS Dominant Mixed Reef and would like some help in choosing equipment. I don’t have much experience with today’s products and was hoping yawl could help. Will I need a Calcium Reactor, Ozone, Controller or anything else I don’t know about? What about test kits, what should I test for? What are some articles or books that I should read?

Please keep in mind, I will be adding a fairly large fish selection in the order written. (2) Ocellaris Clownfish, (1) Black and White Ocellaris Clownfish, (1) Longfin Fairy Wrasse, (1) Regal Angelfish, (3) Bartlett’s Anthias, (1) Green Mandarin, (1) Blue Spotted Jawfish, (1) Magnificent Foxface and (1) Powder Blue tang.


This is what I have so far :
100g reef ready
(2) AI SOL Super Blue
(2) Korlia Evolution 1400
Euroreef Skimmer
Refugium
Deep Sand Bed
150lbs. Live Rock

Thanks,
 
What are the dimensions of your tank? I ask because I wonder if just two AI Sols are enough for good coverage. Do they have the stock optics or did you trade out the center ones for 70 degree optics?

Stability and good parameters all around would be high on my list. As such, I think a controller can make life a lot easier with dosing if you go that route over a Ca reactor, controlling heaters/fans/chillers to maintain stable temperature, and controlling an ATO.

I would add an ATO at a minimum and then figure out how you plan on maintaining Alk, Ca, and Mg and get equipment as needed whether it be reactors or dosing pumps and ways to control those. There are some dosers like the Bubble Magus that are self contained. I haven't done a Ca reactor before so I don't know what's involved with one of those.

I would test for the big 3 at a minimum (Ca, Alk, Mg) and I personally like the Red Sea Pro test kits for all three of those. Some folks are not fans of the Red Sea Pro Mg kit though.

I would also test for nitrates and get an Hanna Phosphate checker to monitor phosphates. Speaking of which, are you running a fuge with macro, GFO, or how do you plan on exporting phosphates?

I'm sure some of the SPS keepers here with a lot more experience can probably add more or may have better ways of controlling things so I'll be tagging along too hoping to learn something new.
 
In addition to what mike suggested, you will want to keep nitrates low. Either via water changes, fuge with macro, or bio-pellets. I do all three. As far as the big 3 go, there are lots of options. I have always used b-ionic. Has always worked well for me and thus I haven't tried anything else. I dosed manually for a long time, now is use dosing pumps from BRS.

I would not have any Angels other than genicanthus Angels in a reef with sps. I have tried it because they are my absolute favorite fish but it didn't work out well at all for me.
 
My tank is 18"W and 48"L. AI Sol does recommend (3) fixtures for this size tank mounted front to back. After speaking with a LFS I felt confident that (2) fixtures running the length of the tank would be sufficient. I don't have a par meter but to the eye I have more light covering the tank and penetrating better than the (2) 250w MH I was running and I still haven't ramped them up to 50% yet.

I do have an ATO, I've been using it for years and just take it for granite. It is the one with the (2) float switches. I was evaporating 7g a week with the MH and with the LED's it looks to be about 5g a week but I have only had them one week.

I am running a fuge with cheto in it, other than that I don't know how to get the phosphates out. I was thinking 10% water change each week would do the trick. What is a GFO?

I do make RO/DI water for top-off and changes. The system is 6+yrs old and is producing 7ppm clean water. Is that ok or should I look at changing it out?

As for the big 3 I only knew about one of them. The Bubble Magnus looks pretty cool and easy to use. What about failure/malfunction is this safer than running a Ca Reactor? I am assuming a Ca Reactor will not do anything for the Alk and Mg so I guess dosing would be more cost effective during set-up but what about operating cost.
 
Man if it recommends three units I would get three units you can get kalkwasser + and it covers mg all and cal all in one and dose it through a dozed system. That will help keep your three stable. Just keep it up

sent from that touch phone thingy.
 
My current tank is 60" long and I'm running 3 Sols on it which seems about right for me. You can get more coverage out of them if they are higher up so that can influence how many you need and if you have anything along the ends of the tank that would want more light. If you're still running stock optics, you may want to look at replacing the center 40 degree optics with 70's unless you need to punch down pretty far. I only run my Sols at 75% so, if anything, you may get too much PAR with the 40 degree optics.

GFO = Granular Ferric Oxide. You can run this in a reactor to help reduce phosphates if you have phosphate issues. If you've already got macro, test for phosphates first and if you are good to go, then you may not need GFO. Good GFO can also get expensive over time as you replace it. If you are starting with really high phosphates, it may make more sense to do a lanthanum chloride treatment. There are pros and cons to that approach though so I'd test first and see where you are at before taking any action.

I completely spaced out on missing nitrates and Keith (VRBA) is right about that. I just reply on my live rock, sand bed, and macro to take care of that too. If everything is running smoothly, even with a heavy feeding schedule, my nitrates and phosphates always test undetectable.

As to the RO/DI, I probably go overboard but I start replacing filters when I get anything over 5 - 6 ppm after my RO stage and anything over 0 ppm after my DI stage. I probably go through a set of RO filters every 3 - 4 months or so but I am also supporting 3 tanks. I've only had to change out my DI out once in the past year. Depending on your source water, getting 0 TDS may not be feasible. When you get your phosphate test kit, I would also test your RO/DI water as we had one member here who had an issue with high phosphates in their RO/DI water.

No experience with a CA reactor or dosing Kalk so I can't compare those or comment on them but so far the Bubble Magus has worked well for me or you can run individual pumps tied to an Apex or other controller. Something can always fail but my Bubble Magus doses every hour so I just periodically check on it. My Apex will also turn off power to the Bubble Magus if the pH goes too high (i.e. if Alk gets stuck on). My new setup will have a conductivity/salinity probe too so I can get it to turn off the doser if it goes overboard on Mg as that should raise the salinity. I also plan on using the salinity probe to make sure the ATO shuts off if salinity drops beyond a certain point. No backups in place though for if the Ca doser gets stuck on. I still test weekly to make sure my parameters are where they need to be.
 
I went from two part last summer to Kalk now to Kalk and ca reactor. I personally would start Kalk and then move to ca rx + Kalk when your ca and alk demands out grow just Kalk.

Tons of flow, flow is more important than lighting when it comes to sps in my opinion.

A qt system is a must now a days with Acropora eating flatworms becoming the pest you don't want in your tank once they are in it is hard to get them out as their is no in tank treatment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I recently went to a SPS dominate tank. The big 3 are important, but I've noticed that the growth of my coral has a lot to do with phosphates, especially once I got my nitrates under 2 ppm. I took to long to change my rodi filters and my phosphates went up to about .9 and it really affected things. My "white tips" disappeared, my SPS just didn't seem "happy." As Mike suggested lanthanum chloride (Keith actually taught me about it) but works well for quick results assuming you have a good skimmer. Then as suggested use a GFO in something as simple as a phosban reactor. A calcium reactor is nice as is a dosing pump, but they can be delayed. You can test and dose manually, I'd consider investing in items that will keep the parameters that are not easy to control, such as nitrates and phosphates controlled. If your calcium is a little low, you can slowly just bring it up. If your phosphates and nitrates are to high, it's not so easy of a correction. Calcium/Mg/alk is important, but there is such an acceptable range that it is important to keep all your parameters consistent. Alk. for instance. 7 - 8 is in range but so is 10 - 11. If you boost from the low end of the range towards the high end to fast, it will affect things. Same with salinity and temp. The coral seems forgiving if something gets a little out of wack with a parameter but it is not forgiving about correcting it to fast.
 
Flow is major I'm running 594gph in my tank and running two power heads and I have a hang on back skimmer thats adding a little bit of flow about to add another koralia

sent from that touch phone thingy.
 
I went to the LFS and had my water tested.

Mg - 1380
ALK - 9.4
NO3 - 4
Ca - 520
Ph - 8.4
PO4 - .25

I am a bit confused and surprised by my water conditions. I didn't do water changes or run a skimmer for right at 3 years and have only done (2) 10g water changes in the last two weeks. It must have had something to do with just leaving it alone. Understanding that I am changing things now I did purchase test kits and will test once a week before water changes. Or what is some of your testing schedules.

As for the QT system... Does the dip stuff they sell at the LFS not work?

I would have to agree that I need more water flow. I think this is something I can tackle in the future due to the fact there is not much blocking the flow right now.
 
@eman wrote:
I went to the LFS and had my water tested. Mg - 1380 ALK - 9.4 NO3 - 4 Ca - 520 Ph - 8.4 PO4 - .25 I am a bit confused and surprised by my water conditions. I didn't do water changes or run a skimmer for right at 3 years and have only done (2) 10g water changes in the last two weeks. It must have had something to do with just leaving it alone. Understanding that I am changing things now I did purchase test kits and will test once a week before water changes. Or what is some of your testing schedules. As for the QT system... Does the dip stuff they sell at the LFS not work? I would have to agree that I need more water flow. I think this is something I can tackle in the future due to the fact there is not much blocking the flow right now. said:
you don't give salinity, that's important. Your nitrates look good, mag. should be 3 x calcium, and phosphates need some work. Those need to be almost zero. As stated my sps started showing some distress when my phosphates were .09. How long has your tank been up and running? There is another thread by a person who bought a tank, had the water tested by a LFS, had good results so he added livestock and then found out his parameters were way off. The results ended up not being so good. I really appreciate that LFS check water for people, but I'm not sure I really trust the result. You bought test kits, I hope some nice fairly accurate ones over the cheap ones. If not, find a member close to your location that wouldn't mind testing.

Flow is important, it's how sps eat and breath and is overlooked by people newly into sps. I've also seen your livestock list, it appears your tank will be a 75 gallon by the dimensions. Your livestock list is pretty big and you list a few fish that aren't known to be reef safe. My suggestion is: if you feel that your tank has cycled, add a fish a week and keep on top of the parameters. After a few weeks and a few fish, pause and make sure things are stable. If so, add a few more fish. But again, your fish list is pretty big and before you start adding sps, I'd make sure your system is capable of keeping your water sps clean with that bio-load . Patience can be rewarded in this hobby
Click to expand...
 
Same as what TJ said. I would double check numbers with your own test kits to be sure. I tested daily when I was futzing with my dosing schedule but now I just check weekly to make sure everything is in-line with where it is supposed to be. If your tank has been running for a while with phosphates at .25 it may take a while for it to leach out so don't be surprised if you knock down the number one day and have it go back up to where it was over the next couple of days.
 
You've gotten a lot of answers above, so let me just point you to this Acropora Care article I wrote nearly 2 years ago: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/272-Acropora-Proper-care-yields-the-best-results
 
Thanks for all the information and the great article. I have tested my water a few times since my last post.
7/31/12
ALK -8.0
Mg - 1395
Ca - 500
PO4 - .03 or .25
Sal - 1.026

8/4/12
ALK - 8.3
Mg - 1320
Ca - 520
PO4 - .03 or .25
Sal - 1.026

I have the Salifert test kits. Most are easy to read except the PO4. Am I supposed to put the vial on the colored squares and move to where I don't see the color any longer or am I supposed to put the vial on the white part and try to match the color that way?
 
Any chance you know someone in your area with a Hanna checker for the phosphate? Big difference there between .03 and .25. I haven't used the Salifert test so I can't comment on how to read those. If you're going to a club meeting or social, I'd be happy to do a PO4 test for you with my checker if you bring a water sample.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top