New to corals - whats a good starter?

[kerriann]

Alright, so me and my boyfriend have been doing the saltwater thing for about a year and we are trying to start gathering our research to look into adding corals next year. We are hoping to start off with something easy (and cheap!). Anyone have any suggestions or tips? where to start?? I know we need to look into his lighting on his 55gal b/c I'm not 100% sure his lights are the best and it was a used tank so we'll probably want to upgrade those first and we are going to replace his wet/dry with a refuge. my nano (i believe) is reef-ready but i'm still hesitant to spend that kind of money when i'm not completely sure what i'm doing

 

[blazin2k6]

I started out with a green star polyp. And its pretty easy to take care of. Zoanthids i think are easy to maintain as well, Although i just had a minor problem with one of mine. But Those can be fairly cheap if you buy a frag. And some grow fast. Hope i helped some.

 

[jrthomas40]

you can start with some zoas, mushrooms, kenya...these are fairly cheap and big favorites

 

[m0nk]

I'm all for ricordia mushrooms and zoanthids, they're easy and you'll likely not regret starting off with them like some people do with xenia or GSP. The later two have a tendency to grow like weeds and can take over a tank if you don't frag it consistently. Some mushrooms grow fast and may or may not continue to be a favored coral, which is why I think starting with ricordias might be a good idea.

 

[integral9]

My rec. and one I wish I had known about was to *be picky*. Only put in the *best* looking ones you like. Don't settle for such-n-such just because you want something new. Also, there are about a million different purple and green colors. Go for the reds, blues and yellows and combinations. They cost more but provide the contrast you need for a good looking tank.
Good starter corals are usually mushrooms / zoes and some LPS like a torch or hammer (not ridge hammer). A green bararium is nice (also acts like a alk indicator) but can be a bit difficult until you get used to dosing regularly and figure out your calcium load. But I rec. just buying small frags of corals, not full size pieces. Buy a lot of frags of varying colors and let them multiply and grow into each other. That's when things really start to look good imo.
One last thing, search the internet for the different varieties of each coral, don't just get what your LFS usually gets in stock; special order. ie. A green hammer is nice, but a green hammer w/ pink tips is much nicer.

 

[integral9]

plus when the little frags grow up you can feel proud about your children and frag them to others.

 

[m0nk]

Oh, one other thing to note: don't be scared of coral. Most coral is easier to take care of than some people think.

 

[jtrzerocool]

KENYA TREE...
you cant go wrong with this coral...it is so easy and will reproduce like mad...grows very fast as well...

 

[jerthunter]

I would recommend ricordia. Many of the other 'easy' corals spread rather fast and quickly become undesireable, (i.e. xenia, kenya trees, mushrooms, or green star polyps.)

 

[alix2.0]

i say rics too because i think if you start out with xenia and kenyas, your whole tank starts to look that weird red brown color. rics and shrooms come in a lot of pretty colors, i would say get a variety.