SPS
SPS: Small Polyp Stony Corals, which translates to small hydra-bodied hard corals
As we said earlier, the commonly known LPS and SPS mainly belong to stony corals, and all stony corals provide great help for marine reef building, especially SPS corals.
The basic unit of SPS, like LPS, is also a hydra, we call it a coral, each polyp in a cup-shaped structure on the surface of the living coral, the hydra body of SPS is very small, most of which are 1-10mm in diameter, each hydra body splits into thousands of such tiny units through asexual germination reproduction, and they are connected together through co-flesh to form a group, and at the same time, during the growth process, the polyps continue to secrete calcium carbonate to the bottom surface, Eventually, a variety of strange SPS corals on the seabed were formed.
(The "little flower" in the picture is a polyp, and each flower is a polyp / Photo Dong Jie)
(Each polyp grows in a "cup-shaped" structure.) /Photography by Dong Jie)
(Polyps constantly secrete calcium carbonate, forming a variety of corals.) /Photography by Dong Jie)
The main types of SPS corals:
SPS players often hang on the lips of A coral, P coral, M coral, what do these means?
SPS common shapes are strange, generally according to the shape of coral, SPS is divided into several categories, we will introduce the common.
A common species: Pocilloporidae (cup coral), referred to as "P coral" by the player.
In fact, there are 3 kinds of corals under the genus P, which is too specialized, and we don't need to divide them so finely.
Common P corals mainly include: cat bones, pushpins, bird's nests
(A red cat bone, P coral)
(A green-haired purple-red basepack, P coral)
(Often mistaken for cat bone, it is actually a columnar coral of a completely different breed from cat bone, P coral)
(A common species of Paracel, P coral, the actual scientific name of the Chinese is "warty cup coral", the trade name I don't know.) ）
(Bird's Nest Coral, P Coral)
Common species two: Montipora rose coral, referred to as M coral, the main species is the player commonly known as tiles, stone tiles, stacked teeth (the southern region is also customarily called stacked tiles).
Among them, the tiles in the player's mouth generally refer to the following picture, like a rose flower, growing around each other piece by piece.
Stone tiles are as shown in Figure 4, which spread and grow on the stone and wrap the stone to grow.
The overlapping teeth, as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 5, belong to the branches.
(Common tile colors are red, green, purple)
(Red tiles in the player's fish tank)
(Red flower green bottom folded teeth)
(A kind of stone tile)
(Aquaria's purple (blue?) (1.)
Common species three: Acropora (staghorn coral), Taiwan is also called "shaft hole coral". Players abbreviate "Genus A Coral".
Genus A corals are the most diverse species of stony corals. It is also the main collection variety for SPS players.
The above several common SPS, the main distinguishing characteristics we can compare the pictures to distinguish, then now we should know the A genus \ M genus \ P genus coral hard bone.
Feeding of SPS:
In general, we think that M and P corals are relatively easy to raise SPS, and have good color and growth rate in high nutrient salt environments, and are often the first choice for LPS tank polyculture.
Genus A corals have the highest water quality requirements for fish tanks, and most genus A corals need to be kept in a low nutrient salt environment to grow better.
The main water quality indicators that need to be paid attention to in feeding SPS are: alkalinity KH, pH PH, nitrate NO3, phosphate PO4, calcium Ca, magnesium Mg, potassium K, etc.
Among them, the values of NO3 and PO4 directly affect the growth and color of SPS, and most genus A corals cannot tolerate phosphate concentrations of more than 30ppb (0.09).
My advice on water quality when raising SPS is:
KH 8-11, PH 7.8-8.4, NO3 within 10, PO 4 0.04 or less, Ca 380-420, Mg 1250-1350, K 400.
SPS corals do not tolerate fluctuations in water quality and consume a lot of various elements when growing. So we can't rely on pure hand to supplement the elements like we did with LPS.
The consumption of KH, Mg, Ca is very large for hard bone, these three elements are also called macroelements, and we need to use titration \calcium anti-device to maintain the stability of the three elements.
PH, K, etc. can be manually replenished according to the test results.
NO3, PO4 need to be constantly adjusted according to the test results, including but not limited to: feeding, water change, use of adsorbents, chemical agents.
It doesn't matter if the novice can't understand it, in the later stage, we will teach everyone to play SPS together from 0, and show the adjustment of equipment and water quality.
Water flow, SPS requires water flow is much stronger than LPS, sps may appear burner head in the case of insufficient water flow (many people think that SPS burner is too high an element, the actual water flow and light coordination is not right, but also will burn the head. ）
Lighting, SPS has a very high demand for lighting, the need for strong lighting, we do not expand this article, I will introduce in detail the selection of sea tank lighting later.
How do we tell if a hard bone needs a strong light or a low light?
My advice is to judge based on the shape and hairiness of the coral, for a sprawling SPS with thick branches, dense growth, and dense hairs, a strong light and water flow is required; while sprawl SPS, which tends to be loose, slender, and less hairy, needs to provide a location with more gentle water flow and moderate light.
SPS Name:
We talked about coral names in Coral Naming (click to view). In addition to the problem of how to cultivate the best color and how to quickly make sps grow, the biggest headache for SPS players is the name problem of SPS.
Among the genera A\P\M, coral in genus A is the most diverse class, and it is also the most headache for scholars when naming classifications. If the player is called by the scientific name of the Chinese, it is not good enough and not loud enough. But according to the name of the trade, it is too normal for a coral to have several names.
My advice is not to be too entangled in the hard bone of the product name, now there is a crooked wind evil atmosphere, non-RR does not raise, in fact, after RR to your hands because of the change in feeding conditions, he will also slowly change the color. In addition, it is certain that no coral breeding institution can cross-breed the hard bone of the new variety, so even if it is RR, it is also selected from the natural sea and then artificially reared and sold, so do not be too entangled in the provenance of the hard bone. Enhancing one's own cultivation and eyesight is king.
From a sales point of view, giving a name to your beloved SPS is powerful, but from the time you pay for the name... Let the benevolent see the benevolent.
Old rules, SPS beauty cylinder appreciation:
(Happy SPS cylinder)
(Flying Pig SPS Cylinder)
(Yuki83 SPS cylinder)