Am i ready for SPS?

I would buy the test kits and supplements before buying the coral.

 

hey your tank sounds ready, just make sure your ph and kh are stable and you also want to keep your calcium high. Plus with t5s I would want to put the acropora high. Maybe start with a plating montipora.
Low Nitrates are a given to keep sps

 

yea i think i'll be ok to start with one easy sps frag. that's probably all i will be able to afford when i go to the lfs since i plan to walk out with two fish

 

Thats the way I did it Amcarrig- Great advice IMHO

although with only 5 small SPS corals in my tank, and doing 10% changes weekly with Red Sea coral pro - the seals are still in tact on my Mag, Alk and Calc plastic bottles
but your 100% right - tests 1st and then supplements, so you know where you stand, and have the materials to make corrections if required
and then trial a easier SPS - like pink birdsnest


Steve

 

ill probably end up havin to take that route, just because im thinking i wont have the extra cash for the corals. And maybe just save up to get the rest of the test kits and supplements.

I've always liked birdsnest, glad their an easy sps

 

Hey I would only get one aqua cultured frag and see how it does. If you do not have your mp 20 yet try a hydnophora I rate em a 6 for hardyness and they live in turbid areas I believe and not reef crests which need circulation. they are beautiful and you can feed them chunks of food for better survival chances.
That place in signal hill off of cherry has them for 15 dollars and great color all aqua cultured under 250 watt 14k double ended bulbs and they are kept low.

 

Thats a sensible approach
if you did it the other way round, and the coral did not do well?
you would not be in a position to begin to understand why

when dealing with the more advanced species
I tend to think of the hobby as "keeping water"
and provided I can do that properly, the corals can look after themselves

OK - lighting and flow are also important, but they are easy to sort IME (just need spare cash and an understanding of requirement)

water quality and parameters require more thought and work

Steve

 

I think most ph buffers have magnesium in them and 5 percent water changes weekly should be fine.
I add calcium daily and purple up daily. sometimes I use kallawasser which is a superior calcium but the other stuff works.
I test PH, KH and Calcium. Sometimes Nitrates.

 

i still have to check out the lfs, at one point, i always like finding new lfs and see what they have, the two that i go to are totally different from each other. so it's always nice to find out what the others have and dont have. But i think i'll just wait a little bit, my parameters arent that off so i dont think it will take to long to fix once i get the right test kits and supplements

hmmm never thought of it that way

 

oh yea I also get a quarter inch growth in a month. And Have saved dying corals from local shops, so you can get away with more than you would think with basic equipment