🔥 Master Your SPS Game
A no-BS breakdown of how to grow, color, and dominate with SPS. Written from experience, paid for in dead sticks.
Lighting: Precision Power
Most people run their lights like they’re trying to grow lettuce. White, red, green — all noise. SPS don’t care about that. They want blue. Deep, stable, unapologetic blue.
Eight hours. Blue spectrum. Done.
Corals thrive. Algae doesn’t. You don’t need full spectrum, sunrise, sunset, disco ball modes — you need consistency. Pick your channel, lock it in, and stop tweaking every day like a DJ with insecurity issues.
Flow: Relentless Force
No flow, no growth.
SPS live where the ocean never sleeps. Flow isn’t “movement,” it’s survival. Polyps need to dance. They need chaos. Dead spots breed detritus, detritus breeds death.
Crank the pumps. Make waves. Dominate.
If your torches look like wind chimes and your acros look like statues, your tank is stagnant. Randomize your flow and let your reef breathe.
Dosing: Kalk + Elite Additives
Kalkwasser is non-negotiable. It’s not trendy, it’s ancient science — calcium hydroxide in its purest, cheapest, most efficient form. It builds your reef’s skeleton quietly while you sleep.
Drip it 24/7 with a Versa. One tablespoon per gallon of RODI. Always dose clear liquid, never the sludge. That sludge is where reef dreams go to die.
Coral Vitalizer: fuel for ultra-low nutrient tanks.
Coral Booster: trace elements that bring the bite back to growth.
AcroGlow: the secret weapon for color pop — like turning HDR on in real life.
Kalk builds the foundation. Additives ignite it.
Feeding: Fish Are Your Engine
No fish food, no coral food.
You want coral color? Feed your fish. That’s it. Fish waste is the reef’s natural energy source. Don’t starve your ecosystem to look “clean.” Dirty tanks grow rich colonies. Sterile tanks grow regret.
Feed heavy, export smarter, and let biology do the work.
Coral Food: Choose Your Weapon
Don’t overthink this. If your nutrients are low — Vitalizer saves you. If your nutrients are normal — Reef Energy AB+ from Red Sea is perfect. Everything else is marketing noise.
Feed the system, not the hype. One choice. No waste. Maximum results.
Target Numbers
These are the only numbers that matter. Tattoo them on your brain, because SPS doesn’t forgive mistakes.
Stay close to these. Stability beats perfection every time.
Speciosa: Hard Lessons
Speciosa taught me pain. I’ve lost more money to this species than I want to admit — high alk, unstable water, fresh cuts. Every mistake kills them fast.
They hate change. They love patience.
Keep your alk low, your water clean, and only buy proven frags. Anything else? Just dead sticks with fancy names.
The Reef Code
- Stability over gimmicks.
- Blue light over “full spectrum.”
- Flow over chemicals.
- Fish food over coral food.
- Kalk is king.
Follow that code and you’ll stop guessing. Your reef will tell you when it’s happy — it’ll glow like it’s plugged into the sun.
Your Move
You can chase every new bottle and gadget, or you can lock in and play the long game. This hobby rewards discipline, not desperation.
Two paths: failure or empire.
I’ve built neon reefs that look alive under any light. You can too. The blueprint’s right here. Run it, own it, and stop asking if your coral is “doing okay.” It will tell you — when it glows, you’ve arrived.
