First SPS

I traded a light fixture and the guy threw in some SPS frags. I don't know much about these yet. Ordered my cal , alk and mag test kits. If needed I'm going to do the Randy's recipe for dosing. Here are a few pics of the frags.

 

some nice frags there. I would hold off on dosing, seeing as its just a few frags, and the tank is 20 gallons, your 4 gallon water changes should cover the needed elements.

Always test before you dose.

 

Yeah hopefully I won't have to dose at all. I do the 4 gallon WC every Sunday like clockwork. I'm new to these SPS so I don't know what to look for to tell if they are doing ok. Been in the tank since Saturday night under 150 W halide Phoenix 14k. Sometimes it looks like some have little feeler things on parts. Maybe that polyp extension ?

 

If they take off, sps consume a lot more calcium than softies and lps. So in a few years, and a larger system, dosing isn't a bad idea. But nice pick up!

 

Ding ding ding. Those "feelers" are polyps. If you wanna see some real polyp extension, look at Coralline's Red Planet acropora, or an acropora millepora. There are many threads on 3reef talking about polyp extension and SPS care in general, I'd suggest searching and reading through them.

#1 sign of a happy acropora is usually either pe (polyp extension) or growth depending on the species, some are slow growers, some are fast, some have minimal polyp extension, some polyps look like they're gonna fall out of the coral.

New growth tips are usually lighter in color than the rest of the coral, some people mistake this for bleaching. Typically with frags, you see encrusting before upwards growth.

Smooth skin acro's tend to show less pe than other acro's. (Most of yours look to be smooth skinned) I'd post another thread for some ID's. I think I see an a. loripes for two of them.

 

My advice: dont get frustrated byvslow growth, or what looks like no growth. Lookingvat rhem everyday, its difficult to notice stony coral growth. I got frustrated until I looked back at photos. It can take weeks to months to begin encrusting and another few months to encrust enough to begin new branches. I had an acro for 10 months before I noticed substantial growth.

Take photos every few weeks for comparative shots.

Make sure salinity is stable, preferably with an ATO.

 

+1 I take pictures roughly once a month and compare, some acros will encrust very rapidly