SPS advice for novice

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If you run SPS:

1. How many L's in your DT & sump each?
2. What do you dose? Brand you use and how much ml or grams?
3. How often do you test, do you test only, ca, mg and alk?
4. Do you find that SPS is science?
5. Are monti's and digitata more resilient than other SPS?

Reason being I was tricked, i tell you scammed :) by Broder into SPS a week ago and now I have many questions and am more nervous about my corals ability to survive in my tank.

My only real dosing I use is alk 8.3 into RO chamber. 1 teaspoon : 45 L RO each weekend.

6 drops of iodein on Wen & Sat
12 drops of mg on Wen & Sat
5 ml ca on Wen & Sat

Also Bioptim & digest on alterating bi monthly cycle.

I do test, found mg down on my last test so increased dosage.

When I grow up I wanna have SPS. :).

Am I on the correct path or should I be doing something different?

Also if anybody has advice on keeping SPS and reads this tread could you add your experience / advice / shopping list of non commercial treatments for dosing to this tread.

Thanks to all concerned SPS lovers, I have stick fever and don't want to get better ever again, so no referrals to doctors for this sickness please. :)
 
See my answers in red

If you run SPS:

1. How many L's in your DT & sump each? The size of the tank is irrelevant but rather stability although larger tanks are generally more stable.
2. What do you dose? Brand you use and how much ml or grams? There are many products which you can use to numerous to mention. I personally use tropic Marin bio calcium as it provides everything needed in it's right proportion
3. How often do you test, do you test only, ca, mg and alk? There are initial tests done with CA, ALK and MAG to find your consumption. Once your daily dosing is figured out then you only test once or twice a week to make slight sdjustments but that's with manual dosing and balling methods. A CARX is another beast all together
4. Do you find that SPS is science? Not really
5. Are monti's and digitata more resilient than other SPS? They are more resilient IMO because they can handle lower luighting schemes but a lot of SPS corals can handle some abuse

Reason being I was tricked, i tell you scammed :) by Broder into SPS a week ago and now I have many questions and am more nervous about my corals ability to survive in my tank.

My only real dosing I use is alk 8.3 into RO chamber. 1 teaspoon : 45 L RO each weekend. I'm afriad you will have to look at your calcium and magnesium as well

6 drops of iodein on Wen & Sat This depends on your tank size and comsumption. Dont follow the manufacturers directions and rather test this parameter
12 drops of mg on Wen & Sat Ditto
5 ml ca on Wen & Sat Ditto

Also Bioptim & digest on alterating bi monthly cycle. Perfect.

I do test, found mg down on my last test so increased dosage. Hence me mentioning to dose on your consumption

When I grow up I wanna have SPS. :).

Am I on the correct path or should I be doing something different? SPS's are beautiful corals and a nice challenge especially to get them to colour up as they will brown in high nutrients.

Also if anybody has advice on keeping SPS and reads this tread could you add your experience / advice / shopping list of non commercial treatments for dosing to this tread. Low nitrates, phosphates are key as well as the right lighting

Thanks to all concerned SPS lovers, I have stick fever and don't want to get better ever again, so no referrals to doctors for this sickness please. :)
 
Thanks @ Tony, I find the biggest thing I can take from your advice is to:

1. work out my actual consumption
2. Dose according to consumption requirements

The aim is stability.

I will probably have to get a ph pen, using a test kit at the moment. It will take the pita out of testing ph.

Cheers
 
That's pretty much it and dont forget low nutrients. I should also add to have a decent skimmer. Incidently, what tank, lights and skimmer do you have?
 
Aswers in red below.

If you run SPS:

1. How many L's in your DT & sump each? Doest matter - although as Tony said larger systems are more stable.
2. What do you dose? Brand you use and how much ml or grams? I dose Bicarb for Alk, Kalkwasser in my RO water for Calcium and Magnesion by brightwells for Mag, Iodion by Brightwells for iodine sometimes as well. How much one doses depends on your consumption.
3. How often do you test, do you test only, ca, mg and alk? I test very seldom now as I generally know how much my system is using up per day and how much to dose to keep it stable. I do check maybe once a week or 2 weeks to check that things are still as they should be.

Ph is also an important factor - remember Ph effects your alk which will effect everything else. Nitrates and PO4 are also important to check now and then specially if your corals are not growing or colouring up.
4. Do you find that SPS is science? No, but it does take time and patience to figure out the requirements of your own system and what works best for it.
5. Are monti's and digitata more resilient than other SPS? Digitata's are Monti's...You get a number of different types of Montipora, a digitata refers to the stick type ones. But to answer your question like I said before they seem to be the most resilient IME along with some birdsnests.

Reason being I was tricked, i tell you scammed :) by Broder into SPS a week ago and now I have many questions and am more nervous about my corals ability to survive in my tank. Haha...I know the feeling I bought a Green Monti Digitata from him a few years back to try out some sps and have never looked back :)

My only real dosing I use is alk 8.3 into RO chamber. 1 teaspoon : 45 L RO each weekend. I highly doubt that is enough...it should also be dosed into the tank itself. Lets put it this way 1 tspn of Bicarb increases my tanks Alk by 0.5dkh per day and and I reckon that tspn of alk 8.3 is doing even less if I rememeber correctly from using the product myself. So if you have a fair amount of hard corals be it sps or lps and you have corraline growth I think your tank is using up more alk than you are adding. This could explain the problems you are having with your candy canes as well as problems you had with the other sps.

6 drops of iodein on Wen & Sat
12 drops of mg on Wen & Sat
5 ml ca on Wen & Sat

I would get tests for all of the above and see what your daily consumption is and try and work on a daily basis for those that drop a lot in a day to try and keep things stable.

Also Bioptim & digest on alterating bi monthly cycle.

I do test, found mg down on my last test so increased dosage.

When I grow up I wanna have SPS. :).

Am I on the correct path or should I be doing something different?

Also if anybody has advice on keeping SPS and reads this tread could you add your experience / advice / shopping list of non commercial treatments for dosing to this tread. Use bicarb instead of name brand suppliments its cheaper and works just as well. if you do a lot of water changes then Epsom Salts can be used instead of name brand magnesium products. Look into A kalkwasser though that has other elements added to it such at Mag and Strontium.

Some more advice would be to upgrade your lighting...maybe add a minimum of 2 more tubes if you can and dont want to go the MH route and try extend your lighting period to try and gain optimum growth and colour.

Thanks to all concerned SPS lovers, I have stick fever and don't want to get better ever again, so no referrals to doctors for this sickness please. :)
 
Tank: 122x60x55 - 425 l
Sump: 105x45x45 - 140 l
Lights: Reef Inmates 6 x 54w T5's, Giesemann globes on order
Skimmer: Reef Octopus orca 100
 
Tank: 122x60x55 - 425 l
Sump: 105x45x45 - 140 l
Lights: Reef Inmates 6 x 54w T5's, Giesemann globes on order
Skimmer: Reef Octopus orca 100

Sounds perfect. What do you have for water movement?
 
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2x tunze 6105 on 7096 controller for flow, opposite side of tank, both blowing upwards slightly. One blows to back of tank and other to front.
 
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Sounds perfect then. Now you will just have to choose supplements to dose your tank with. Trace element additions, feeding the corals as well as amino acid dosing certainly helps a lot.
 
Cool. MAybe add some amino acids as well. The Reefbooster is brilliant.
 
Cool. MAybe add some amino acids as well. The Reefbooster is brilliant.

Tony how do you feed this to your system? I see on some bottle the instrustions state target feed? and how do you know how your over dosing?

Looking to use this in the future....
 
Archie, which product are you refering to? I use the seachem aminos and trace elements. I just add it to my tank and turn the skimmer off overnight. I do this at the same time as reefbooster and biodigest so I dont have the skimmer on and off all the time. This also allows the bacteria time to multiply before being sucked out by the skimmer
 
Cool. MAybe add some amino acids as well. The Reefbooster is brilliant.

This is also from the Prodibio range, Reefbooster?

So I must turn skimmer off when adding Prodibio range. Thanks
 
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It was a Brightwell product....cant recall the name....

I just add it to my tank and turn the skimmer off overnight. I do this at the same time as reefbooster and biodigest so I dont have the skimmer on and off all the time. This also allows the bacteria time to multiply before being sucked out by the skimmer

Makes sense I think I will try something like this...
 
This is also from the Prodibio range, Reefbooster?

So I must turn skimmer off when adding Prodibio range. Thanks

Reefbooster is from Prodibio. Turning off the skimmer is a must otherwise you are just wasting the product
 
Darn, 5 months of waste, this is so frustrating, could just as well have been adding a few drops of water once every 2 weeks. Now I know and not a moment to early, time for my month end dose. Thanks for the heads up Tony.
 
Killing AEFW's with Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer.

And this freaks me out, commercial insecticide for SPS dips?
 
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