Tank Maturity before SPS

[Dwarf Seahorses]

In the FAQ I read that your tank has to mature 9 months before you add SPS?!? :confused:

Has everyone here all waited till that 9 month mark before they went all out with SPS?

[syrinx]

People claim it and it is the proper way to do it. In reality most of the folks here do not abide by it religously. Sure enough they might wait the 9 in the begining, but many of these tanks are such works in progress that they never mature in a natural way. A completly new lighting, water circulation, dsb or going to BB- wildly different chemical systems and additives will all stop a tank from maturing and balancing out. I see the most natural and successful tanks being ones with a good plan to start and regular maint. after that. All this being said there are beautiful tanks that are labs of constant change- but those folks would be talking out of both sides of their mouths if they stuck with the 9 month rule.

[GTR]

There's just a big difference in the stability of a mature tank. That wont happen at some magical point on the calendar. Can you keep some Acropora sp. in a tank less than 9 months?, I'm sure you can. But I've personally moved a system less than five miles using 70% old water and about 300# of LR from the old system and it's just not the same. IMO I didn't see what I've come to expect from the system for over a year, actually closer to two years.

SteveU

[Yum Cimil]

I’ve set up many tanks for people with sps corals and they went in right after set up. The rock was cured first but other then that the tanks and the water are brand new. I just set up my 120 and all my rock and corals went right in to it from my old 180 and nothing died, even after transporting the stuff ten miles down the road. My Acroporas are already showing new growth and looking good. I recently set up two tanks, a 400 gallon and a forty two gallon, both are coral reef displays for a store, the same day I set them up I put in corals and fish. Some of the corals were Acroporas and I have alredy got nice frags from the two tanks.

[Dwarf Seahorses]

Thanks for the clarification.

So I guess we should be looking for stability, not maturity. They don't always go hand in hand then?

[louist]

My new 4' tank has SPS right after it was cycled. Of the ~40kg of LR, 20kg came from a fellow reefer who tore down his tank because he was going overseas.

I am getting good color and very good growth from all the colonies/frags in there. However, I do monitor the water parameters very closely (Ca reactor and the lot) and there are only 2 fish.

So yes, stability is what you are looking for. In addition, if you are already experienced in keeping these corals, you should be fine.

[MammothReefer]

My tank isn't quite yet 9months about 7 months now. I've just been slowly adding frags here and there on a semi-irregular basis. I have a few sps that were with me from my previous tank.. so they've been in there for about 7months now..they are just now starting to show signs of growth spurts and nice colouration..

I think the 9month rule is more general rule of thumb for first time tank keepers. It takes a while to really learn how your tank is going to react , and get things settled down to where your not fussing with it all the time. I'm not even at that point yet to be honest. I've still got to setup a few pieces of equipment (ato, and controllers ect)

[BLKTANG]

just hit the 6 month mark.I started adding sps after two weeks.


http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n159/ttpimp/IMG_0669.jpg

[MiddletonMark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9689763#post9689763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gtrestoration
There's just a big difference in the stability of a mature tank. That wont happen at some magical point on the calendar. Can you keep some Acropora sp. in a tank less than 9 months?, I'm sure you can.
It sure helps if you have some experience and/or good LR from a prior tank ... but I too wouldn't argue that you could keep SPS, even a couple Acro varieties in fairly new tanks.

Esp with great water quality and/or heavy w/c + filtration.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9689763#post9689763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gtrestoration
IMO I didn't see what I've come to expect from the system for over a year, actually closer to two years.
Great post. That's my experience as well.

There's no `magic dividing line' - but I did not get the kind of growth/color/happiness until my tank hit about a year and a half or so. I had corals growing, decent color on some stuff + nice tips on others. Given I started with LR from a prior tank that had been running 3+ years - coral survival wasn't an issue after 3 months. But .... thriving is not surviving; my corals seemed to be doing well, but I didn't know what a couple years meant.

Then, the next year, I started coming home at night and in 5 minutes checking the tank would regularly notice growth, and was very happy about the tank.
Heck, I'd even find my wife checking out the growth, commenting on color ;)

But ... that also went along with most of the corals being 6+ months in the same spot in the tank [many twice that/more] - and IME that sort of `stability' of location to often be a factor. While some corals do well right off the bat [monti digis come to mind] -- I've found growth [also color] of most Acropora varieties to increase significant when they've been sitting in the same spot in my tank over a year.

Part of it, IMO, is the corals `settling in' and become well adapted to the flow/light/water/conditions of the tank, part of it is the tank getting more stable and water quality higher, and part of it is the aquarist getting better at keeping the tank as it's currently running.

Anyway, that's my very rambling take on it.

[MammothReefer]

Ya it's funny.. I buy my corals in batches due to my location.. and the corals that I stuck in 1 spot.. was happy with them, and haven't moved are all thriving and doing great obvious signs of growth and colour..while the ones i fidget with..while still alive and healthy aren't really showing signs of growth or "thriving"

[Cpt Bob]

I wait about month or two. I have 2 SPS reefs then first was set up 2 years ago and had SPS in it the first month and it did great, my second tank was set up a month ago and am going to put in first SPS frag in 2 weeks. As long as you have stable params and am feeding the corals and have good light there is little reason as to why they shouldnt survive. If im wrong someone tell me please.

[hatfielj]

The more mature the tank is, the easier it will be to be successful with sps. Not many people are patient enough to wait for their tank to fully mature before adding any corals. The ideal situation would be to wait a long time (6 months or more) before adding any sps, but again you can (and many people do) much earlier than that. However, if you do add them before the tank is fully mature, don't expect much in the growth or color department for quite some time. You'll find that the growth and coloration will be much less in the beginning and will accelerate quite a bit after the months start rolling by. Stability is always an important factor too.