any good corals for beggining reef tank keeper?

[sunfishman]

does anyone have any ideas for some of the more quick growing and easier to keep corals? ive had a bit of luck with common corals ive found but before i spend alot of money on rare or exotic kinds i wanted to know some to try and some to avoid

[MCHRKiller]

Zoas, you can get really fancy fairly high dollar zoas or you can get pretty much dirt cheap ones. They are all very colorful and very easy to keep....same goes with Mushrooms, again very easy keepers dont need a whole lot of light and only minimal effort to keep :22:

[sunfishman]

ok, thanks

[kaybee]

What are some of the "common" corals that you have had success with?

[sunfishman]

mostly sea whips. they live everywhere on docks and pilings, and i keep colonies of it in a tank. i can get them for free, so i just wanted to find out some good corals for a reef tank that are fairly inexpensive/hardy

[UnknownFish]

you could try a sun coral as they dont need light but they do have to be target fed, maybe some star polyps.

[labnjab]

Kenya trees, zoas, mushrooms, xenia, pretty much any softie. Depending on lighting and if your keeping your calcium and alk up, Candy cane and trumpet coral are some hardy LPS that grow quickly.

What you stock in the beginning depends on what your final plans are for the tank. I wouldn't want to stock fast growing softies if I plan on having a primarily lps or sps tank

[sunfishman]

thanks for the advice. i really dont want to be to closely monitoring calcium, so l will try the softies you suggested. i really want to have a reef but sps are a little bit more tricky, so i will use lps

[kaybee]

What type of lighting do you have or plan to get?

[labnjab]

thanks for the advice. i really dont want to be to closely monitoring calcium, so l will try the softies you suggested. i really want to have a reef but sps are a little bit more tricky, so i will use lps

LPS requires monitoring calcium levels

[sunfishman]

i heard they were easier.

[Amazon]

my lps do fine and I dont even have a calcium test kit. I do dose calcium twice weekly though. its not expensive 15$ will last me probably 2 years.

[kaybee]

The frequency of monitoring and the dosing of calcium (and other supplements) will be greatly linked to the consumption rate in the system (which will be determined by some sort of monitoring).

Testing will indicate where your calcium levels stand and may either indicate that some sort of dosing may be required, or that the calcium content of your salt mix will suffice between water changes (eliminating or minimizing the need of any Ca dosing). At high levels, calcium may precipitate. At low levels, the growth rate of stony corals diminishes.