what are some good starting corals.
- Thread starter Anthony.Luciano710
- Start date
Anthony.Luciano710
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- Location
- Bronx 10461
ok pm me i dont think were aloud to talk about it on threads.
There is a nice variety of LPS some very easy and some hard but not as hard as SPS.
CandyCanes take care of themselves and I would consider them very easy.
Acans are also fairly easy to care for and probably should also be fed.
Open brains look fragile but they really are an easy coral since they can adapt easily. But they should be fed. Just make sure there is no rock near the flesh when fully inflated. And the colors are wild.
Then you have what I consider the more difficult ones which are the Euphyllia group which includes frogspawn, hammers, and torches. They
seem to be more difficult but once you have it doing well it will really grow and expand. The difficulty is usually the water movement.
There are others but these are what I have had experience with.
I would try one type at a time and don't add more than one type over a 4-6 week period. Once you start mixing you run into allopathy issues which are invisible to us but it is probably the main reason corals that were doing great suddenly die. By giving corals time to get used to a new neighbor you minimize the risk that they will go to war. Spacing is important because you don't want corals stinging their neighbors but it doesn't help much in their chemical warfare. Fo rthat you need water changes and carbon to remove the toxic stuff they give off.
It sounds like your tank is ok at this point to try any one of these.
CandyCanes take care of themselves and I would consider them very easy.
Acans are also fairly easy to care for and probably should also be fed.
Open brains look fragile but they really are an easy coral since they can adapt easily. But they should be fed. Just make sure there is no rock near the flesh when fully inflated. And the colors are wild.
Then you have what I consider the more difficult ones which are the Euphyllia group which includes frogspawn, hammers, and torches. They
seem to be more difficult but once you have it doing well it will really grow and expand. The difficulty is usually the water movement.
There are others but these are what I have had experience with.
I would try one type at a time and don't add more than one type over a 4-6 week period. Once you start mixing you run into allopathy issues which are invisible to us but it is probably the main reason corals that were doing great suddenly die. By giving corals time to get used to a new neighbor you minimize the risk that they will go to war. Spacing is important because you don't want corals stinging their neighbors but it doesn't help much in their chemical warfare. Fo rthat you need water changes and carbon to remove the toxic stuff they give off.
It sounds like your tank is ok at this point to try any one of these.
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
im not getting mad.whenever people say things that are not in the plans its seems like we may be getting mad.its just the way a post is read.everything is always taken out of context when we write because you cant here the tone in a persons voice.i suggest to stay away from fuzzy sticks for awhile so did others its your tank if you want them fine but its a gamble on your money and the sps life and your odds are real low at this time
AJ it is very hard to be patient. Being in the same boat myself at one point I started with digi's Purple and Yellow/Green and caps. They survive throughout all my ordeals and now are thriving. I can give you a free piece of each one if you swing by Garfield NJ 07026.
Here some people may sound harsh but the mean well. Ultimately you make you own decisions and do not feel so bad about it.
LMK
Here some people may sound harsh but the mean well. Ultimately you make you own decisions and do not feel so bad about it.
LMK
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
AJ.,
If you worry about wasting your calcium by not keeping corals, then you can consider these two corals. They eat up calcium and good to look at:
1)Duncan. Very easy and grow fast with bone structure. Unlike zoa, it does not adhere to rock structure, making them much easy to trade out/replace if you don't like them in the future.
2)Get a frag of cap(don't buy wild collected) from some member here. Fast easy SPS. If you fail, it's not wild collected, so you did not hurt the wild. If you are successfull, you can try another monti so study their properties. There is a lot to learn about cap as well, such as how they manage to kill other coral by shadowing them. So keep it at a corner where you do not plan to have coral under it or just some VERY low light demanding ones. They are more sensitive to swing than most easy bird's nest, you can see your skill much better with it.
If you worry about wasting your calcium by not keeping corals, then you can consider these two corals. They eat up calcium and good to look at:
1)Duncan. Very easy and grow fast with bone structure. Unlike zoa, it does not adhere to rock structure, making them much easy to trade out/replace if you don't like them in the future.
2)Get a frag of cap(don't buy wild collected) from some member here. Fast easy SPS. If you fail, it's not wild collected, so you did not hurt the wild. If you are successfull, you can try another monti so study their properties. There is a lot to learn about cap as well, such as how they manage to kill other coral by shadowing them. So keep it at a corner where you do not plan to have coral under it or just some VERY low light demanding ones. They are more sensitive to swing than most easy bird's nest, you can see your skill much better with it.
Last edited:
Anthony.Luciano710
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Bronx 10461
thanks so much for the offer. if im ever in nj ill let you know but i dont think my parents would take me all the way there to get coral because they give me a hard time even if the place if 10 minutes away.
Monti caps are awesome especially when they table. The orange ones pop.
Green star polyps look cool on flat rocks and they glow under actinics. Keep them isolated cause they spread.
Zoas and Palys are nice.
Ricordia, mushrooms.
Try some display types of macro algae. I would plant some red gracilaria and when you get a tang it will have a great transition diet to help acclimate itself.
Green star polyps look cool on flat rocks and they glow under actinics. Keep them isolated cause they spread.
Zoas and Palys are nice.
Ricordia, mushrooms.
Try some display types of macro algae. I would plant some red gracilaria and when you get a tang it will have a great transition diet to help acclimate itself.
Anthony.Luciano710
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Bronx 10461
very helpful post thanks its like you read my mind lol. my moms fvorite coral or monti caps that table. green star polyps are one of my favorite i just hate that they grow extremely fast, i like the colorful zoas and mushrooms. never had a richordia though. and i have a bunch of macro in my fuge including that red gracilaria stuff but the ends of everything got brown and fell off for some reason now its growing back.
- Location
- Long Island
My easiest coral is my Hammer and brains. I dont know why but that thing has tripled in size in 2 months. I barely feed it too, once a week i shoot some zooplankton into it and once every 2 weeks i'll throw a small piece of shrimp into it. The brains are the same regimen, once a week some zooplankton right into its mouth and then once every 2 weeks i'll throw a silverside or a small piece of shrimp onto its mouth and they eat it right up. They're huge as well. I'll upload some pictures tonight.
As for the easiest..Zoa's, and don't knock them. Under blue LED light they're nice looking with all the colors
As for the easiest..Zoa's, and don't knock them. Under blue LED light they're nice looking with all the colors
Anthony.Luciano710
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Bronx 10461
what did you mean by dont know the zoas? oh and +1 on the led part i got an armor of God frag from tripleR today and i turned off my white leds and only left on the blue when they opened up and i was able to stand on the other side of he 50 ft room and see those things glowing red it was sooo cool.
- Location
- Bay ridge, Brooklyn
Chalices are not sps, they are lps. There's already a lot of good info from people who know what they're saying- stay away from sps until you see that your softies and zoas are nice and healthy, learn how to keep the calcium/alkalinity/magnesium balance and then start with some monti caps and birdsnests for example.
Anthony.Luciano710
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- Location
- Bronx 10461
yep. i got a colony of zoas today to start off. they opened up within 30 minutes of being in the tank so im thinking they like the leds because ive never seen zoas open this fast before. i placed them towards the side in a slightly shady area so it doesnt shock them with the light. i want to start to use kalk in my ato because ive heard very good things about it.
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
watch out usinf kalk in a ato.it gets pasty and can clog it up
Anthony.Luciano710
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- Location
- Bronx 10461
i bought a suction prefilter to prevent it from clogging the actual pump.
Anthony.Luciano710
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- Location
- Bronx 10461
but the excess kalk stays at the bottom so if the tube is at the top in the clear water i wont get clogger right? or what other way is there of doing it? i hate dripping it in and i would set up another bucket with a dosing pump next to the ato so that way in case anything happeneds it wont interfere with the ato but i rather just keep the pump clean then have to set up a whole other resiviour.
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