SPS care qusetion

[eaze333]

I recently recently purchased a 5-6" pink monti cap. for really small cash and at the same time given a 3-4" frag of a purple tip acro. I have a little bit of everything going on in the tank now. I have been looking online to add a little more splash of color in the tank with another SPS. Some of the common websites have most SPS listed as moderate to difficult or advanced under the care category. Others have them listed as easy in an SPS tank. Could anyone tell me what would difference be in an SPS specific tank vs a mixed reef in regards to the difficulty in care? I don't want to delve to deep into something that is maybe still out of my experience level.

Thanks!!

 

[eaze333]

I should probably add that my current water parameters are
ph-8.0
sg--1.026 or 35ppt
ammonia,nitrites,nitrates,phosphates all at 0 ppm
temp-pretty steady at 80
10% water change every week

 

[LuckyReefer123]

When they say its easy to care for in an SPS tank, i think they are reffering to everything is already in sps care such as strong flow, strong light, constant temp, and perfect parameters. And then in mixed reefs, not all corals like that strong flow, or high light. Thats my best guess on why. All my other ideas i cant seem to put in the right words. Hope someone else posts. Best of luck

 

[Luukosian]

I agree with the above, things like monti caps will do well in most mixed reefs but a lot of the SPS that grow large branching structures need a lot of flow/light. That being said, I have a mixed reef that does well but only with certain SPS. For example I have digitata and monti's that grow crazy fast.....acro's live but don't really thrive per say.

By your signature you seem to have decent light and flow so you should be able to keep most things, you just have to experiment with placement. As far as experience level with sps vs mixed....I wouldn't delve straight into a SPS doninated tank right away if I were you.

Take it one coral at a time

 

[DaveK]

I would also recommend that you wait a few months, and see that the SPS corals you have live long term. Then once your sure of things you can add more.

 

[cheeks69]

The problem with a mixed tank is Allelopathy from soft corals and long sweeper tentacles from LPS corals. My experience with mixed tanks is when these corals are small and you have good filtration and run GAC regularly you really don't see this but as these corals grow and become large colonies this becomes a serious problem and can lead to loss of color/growth to severe damage/death.

Some of the common websites have most SPS listed as moderate to difficult or advanced under the care category. Others have them listed as easy in an SPS tank.

The reason is water chemistry is very important so testing and supplementing {calcium/alkalinity/magnesium} is a necessity, any imbalance can lead to bleaching or major coral loss.

 

[eaze333]

Thanks everyone for clearing up my confusion. I'll keep an eye on the 2 I have and see where it goes after that.