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beginner coral help


Quinton2396

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Quinton2396
Hello,

I am a beginner saltwater tank keeper and have recently set up a tank about 4 months ago. i was hoping to add some corals to my fish only tank and was hoping to get some advice on what is the best to add for a beginner. i have done some research and searched some forums but i honestly a lot of this is above my head when it comes to lighting and water quality. if you have any links that may help me out that would be appreciated as well.

Here is the specs on my tank


- 16 gallon tank with a built in overflow.

- water temp is about 79-80 but can lower or raise the temp if i need to.

- daylight led watts = 6 and moonlight led watts = 2

- 14k on the daylight per lamp (2 lamps)

- 456nm on the moonlights (2 lamps)

- Daylights only on about 6 hours a day, but again i can change this obviously

- 15 pounds dry rock, not sure what its called but i know its not live rock

- 8 red leg hermits

- 5 snails

- 2 peppermint shrimp

- 2 clowns

- 1 royal gamma


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You need a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph and phosphate. If nitrate is 10 or below, I'd try some Green Star Polyp on the back wall, some Red Sea pink xenia on a rock island in the sand, some red mushrooms and some blue mushrooms. Yellow polyps would also work good.

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CronicReefer

To start you will want to upgrade your lights and extend the light cycle to 10 hours or more. You need to buy a light designed for growing corals and depending on your budget people can give you good recommendations (NanoBox is probably the best on the market right now). You also may want to consider removing the peppermint shrimp as they are known to eat fleshy corals. Water flow is important as it is recommended you have a 20-30X flow rate compared to gallon size (for a tank your size this means you want at least 300GPH of total water flow). Most corals are relatively easy to care for (outside of SPS) as long as you maintain proper water quality, have a quality light source, and good water flow. You also need to test your Magnesium, Calcium, and Alkalinity and make sure they are within acceptable levels for reef conditions. Your phosphates should be less than 0.01 and nitrates less than 10. If all your water parameters are acceptable then its time to start adding corals! Zoas/Palys and mushroom coral are good starting corals that don't require any special care besides light. Zoas/Palys come in 100s of varieties and ricordea mushrooms have some of the best color patterns of all coral species. Duncan corals and euphyllia (hammer coral/frogspawn) are relatively hardy LPS corals that are not difficult to care for and have lots of flowing movement. GSP and Xenia will grow fast and require little care but often many people call them "weeds" as they will overgrow many corals quite easily. I'd recommend not buying any SPS pieces until you have gained experience keeping coral as they require very consistent water parameters, very strong lighting, stronger water flow, and special foods that are small enough for their tiny polyps.

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Quinton2396

You need a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph and phosphate. If nitrate is 10 or below, I'd try some Green Star Polyp on the back wall, some Red Sea pink xenia on a rock island in the sand, some red mushrooms and some blue mushrooms. Yellow polyps would also work good.

Thank you very much! I'm definitely going to look into this more!

To start you will want to upgrade your lights and extend the light cycle to 10 hours or more. You need to buy a light designed for growing corals and depending on your budget people can give you good recommendations (NanoBox is probably the best on the market right now). You also may want to consider removing the peppermint shrimp as they are known to eat fleshy corals. Water flow is important as it is recommended you have a 20-30X flow rate compared to gallon size (for a tank your size this means you want at least 300GPH of total water flow). Most corals are relatively easy to care for (outside of SPS) as long as you maintain proper water quality, have a quality light source, and good water flow. You also need to test your Magnesium, Calcium, and Alkalinity and make sure they are within acceptable levels for reef conditions. Your phosphates should be less than 0.01 and nitrates less than 10. If all your water parameters are acceptable then its time to start adding corals! Zoas/Palys and mushroom coral are good starting corals that don't require any special care besides light. Zoas/Palys come in 100s of varieties and ricordea mushrooms have some of the best color patterns of all coral species. Duncan corals and euphyllia (hammer coral/frogspawn) are relatively hardy LPS corals that are not difficult to care for and have lots of flowing movement. GSP and Xenia will grow fast and require little care but often many people call them "weeds" as they will overgrow many corals quite easily. I'd recommend not buying any SPS pieces until you have gained experience keeping coral as they require very consistent water parameters, very strong lighting, stronger water flow, and special foods that are small enough for their tiny polyps.

Thank you for the great information! I'm definitely going to buy a water tester and talk to my guy at the local fish store tomorrow to help me pick out the stuff i still need to get. i know I'm going to have to be patient, but this really helped! Thanks again!

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