Ready for the next step?

[VAreef]

Hey everyone,

I'm amazed at my aquarium right now. I just don't know where to go next. I have now 7 total soft corals. I have some hairy mushrooms, button polyps, a few red mushroom hitchhickers, some crazy looking corals that I can't remember their name, A leather coral?, some zoanthids, and I just found 7 baby xenias that weren't there a week ago that hitchhicked in.

I plan on getting my quarantine set up this weekend so I can start adding some fish later. However they are going to be in that tank for 6 weeks it seems.

Since I am starting a quarantine my main tank will be fish free for 6 weeks and I would like to add as many corals as possible this weekend to my main tank since it needs to be fish free for 6 weeks as well. What should I add and what could I add? I'm dying to get into some sps and lps corals as those have the absolute best colors of all of them.

OK, the meat of my post. My tank has been up over 3 months. I have had one tang death due to ich, 1 chromis to a powerhead, 2 chromis from a crab(hence removed), all corals doing great, my water parameters are as follows:

pH - 8.3
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 0
Phosphate - 0
Alk - 10
Ca - 420
Salinity - 1.025

I do have a few small patches of red hair like algae growing in my tank but I checked my test results with a LFS test results on my water and they got the same results(I did find out my specific gravity test was a little off but I have corrected for that).

Could I start adding in some sps and lps corals now? I want to remove the 4 chromis that are in the tank this weekend and add in as many corals as I can. How many corals could I add? I was thinking of adding in 4-6 small frags of sps and lps coral types. Also, I was thinking of getting a medium sized sun polyp. I have lots of room and haven't added anything in weeks to my tank.

It's been excrutiatingly slow but I have held off on stocking this tank like crazy and it is very bare atm.

What would you guys suggest I add in? I specifically held off on the soft corals so I would have more room for the nicer SPS corals. Any other advice on what I should be doing? I've gotten really great advice here and really trust all of your opinions.

BTW I drove by Chattagnooga while you guys were having your get together. Would have loved to have stopped in and said hi but I was visiting my kids and just couldn't tell them I would be one day later because I stopped to talk about fish LOL.

Is there anything I am missing I should be thinking about? All seems to be going well but I am still waiting for some kind of disaster to strike.

Brian in VA

[VAreef]

Oh I almost forgot. I wanted to post some pics of my tank to show you how bare it looks. Hope this works.

[55king]

nice green star i love the green star and i would do a leather like a rasta of some thing that grows fast they can make your tank look alot for fuller than it is

[reeffreak]

Great looking tank Vareef.

I know some people here recommend quarentining corals too but I don't.I hope it don't come back and bite me in the you know where.In my opinion I believe you are ready for LPS but don't know about SPS since I never had any.How about a Frogspawn or Hammer Coral.You mention Sun Polyps is that the same as Sun Coral(Tubastrea).If it is, that coral is hardy but high maintenance.That coral likes dark areas of the tank(under a ledge or in a cave),it doesn't come out when the lights are on and each polyps has to be spot fed several times a week when the lights are out.I have one and its going back to the fish store.It is a gorgeous coral but nobody ever sees it.

Best of Luck with whatever you choose.

[VAreef]

Sun coral thats the one I was thinking about. The very center area at the bottom of my tank is actually a cave and the flash on the camera is what makes it look like it isn't. That was the spot I had made for it. I knew they were high maintenance and liked darker areas but didn't know they would only open with the lights out. Shoot if thats the case I would never get to see the thing as my lights don't start going out until 9pm. I may have to rethink that one thanks for the info. I think I may go with 2 or 3 smaller LPS corals and maybe a few sps from the LFS frag tank just to try em out. So far I've had good luck with corals but bad luck with fish.

I didn't quarantine anything and have seen good and bad results from it. I had a small starfish that was apparantly eating my zoanthids as they stopped having problems once I got it out. Also my tang died of ich as well. On the good side I have gotten 2 snails, a porcelin crab(good kind), a few stomallas(sp?), and some hitchhiker mushrooms and xenias. Since I have had problems with fish I was going to just quarantine fish for now and keep my fingers crossed on the corals.

[Bifferwine]

I'd pass on the sun coral too unless you are wanting to put some serious time into it. Like Freak said, each individual polyp needs to be hand fed daily. Very high maintenance. If I were you, I'd take it slow and get a couple LPS and a couple SPS frags and see how they do over the course of a few months before buying anything else. Rushing is the biggest mistake you can make.

[yote]

I would try a couple of LPS frags first.MAybe a Torch,Hammer,or Frogspawn.See how that worked for a month or so,then try a couple of SPS frags.
I may try some SPS here in the next week or 2,if I can find some here local.


You could have stopped long enough to have a burger with us.Donny makes a mean burger and fries.

[yote]

BTW great looking corals.