First Coral Choices

[Zach W]

I am planning on adding coral into my system tomorrow and just wanted to pick everyone's brain on my ideas and what I eventually want my tank to be. My tank its roughly 3 months old and I have had stable parameters for the last month or so. When I tested two days ago I was at:

Ammonia- 0

Nitrate- ~10

Nitrite- 0

Phosphorus- 17ppb (~0.05ppm phosphate)

Alk- 7.5

pH- 8.2

Temp- 77-79 (set to 78 on inkbird)

 

I really like LPS and my LFS has some very nice favia/acans at the moment. I also like euphyllia/mushrooms a lot and would be interested in them. I dont want to add anything that I don't really want into the tank as it is only 20gallons. My equipment should be able to sustain any type of coral/clams/nem. At the moment I plan on only doing ~20% weekly water changes (14ish gallon total water volume) to sustain nutrients and export. Is it a bad idea to add these types of corals to the system now (acan/favia/torch/hammer/etc)? I really love goniopora but I know that would be a recipe for disaster so early. I feel that adding some mushrooms would be fine, but I dont want to add anything that I would be foolish to. Thanks for the help.

 

[A Little Blue]

At this point I would hold off adding SPS corals (there are several that are beginner friendly, I can make a short list for you if you like). Gorgs aren’t too difficult and very forgiving if given adequate flow and occasional feeding. Euphyllias are generally a good beginner corals. Same with Acans, Zoas or leathers. You should get Mg, Alk & Ca test kit. Keeping those parameters in check will determine health of your corals and aquarium in general. 

 

[Zach W]

6 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

At this point I would hold off adding SPS corals (there are several that are beginner friendly, I can make a short list for you if you like). Gorgs aren’t too difficult and very forgiving if given adequate flow and occasional feeding. Euphyllias are generally a good beginner corals. Same with Acans, Zoas or leathers. You should get Mg, Alk & Ca test kit. Keeping those parameters in check will determine health of your corals and aquarium in general. 

 

Yeah I don’t plan on adding any SPS right away. I really don’t plan on adding much SPS at all honestly. Just Monti caps probably, I really like them. 

 

Good to hear that that even most of the LPS are good beginner options. So do you think a goniopora is a bad potential option for tomorrow? I should probably wait until I can test Ca/Mg as well. Any recommendations on test kits? 

[A Little Blue]

10 minutes ago, Zach W said:

Yeah I don’t plan on adding any SPS right away. I really don’t plan on adding much SPS at all honestly. Just Monti caps probably, I really like them. 

 

Good to hear that that even most of the LPS are good beginner options. So do you think a goniopora is a bad potential option for tomorrow? I should probably wait until I can test Ca/Mg as well. Any recommendations on test kits? 

Red Sea Pro has a test kit bundle for Mg Alk and Ca. It’s easy and accurate. Inexpensive in a long run as well. 

Goniopora is very nice. I almost got one yesterday but price on pink ones was ridiculous. Green ones are relatively cheap. Honestly, you should test your Alk and Ca first b4 putting any stony corals in your tank. If your Ca and Alk is fine, you can start stocking your tank with corals..... even goniopora. Take a sample of your water to LFS and ask if they could check Alk/Ca/Mg for you. 

[Zach W]

5 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Red Sea Pro has a test kit bundle for Mg Alk and Ca. It’s easy and accurate. Inexpensive in a long run as well. 

Goniopora is very nice. I almost got one yesterday but price on pink ones was ridiculous. Green ones are relatively cheap. Honestly, you should test your Alk and Ca first b4 putting any stony corals in your tank. If your Ca and Alk is fine, you can start stocking your tank with corals..... even goniopora. Take a sample of your water to LFS and ask if they could check Alk/Ca/Mg for you. 

Yeah the LFS has some green ones for a decent price. But I use Red Sea for pH,Alk,Ammonia,Nitrate,Nitrite and the Hanna for phosphorus. The Red Sea kits are nice from what I’ve seen so far so another Red Sea one sounds good. 

[A Little Blue]

From SPS family, you can try Blue Digi, Milka Stylo, Forest Fire, Sour Apple Birdsnest, Pink/Green Pociliopora, Caps and Chalices (most of them) 

Just don’t getting it all at once 🤣😉

It might be tempting. 

5 minutes ago, Zach W said:

Yeah the LFS has some green ones for a decent price. But I use Red Sea for pH,Alk,Ammonia,Nitrate,Nitrite and the Hanna for phosphorus. The Red Sea kits are nice from what I’ve seen so far so another Red Sea one sounds good. 

What’s your Alk at this moment? 

 

Edit. 

I see that it’s 7.5. 

Thats fine. For me personally, a bit low. Maybe by a point. 

[Zach W]

3 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

From SPS family, you can try Blue Digi, Milka Stylo, Forest Fire, Sour Apple Birdsnest, Pink/Green Pociliopora, Caps and Chalices (most of them) 

Just don’t getting it all at once 🤣😉

It might be tempting. 

What’s your Alk at this moment? 

I mostly like the caps honestly haha. Alk is at 7.5 

[A Little Blue]

Caps are easy. You can try Birdsnest and Forest Fire as well (very easy SPS corals). 

[Zach W]

9 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Caps are easy. You can try Birdsnest and Forest Fire as well (very easy SPS corals). 

Awesome, thanks for the recommendations! It is definitely tempting to get everything at once. Fortunately the wallet won’t let me do that... 

[A Little Blue]

Just now, Zach W said:

Awesome, thanks for the recommendations! It is definitely tempting to get everything at once. Fortunately the wallet won’t let me do that... 

Perhaps that’s a good thing😉

(easy does it)