What was your first Coral?

[nitrex]

I just setup my first 20 gal reef and I am wondering what to start with? The tank contains 20lbs of lr and is utilizing about 3 inches of ls. So what next? Should I fist look into adding a clean up crew? Obviosly i want to start with some exciting, yet hardy corals. The tank is utilizing CL rated at 110 total watts.

 

[reefcrazy]

mushrooms should be the hadiest.

 

[tnr]

my first coral was a leather toadstool.go with a soft coral not to pretty but hardie.

 

[kris walker]

I'm not sure what CL means, but 110 Watts of fluorescent should be great for soft corals.
I started with mushrooms, then moved up to xenia a few weeks later when all was good. You can add a cleanup crew now, or later, it doesn't matter. If you add now, for shrimp and/or hermits that don't have a lot of detritus to eat yet, you can always feed them a little until you get some detritus on the bottom.
Oh, if you are getting an algae bloom (I don't know how new your water and sand is), be sure to get snails to consume it asap. Turbos and Austreas (sp?) are great, say about 10.
BTW, softies are great, and some can be just as pretty as hard corals. And IMO, some are definitely more interesting than hard corals.
sam

 

[nitrex]

Thanks for the feedback...
I am not seeing any algae blooms right now, but I know its on the brink of having one...thanks for the snail advice, that was one of my main concerns. ONe question though: Ten for a 20 gal? Does these snails have a significant inmpact on the biioload?
BTW, CL-Compact light...

 

[twoods71]

My first was yellow polyps. I almost lost the colony due to an extremly high nitrate problem. I was down to 9 polyps. I quickly corrected the problem and the colony started budding like mad and now there are so many polyps I cant count them.
Leathers, polyps, or shrooms would make a good first choice I think.

 

[mlm]

Inverts do not add to the bioload.

 

[jacksonpt]

My first coral was a colt coral... couldn't kill the damn thing, that's for sure. I still have a piece of it, although I've been able to trade pieces of it back in at my LFS over the past year or so... I'm actually making money off this thing!!!

 

[kris walker]

Just to add, I think that snails are a factor in the bioload, but 10 is not a significant one for a 20 gal. If you were to put those same snails in a 1 gal nanoreef, then you would have a bioload to be more concerned about, IMO.
sam

 

[von_rahvin]

snails do have some bioload but it is very little. think about how much waste a snail might produce? Then compare it to a fish.
My first coral was a green star polyp. It is growing like crazy!! I like large polyp stonies. but i have a large number of softs in there as well.

 

[nitrex]

thanks everyone for your feedback, still not sure what I am going to start with b/c I still have some plannig to do etc...but my LFS has this awesome piece of brain coral w/some green coloration, looks pretty cool, would love to start with that. I am just wondering about Brain coral and how it will react to other corals etc...time to start reading more!

 

[predator]

I'm with Jackson. My first coral was a colt. Hardiest thing I'v come across in a long time. Thing is still growing like crazy, and won't stop. I'v made no money off him, though I have given a few frags to some friends as well as spread them through my tanks.