What do I need to buy before putting my 1st piece of coral into my tank?

stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
what do you have? LPS and many softies dont require anything more than a FOWLR besides better lighting and a little more flow. Other stuff beyond light and flow are based on the ability to maintain low nitrates and phosphates and maintain adequate carbonate (alkalinity or dKH) and calcium levels.
If you have adequate lighting and flow and plan on starting with easy corals all I would buy for starters are test kits for dKH and calcium then carbonate and calcium supplements (aka two part aka baking soda and calcium chloride) if needed to keep them in range (you can probably get by with just using a decent "reef" salt for a while, especially for calcium. maybe or maybe not for carbonates). I've found only SPS really require close monitoring and low levels of nitrates and phosphates unless you REALLY have issues with those (like nitrates of 40ppm or higher and phosphates above 0.5ppm). I wouldn't worry about mg, maintaining .03 phosphates and <5pppm nitrates and probe too deep beyond basic measures to maintain calcium and alkalinity unless you plan on keeping SPS or have algae issues that need adressing.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

LOL...What do you have?
You need:
  • Power heads
  • A Skimmer
  • Lights
  • Sand
  • Rocks
  • Salt mix
  • RO unit
  • Fish only buckets
    Fish nets
    Some kind of tub or plastic can marked FISH ONLY for water changes
    Utility pump (water changes) + hoses
    Test kits
    Hydrometer or refractometer
    Thermometer
    Coral food like Phytoplankton
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
Proper lights, and circulation.
HAve at least 20x turnover in your DT. 50 is the number to shoot for.
MH
LED
T5
For lighting. And in that order for most ideal.
T5 is something people will never agree on. I'm one of those that tells people T5 is doable, but not recommended since your not going to get nearly the growth of LED or MH.
I use LED. Cant beat the color, cant beat the cheap electric bill,and doing bulb changes every 10 years is a big plus.. Corals look absolutely best under LED. However, they don't produce UV light. And prolonged use hasn't been properly documented. People say the colors fade slightly under LED. BUt I don't care since they look so much better to begin with under LED.
MH is the middle one to buy, but most expensive in the long run to operate. Depending on your tank needs, you can have a beefy bill. My 125g cost me $400 a year in bulbs, and $100 in electricity. Figuring $1600 a year to run was a big reason I went to LED.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
  • A Skimmer -not a requirement. can be substituted with water changes, low bioload, mature liverock ect or just plain skipped if you take other measures to maintain water quality
  • Sand - definately not a requirement
    Rocks - or anything with adequate surface area to host bacteria but yeah your right and me being over technical
    Coral food like Phytoplankton - definately not needed ever if fish are present or unless your trying to keep a special care item. phyto is not coral food (few if any corals eat it. zooplankton, some gorgonians and young clams do and useless for most reef tanks)
I would classify all these as "helpful" (except coral food which is potentially helpful or harmful depending on its effects on water quality and whats attempted to be fed) and much of the other stuff saltwater aquarium basics (sounds from the Q they have a saltwater aquarium up and running just havent added corals).
 
scottnlisa

scottnlisa

Member
Here is my current set-up :
125g tank
100# live rock
75# base rock
Octopus BH-300F Protein Skimmer
2 Korolia #4's
2 48" VHO Actinic White
2 48" VHO Acnitic
Filstar XP3 Canister filter
I have all the testing supplies for a FOWLR so I know I'll need to by a reef testing kit. I am also adding another canister onto my system and 2 more Koloria #4's
I just want easy, simple coral to start with.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by scottnlisa
http:///forum/post/3295958
Here is my current set-up :
125g tank
100# live rock
75# base rock
Octopus BH-300F Protein Skimmer
2 Korolia #4's
2 48" VHO Actinic White
2 48" VHO Acnitic
Filstar XP3 Canister filter
I have all the testing supplies for a FOWLR so I know I'll need to by a reef testing kit. I am also adding another canister onto my system and 2 more Koloria #4's
I just want easy, simple coral to start with.

Mushrooms are very easy and don't require much light so set them low in the tank. They are fine with the lights you have, I'm not sure what VHO is... florescent??.
Are you going to get different lighting? If not, stay with non-photosynthetic coral like sun coral, chili, gorgonians and carnations. I had Xenia up high in my tank when I had florescent lighting.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Stanlalee
http:///forum/post/3295931
  • A Skimmer -not a requirement. can be substituted with water changes, low bioload, mature liverock ect or just plain skipped if you take other measures to maintain water quality
  • Sand - definately not a requirement
    Rocks - or anything with adequate surface area to host bacteria but yeah your right and me being over technical
    Coral food like Phytoplankton - definately not needed ever if fish are present or unless your trying to keep a special care item. phyto is not coral food (few if any corals eat it. zooplankton, some gorgonians and young clams do and useless for most reef tanks)
I would classify all these as "helpful" (except coral food which is potentially helpful or harmful depending on its effects on water quality and whats attempted to be fed) and much of the other stuff saltwater aquarium basics (sounds from the Q they have a saltwater aquarium up and running just havent added corals).

Phytoplantkton isn't coral food
I have Phytoplex the bottle says cultured phytoplankton for corals. So I need other coral food?
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3295973

Phytoplantkton isn't coral food
I have Phytoplex the bottle says cultured phytoplankton for corals. So I need other coral food?
nope. hard corals (LPS and SPS) for certain dont eat it and its only speculated a few soft corals MAY be able to utilize it. the idea with phyto is to increase pod, zooplankton and microfauna population which do feed on it and in turn feed the corals by spawning and produciing larvae and eggs into the water column. On say a small tank like mine or those without a fuge micro fauna feeding corals significantly thru reproduction just aint gonna happen. at best in those cases its good for maintaining fauna diversity which is more interesting than useful. Mainly what it does for 75% of reefers is degrade water quality worse than it has to be. this is also a major reason why live is better than dead. live phyto doesn't degrade and has a chance to stay live until its eaten.
 
scottnlisa

scottnlisa

Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3295972

Mushrooms are very easy and don't require much light so set them low in the tank. They are fine with the lights you have, I'm not sure what VHO is... florescent??.
Are you going to get different lighting? If not, stay with non-photosynthetic coral like sun coral, chili, gorgonians and carnations. I had Xenia up high in my tank when I had florescent lighting.
Yes VHO is florescent. They put out 3x more then T-8's Each bulb is 110w
 
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