Considering my first sps

Hi, I'm thinking about trying my first pieces of sps this weekend. I've read into this quite a lot over the last few months, so I do understand the importance of magnesium, calcium, trace elements etc.

The pieces I'm looking at are:
Red montipora plate and a calendrium frag. Any advice will be very much appreciated.

 

Both are hardy and would make a great addition to your tank. Go for it.

 

Both are hardy and most of easiest sps to keep. Magnesium, calcium and trace elements - dont bother too much about them now - having 2 small frags and do regular water changes will be enough for them.
In first weeks they dont even grow, just adapt to your tank - so no Ca, Mg consumption. No reason to add any chemicals and trace elements, reactors or other bells.
But NO3, PO4 levels, KH and PH stability and of course good light and flow - this is what you need. Salinity level is also important, as swings of it or incorrect levels may change a lot all other parameters.

In my opinion try to test your water every day for a week at various hours and will see how stable tank is.
I have 2 calendrium frags and they had full extensions, thou lost colors until I put them right under LED blast and high level of current (I have around 70-80X flow in tank) - they have amazing colors now and good growth.

 

Thanks, I really appreciate your input. I'm going to go for it I think. I'll be sure to give a tank update in a few weeks.

 

I can't kill my monti cap so I would recommend them highly

 

Tank stability of all params including the big 3 are very important. If you don't have the means to test I would get those in the very near future. There good corals to start with. Also, coralline algae will uptake elements so you don't necessarily need coral to deplete calcium and alkalinity. You really should know your values to keep an eye on them.

 

IMO, Kh and SG are the ones you need to keep as stable as possible when starting off with SPS. Like others have said Ca and Mg will not deplete for a while.