Coral

[jwj697006]

Ok i have had my tank cycling with LR and 6 Damsels for about a week an a half now. I want to know if it is alright to buy coral now. I also seen these little roots at the plant store and the guy said u stick them in the rocks and they will grow into coral. do u guys know how long it takes until it grows? and what is the differene between soft coral and hard coral?

 

[thor]

i would not addd coral until everything is at zero and nitrates are at least 10ppm

 

[fshhub]

you definitely do not wish to add coral for a while(months probably), a cycle will surely kill them, I would wait until you are comfortable that your tank is healthy and stable and you can and have maintained it that way for at least a couple of months without fluctuations

 

[jonthefb]

Yeah i would definately hold off on putting corals in your tank until several more weeks have passed and all your readings are ok. As for the "roots" your lfs is selling, i have no idea what they are taking about. Could you be any more descriptive? Its hard to tell from the description you gave, and i cant think of anything that look like roots, unless you might mean a colonial or zoanthid anemone.

 

[fshhub]

may also be propagated frags, that is waht i was thinking they were
but still, be patient, the only thing that happens fast in reefing is very bad things, it will be well worth the wait, trust me

 

[ebeckels]

Definitely wait. At least a month or two from now. You'll be throwing away money if you do it any sooner.
-Eric

 

[josh]

Hi, yes there are many considerations with coral. In general, the hard corals form the hard calcified exoskeleton as protection. So as you might expect you will need calcium ( around 450 ppm ) you will also need to raise the temp of the water to 80 due to the coral being found in the shallow reef waters. Which leads me to my next point, salinity - not S.G. - it should be atleast 35ppt or 1.024-1.026 S.G.. Also, alkalinity should be around 3.2 meq. And finally the lighting, most corals need moderate to high lighting just check a reference source to get the info. Well, take it slow and ask lots of questions and you should be fine Good Luck