HELP with EASY corals

pappa d

pappa d

Member
well, i am on my way to changing my tank into a reef. it is currently empty and will have a pair of true perc. clowns in it tomorrow. the next thing from there i am getting is the swf 20-55g reef package of inverts. i'm very excited to get this baby rollin but corals are going to be somewhat new for me. i have some zoo's up in another tank of mine but thats pretty much it. can someone PLEASE give me suggestions on some easy to care for corals? Preferably something that doesn't require feeding and if it does not something like shrimp that i have to get from grocery store, etc. Also i have pretty standard fluorescent lighting. it consists of 2 10,000k daylight bulbs and 2 actinic 03 bulbs, both 24" (also a lack of knowledge when it comes to lighting) So i think i am limited there. I was really interested in:
-closed green brain coral
-mushrooms in general
-colorful zoo's
-etc.
Please help me out to some options i have that would be easy to care for and a good, colorful, addition to a reef tank. Thanks alot!

(please respond people
)
 
lacyqueen

lacyqueen

New Member
I have pretty much the same lights on my 55 gal. You should be able to have any type of mushrooms, zoos, torch coral, bubble coral, green star polyps, colt coral and Xenia. These are all fairly easy and only require the additional feeding of invert/filter feeding foods once or twice a week.
I'm getting some hammer coral and sun coral today.
Don't know much about brain corals yet but hoping to get one in the near future after I do a little research.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Ok, quick question, are your lights normal fluorescent or power compact? They sound like PC, but I wanted to double check. If they are not at least PC, you can keep no coral under them.
Ok, beginner corals. First, invest in some frozen cyclopeeze. Use this to feed your corals, just put some in the tank, your fish will love it too. You don't usually have to feed corals, but man, you get so much more growth if you do!
Zoos are always good, mushrooms, ricordia, star polyps, yellow polyps, palythoa, all good. Some LPS would be fine too, frogspawn, torch, hammer (branching and wall), candy cane, bubble. Leathers are easy if you run activated carbon (good idea anyway). Toadstools, sinularia (sp?), yellow fiji is AWESOME!.
 
lacyqueen

lacyqueen

New Member
I am still new at corals but I use ZooPlan and they are doing great. I have also tried Coralife Invert Smorgasbord but it is a yellow liquid and makes my skimmer go crazy.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Excellent, then all of those corals I listed will be just fine and are good for beginners. Very easy to care for and very nice looking as well.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
I don't think so. It's a yellow fiji leather, and they are freakin' awesome. Just a flat piece of leather coral with fuzzy little polyps, but a bright yellow. Mine is pretty big now and is under some 14K MH bulbs, which makes him look really cool. They usually command a higher price, but man they are so worth it!
Oh, and maybe get a cabbage coral. Pink leather. Believe it or not, the cabbage is my absolute favorite out of all of my corals. I've had him for nearly 10 years, fragged the snot out of him, and he just keeps on keepin' on.
 
pappa d

pappa d

Member
awesome, thank you so much for the help! it's very encouraging to know i could get a good start until someday when i could upgrade to MH! now with any of those you listed do you have to actually spot feed them or just do that frozen cyclopeeze you were talking about?
 
rcbruce

rcbruce

Member
I agree with most of the list you have been given, with the exception of the leathers. I have never had any luck with them, but could just be me.

Mushrooms are a no brainer, super easy, along with polyps, frogspawns have been my mainstay, super easy.

Yeah, you can feed, but I don't. If they catch some brine shrimp when I feed the fish, good for them. I find keeping my calcium and alkalinity high do more good.

I have a 90 reef for almost 2 years now, run T-5's and PC's on it with no intentions of going to hylides. Like things just the way I got em!
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
For leathers, activated carbon is almost a must. I've had great success with them for years and have come across some pretty cool ones.
 
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