I Think I'm Done With SPS - Letter to the Reef Gods

[jackthestrat]

I started reefing a few years ago, and decided before I even started that I wanted to do it right and do something difficult. I think I chose this hobby because I had an idea of how difficult it was, and at that particular point in my life I really needed to engage my entire existence with *something*. I chose reefing. And I chose to grow SPS type corals, particularly acroporids.

Fast forward a few years.

My tank is beautiful, and I love it dearly, but I have had enough. Enough with the daily adjustments, enough with the need to keep nutrients at near zilch, enough with breaking one of my colonies every time I have to stick my hand in the water, enough with the pests and the heartache and the pain of having something RTN for reasons you can never explain. I think the part that killed me was that I never had a tank over 65 gallons total water volume. Chasing SPS quality water parameters in a tank that small for the long term is, quite frankly, a PIA. I travel a lot for work now, and am saving for a home, so I just can't keep shoveling money and time into the tank like I used to.

I guess the good part is that I have proven to myself that I could do it, and have grown SPS corals from tiny frags to 7" colonies. It felt good to accomplish that. I spent a large amount of time researching, reading, and learning everything I possibly could about this hobby. Someday, when I'm a homeowner, I will have a large volume SPS dedicated tank. But for now, I'm going to switch over to softies. I'll still hold on to all my SPS equipment though - just in case.

I have a bunch of SPS colonies that I would like very much to frag and spread throughout the club to other members - I've learned a lot from this site and from the people I met while picking up frags, and I'd like to give back a bit. If you think you might be interested, send me a PM. In light of my new direction, softy frags would be accepted in trades.

Thanks to everyone for helping me along on my SPS voyage.

Matt H

 

[MikeG]

Glad to hear you are going in another direction and not getting out completely! SPS can be a bit time consuming if everything isn't automated. Good luck with wherever your tank takes you.

 

[sanker]

I think the key is a large tank. I have a 90g display and 75g sump in the basement. Tons of live rock (100lbs?), deep sand bed in the sump and a decent skimmer. With all that, I do 30 gallon water changes maybe once every two or three months. No problems. Some algae but that's my own fault with my lax water changes. Tank has been going strong for 5 years now.
-Sean

 

[s_kelley]

Matt, you've seen all my pics, let me know if ya want a frag of anything! Id be more than happy to keep a few of your sps frags going for ya in the mean time. Good luck!

 

[jackthestrat]

I think the key is a large tank. I have a 90g display and 75g sump in the basement. Tons of live rock (100lbs?), deep sand bed in the sump and a decent skimmer. With all that, I do 30 gallon water changes maybe once every two or three months. No problems. Some algae but that's my own fault with my lax water changes. Tank has been going strong for 5 years now.
-Sean

I am convinced that SPS need to be done in a big tank. You have better flow options, better space available for open aquascaping, and a big sump for extra volume. In a small tank a little change is a big deal.

 

[jackthestrat]

Matt, you've seen all my pics, let me know if ya want a frag of anything! Id be more than happy to keep a few of your sps frags going for ya in the mean time. Good luck!

Thanks! Right now I'm just going to take it slow, and probably even *eek* budget for my tank this year, but trust me I'll be in touch

 

[Behrmon]

I miss the reward of an SPS tank sometimes but not the work. I'm happy just keeping LPS & Softies for now.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

After my project is all said and done i think i might be done with nano tanks for good. the more volume you have the more forgiving things can be. my Yellow watchman died at some time during the night and i had no water to do a change with. Its demoralizing to have somthing like this happen now I know not to dose my tank with any kind of suppliment to make the tank grow faster. I should just let me do it on its own.

 

[MikeG]

Nice meeting you today Matt, thank you very much for the frags. Love those Elos systems!

 

[deuceb]

you know were to get zoa frags if u need em bud

 

[kevinpratt823]

PM sent, good luck.

 

[stevenp]

Nice meeting you today, Matt. If/when you get back into SPS stop by and I'll cut anything in my tank for you at no charge.

 

[jackthestrat]

Thanks to everyone for the massive outpouring of support (and interest in my SPS frags, haha, you BRS folks are like vultures! Hungry, SPS craving vultures. I love it.)

Mike and Steve, nice meeting you today, I hope you and your frags are happy. Dana, you know it bud, I need to get Midas pt 2.

Matt

 

[lisa foster]

I like having lps and leathers much more. I had some sps but there is no movement to them. I like the swaying of the lps's

 

[jackthestrat]

I like having lps and leathers much more. I had some sps but there is no movement to them. I like the swaying of the lps's

My biggest concern is getting my hands on nice softies, I've been keeping my eyes open for some colorful ones for the last couple months and it doesn't look like our LFS's like to bring in nice softies, probably because noone buys them

 

[frank180reef]

The tyree leather is top notch, cant beat the color

Frank

 

[stingythingy45]

I think you should move on to high end zoas and palys,Jack.
That way you can watch them melt for no apparent reason.
Are you going to do any LPS,those have a lot of color variations.

 

[MikeG]

My biggest concern is getting my hands on nice softies, I've been keeping my eyes open for some colorful ones for the last couple months and it doesn't look like our LFS's like to bring in nice softies, probably because noone buys them

I would talk to jimmyj7090 or Ronnie, both have some real colorful softies.

 

[jackthestrat]

I think you should move on to high end zoas and palys,Jack.
That way you can watch them melt for no apparent reason.
Are you going to do any LPS,those have a lot of color variations.

Yeah I'm almost certainly going to have some duncans, acans, blastos, cyphastrea. Maybe try some dendros and sun corals. No frogspawns or torches, I had awful luck with them in the past. I actually have pretty good luck with zoas and palys, I just have a hard time paying 100$ a polyp for them

 

[jackthestrat]

Just wanted to say for the record that I have met a lot of truly excellent people over the last few days, and received a tremendous amount of support from many sources, and it is all truly appreciated. I hope everyone who has stopped by has gone home happy, I know you have all taken good care of me as well.

Warm Regards,

Matt