Need advice selecting my larger coral

[Jbrock183]

Hello, Thanks to all the great advice and help I've gotten on this form, my 10 gallon nano reef tank is coming together beautiful. I have a clownfish, yellow tail damsel, a great cleanup crew and several small frags of easier coral that have done wonderfully. Everything is showing signs of growth, except or a feather duster that died within a few weeks. My parameters are nearly perfect so I'm anxious to begin putting in larger corals. Ive started at the floor of the tank and have been gradually working upward.

 

I have a few spaces that need to be filled and I've picked out the 3 larger corals I would like to add. My main concern is that 2 of the 3 claim to be 'moderate difficult' to maintain. So I would appreciate any input about my choices and welcome suggestions for considering a different type of coral(s).

 

First I want to add a Toadstool Leather Mushroom. I want this to be my centerpiece that will cover the mid section of liverock in the middle of my tanks.

 

For the next two I 'want' a frogspawn and torch coral. I want these to cover the higher sections of my bare areas of live rock (about mid tank level) with fairly light to moderate water flow. My concern of these guys are that they are moderately difficult to keep and I may not be educated enough to take care of them. Alternatively, I've heard that they are fairly hardy when you have good water paramaters - I'm finding mixed reviews.

 

I've spent sooo much more on this hobby than I intended to, and really don't want to loose hundreds of dollars of dollars, when there is a more practical yet but equally as beautiful. I guess can tell I'm looking for the larger pieces to have long/sweping tentacles.

 

Also, I like the Xenias (pulsing and pom) but I'm not a fan of sudden death syndrome. If I fail I want it to be a lesson for what I need to do better. Others I like include, hammer coral, bubble coral.

 

I'm looking forard to your input and suggestions.

 

[xEL Chupacabrax]

 

Jbrock183

larger pieces to have long/sweping tentacles.

Duncan coral?

long tentacels, gets big, grows fast, hardy

 

otherwise if you are dead set on the corals you listed and dont wanna spend a ton get small frags of said corals in the 10-20 range and let them grow out

[Builder Anthony]

Xeina grows rapidly under high light and deteriorates under low.duncans grow slower expect three heads in a year.Med to high light.I awalhs start with high light and work it lower if needed.I would try Xenia first.I'd also stay away from large feather dusters because they are advanced in my opinion because of the feeding requirements

[Dramad1]

What about some branching gsp. Looks awsome imo and creates a cool scape to the tank

[Jbrock183]

Good suggestions. I already have a duncan frag that is already starting to split. He's on the opposite side of the area I'm looking to fill. Branching gsp? I also have a nice plug of green star polyp (it seem that it will grow more like a matt rather than branch out. Is the branching GSP different?

 

I appreciate the suggestions. I hope people will keep them coming.

[markalot]

Green polyp toadstool would look good. I've never had trouble with torches or hammers, but frogspawn seem to hate me for some reason. At least I can say I have 3 that aren't dying at the moment. If your water is stable and you're not stripping it bare with media to try and eliminate algae then the torch/hammer/frog should be ok.

 

On the other hand, torches and frogspawn will take up a lot of space and are capable of reaching out and killing most other corals. This limits what you can do if you choose to have one of these.

 

I would look through all the featured reefs: http://www.nano-reef.com/featured/

 

and determine what you like in a smaller tank, then see if this changes your selection. You'll eventually knuckle under and go SPS anyway.

 

^^ actually, look at this months winner http://www.nano-reef.com/featured/_/2014/justind823-r88

 

That selection looks really good and you can see a green polyp leather down on the right side.

[atrox]

Xeina grows rapidly under high light and deteriorates under low.duncans grow slower expect three heads in a year.Med to high light.I awalhs start with high light and work it lower if needed.I would try Xenia first.I'd also stay away from large feather dusters because they are advanced in my opinion because of the feeding requirements

This guys advice.... My Duncan went from 1 head to 9 in three months very fast grower.

[PiscesFish]

Just be careful if you have a torch and if you have sensitive skin. They pack a pretty nice sting as I found out earlier when i had to reposition it. It decided to stink me with a few of its stingers and I had to do the same treatment you would if you had got stung by a BTA. But then again that might just be me. . .

 

Also, I would stay away from Xenia in a small tank like yours because it can easily overtake the tank IMO.

 

Having a toadstool as a centerpiece would be nice!!

 

I'm currently keeping a torch, frogspawn, octospawn, and a hammer in my 28g and so far, I've yet seen my frogspawn send out sweepers. Though, I agree with markalot with them taking quite a nice amount of space, especially with their stingers so make sure you know how you want your rockscape and where you want the Euphyllias (family name for the torches, frogspawn, hammer) to grow out.

 

Now, I do not recommend any kind of wall type of corals like bubble or frogspawn/hammer because fragging it will be difficult when you need to get it smaller. Though, there are branching versions of frogspawn/hammer. And this is where I agree with Chupacabra. Buy a small frag of the corals you want and let them grow out. It will feel more self rewarding in a sense that you're able to grow something in a totally different kind of environment.

 

Care level for these guys require a stable environment. Medium flow, and do not put it in the way of a full-blown blast, otherwise they will not as much as you want them to. Supplement calcium if/when you need to. Also, I don't directly feed and my torch is splitting for its third head, frogspawn is growing out 2 new heads, and hammer is growing 1 new head. I dont see anything from my octospawn yet. It all depends on how often you feed the tank and how much and what you're feeding. I feed using mysis and oyster feast.

[Dramad1]

Branching gsp

I think it looks cool.

[Eisernes]

That might be an sps skeleton that someone glued gsp to. I have seen this done with encrusting lps like cyphastrea.

[farkwar]

That might be an sps skeleton that someone glued gsp to. I have seen this done with encrusting lps like cyphastrea.

That may be so.

 

That is branching GSP in the pic, though. Theres no skeleton under mine, its branches are slightly bendable. Good fast grower too. It really grows that way. The branches will 'stick' to surfaces like flat encrusting GSP.

 

Its like it grows out in a taco shape, essentially encrusting itself to itself.

[clownfitch]

Toadstool are an easy coral and very rewarding in that they grow very fast.

Euphyllia (hammer, torch, etc..)are all easy as well just make sure you leave plenty of room between them and other types of corals, keep your nitrates and phosphates under control, and acclimate them to bright lighting. Another great thing about Euphyllia is that there are so many types and color variances. You can find frags priced from $10-$15 on up to in some case $400.

 

Your choices are excellent choices for open space fillers and add a lot to the esthetics of a tank.