55g softie to SPS switch over questions.

[Nano10]

55g softie to SPS switch over.
I currently have a 55g tank with a few softies, zoa's and polyps. I'd like to get away from the Softies and go more toward SPS corals.

my current stats
weekly 5g water change

55g
10g rubber maid sump
80lbs LR
Return Pump gets me about 500gph
40lbs LS
24" Aqualight Pro 150W HQI Metal Halide/Compact Fluorescent w/ LED Moonlight, hung over the center of the tank with brace removed.

misc parameters are straight.

ALK 9
CA 380
MAG 1100

I really would like to avoid the added expense of a Calcium Reactor to control my Calcium. What should i use as an additive? What else should i worry about before added a SPS coral. What are good beginner corals, fast growers?

 

[jonathan.]

I wouldn't go with a lot of additives in my opinion. Get yourself a really good salt mix (I love the Tropic Marin salt mix) and that should have all the trace elements you need. Check the main things like calcium, magnesium, pH, nitrates, phosphates, and specific gravity. The other additives just get out of control and make the hobby much more expensive than it has to be.

I've seen a lot of SPS tanks maintained without all the crazy expensive ATO's, additive systems, etc.

The one thing I like adding, though, is Kalk. If you have a sump, you can get the Kent Kalk Dropper which is like 20 bucks and slowly drips some Kalk water into your system. Inexpensive and works like a charm.

The other thing I like adding is a bit of amino acid solution. I think it brings out some really nice colors to SPS corals.

Also, I think your flow is definitely not enough. Go and get 2 Tunze Streams (whichever ones as they are super powerful) or 2 Koralia 4's. You want random water flow throughout the tank. I like to bounce my Koralia's off the front panel and have them collide with eachother's flow which seems to disperse it randomly and throughout the tank. But you definitely want to add more flow. Consider trying a closed loop, also (but get more flow besides that as well) with a SCWD wavemaker (which is like 30 bucks).

 

[Nano10]

Thanks for the adivce.

For starters i'll be adding another fixture to my lights i have another 24" that i haven't been using so i'll hang that tonight. Things are alittle slow at work so i made a 3d image.

 

[Hawkeye]

55g softie to SPS switch over.

Return Pump gets me about 500gph

24" Aqualight Pro 150W HQI Metal Halide/Compact Fluorescent w/ LED Moonlight, hung over the center of the tank with brace removed.

I really would like to avoid the added expense of a Calcium Reactor to control my Calcium. What should i use as an additive? What else should i worry about before added a SPS coral. What are good beginner corals, fast growers?

In my 55 I had a tunze 6060 and a seio (i forget which) on the other side. I could see a pair of koralias - but I think a pair of tunzes may be overkill. My sand doesn't sweep up but that's because it's more the crushed coral from the gulf of mexico kind.

Either way though - I agree with jonathan that you need to add some kind of additional PH flow in the tank if you plan on SPS. Then also you need to consider how to reposition your existing softies so that they don't get the brunt of this new flow.

Have you thought about maybe getting a new tank altogether? Maybe keeping the 55 as a softie and having a new tank just for SPS? The reason I ask is that the lighting you are using (while fine) is actually bigger than the 55 tank has area/space. Front to back the 55 is 13inches (unless you have a 36" length tank). So by getting a 24" light - you're effectively shining a portion of light outside the tank.

In terms of calcium additives- I would think a 2-part solution may work for you. No need to get a reactor if you will have a mixed reef with only a few SPS.

 

[Nano10]

my lights are only about 10 Inches wide and are 24 inches long. Thanks for the Ph advice i'll be looking in my bins for extra ones I should have about 5 of them. I only ave the room for a 55 or i would have gone with a larger one.

 

[jonathan.]

For a SPS tank, you're probably going to want at least 15-45x flow rate for your tank. Personally, I don't think you can have too much flow and I'd shoot for the highest number in that range and even go higher. In my 20H, I have a Koralia 4 and a Koralia 3. Haha. Corals love it and downright thrive in it.

You say you have the 500GPH pump now. I'd actually not even consider that in the flow rate (because having some extra is always nice! ). Base your 15-45x tank volume flow rate in your powerhead outputs. The Koralia 4s are 1200GPH each. 2 of them would be 2400GPH. Roughly 43x tank volume for your flow. This would be pretty solid in a 55, but me being the flow fanatic, I'd probably add a closed loop onto the tank with something like a higher powered Mag or something to add another 700-1000GPH of flow.

 

[concept3]

I'll need to add that although flow is important in a reef tank, random flow is what is needed to be replicated. When I had a 55 gallon tank, I only had 3 maxijets on the tank, and the sps loved it. They were connected to a Tsunami wavemaker. This was back when I was getting started with SPS corals. No closed loop, No tunzes (was still trying to save up for them), and Korallias weren't even made yet. I did have a Mag 5 as a return pump which I got rid off after a summer for heat issues.

Placements of powerheads is key for a reef tank as you don't want stagnant spots in the water column. Alternating currents are even more important since reef currents are not linear. You should be able to get away with about 8-15% return pump turnover, and a few powerheads in the tank attached to some kind of alternating device will hold your corals up for a while since tank upgrades come rather quickly once you get hooked on the reefing bit more

hope this helps

 

[concept3]

easy beginner sps's include montipora species (digis and capricornis), and some have good luck with green slimers (albrohensis)

Kalkwasser drips will help your calcium demanding corals in the meantime, so no need to invest in a calcium reactor. Not only will your corals benefit from the calcium and ph increase from kalk, kalk also has some kind of binding capability to bind up with phosphate so any algae in the tank won't feed off free phosphates in the water column.