Hello everyone, as you might know I'm in the process of building a custom canapoy for my 29 gallon Reef Aquarium within my bedroom. Upon successfull completion of the project I would like to attempt to keep Acropora SPS Coral. I cannot get over the beauty of their coloration and texture. Especially a rare piece that I have seen Purple Acropora Samoensis. Other then high flow, maintaining Calcium and Alkalinity levels and providing High Lighting are their any other care requirements for these beautiful specimens. :)

well, its hard to generalize, as various species may need specific attention
much of it will be trial and error, along with learning your system.

the best thing to do is start with a healthy piece, i only recommend starting with captive colonies or frags, they are hardier than wild colonies, and less prone to have disease, amongst many other things.

maintaining a proper nutrient level is important to get good coloration

high lighting is not sufficient, you need the "right" lighting. a good mixture of white and actinic lighting is usually needed to bring out good coloration, and keep them from just turning brown.

also, you might want to start with a less difficult stony coral. acropora sp corals are one of the most finicky and temperamental of the branching stony corals. not that they are extremely hard, but they are prone to problems. starting with Seriatopora, Montipora, even the super easy Pocilipora, might be a better way, if you are new to stony corals.

sorry, there is no magical solution, learn as much as you can and try them.. :)

Make sure that you are well aware of the possible pathogens that you can incorporate into your tank. You should dip everything you put into your tank and quarentine.

If you get betadine, it is cheap and accessible and will kill Tegastid's or Red bugs. We think that it kills Acropora eating flat worms as well (AKA AEFW's), but we are not sure of the LD50 (Lethal dose at which 50% of the corals treated die and all of the pests die). This is a term that we use in pharmacology and is applicaple to any medication application for our hobby. The problem is that know one is testing for these types of things other than hobbiests.

The current bath reccomendation is

3 mls of betadine in 1 liter of tankwater for 20/25 minutes. This should kill both of the pathogens. The problem with this is it will also kill some of the zoozanthellae and the coral will look drab. If you have a system that is suboptimal for the organism, it is likey to die. Catch 22 situation. I am soooooo very paranoid about getting AEFW's!!!!:mad: I'd hate to see my whole tank go down in flames. The more you educate yourself and prepare, the less you have to worry about!

interesting, betadine? im assuming this is the same as interceptor. where can we get it

i dont subscribe to treating everything indescrimantly as standard! observation under quarentine shows up most of what your after, treating or undue stress is not something i'd enjoy putting any animal though by choice! the quarentined animals tell your everything u need to know, just as long as you can maintain the same conditions as the main, keeping in mind all the outside factors like wild caught and your laughing!

getting back to the sps side of things> water movement is the first port of call to address! personally i belive it to be one of the most important tasks to perform correctly with sps animals!

coat me in honey & throw me to the lesbians (http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/inverts/stonycorals/intro.htm)

Betadine and intereptor are NOT the same. Betadine is an iodine based surgical scrub. Interceptor is an anthelmintic (expels or destroys parasites) product used in veterinary medicine.