Newb Corals? Good reading?

[sen5241b]

I've got very good flow. Modest light. I need some newb reading on caring for beginner corals. Please not a whole book.

 

[dustin_P74]

what do you want to know? any exact corals?

 

[sen5241b]

What corals can I sustain with 76 watts (2 10K bulbs, 1 blue actinic)? What do corals eat? How much nitrate can they tolerate? Should I test for calcium, strontium, magnesium and whatever? What's the difference between SPS and LPS?

 

[dustin_P74]

76/29= 2.620 watts per gallon so i dont think you can sustain anything, maybe some shrooms at the very top. you only need to worry about calcium with an SPS heavy tank. corals are photosynthetic so they get most of there food from the lights and get a little extra from a feeding by you. as for nitrates, with softies anything under 10is should be fine but with sps zero nitrates is best and same for LPS

 

[ccCapt]

Coralmania by Eric Borneman This is an 8 part series. Enjoy!

Or if you want a book, Aquarium Corals: Selection,Husbandry,and Natural History by Eric Borneman

 

[jhnrb]

If you havent yet take a look at our articles. click on articles at the top, then click corals, there you will find a list of articles on various subjects dealing with corals and the items you mentioned. have fun.

 

[yote]

Everybody thats got corals in their tank should have that book Capt linked too.

 

[Gooseman]

that is a great read ... thanks for the link

 

[sen5241b]

This seemed good:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/coralcare/tp/easycorals.htm

 

[hibye]

I have a 65 watt coralife power compact lighting, put in calcium,marine trace,iodine,strontium,green,molybdenum a couple drops every week or so. I have sucessfully kept these corals

kenya
colt
hammer
shrooms
some zoas
polyps
closed brain coral

my not so sucessful corals

toadstool
xenia
some zoas


I reccomend mushrooms becuase they are the easiest to keep.

 

[dustin_P74]

hibye do you test for all of those additives?

 

[simpleman]

softies,shrooms,zoas. Like jhnrb said there are some great articles on corals in the articles section of this site.

 

[hibye]

hibye do you test for all of those additives?

I only test salinity,nitrae,copper(almost never),ph, and thats it. My tank looks great so my water must be great by adding all that stuff. I also add dt photoplantin, and when i frag corals i put about a teaspoon of coral accel in there.

 

[Gooseman]

i would never dose what i dont test for ... how do you know how much to add if you dont know where the parameters are?

I only test salinity,nitrae,copper(almost never),ph, and thats it. My tank looks great so my water must be great by adding all that stuff. I also add dt photoplantin, and when i frag corals i put about a teaspoon of coral accel in there.

 

[hibye]

becuase on the back of the bottle it say add 2 drops each week to promote healthy soft coral growth.