# What parameters for basic SPS



## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

Hi all,

My calcium is most around 440 to 460- I would think this is enough? LED are the chinese boxes 165W- 2 of them- plus T5's. 
What other parameters I should be looking at
Flow is quite strong- I have a wavermaker 
All other parameters are normal- AK- PH- Salinity
Softies and some LPS- ( the only ones I have are doing good) everything growing. ( not as fast as I would want)

Thank you


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Oh my god she has returned!!!!


----------



## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

altcharacter said:


> Oh my god she has returned!!!!


lol you crack me up- The tank was not doing very well in 2016- for the past 6 months has done really well so is time to start to stock some more....
hope everyone is well-
Here a pic of the tank- I fried my blue lights on the right side so half of the tank is blue and the other white.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

The chinese box LED's are what they are....
Everyone who owns them said they loved them when they bought them, but after a couple years they eventually burn out and you have to replace them.

If you're going with SPS I'd say one of the main concerns would be lighting. It seems that your tank is pretty stable with parameters so I wouldn't worry about that right now. 

Good luck Leti


----------



## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

I try to maintain alkalinity at 8 and this is by far the most important parameter for sps, salinity 1.025, not really need to chase pH but I have mine between 8 and 8.3, depending on the time of the lighting cycle. Also maintain magnesium around 1300 because the big 3 CAL, ALK, and MAG somehow co-related to keep the balance.

For another parameter I also maintain potassium at 400.

Yes, lighting is very important too. I bought the very expensive one at the time over 6 years ago when there were not much choice, and so far, touch wood, it is still kicking.


----------



## Rookie2013 (Jan 17, 2013)

notclear said:


> I try to maintain alkalinity at 8 and this is by far the most important parameter for sps, salinity 1.025, not really need to chase pH but I have mine between 8 and 8.3, depending on the time of the lighting cycle. Also maintain magnesium around 1300 because the big 3 CAL, ALK, and MAG somehow co-related to keep the balance.
> 
> For another parameter I also maintain potassium at 400.
> 
> Yes, lighting is very important too. I bought the very expensive one at the time over 6 years ago when there were not much choice, and so far, touch wood, it is still kicking.


Albert what salt are you using to maintain that alk?


----------



## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

I maintain ALK, CAL, MG, and K through dosing. 

I am using D-D H2Ocean salt. But with any kind of salt, you need to dose and test and if your system is not small.


----------



## Rookie2013 (Jan 17, 2013)

notclear said:


> I maintain ALK, CAL, MG, and K through dosing.
> 
> I am using D-D H2Ocean salt. But with any kind of salt, you need to dose and test and if your system is not small.


Ok thnks

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Letigrama (Jul 6, 2008)

notclear said:


> I try to maintain alkalinity at 8 and this is by far the most important parameter for sps, salinity 1.025, not really need to chase pH but I have mine between 8 and 8.3, depending on the time of the lighting cycle. Also maintain magnesium around 1300 because the big 3 CAL, ALK, and MAG somehow co-related to keep the balance.
> 
> For another parameter I also maintain potassium at 400.
> 
> Yes, lighting is very important too. I bought the very expensive one at the time over 6 years ago when there were not much choice, and so far, touch wood, it is still kicking.


Thank you Albert- I need to check potassium- I dont even check that- the PH is fine- the salinity sometimes is a bit low, like around 1.023- the ALK is always high- like 11- which is very strange because my Calcium is about 480. so the alk should be lower-it used to be higher and I got it a bit more under control- the MAG I havent check in a while but it was always normal- I'll check that again- the ALK really throws me off. Not sure why is high
As of lighting- yes I have the chinese LED fixtures going combined with T5's. The new tank has a current orbit light - dont know the specs yet- but the issue is that the tank is also tall- 28inches- so if any I will need to put SPS's towards the high end- We'll see how we are doing with the new tank


----------



## joeby97 (Jan 22, 2014)

altcharacter said:


> The chinese box LED's are what they are....
> Everyone who owns them said they loved them when they bought them, but after a couple years they eventually burn out and you have to replace them.
> 
> If you're going with SPS I'd say one of the main concerns would be lighting. It seems that your tank is pretty stable with parameters so I wouldn't worry about that right now.
> ...


is that any different than high end ones needing pucks replaced, or power supplys or any of the other issues that arise with the more expensive lights too?

not everything is fool proof. I know guys who have had the black box leds for a few years and have had no issues. I know people who have ecotech, kessil, AI, to name a few and have had issues.

so i guess we can say, the expensive boxes are what they are, expensive and still fail like the cheap black boxes... just my opinion.


----------

