Acro's Am I missing something?

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Brenden

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I read up on these for a while. everyone says they are difficult. I really like them but was afraid to get much and it just die. About 6 weeks ago I purchased a purple/green frag from liveaquaria to try. It has taken off. It has increased in size about 33% since I have had it. What is hard about these? I want to stock my tank with them. Is there something I should be aware of?
 
Not that I am an authority but Acros are not "that" hard. They do require more light and water flow which some people don't have. I think the thing is that they need a very stable tank and need higher levels of Ca and Alk. IMO, softie tanks are easier to maintain for the same reasons. Acros wil need their space and are more expensive. If you lose one it hurts in more than one way.

I have had decent luck with them. I have a blue tort that I dropped and broke. I was told it was a slow grower but it is growing faster than some of my other SPS. I have a Bali green slimer frag that it supposed to be a fast grower but it has not done much at all and I have had it over a year.

They are harder because they require more diligence on your part but they are also more delicate as well. I have some softies that I can't kill :)

With the way you maintain your tank, I think you will be fine. I love my acros but I maintain a mixed reef. This makes it harder as well. Get a few a see how they do. Some tanks do well with different animals and some don't.

I might have downplayed the difficulty a bit but I think with the equipment you have and the dedication you have, you should be fine. They are not for the person that doesn't maintain their tank.

Just my .02 :)
 
The "hard" part about SPS is that they are very finicky about annoyingly consistant water conditions. They want rock solid temp, alk, ca numbers. They want flow like crazy. They want PRISTINE water conditions with no DOC. The more you have the faster you're going to burn through Ca & Alk. They generally require a Ca reactor to keep things stable and possibly the dosing of Kalk. They don't like any temp swings. They're particular about how much light they get. They want lots of it. Wild colonies have a MUCH harder time acclimating to tank conditions. There's a good chance that a wild colony will brown out. Much more so than a frag.

They are also more prone to parasites that can wipe out your entire tankful. Redbugs will cause your corals to stop PE, growth and color. To treat them requires the use of interceptor which will kill all of your inverts. There are also monti-eating-nudibranches that will eat all the flesh off of your corals. I would strongly suggest that you do prevetitive treatements of Interceptor, FWE and ReefDip before any corals make it into your main system. You'd be well served to QT ALL corals before they enter your system... colonies and frags alike. You'll catch the stuff there that could otherwise wipe out your entire SPS collection. With a system as large as yours you want to do more prevention. Especially on a new/wild caught colony. Something small that comes in out of the ocean can be devistation to your closed environment. You don't want to have to do your learning curve on a tank that size so do your homework!!

Other than that they're not hard at all! :D
 
In addition to everything that was said, it's not unheard of for experienced reefers to have an "SPS melt down" within the period of just a few hours. And the best part is many times there is no apparent reason for it at all! In short they require alot of TLC and attention :wink:
 
well,letz say, if the condition is right, acros can grow very fast.However,it can turn around in a hurry if any tiny problem happen. Different from most coral, i think when sps start to bleach, there is little u can do to improve it.Maybe that is wat makes it hard. To me I had no success at all with any sps. cuz my hair algae basicly covered most of the sps and killed them.
 
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