Acroporas

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

So whats so hard about keeping acroporas anyway? They are all labeled as difficult to keep, but the requirements arent that big. I feed very regularly with zooplankton and Brine Shrimp Plus by formula foods, and have the right lighting and strong water flow. Is it that they just dont always live long in captivity or what?

 

[superman]

So whats so hard about keeping acroporas anyway? They are all labeled as difficult to keep, but the requirements arent that big. I feed very regularly with zooplankton and Brine Shrimp Plus by formula foods, and have the right lighting and strong water flow. Is it that they just dont always live long in captivity or what?

I would add that keeping phoshates VERY low is key as well, otherwise you are set, they really are not that hard to keep, to start out with either get a frag from an already aquarium established acro, or get an aquacultured acro.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Well thats cool i never have any phosphates. I was gonna go with frags anyway because they were gonna be cheaper. I should also ask my lfs if they ever get in any captive grown ones. good idea. But how much lighting do they need anyway? Like watts/gallon

 

[superman]

There is more than one type of phosphate, make sure you test for both.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

O ok ill get on that

 

[Ed4567]

I think the majority of people who keep acros use 250 watt halides (or in some cases 400 watt halides), although provided the other conditions are right I don't think there would be much wrong with 150 watt halides or equivilant in t-5 tubes.

Maybe try to find some local reefkeeper's: they'll often have very reasonably priced frags (especially of the less interesting coloured ones) and are good people to get to know.

 

[Navarre]

before setting yourself up with acros be aware that they are very delicate to fluctuating water conditions. Whilst they are relatively easy if you have low stock levels of fish , high lighting and good flow, should water peramters change then you will find yourself coming unstuck. This summer i lost my entire sps coral collection due tothe water temperature rising by 4 degrees, no matter what i tried to keep the water temp lower it was unsucessful (i must get a chiller before this summer).
Acros and other sps corals simply wont tollerate temperature changes, ph swings etc and needs very stable water. If you can manage this with your system then you should be fine.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

So then in a 75 gallon, wouldnt changing 7.5 gallons be too much? Would i have 2 spread the weekly water change out from like a half an hour to 2-3 days or something?

 

[superman]

7.5 gallons would be just fine, you could do a LOT more (and should if you can) Salinity, PH, and temp need to be the same between your tank water and your water change water, you could work up to 100% water changes if you wanted to.

 

[Navarre]

Yes superman is right. If you can do larger water changes then this is fine as this will be adding lots of lost trace eliments the sps corals are using up like calium etc. Just make sure the peramters such as PH, SG Temp etc are all the same and this should be fine.