Want to try...

[jeff33436]

Hey all-
Have a 55 gallon tank up since May. All is going very well and it is fish only. Have 2 clowns, a firefish, a scooter blenny and 2 green chromis. Everyone is thriving and parameters are fine. I want to add something like maybe a beginner coral or anemone or something other than a fish. What would be the easiest thing to try? Tank has just regular lighting and light water flow. Is there a polyp or an anemone or a coral that is very hardy and is realtively easy to grow?
Thanks for any advice!

 

[nightraven]

from what I understand (and sharks correct me if I am wrong), certain varieties of mushroom type corals are the easiest to grow as a beginner. However, even mushrooms need more than standard lighting and light waterflow. From what I have seen on the board you should not consider any type of coral without upgrading your lighting to at least 3watts per gallon of water and better would be 5 watts/gallon.

 

[saltyrich]

Forget the watts per gallon rule. Watts are important, but in a general sense. I would upgrade the type of lighting, which in turn will increase your watts per gallon. To keep corals, you can use various types of lighting (Normal output -Which I think is what you've got, Power compact lighting, VHO lighting, and Metal Halide lighting). For corals, you shoyld plan on getting the necessary lighting to keep whatever you might want in the FUTURE, not just now. I really like my vho lighting. I've got a clam, sps, lps, and soft corals under this type of lighting. I recently set up a new tank with power compact lighting and really like this also. You can keep just about anything under vho or pc lighting. MH lighting is more intense and some (not all) prefer it for sps and clams. vho, pc, or mh lighting are excellent choices. Research carefully first. If you have to wait to afford what you need to provide good lighting for livestock you might want in the future, then wait and get the lighting you really want. It is an important component to successful reefkeeping. You can probably start with mushrooms now. I don't recommend an anemone yet. They need more intense lighting and a mature tank. Try the mushrooms or some lower light soft corals. Whatever you get, research it clearly to see if you can provide what is needed and ask questions. I hope this helps. P.S. be specific on your current lighting and water flow. You probably need to increase both. In order to give good advice, we need to know exactly what you've got now.