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Processes of adding new/acclimating existing SPS


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Hello All,

I am in the process of transitioning my 75g mixed reef into an SPS dominant tank. Had a few questions that I PM'd some members with and was advised (which I agree) that it would be helpful to just start a post on here to help other people in my position.

My tank has been up for roughly 14 months now, parameters have stabilized around these levels (Ca = 400, KH = 7.5, Mg = 1200). Everytime I try to raise either Mg or Ca, (since I've always wanted a Mg level of 1350+), the parameters always seem to revert after water changes so I figure consistency is better moving forward rather than chasing the number. I am in the process of updating my horrible lighting (2xOrbit Marine LED, 48 inch) to the Kessil AP 700 which should arrive this week. I had a few questions re: SPS frags I am about to buy:

1. Would you recommend that I place these frags a week or so before putting the new lights on, so they can acclimate to the water parameters first? Or wait until I set the light up in acclimation mode, then put all the frags in at once.

2. To piggy back on that question, since I will be starting the Kessils at extremely low levels to acclimate, can I just place the Acro/SPS frags at their final destination immediately or would you place them all on the sand bed at first?

3. Going forward, what do you do when you add a new Acropora frag to your already established SPS tank? Do you place at the bottom and turn your lights back to acclimation levels and if so, doesn't that negatively impact your existing corals that are already used to the current lighinting schedule?

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There's much better SPS keepers here, but here's my take on it. I think you're dead on with keeping the tank stable over trying to chase some magic parameters.

My biggest concern initially would be adding a bunch of frags and losing a ton for some arbitrary reason. Do you currently have SPS in the tank? Just would want to be sure that the environment is working for them before going all in. If you don't have many SPS, I would not even think about spending a ton and adding a bunch initially. Ease into it.

I would probably want to have the new light on the tank for at least a week or two before adding a bunch of new coral. Even if you run it at a super low level, at least you know the light is working properly and you can see how your other coral react.

After that, if you are adding a bunch at the same time, I would turn the lights very low and place them where you want them to end up. Intensify the lighting over a very long period of time. 30 - 60 days wouldn't be unreasonable if the coral are coming from a lower intensity or if you haven't had a chance to see how other coral and SPS react. Observe daily to make sure you aren't getting early signs of bleaching. If there is a fairly large change in nutrient levels or light, I would expect quite a bit of browning or darkened coral initially.

As far as adding new, I add them as low as possible and as far from directly under the most intense areas possible, but still in an area of good flow. I run AI SOL's so they're not a spotlight, but there is definitely more intense areas directly under the LED clusters. I move them up either using stepping frag rack or on the rock over the course of 30 - 90 days. For seriatopora and other similar coral, move them extremely slowly. They usually don't bleach for me, they go from healthy looking to RTN without any warning. There's no other SPS that I've seen that give zero warning like these.

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+1 to what Jestep said. Especially starting slow. You should be able to pick up a couple of $10 acros at the upcoming frag swap.

I have frag racks on the side of my tank, which gets less light than the more central areas. I typically do not adjust my lights to acclimate. I leave the frags on the edge where I can watch them closely (I have a magnifying glass I use to check for issues, polyp extension, etc.) After a 2-4 weeks I just move them over to where I want them.

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Hi Good Greef,

First off, kudos on the creative screen name!

A lot of great advice here already from some knowledgeable folks. I'd agree to having your new lighting setup on your tank and seeing how your current corals react first. There's no point in getting SPS in there so quickly if you aren't sure if your softies and LPS are happy with the light just yet either. I also agree in taking it slow. Even at my best, adding 10+ frags of SPS is a risky endeavor, especially if you haven't kept them before. I always advise to use some easy tester corals such as digitatas, birdsnests, or montis to see if they are happy first before putting more money into the expensive stuff.

For acclimation of SPS, it just generally depends on where the frags are sourced from. If they are maricultures, I take them in and blast them with light. I've found they tend to keep better colors when I do this instead of browning out. If I get a frag from a fellow reefer who keeps a lot of SPS as well, I put them exactly where I want them to be irregardless of light level as I'll assume they run their par equally high as mine. For frags from tanks I know little about, I start them on the sandbed in decent flow and lower light. Then I slowly acclimate it to higher light.

I say this next statement with some caveats but... I've never killed a SPS frag due to too much light... Never! I've bleached the heck out of it until it was pure white... But none have ever died. I have however killed a couple with what I believe to be too little light. The caveat being that water conditions in my tank were ideal for SPS and the frag was healthy in the first place.

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Perfect example of what I'm talking about. This Skittles granulosa went from 125 par to 650 par in a day. It didn't die... It completely bleached... And usually in about 4-6 weeks, it'll regain color for me and be gorgeous again. This isn't the first time I've done this knowing that the coral will bleach. I've never once considered the alternative that it would die because it's never happened to me. Again, caveat is it was a healthy specimen in the first place and water parameters in my tank were conducive to SPS.

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Yeah try a few simple sps and see how you do. I think you could add some now.

Most SPS will be coming from intense lighting to begin with, so light acclimation is mostly null depending on where you get it from. There's always exceptions but for the most part, if your tank is stable, you're good.

One thing you didn't mention was your phosphate level, that will be another thing you'll want to keep steady and low

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Thanks everyone for the replies. Before I comment on the responses, it probably is a good idea to provide more detail on my current system inhabitants, maintenance, etc.

Tank: Standard 75g with overflow box, 100 lbs live rock, eshopps rs-75 sump, oversized skimmer (Skimz 161), Current Orbit Marine LED X 2, 2xJebao wp-25, Red Sea Pro Test Kits (NO3, Ca, Mg, Kh) tested weekly

Current Fish: Pyramid Butterflyfish, Crescent Tail Fairy Wrasse, Green Chromis, Tank raised Ocellaris, Bangaii Cardinalfish, Purple Firefish, YWG

Current Corals: (to note, even though my current lights suck, they have been sufficient to grow all my LPS and leathers. Even my maxima clam grew 4 ridges over the year up top)

-LPS: Torch (6 heads), Red and Purple Blastos (20 heads), Elegance, Trumpet (10 heads),

-SPS: Green Montipora Digitata

-Leathers/others: Toadstool, Devils Hand leather, xenia frag, 2 x zoanthid colonies, blue maxima clam, various snails/cleaner shrimp, hermits

Maintenance: 20% Water changes every 2-3 weeks, dosing 2ml vodka daily to continue reducing nitrates which are at 8ppm currently; Running GFO and GAC passively in media bag (monthly change)

Previous SPS experiences: Regarding my past experience keeping SPS, my current Digitata has been in my tank for 6 months now with full polyp extension. There is some white growth on the tips, but it is growing so slowly due to POS light. Previously, I tried prematurely adding a purple Acropora, and a few encrusting Monti frags (before I ran GFO and when No3 were around 32ppm) when the tank was 6 months old. They all browned out due to low light and high nutrients , but didn't die so I gave them away.

But for the past 3 months I began preparing my tank for SPS. I traded in all fish that will nip polyps (i.e. Flame Angel), re-arranged my aquascape to optimize flow. Removed 50% of my crushed coral (thanks LFS for the dumb advice), started dosing vodka and began GAC usage. Things are looking good nutrient wise, as I only have to scrape my glass of film once a week tops. I do not test for P03 because from what I gather it is useless to do so since its not a true reading.

At this point, I feel like I've aligned the stars together perfectly and just need better lighting to dive in. So needless to say, I understand what y'all are saying about starting slowly but I feel like thats what ive been doing for the past 3 months haha. So maybe I wont add 10 at a time, perhaps 5 at a time lol.All of your responses are very helpful. Any other tips would be appreciated. My hope is that FarmerTY and Sam will have some frags left after the swap for me to start with. Lastly, I guess a few more questions:

1. I've already relocated all my leathers and zoas down low and below shaded areas. I expect some to die with the power of the new AP700's. Should I just trade those in now or is there hope? I'm open to trading in especially the devils hand but my wife likes them since theyve grown alot since the beginning.

2. Since I am running GAC, will new Acroporas' growth be possible with the "chemical warfare" of the leathers? Will it be stunted or slowed?

3. Random question - anyone with a Mandarin in a low nutrient, high flow SPS tank? I had one for 8 months that survived in my tank starting when the tank was only 4 months old, but i maintained a seperate tisbe pod 10g culture that I fed. It died because my dumbass went against my gut and added a springeri damsel which I literally watch nip/kill 6 of my smaller fish including the mandarin. But even back then when I only had 1 Jebao powerhead, I made sure to turn it off for an hour a day since thats when the Mandarin would explore the upper half of the tank.

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Seems like you are going to be ready to try the SPS. I would agree with others that you should get the tank used to the new lights before adding harder corals. After that try to not tweak too many things at one time so if you see problems you can identify what is going on.

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Only thing I would change is the GFO and this isn't 100% necessary, just helped me to keep PO4 low and stable.

If you split it up and rotate on a weekly or bi weekly schedule instead of monthly, you're less likely to have PO4 swings. WHat I was noticing is that my PO4 would slowly creep up towards the end of the month before I was replacing it. Then when I changed the GFO, the PO4 would quickly go to undetectable. Something I noticed is that certain coral would always look stressed when this happened, my duncans were the most obvious, but most other LPS shows poly retraction and a few times some had some tissue loss around the skeleton.

I went to 4 BRS reactors on mine and I currently do about 1/2 cup per reactor (~120 gallon total volume), alternating every week so each reactor is changed every 4 weeks. This all but eliminated any movement on PO4 readings and gives the ability to control it much better by either adding more or adding less each week.

As for question, the zoas will probably be ok if they are also allowed to adjust. I have some in the highest lit area of my tank where I scorched some SPS a while back. They just need time to adjust as well.

I stopped using carbon unless I have a reason for it. I think you'll be ok if you don't overdo it.

Unless it eats frozen or pellets and you can spot feed it, I don't think it's a good idea in any tank with competing livestock.

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Only thing I would change is the GFO and this isn't 100% necessary, just helped me to keep PO4 low and stable.

If you split it up and rotate on a weekly or bi weekly schedule instead of monthly, you're less likely to have PO4 swings. WHat I was noticing is that my PO4 would slowly creep up towards the end of the month before I was replacing it. Then when I changed the GFO, the PO4 would quickly go to undetectable. Something I noticed is that certain coral would always look stressed when this happened, my duncans were the most obvious, but most other LPS shows poly retraction and a few times some had some tissue loss around the skeleton.

I went to 4 BRS reactors on mine and I currently do about 1/2 cup per reactor (~120 gallon total volume), alternating every week so each reactor is changed every 4 weeks. This all but eliminated any movement on PO4 readings and gives the ability to control it much better by either adding more or adding less each week.

As for question, the zoas will probably be ok if they are also allowed to adjust. I have some in the highest lit area of my tank where I scorched some SPS a while back. They just need time to adjust as well.

I stopped using carbon unless I have a reason for it. I think you'll be ok if you don't overdo it.

Unless it eats frozen or pellets and you can spot feed it, I don't think it's a good idea in any tank with competing livestock.

Jestep, do you use the high capacity GFO? I went back to the regular stuff because I noticed it was too dramatic of a change during my monthly GFO swap.
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Jestep, do you use the high capacity GFO? I went back to the regular stuff because I noticed it was too dramatic of a change during my monthly GFO swap.

No just the regular stuff but it was still dropping too fast. I found an ebay auction a few years ago and bought a bunch of it for really cheap, something like 10 lbs for about $30 or $40 shipped. I think I'm finally starting to run out of it. Admittedly 4 reactors for GFO is a bit ridiculous but I had them already so gave it a shot. Definitely like doing it this way over monthly. I think every other week would be an improvement as well. I think it was Richard L as the inspiration on this for me, he was just running 3 of them if I remember correctly. If you run carbon, 3 GFO and 1 carbon in 2 dual reactors would work.

Here's a picture when I set mine up, pre-plumbing.

IMAG1891%20(Custom).jpg

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Well good to know that. Besides reading about it, it seemed to be intuitive that the finer the sand (though not too fine that it sandstorms) the more likely detritus or poo will settle on top of the substrate that it can be blown by the powerheads. Rather than getting stuck in the larger crevices.. but good to know

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+1 on what Ty was saying about lighting. The most important thing is water conditions with SPS. You need rock solid numbers on foundation elements with almost no variation in Alk. So make sure that you have some exact dosing system in place to keep numbers solid all the time and not depend on the water changes for this purpose. As far as the lower Mg numbers go 1200 ppm will not get you in trouble but you are pushing the lower side of what hard corals like for skeletal building and growth rates.. Some like myself prefer the upper side around 1500 for coloring SPS. No one has proof of this but some of us see it from experience. A simple dosing pump will fix this.

Lighting is secondary to this as like TY said it will seldom if ever kill an SPS although not all SPS need the extreme PAR. If an SPS stays faded after several weeks then I would move it down a bit to help it color up. Too much and it will brown out. The 3rd factor in this for SPS is nutrients. Too few and corals starve and too much and they brown out. Difficult SPS corals are more touchy and cannot deal with PO4 above the 0.05 ppm range. I go to thy school of feed your fish well and keep a bio-load that matches your equipment. If you are running floss or filter all the time and skimming 24/7 with skimmer rated at x2 your DT gals then you most likely have the ability to strip the water down too much. This is where I like to be. Because I can control the nutrients easily enough by having a fixed amount of overload and easily removing the excess preventing a build up of NO3 and PO4. But if you are running bare and have little rock with a small skimmer not rated for your tank size then you are more prone to nutrient build up. You would need to keep a small bio load and do small frequent water changes. Don't forget that lots of coral eats lots of nutrients. if you add lots of coral then after they acclimate and sit around absorbing all that energy eventually they will explode in growth. As soon as you see these growth rings, tips etc... be prepared to supplement foundation elements and nutrient source to match. Also lets not forget about flow. You cant get too much flow for SPS. You need 30x turnover in the DT w/ SPS. You need multidirectional flow as well. I like a good random flow or a strong wave surge flow which I currently use. This keeps the nutrients in the water and off the sand bed. Also helps to remove the excess thru good filtration surface skimming and sump skimming.

Good luck and watch that Alk

Andre

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Thanks for that informative response. Thus far my Alk stays stable around 7.6-7.8 based on Red Sea Pro test kits. But you're right, once I add alot of more stony corals that may not be the case.

This leads to dosing pumps, methods, etc. Ive manually dosed Ca (Kent Turbo Marine balls) and Mg (DIY- Holmes Fairley) but havent had to dose buffer ever really. I know most of yall have dosing pumps, is that whT you recommend for me instead of relying on water changes?

Ive considered this path before, but i have no more room in my sump and barely any under my stand, which houses the eshopps rs75 and a 5 gallon ATO bucket I use with my Tunze Osmolator. I really was going to buy an 8X2x2 like one gentleman has in the tank build section, but we just had a newborn so thatll be a year out. Any other options or rigging I can do to setup a dosing system?

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I'd imagine weekly water changes should suffice for now.

If not, I'd look into kalk in your ATO. Your demand should be low enough that it'll work for you for a long time until you potentially upgrade tanks. At that time, you can look into dosers or a calcium reactor if needed.

Oh, and maybe you couldn't think of the word at the time but supplementing is definitely not buffering. IMO, don't ever put any type of buffer into your saltwater tank, it's a recipe for trouble.

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