How fast does sps coral grow

I go on vacation for a week or two. When I come back, the corals have all grown. If you look at it everyday, it's hard to see the difference.

Hammers and duncans will accept food if you target feed; this may accelerate growth. Good luck! Ibn Guest. Frags takes awhile to encrust and grow beyond the frag stage. Take for example with sps tanks. Most of the first year of a sps tank is encrustation and very little growth. The second year is when you notice frags settling in, hitting the mini colony in size range. The 3rd and 4th years are when they're colony size not the tiny colonies that some people call as such; those are frags and you'll see frags from frags that they're selling and the tank looks filled in and you need to do the actual trimming.

They also grow significantly faster at this point. If you want to track their growth and progress, take a pic of them every once in awhile. Here's 3 months of growth on a sps frag. For an even deeper dive into reef tank care you can check out my Reef Keeping Master Class. This online course is an immersive and one of a kind educational tool designed to help reef aquarium hobbyists build and maintain a beautiful SPS reef tank. The course is a series of video presentations with some supplemental video from my YouTube channel.

There are also quizzes to help students retain and understand the information presented in the course. Get Social. Previous Next. In addition to maintaining stable water conditions as well as some nutrients everyone agreed on the need for some trace element additions either directly or via water changes.

Some of the additions that were suggested were specific to bring out specific colors: iron for greens, potassium and manganese for reds and pinks, and potassium iodide for blues and purples. These elements work in a variety of ways and effect the pigmentation of the corals directly and indirectly. If your corals seem to be lacking or losing these colors over time the addition of these elements can be gradually increased over time.

The one other thing that everyone stressed in doing everything in their tanks was to make any changes slowly, once again stressing that any instability or rapid change is bad for coloration. Just adding these elements was not thought to be enough though to maximize color, it was also felt that providing for the nutritional needs of the corals also greatly enhanced their coloration.

In this regard providing a wide variety of foods specifically for the corals was thought to be beneficial as was the addition of amino acids. The other aspect that everyone agreed on that was important to maximize coloration was adequate flow.

What may be good flow for one coral may sheer off the tissue for another so it takes time to get the right level and type of water motion for each tank and it does change as the corals grow. The main benefit of good flow is it allows the corals to slough off excess slime. Proper flow allows the corals to not only eliminate waste but also to free it from any pests that have adhered to the slime as well as for the corals to more readily take in trace elements and other important compounds and nutrition.

Lastly everyone agreed that one of the most crucial aspects to maximizing the coloration in our corals is giving them time to settle in and time to grow. The consensus was that any time a coral is manipulated or its tanks conditions changed significantly it takes at least a couple of months for it to resettle in and thrive.

Therefore once you have tweaked the conditions in your tank to promote good growth and coloration in your corals you need to give them time to thrive in this environment. Constantly tweaking the conditions or moving the corals about is not going to get you the coloration you want. The metal halide Radiums are on from to , five hours. The quality of the artificial saltwater ultimately determines the success of a tank and thereby the colors that can be achieved in your SPS.

Not only do nitrates and phosphates need to be removed from city or well water but also chlorine and chloramines. Additionally, further contaminants and organic compounds will be removed.

There are many salt manufacturers. Each seemingly has set a goal or criteria for their parameters and those are typically listed on the box.

There always seems to be ongoing debates about which is the best salt. I suggest that you review the parameters the various salt manufacturers list and determine what you would like to target. For many people, alkalinity is the most important parameter. I am not sure that it should be though.

None of the manufacturers produce a salt with less than around 7. Some produce a product with alkalinity closer to 11 dKh. There are relatively easy ways to reduce newly made saltwater alkalinity, if desired. Some people use the most inexpensive salt and others choose the most expensive salt.

Choose a salt that is highly consistent with its quality control and mixes to your liking and demands to maximize your corals colors. I have tried many different salts and truly all are very good. Beautiful vivid SPS corals in a reef tank are a result of many factors. Understanding seawater, water chemistry, being committed to observing livestock, managing water parameters in a very narrow stable range, regimented water testing, providing adequate flow and lighting, managing both input and export of nutrients, all are the building blocks.

Consistently beautiful, bright, colorful SPS colonies come from frags chosen from vividly colorful mother colonies that have lived in a reef tank for some time and demonstrated color stability and viability.

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Contact Us Open Wholesale Account. Author: Mark, also known by his online reefing pseudonym, Watchguy, has been a hobbyist for about 20 years.

How to keep sps corals - Parameters and Testing. What nitrate level is acceptable. How to control nutrients - Best method for removing nitrates and phosphates? How much flow does SPS really need? So what is the best light for growing SPS corals? Why are SPS hard to keep? How to choose colorful SPS? Maricultured Vs. The most important reef tank parameters. So why SPS turn brown? Nitrates and Phosphates. Current trends advocate nitrate levels around ppm and phosphates between.

Nitrates have an interesting dynamic with lighting, alkalinity and phosphate. Why do SPS bleach? How much phosphate is too much? Best additive for coral growth? Metal halides. T5 Lighting. LED Lighting. SPS - perfect lighting schedule. Best salt for a reef tank. As I was walking in nature, I glazed at the beauty of sun-soaked trees. And it got me thinking how[ Read More.

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