I’ve always been a LPS/zoanthid kinda reefer. I’ve had the odd SPS here or there in old tanks, but they were usually the first to get clobbered by my algae issues. I was also pretty intimidated by them. Listening to the horror stories about calcium reactors freaking out and rapid tissue necrosis was enough to keep me sidelined with them. Aside from the fact that they can be craaaazy expensive.
Now that my 50g has been up for about 18 months I think it is fairly stable at this point and decided to try adding an SPS to the tank. There’s an area right under my Kessil A360WE that is too intense for any zoas that I know of. I figured it might be a good spot to try a small SPS garden (is that a thing?). A member of my local club gave me a great deal on a Red Planet acropora frag.
I added it to the tank on January 23, 2017. The polyps immediately came out and it looked pretty happy to me. I think it needs to color up a bit more, but it already has a nice deep red to it.
I shot a video of the polyps while I was messing around with my 90mm lens. I thought it was kinda fun looking so I uploaded it to YouTube.
If it makes it, I’ll put up another post later showing the growth progression. Wish me luck!