how can you tell if acros are happy?

[pomme]

how can you tell if acros are happy?

hiya yah i am thinking of putting some acros into my tank but i have been wondering how you can tell if they are okay in there, as its easy with soft corals as they shrivel up or the polyps go away, but is this the same with acros?

if so could someone please show me a picture of this, and are all acros the same in this way?

thanx andrew

[reefrunner69]

Acropora are some of the most sensitive and difficult of all corals, whether you should even attempt them can only be determined by describing your tank. How long it's been set up, what type and how much lighting, what size tank, other tank inhabitants, water parameters, etc...

[pomme]

yeah my tank has been set up for around 6 months, it has 80kg of live rock in it, it has a volume of 100 gal and it is 40" by 24" by 28" high. The lighting is by a single acradia series 3 250watt metal halide twith twin actinics.
For movement there is a tunze stream moving around 7000l/h. There is a sump iunder the tank about 100 lkitres, with live rock, aroung 10kg, and a section for caulerpa. there is also a deltec apf 600 skimmer and a deltec fluidized bed with 1 litre of rowaphos, for a return pump it is a deltec hlp 4040 moving around 4000l/h.

water par are:
ammonia, nitritr, nitrate - 0
s g - 1.023
temp - 27
ph - 8.5
kh - 9
calcium - 440
iron, phospate - 0

tank inhabitants are 2 common clowns and a regal tang.

for inverts there are mushrooms, polyps, plate coral (two types one flat and the other like a nem), leather corals, pulse coral, trumpet coral.

and for cleaners there is 30 snails and 12 red legs.

i hope this is okay

You have a few thing to look into. The SG is too low, especially for sensitive sessile and mobile inverts. 1.025 would be alot better and should raised slowly over the next few weeks. With only one MH bulb, you will need to restrict the SPS to that general area. It is recommended for better coverage to have one MH bulb for every 2 ft area of the tank. Adding another would increase the areas in which the SPS can be placed.

The chemistry is pretty good although the alk could be bumped up to about 11 DKH. Was the ph tested soon after a water change/buffer addition or late in the evening. 8.5 is a little high for an average reading.

The water flow is good although I hope it is distributed well. After HP, the return will be about 700 GPH but the Turbel is about 1500 GPH. Not sure how the rest of your corals are fairing but the SPS will love the high water flow as long as they are not directly in it's path.

IME, 6 months is still a little early for SPS but if you want to "get started" I would suggest one of the easier ones first and not the acro's. Monitpora are probabley the more attractive and easier to keep from that list.

Cheers
Steve

[pomme]

cool tahxn steve is it alright to keep acros and soft corals, or in that matter hard and soft corals, as i wan to get a hard coral tank, but at the moment manly have soft corals, but dont want to do the full change over straight away as it may not work, so is it alright just to have a small frag in my tank to see how it will do?

The SPS should be fine in the same tank as soft corals, mine don't mind. Just make sure they are spaced well apart as softies do emit toxins when bothered too much. Running carbon once in awhile will also help remove any coral toxin/nematocyst build up in the water just to be safe.

Cheers
Steve

[pomme]

yeah i will go and get some carbon and run it n the tank, and then in about a week ill go and get a frag of a monti and a acro. and ill try and bump up the sg and kh

Bump the alkalinity (DKH), do not concern yourself with the KH.

KH is a measure of the concentration of calcium and magnesium salts in water. Alkalinity is a measure of the concentration of carbonate, bicarbonate and hydroxide and contributes to the total hardness which is the important one in a SW tank. Alk can be measured in DKH, ppm or mEq/l

Cheers
Steve

[pomme]

okay i better get a test kit for dkh as i thought they were the same, bumb me, well better go and get one and hope its alright.