beginner corals

[leon]

right, things with the tank are so far so good, as i want to have a reef system eventually, thought i'd ask for help before the time comes!. I have no idea about corals at all ) , i know some are easier than others (like fish ect..) i have the right lighting for them, and i know that some cant be added for atleast a year or so (sps corals ??? - no idea what these are) but i do have a leather coral (me thinks!) growing on the micro algea in the sump only 1 disc seems to look ok though. I tested my calcium 2 weeks ago and it was 380ppm, read this was the min it should be (), any help would be very appreciated

 

[jimdogg187]

sps are hard corals. very difficult for begginers. i ran my tank for 1 month dosing it every day with b-ionic calcium. then i added my clean up crew. 2 weeks later i added 3 fish. then i added my corals. i've got five in there now and i really don't know what 3 of them are, they're pretty cool though. if you just set your tank up, give it time. it you hurry things it will just cause you agony in the end. however, if your tank has been running for a bit, at least one month, start off with some soft corals. mushrooms, polyps, stuff like that. for the past few weeks i've been adding one coral per week. my tank is looking better and better as time goes on. and that's what this hobby is all about. patience. as far as testing, i'm sure others will freak out about this but i don't test calcium at all. and my rock and corals look great! 3 of my corals have doubled in size sice i bought them and i bought the other 2 this week. good luck, jim.

 

[Great Lakes]

This is where it starts getting interesting. You will find that you will be succesful with some corals, and won't be able to keep others.

For example. I can't grow mushrooms for crap. Most beginners put shrooms in their tank, have poor lighting, minimal water quality and movement, and grow mushrooms loke crazy. Not me. Same with bubbles and fox corals. Yet give me cabbage, kenyas, galaxia, green stars, zoos, anemonies, they grow like crazy.

Stick with the softies first. You will have your best luck with them.

GL

 

[ostrow]

GL maybe your Rios are killing your corals

 

[Great Lakes]

Very funny OZ!

Truth be told, I am not running any at the moment. I have my new 180G up and running, barely!

I still have to get some powerheads placed strategicly.

 

[ostrow]

You going to go with streams? I've seen the Rio Seios, knockoffs of the streams, and I hear they are gonna have an affordable controller for them soon...

 

[Great Lakes]

No, I am gonna have to make due with some odd powerheads I have on hand.

Pattie will faint if I was to get anything else too soon.

 

[Adrinal]

The more skimming, nutrient export and high light you have the easier it is to do easy hard corals.
The more nutrient rich waters you have the easier it is to do easy soft corals.

difficult corals are difficult to do wether they are soft or hard or whatever. (these are mostly ones that break the rules above and or require special feeding).

List out the equipment you have, and your planned maintnence and I bet these guys can suggest a good selection of corals.


If you are chosing corals first and equipment seccond... I would suggest shrooms, rics, zoa, greenstar polips. These go well with variations of light, feeding ect. They also grow at a decent to fast rate, which is a fun part of the reef tank. Zoa come in many different color forms so can be fun to collect. You can also take the extra bits to trade or put on one rock for a stunning rainbow of color.

A nice thing about soft tanks, is you don't have to worrie about as many chemicals... PH, salinity and the nitrogen cycle should do ya.