first soft corals

[phuture1]

hi guys. my tank has been up and runnunig for 3 months. i think i am ready for some corals but i'm not sure how to go about it. are there any beginner tips you guys cound give me before i waste my money on things i don't really know about? what types of coral are good for a novice? i appreciate your help. you guys havn't steered me wrong up to this point. thanks alot.:Cheers:

 

[Piggy]

One of the easiest are mushrooms. Also leathers,zoas,or any soft coral.

 

[reeffreak]

I'm not sure what lighting you have bur many of the soft and LPS corals are fairly easy.

On top of what Piggy mentioned,frogspawns,hammers,brain corals are pretty easy as well.There is really to many to list.

 

[montoya]

I've had the best luck with a couple varieties of common brown mushrooms. They were the first corals I bought for my tank and are all now thriving. They're not glamorous but seem very tough. They actually have subtle shades of blue color around the edges when they're happy. A nice mushroom rock might be a good start. As for tips - whatever you buy be sure to take care to acclimate it to your tank water before plunking it in. You might also want to place the coral toward (or on) the bottom of the tank first and move it up over a period of a couple days or more depending on your lights to let it acclimate to them as well. Too much light too fast can burn/bleach a coral. There are a lot of websites that will give you recommendations for light/water flow requirements for particular corals.

 

[Smitty]

You should start off with mushrooms, ricordia, polyps or leather corals...you can't go wrong with them...they are all pretty hardy, and grow well in the right conditions.

 

[yote]

Great advice from everybody.

 

[Bifferwine]

For a first coral (or corals), I'd suggest:

- any leather except for kenya tree
- mushrooms
- zoanthids
- frogspawn or hammer
- trumpets or candy canes

 

[phuture1]

thanks for your help. there's a dude on craigs list selling some candy canes and hammers. maeby ill check him out.

 

[IraqVeteran]

why dont you like kenya trees Biff? (sarcasm) I have like 5 in my tank. It seems like once they get nice and big and thick it desides to frag itself. They are easy to care for but damn do they frag too much. If thats not why you dont like them please tell me why because your reason will probably want me to get rid of mine.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, they frag themselves too much. They are a pest. They start to grow everywhere. They take over. They have killed hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars worth of other corals. You cannot kill them, and you cannot keep them under control, they grow out of control like crazy.

 

[yote]

Kenyas will over grow other corals in an attempt to choke them out.

 

[IraqVeteran]

So I guess I need to get them out of my tank then. I suppose I can take them back to the store and trade up for something else.

 

[Bifferwine]

My LFS won't take kenya trees. Not even for free! Mine all end up going down the garbage disposal!

 

[yote]

I used to flush mine.I'll bet my septic system is full of live kenya weeds.I'm just waiting on them to grow up through the ground.

 

[IraqVeteran]

I've got a septic as well and I am sure there are some fish bones in there (poor bastards)