PLEASE READ: SPS thread ideas for this forum

[JB NY]

Hey guys,

I've been thinking of starting some discussions here in the SPS forum to help out the community when it comes to keeping SPS. My focus would be primarily on Acroporids.

I've noticed a lot of the same basic questions being asked time and time again (in some cases the same mis-information being given as well). Sometimes these questions are answered by a few people being helpful, other times answers revolve around, "do a search" or "read the FAQ". I'd really like to see the SPS forum get back to it's days of the past with more people who have had many years of experience offering their opinions and experience on what works best for them.

So I am asking you, what kinds of topics do you think would be useful and helpful. I am game for everything from the basics to the advanced. If there are topics you want to discuss but there is a lack of experts, I can see if I can convince some reefers to jump on specific threads if need be.

That said. What kind of topics would you be interested in seeing.

The general idea would be to do these topics similar to the "let's talk about" threads I did in the past.

Let's talk about water quality in an SPS tank.

Lets talk about lighting an SPS tank

Let's talk about water movement in an SPS tank

What do you think?

[wastememphis]

Joe,

Thats a good idea, I've been reading throug these forums for years now and there is always different answers to questions, and different refrences. It would be good for anyone intrested in starting up to have one place to look to get some help. Your threads have always been good, that would be a good start for anyone intrested.

Topics:
More specific topics on chemistery, ex - Ways to maintain calcium! Lets face it there are commercial products, reactors and custom solutions people use and I use to always see the same threads about concentrations. I'm looking to my first reactor and it would be nice to have a experienced imput/decriptions on products like that (I.e. best flow rate/why, types of media/why its good, etc).

HTH

[rwrussom]

Lets talk about pests and treatments

Lets talk about genus specific, maybe even species specific light and water flow demands - i.e. placement

[Serioussnaps]

Joe..I was going to say the let's talk about flow/water movement comes to mind more than any other. I think Flow is the most misunderstood aspect of keeping acroporids. That was a great thread and we need another one like it.

lets talk about nutrients/balance is one I would love to see

[MJAnderson]

Joe,

What I wouldn't mind seeing is a couple of experienced SPS keepers talk about their approach in total, not a thread about different aspects since that seems to break down into nit-pick discussions. Maybe you can create a 'form' for several questions and either have people post their responses and move them to a sticky or just let the thread go. Some suggestions for questions:

My goal for keeping corals is:

I light my tank with the following equipment and here's why:

My flow approach and equipment:

How I supplement and why:

Things like that. When you read about how some people come at it from every angle you get a better idea of how you can apply it to your tank and it helps you to 'filter out' responses that don't apply. Someone with a mixed tank might approach lighting differently than a purely SPS tank and if I read their response in the 'lighting thread' it might not come across that their tank is different from mine.

[ben&bobbi]

second the placement, reds better higher or lower, blues? etc.

also would be helpful with the others, but i was going to add placement.

[SDguy]

I have a couple questions. Specifically about the idea of experts vs. novices giving advice/answering questions. I consider myself a novice when it comes to acropora, since I've only been keeping them a few years. I answer questions here and there, not too many though (I like fish better ). Anyway, I'm just wondering though, what's the difference between someone having an acro thrive for 1 year vs. someone having theirs thrive for 10 years? This isn't like the long term keeping of a fish. It a colony of animals. If someone has conditions that allow it to do well in their tank for a year, is that info any less valuable than someone doing the same for 10 years? I just noticed a lot of reference to "experts" and was wondering if you could elaborate more....

TIA

BTW, I think those are great ideas for threads.

[Serioussnaps]

Joe here is another one

Why keeping SPS isn't just putting Acros in saltwater and blasting them with light....or better yet...why you shouldn't be so overly concerned with how you light your tank.....or "how do we get "good colors" in our tanks....or "how come I dont have good colors but i have an 8,000 dollar lighting setup?"

Also, a thread discussing all the new technologies would be cool although it would be completely unrelated in some manners.

For example here is a comment I pulled from a thread....it does not matter who said it but it is everywhere in this forumn...


I had halide and sold it for a T-5 6 lamp setup....spend about 3 months replacing bulbs trying to get a pleasing color( only spent 250.00 in bulbs), and finally had to go back to MH for the aesthetics!!!! My good friend just gave me all of is SPS due to a tank shutdown, and I must say his coloration in SPS was Awesome, probably due to a combo of MH and T-5. If I had to give my final thoughts, I would say a combo of both would be best!

Oh and I am running 2-250 watt Pheonix 14K HQI's in lumenarc III reflectors w/the ALL NEW Icecap electronics on a 75 Gal tank. ******GOT LIGHT?****** And still he had better coloration than me?!?!?!?!? HAD TO BE THE COMBO!!! [/B][/


Obviously there are many people out there that have received generic misinformation and I am probably guilty of receiving it as well as giving as most of us are. Getting this forumn on a new track is intriguing..I wish I was around for the "good old days of reefin" like I always hear about. Is it just a feeling of nostalgia?, becuase 5 years from now today will be the same old "good days."

[JB NY]

Those are some good ideas. Keep them coming.

I like the idea of doing a few topics that are specific on things like how to maintain calcium. We could even expand it to include how to setup and adjust your kalk/ca reactor or two part dosing system. We seem to get some many questions on that stuff.

Lighting is another one I agree. I did it before but there are lots of lighting myths that I think we could help dispel and help people save some money.

MJAndersonI'm not sure about just posting what people do, if that's what you mean. One of the nice parts about having a discussion on a certain topic is many people get good results from doing things different ways. Having the thread as a subject will hopefully let people chime in on what works for them, others can ask questions on why they do one thing over another and you can see the why's behind some people's madness. If I moderate the discussion I can try to control the discussion so things don't get too out of hand.

SDguyI use expert as a loose term here. And when I wrote it I had something different in mind than you probably did. I was thinking if we had a topic about something in particular, like a chemistry or a specific method of reef keeping, Maybe I could track down a chemist or the author of the book or the system creator or something like that.

Serioussnaps It's not that it was the "good old days" It was just a smaller circle of people who were keeping SPS back then, so everyone sort of knew each other. SPS keeping and peoples access to the internet has grown over the years so it's a different world now. Heck I remember the compuserv days and having a BBS that you had to access from phone lines as the means to chat on forums with people. Even on the internet in the early 90's I was telneting to servers to chat. The circle was really small back then.

Anyway keep the ideas coming.

[SDguy]

Originally posted by JB NY
SDguyI use expert as a loose term here. And when I wrote it I had something different in mind than you probably did. I was thinking if we had a topic about something in particular, like a chemistry or a specific method of reef keeping, Maybe I could track down a chemist or the author of the book or the system creator or something like that.

Anyway keep the ideas coming.

Oh, ok, I gotcha; that makes sense.

[gasman059]

Excellent idea !
Never knew such an interesting forum existed none of this was around back when knopp had its frist reactor and I murdered a couple of setups trying to dial it in, we only had a couple of friends here and there comparing results and so forth.
Anyways I agree 100% with the moderated forums but the real question is who moderates the moderators LOL J/K

This is a great knowledge sharing forum but sometimes tainted by misinformation( me included).

Suggested topics:

1- Allelopathy- on a daily basis i see at least 2-3 threads on this topic.

2- SPS and nutrients

3- This is what works for me , how about what has worked for you and why? type of thread.


Thx for the great forum and input in this a great source of information.

[prop-frags]

Great lead on this Joe; it's just the kind of thing we need from our mods to get more value from RC.
Here are a few ideas:

* Best Practices of SPS pros: things that experienced sps keepers have added to their "toolkit" over time. This would include common mistakes to avoid, lessons learned, etc. In order to avoid too broad a discussion, you could narrow it to categories such as:
tips for testing and managing water quality,
tips for placement and pruning of sps,
tips for quarantine and prevention of pests or disease in sps

* Aquascaping for that TOTM look: This would include planning an effective and asthetically-pleasing layout, live rock selection, placement techniques, integrating water flow into rock work, coral mounting techniques, etc.

* Planning the SPS show tank: much as you select fish that co-exist, this topic would include planning and choosing SPS that align with a theme or the overall look you want to achieve, and corals with complementary growth forms and colors. Another thing to include might be maintenance as you incorporate new sps colonies or frags, how to maintain light and adequate flow as colonies grow in, etc.

[Tanu]

Nutrient rich vs. nutrient poor systems: some aquarists (Bernd Mohr was a famous example) actually WANT their nitrates around 15 mg/l, while others claim they can't achieve nice colours with a concentration of 1 mg/l...

[chessmanmark]

BBS Joe? So there was life before the Internet! You are dating yourself.

Good ideas. I look forward to it.

[Aquaguru]

How about if you broke it down into categorties like

Acros: Flow, Light, Difficulty, Growth, Feeding

Millies: Flow, Light, Difficulty, Growth, Feeding

Montis: Flow, Light, Difficulty, Growth, Feeding

Just keep it real simple and straight to the point you know.

[kev apsley]

yeah, maybe have a question and answer session with renowned hobbyist in the field of maintaining Acroporids, an example would be a list of 10-20 questions selected randomly and presented to this person or persons to answer and be posted in the forum. There is nothing better than learning from the pro's and I am sure these people are attainable Tyree, Paletta??

[Reefflections]

JB,
I know where you are coming from, when you mentioned the "good old days".It seems the folks with all these years of reefkeeping are no longer with us,They got out of the hobby,or no longer to posts anymore due to issues.I misee those days myself also.I was around back then,when Bomber,Tubs,ROAB,Boreman ect....And that's just naming a few,when they were a part of RC.Even Randy Farley is no longer with us either.They still have info there on the Chemistry forum for viewers.But RC had many years of reefkeeping with these guys.And I would love to see like you said the "good old days" come back again But reading RC all these years now.I don't know if we can fill in the huge void.I'm all for any of these subjects you mentioned above.Because in this hobby,you are always learning.No matter how manys years you have under your belt.

[kenettson1]

I really like a lot of the ideas here. There are a few that interest me most:

1. Threads on the care of specific SPS species. (Aquaguru)
2. Best Practices of SPS Pros (prop-frags)
3. You could have a weekly tank talk featuring one tank of an "sps expert." Where that person answers questions about how they got the results that they did. Kinda like some recent threads like Acropora Nut's.

[ahchung]

I think a troubleshooting guide that provides suggestions to people with bad colored SPS's would be great.

I need this...

[jeffbrig]

I like kenettson's idea for expert tank talks. Start off with pics and a tank profile, and have a discussion about the methods used. What equipment and livestock. What do they feed (and how much), what are their water parameters, what/how do they supplement, etc.

[ThaNgBOm321]

how about some write-up on different type of system ( like bb,dsb,ssb,fuge,fugeless,sump,sumpless) explaining how the equipment's role/work to give 'noobs' a idea as how things work ... that will cut down a lot of repeat q?

another thing (kinda out of what you are planning but..) is a thread/sticky full of tips on sps' keeping.... just a big olll list that you can read and maybe pick up somtehing new...

YzGyz

[Philwd]

Lots of great ideas. Only thing I can think of to add is compilations like T5 threads, RB, aefw treatments etc. so the info is all in one place.

[tentacles]

I would like to see a thread on placement that includes details like specific lighting used, distance from the light, amount of flow in the tank etc... for specific corals. instead of the generic responses I usually see like, I keep mine high up under high flow.

[dzhuo]

i am personally interested to find out what exactly separates a well matured tank from an immature one.

i have seen many cases where a lot of people claim that they have a young tank and yet all the major measurable parameters such as ph/alk/cal/mag are in good range, but they are still unable to keep any sps or acro despite having abundance of light and flow.

what is it that we don't know about that separate a mature tank from a young one? is it the level of oxygen? bacteria concentration? water clarity? nutrient level? or simply something we don't yet know about?

there get to be something more than the usual ph/alk/cal/p04 stuff.

i am not as interested in the actual methodology (bb, dsb, ssb, types of light, amount of current, etc) used but a general understand of how to archive the end result of an mature tank and be able to sustain it for long period of time.

[CAreefer]

Originally posted by prop-frags
Great lead on this Joe; it's just the kind of thing we need from our mods to get more value from RC.
Here are a few ideas:

* Best Practices of SPS pros: things that experienced sps keepers have added to their "toolkit" over time. This would include common mistakes to avoid, lessons learned, etc. In order to avoid too broad a discussion, you could narrow it to categories such as:
tips for testing and managing water quality,
tips for placement and pruning of sps,
tips for quarantine and prevention of pests or disease in sps

* Aquascaping for that TOTM look: This would include planning an effective and asthetically-pleasing layout, live rock selection, placement techniques, integrating water flow into rock work, coral mounting techniques, etc.

* Planning the SPS show tank: much as you select fish that co-exist, this topic would include planning and choosing SPS that align with a theme or the overall look you want to achieve, and corals with complementary growth forms and colors. Another thing to include might be maintenance as you incorporate new sps colonies or frags, how to maintain light and adequate flow as colonies grow in, etc.

Outstanging post. I second!

CAReefer