Established

I have read that a tank should be established for atleast a year before you put any Acroporas into it. Does anyone have any experience with keeping them in a tank that is under a year old? Is this something that is more of a rule of thumb or is it something you should live by? Personal experience would be great.
Thanks
TonyT

 

I'd imagine you could do acroporas sooner; you still want it to be in the range of multiple months though.

 

you can put acros into any system that is cycled as long as you can control and keep parameters stable. The newer the tank the more prone that system is to fluctuations not only of NO2 and NO3, but PH, Alkalinity, Magnesium levels and calcium. A tank at say 12 months has a better ability to 'buffer' water due to argonite disvolving and such. Bacteria also can play a big part in PH, NO3, and even PO4.
The year thing is most often the case you tell people who are new. I haven't lost an SPS yet, my tank is 3 months old, but ill tell ya I almos lost a beautiful colony of hydnophora from messing up on dosing.
My adivce to you, is for you to tell me of your personal reefing exprience and what you intend to do. Tell me about your tank, you dedication to detials, and the kind of money you want to spend, and i'll take some time with you to give you my opinion (I do alot of reading, have kept various corals for 6+ years) Take it or leave it I dont tout myself as an expert lol

 

There are exceptions to every rule, but it's an expensive lesson in an already expensive hobby trying to be the exception without many years of experience guiding your attempts...

 

Well I did reefs about 12 years back for 8-9 years but only had leathers and LPS. I am vedicated to the hobby as I am my other hobbies (poison dart frogs) fter these are live animals. I have a good system and will be continually improving as I go. I have a monti capricornis, birds nest, and a green acro, not sure what kind, and all are doing fine so far so I think I will try and add a few more slowly. Thanks for eveyones advice.



TonyT

 

Sounds like you got it going! montis and bird nests are a little more forgiving than acros, but if they are thriving i think you'll be fine! What frogs are you keeping?! I have had a couple leucamelas for years!

 

I used to have 148 frogs in 48 different tanks. Now I have Imitators, Yellow Terebellis, Azureus, luecs. Cayo De Agua.

 

holy cow! that pretty awesome!