SPS coral care

Sure, no problem. Most of my info comes from Scientific Journals, hobby magazines such as Advanced Aquarist, Reefkeeping and Coral Magazine. As well as experience and information from forums.

Honestly, being a hobby I haven't really focused on putting together a comprehensive list of references. However, topics I've discussed here are mostly from scientific literature I've read over the years. Again, I haven't really kept a comprehensive list of these references, but some are:


Atkinson MJ, Carlson B, Crow GL
Coral growth in high-nutrient, low-pH seawater: a case study of corals cultured at the Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu, Hawaii
Coral Reefs, 1995 Nov; 14(4):215-223

Fitt, WK, Cook, CB
The effects of feeding or addition of dissolved inorganic nutrients in maintaining the symbiosis between dinoflagellates and a tropical marine cnidarian Mar. Biol. 2001 Sep;139(3):507-517

Holcomb M, McCorkle DC, Cohen AL
Long-term effects of nutrient and CO2 enrichment on the temperate coral Astrangia poculata (Ellis and Solander, 1786), jembe, 2010 Apr;386(1-2):27-33

Jones RJ, Yellowlees D
Regulation and control of intracellular algae (= zooxanthellae) in hard corals. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 1997 Apr;352:457-468

Marubini F, Davies PS
Nitrate increases zooxanthellae population density and reduces skeletogenesis in corals
Marine Biology 1996 Dec; 127(2):319:328


Muscatine L, Pool RR
Regulation of Numbers of Intracellular Algae. Proc. R. Soc. 1979 Apr; 204(1155):131-139

Muscatine L, Falkowski PG, Dubinsky Z, Cook PA, McCloskeySource LR
The Effect of External Nutrient Resources on the Population Dynamics of Zooxanthellae in a Reef Coral Proc. R. Soc. 1989 Apr;236:311-324

Oswald F, Schmitt F, Leutenegger A, Ivanchenko S, D'Angelo C, Salih A, Maslakova S, Bulina M, Schirmbeck R, Nienhaus GU, Matz MV, Wiedenmann J
Contributions of host and symbiont pigments to the coloration of reef corals. FEBS J. 2007 Feb;274(4):1102-9.

Weis VM. Cellular mechanisms of Cnidarian bleaching: stress causes the collapse of symbiosis. J Exp Biol. 2008 Oct;211(19):3059-66

Yellowlees D, Rees TA, Leggat W. Metabolic interactions between algal symbionts and invertebrate hosts. Plant Cell Environ. 2008 May;31(5):679-94.

Yuen, Y.S., T. Nakamura, S.S. Yamazaki and H. Yamasaki, 2008
Long-term effects of inorganic nitrogen enrichment on the reef-building corals Stylophora pistillata and Acropora spp. 11icrs, 2008 July; 2(19):940-944

 

thanks, al have to look into getting some magazines.

 

Same here...I am looking at getting either Reef Keeping magazine or Advanced Aquarist.

 

I would reccomend Tropical Fish Hobbyist. I have been subscribed to this magazine for a while (Before I joined 3reef) and the magazine is REALLY FULL OF INFO! The magazine also has many awesome pictures. I think they may also be a sponsor.....
JJL

 

I think one of the least discussed aspects of success with SPS is the steps when introducing a frag/colony into your tank. I always read posts asking what to do because I have bugs or my coral is bleaching etc...

IMO people are way too lax when it comes to introducing new corals into their tanks. For one, it is the fault of some of these companies that sell products, but ultimately, it is the individual who is responsible for what gets into their tank. I've been diligent when adding corals to my tank, from the beginning. I always inspect and dip them, reinspect, and have to do this, since I don't have a QT tank. Ideally, I should have one, but just never set one up, and because of that, I almost had a disaster, i will get back to this a little later.

First off there is no proven dip from a manufacturer that will kill all pests. Coral Rx for one, claims to kill all these different pests, yet I have read plenty of posts from people who saw pests after dipping. For myself, for acropora, I use TMPCC which is used to kill flatworms. It's kind of a harsh dip, but if you aggressively baste/shake the coral, flatworms will fall off, after a short dip. I then like to inspect the coral for lingering pests, before taking the coral and dipping it in Interceptor for 5-6 hours.

For montiporas, I have used Revive, with limited success. I normally use that as well as thorough inspection of the coral. The only thing I have ever seen kill montipora eating nudis is potassium permanganate, which is super harsh on the coral, killing many, and severely stressing them out. Expect to brown the coral out, and have it take months to recover. But that is the only treatment that will kill adults and melt eggs. IMO, montis really should be QT'd because of the severity of MEN's. Once in your tank, they are the biggest nightmare to get rid of. No in tank treatments, most lose all their colonies.

The other thing that I want to bring up, is the removal of frag plugs and rocks that sps are mounted on. Because most of these pests like to lay eggs at the base, and crevices under the coral, introducing these surfaces that frags/colonies are glued to, is a bad idea. Also bubble algae, turf algae, etc...is how they are normally introduced to a tank. I used to place new corals with their plugs/discs/rock mounts into my tank, and had valonia infest it. Valonia is a tough one to get rid of, and because of it, I remove all coral from their mounts.

Of course it's impossible to remove mounts on some corals, especially if they grew over them, but I do whatever it takes, even using a bandsaw to cut the skeleton of scolys and acans that had small valonia growing on them.

Back to my own experience...I dipped a coral in revive, a montipora morph that I used to have, and only knew of a handful of people with the same piece. I bought it from a LFS because he got it from someone who had the original colony. I dipped the coral in revive, and inspected the piece thoroughly. It was a fresh cut frag, so no plug. Two months later, I saw a white spot on it. I removed the coral and found two tiny nudis on it. From what I can tell, these were introduced to my tank, as eggs, and hatched.


I know most will say it's a sunset monti, but trust me it isn't it actually has multiple base colors, going orange, and green, with a rust red on the edges in lower light. The texture is totally different from a sunset.

Anyway, I have 4 montis in my tank, with no thoughts of getting more, so hopefully they don't suddenly get MEN's.

DIP YOUR Corals!

 

I treated the above coral with potassium permanagrate and it was toast...too harsh of a concentration.

 

I have to use a magnifying glass when looking at my frag to inspect them. It's amazing how small many pests are.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiance with pests that come on sps. One question though. I hate the mounts the frags come on, not because of the pests but because of looks to. How do you put the sps on your rock?

 

Some of them are able to just stick in a hole. They will eventually attach themselves.

Sometimes, I leave the plugs on, but only in spots where I need the width to fit it in a larger crevice.

Mostly, I remove the plug and affix the coral to the rockwork with coral 2-part putty.

 

I either use the super glue gel and epoxy sandwich, but sometimes, I will take a rock out, and just super glue it to the rock, which is the best way and strongest bond. The sandwiching always seems to be hit or miss, it depends on the mixing and if you get proper amounts of each part. Another way, is to use acrylic rod, and glue it to the edge of a coral, then super glue/epoxy it to the edge of a rock. /Great for getting monti caps to grow on the edge of rock, same with tabling acros to grow out from the rock.