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what are some good starting corals.

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Anthony.Luciano710

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ok so im finishing up my leds on my 125 gallon rebuild. im looking for a good starting coral. not and toadstools or kenya trees, those are like real starter corals. im looking for something like a very hardy acro or something i can just get to learn the basics of keeping the color right with the proper placement and keeping my phosphates down. i know ive heard something about getting hardy yellow acros and they brown out with phosphates so its very easy to tell what your doing wrong. so yea whats a good like starting coral that is not going to be extremely easy.
 
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Chiefmcfuz

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I would wait a little bit until the tank is more stable. Slow going is the key to success in this hobby.
 
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Anthony.Luciano710

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Oh ok I have no problem with waiting but how much longer do you thing because the rocks have been cycled for about 4 months now a the end of this week and when I rebuilt it imp them in bins of heated water with power heads. My ph has a swing of 8.3 in the night and 8.6 in the mining and it levels out to 3.35 form the restmof the day then drops to 8.27 at like 5 then raises to 8.3 throughout the night it's on a graph and it does the same thing everyday. Is this a good swing or to much? Also my orp is 350 with no ozone hooked up so that's very good. Phosphates I Ned to check again they change all the time. Im using a Hannah meter and the first time it said 0.03 and then the second time the lens was a little dirty and it said 0.3 so I need to clean it and check it again.
Chiefmcfuz said:
I would wait a little bit until the tank is more stable. Slow going is the key to success in this hobby.
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duke62

duke62

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birds nest are always written that they are an easy coral but they really are not.why dont you stay away from sps for a bit till you really know what you are doing.dont buy anything that will multiply to mass proportions like zenia kenya or mushrooms.try some zoos and a toadstool and things of that nature till you are ready.its been 4 years and im finally doing a sps tank but im not ready to add anything till im absolutly sure i will have no swings in my balance of alk mag and cal and my ph is swinging to much that im not ready.and im studying up on how to rid my frags with bugs.go slowly young grasshopper
 
JonnyJ

JonnyJ

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duke62 said:
birds nest are always written that they are an easy coral but they really are not.why dont you stay away from sps for a bit till you really know what you are doing.dont buy anything that will multiply to mass proportions like zenia kenya or mushrooms.try some zoos and a toadstool and things of that nature till you are ready.its been 4 years and im finally doing a sps tank but im not ready to add anything till im absolutly sure i will have no swings in my balance of alk mag and cal and my ph is swinging to much that im not ready.and im studying up on how to rid my frags with bugs.go slowly young grasshopper
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couldn't have said it better myself.

you need to really run a tank for a while and get the hang of things...read and learn from others mistakes and just simply research man. Ive been doing salt for around 5 years and reefing around 2 years and im still not doing sps dominated tanks [i have 1 piece lmao] because i really dont want the headache.

Let your tank mature and see if you can run a stable system and then go for it. otherwise youll end up wasting a lot of money and killing fish/coral
 
duke62

duke62

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anthony if i showed you my tank you would think i just started in this hobby.ive torn tanks down and put new ones up but always with same rocks and water.this 92 is so empty right now and its been running for 3 or 4 months.i have a bunch of purple tipped mushooms i need to rid a bubbletip 3 pieces of lps 2 pieces of sps i got as a freebie for buying my LEDS and a toadstool.once my shrooms are zapped which someone here just said pauls zapper will do the trick.and once i get my reactors i want and set it up till where i feel comfortable in my parameters i will start to add my sps.which im going to estimate another month maybe 2.im in no rush.ive been there and killed that and im not looking for that again.just like you ,your tank needs to mature LOL.
 
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Anthony.Luciano710

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Well then what about some hardy lps because honestly anyone can keep zoos and toadstools. I want more of a challenge. I had a frogspawn and a brain coral and a bunch of other stuff including SPS and I'm not gonna lie, the only one I was able to keep a love was the frogspawn, Duncan, the zoos, Kenya tree, and very high end zoos but then everything died when I rebuilt the tank and had to move it. But then again I didn't know anything back then and I had all that stuff in the tank on the first week it was set up. So I'm looking for something more of a challenge now also because I just made these awesome LEDs and want some excuse to keep them on for the 12 hour cycle otherwise my parents keep telling me I'm wasting electricity with no coral in the tank.
 
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fishman1069

fishman1069

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My tanks goin on 2 years and I havent gone with SPS yet. Im not confident enough to try it yet. Im worried about parameter swings such as ALK. I thought I had it under control and found out it swings alot more then I thought!( bad test). I would do as the others say and wait a while. Try getting some sweet lookin zoa's and a couple pieces of LPS. I think they look better then the fuzzy sticks anyway LOL
 
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Chiefmcfuz

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See there you go again looking for instant gratification. Rushing in this hobby isn't just wasting time or money it kills living things. Wait about a month and see how it goes. Oh and no coral is easy to care for if your tank can't sustain it. You want to rush again and become more frustrated fine but when you start asking us why things won't live in the tank and we tell you the truth don't start another why is everyone picking on me thread just go to the waaaaaaaaaah thread directly.
 
James

James

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AJ, just start with the same corals you had before, you managed to kill them the first time so if this time you have them growing, then you could move to SPS. I will donate some blue polyp seriatopora (birdsnest) you once you are ready as I said before, but in months from now, not now. :)
 
Arati

Arati

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I suggest that you sit down and look at your tank. then research on the web all the cool looking corals you want and visualize each ones spot in your tank. make a list of the corals you definetly want. then look for those corals for sale in the market section.
I realize money is not a problem, but having some crappy looking coral that you cant seem to kill, encrusted onto your rock work and spreading like wildfire can rally suck.

It seems like you are into sps. I preffer sps also, keep in mind sps are not good fighters. chalice,favia and a few other will kill sps with long sweapers.. on hollywood stunner the sweapers are like 5" long! thats alot of tank space and if it gets onto a piece of your xpensive sps it can cause rtn or infection and wipe the colony.

stability promotes success (sps) practice keeping your water perfect. things like temprature swings. I shoot for 2 degree's max swing. check and recheck your parameters, and decide what you want to keep them at. i keep mine at 8dkh 450ca 1400mg. If you really want bright colors you need to lock these #'s in so its never off by 100mag, or your dkh isn't 4 because you missed dosing last night. there is a guy on MR names Waterkeeper, and thats what we are.

then do what everyone else has suggested and start your zoa collection, and see how it goes. I wouldnt put any sps into a reef less then 6-12 month old. im not saying you cant and even keep them alive and have color or whatever. new reefs go through alot of cycles the first year, everyone is all about the first cycle, the nitrogen cycle, but there are more and the tank , like everytank will be more prone to wild swings and wierd outbreaks. it happens to everyone. after a year or so the tank will settle down and become a more stable enviornment.

good luck and slow down, reefing is a marathon not a sprint.

nothing good happens fast in a reeftank.

or get a piece of true leng sy cap , i hear they are fairly hardy.:joke:
 
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A

Anthony.Luciano710

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wow that birdsnest looks very nice. its pushing me to get everything working good in this tank. right now i have to deal with this stupid reef octopus skimmer, you may have seen the thread i had about the skimmer going crazy and not stop overflowing but i figured out its the pump which is making a very loud noise im able to hear from 3 flights of stairs so im gonna send it back now. but whats next to work on. just regular water changes and waiting or is there stuff i have to do to stabilize the alk, mag, calcium, and ph. im thinking of dosing kalk and i have the perfect way to do so but im worried of my calcium going to high with no corals so ill hold off on that but i heard it was a good way to keep all those levels up. i also have an ozone machine which keeps a high orp and ph level.
Educator said:
AJ, just start with the same corals you had before, you managed to kill them the first time so if this time you have them growing, then you could move to SPS. I will donate some blue polyp seriatopora (birdsnest) you once you are ready as I said before, but in months from now, not now. :)
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