2 biggest setbacks I’ve had were stray voltage that happened from a heater in a tub I was using to hold corals while moving to a new tank and recently when 10 out of 12 torches died successively over 2 weeks or so, plus a couple others. Things are looking lots better again and I’m up to 8 torches again.
I try to manage them with feeding discipline, my protein skimmer, GFO and algae.
I dose with AB+ and phyto daily and am liberal with general feeding of frozen for the entire tank.
www.reef2reef.com
I just tinkered with it until it appears everything is mostly happy
I find flow to be very important. Corals get unhappy if you don't give them the flow they want. When they get unhappy they tend to unalive.
Water flow is important for coral growth and health in reef aquariums because it helps corals get food and nutrients, remove waste, and exchange materials with seawater. In order to get the best flow, I have purchased a gyre for each of my two tanks and tried to arrange the rock work in such a way as not to impede the flow. I will be experimenting with the flow as soon as I have some corals in my tank and researching how much flow each coral needs to thrive. I will probably have to move corals around the tank in order to find their happy place.
Flow is very important and I never get it right. It makes me think about switching from a mixed reef to an LPS only reef. If I get the flow right for the SPS it's too strong for the LPS or I get it right for LPS and the SPS croak. A gyre's laminar flow seem to help but I really think you need either a long tank or a high tank (or--even better, both) to pull both zones off successfully. A four foot lagoon just doesn't seem to support the high/low flow mix without some ridiculous looking aquascape.
Growth and color on SPS are effected by flow and lighting....collectively. Adjust you flow and lighting to get the polyps fully out. I find if the acro in pale I need to increase flow.
Lighting I believe was my main cause for failure at first reef attempt, This time around I have multiple lighting options on hand and also will be measuring PAR to help avoid starving or burning my carals
Have not got to that level in my tank, but I have hands on experience fragging with a friend and his tank.
Tank build in progress, but I am set up to dose All For Reef once the tank has had time to mature, This may change according to needs
Previous attempt at reefing was temp acclimate for awhile then add to tank. I plan to do the same but looking for ways to cut out pests and unwelcome algae
