Any rules to how many corals / species of corals can go into a tank?
- Thread starter Zionas
- Start date
For a beginner, pick a type. And don't pick acropora or any of the small-polyp-stony (SPS) 'colored stick' varieties. Those are the bleeding edge of the hobby, requring calcium, requiring light and fussy about it, and prone to invisible (or nearly so) pests and problems.
That said, there are two more classes: LPS (large-polyp-stony) or 'fluffly' corals like hammer, frogspawn, candy cane, brain and many others. Of all these, most have tentacles that come out at night---tiny translucent threads that can reach 6" to sting and discourage their neighbors for 6" in all directions, which is a good rule of separation. The first 3 I mention above don't have those, and torch is another variety of their kind: but they are fast-growing and can concentrate their growth TOWARD a neighbor and reach out before the owner realizes that's what's going on. They take bright light and calcium supplement, which you can spoon into your topoff water to feed at a good dosage. They're fairly disease and parasite resistent, but steer clear of elegance coral, which is too often hit with one, and is difficult to keep.
Third is the lower-light, no-calcium softie class, including mushrooms, leathers (avoid those: they spit when irritated, setting off every coral in the tank: if you have one, including carbon in your tank or being ready to put it in will make life easier. How you know when they're spitting mad? They may change color (ours went from bubble gum pink to furious purple) and everybody else will fold up. They're the worst.) Some also are SO successful in our tanks they've become a pest: xenia, green star polyp, kenya tree, clove polyps, etc. I tried a little green star in my LPS tank and ended up having to peel a foot square area of regrowth off the glass every few weeks. Fortunately I was wise enough to confine it to one rock separate of all others and next to the front glass, so when it came time to part ways with this specimen I simply picked up the rock, cleaned the area well, and traded a very healthy specimen to the fish store. It never regrew, for which I was truly grateful: in an SPS tank, it's not nice stuff.
Softies are easiest, but once you commit to them you've got their spitting habit and they often 'encrust' or overgrow a rock so you have more mushrooms or kenya tree than you planned for, and it's taken the tank and will be hard to remove from your rockwork if you've ever let it get started on your structural rock. Over all, even with the slight inconvenience of the calcium supplement, I'd recommend lps for beginner, or for a happy hobby in general, and softies as second choice, and still a good one, though if you want to change course with softies, you may need to trade off or nuke some of your structural rock: it can be done.
Hope that helps.
That said, there are two more classes: LPS (large-polyp-stony) or 'fluffly' corals like hammer, frogspawn, candy cane, brain and many others. Of all these, most have tentacles that come out at night---tiny translucent threads that can reach 6" to sting and discourage their neighbors for 6" in all directions, which is a good rule of separation. The first 3 I mention above don't have those, and torch is another variety of their kind: but they are fast-growing and can concentrate their growth TOWARD a neighbor and reach out before the owner realizes that's what's going on. They take bright light and calcium supplement, which you can spoon into your topoff water to feed at a good dosage. They're fairly disease and parasite resistent, but steer clear of elegance coral, which is too often hit with one, and is difficult to keep.
Third is the lower-light, no-calcium softie class, including mushrooms, leathers (avoid those: they spit when irritated, setting off every coral in the tank: if you have one, including carbon in your tank or being ready to put it in will make life easier. How you know when they're spitting mad? They may change color (ours went from bubble gum pink to furious purple) and everybody else will fold up. They're the worst.) Some also are SO successful in our tanks they've become a pest: xenia, green star polyp, kenya tree, clove polyps, etc. I tried a little green star in my LPS tank and ended up having to peel a foot square area of regrowth off the glass every few weeks. Fortunately I was wise enough to confine it to one rock separate of all others and next to the front glass, so when it came time to part ways with this specimen I simply picked up the rock, cleaned the area well, and traded a very healthy specimen to the fish store. It never regrew, for which I was truly grateful: in an SPS tank, it's not nice stuff.
Softies are easiest, but once you commit to them you've got their spitting habit and they often 'encrust' or overgrow a rock so you have more mushrooms or kenya tree than you planned for, and it's taken the tank and will be hard to remove from your rockwork if you've ever let it get started on your structural rock. Over all, even with the slight inconvenience of the calcium supplement, I'd recommend lps for beginner, or for a happy hobby in general, and softies as second choice, and still a good one, though if you want to change course with softies, you may need to trade off or nuke some of your structural rock: it can be done.
Hope that helps.
So I’ve removed the Leather corals and the GSPs. I’ll be having a couple of Discosoma Mushrooms and Zoas as my softies. The rest will all be LPS.
-Bubble Coral (P. sinuosa)
-Lobed Brain Coral (L. hemprichii)
-Candy Cane Coral (C. furcata)
-Lord Howe Acan (A. lordhowensis)
-Wellsi Pineapple (B. wellsi)
-Green Crystal Brain (C. lacrymalis)
-Cat’s Eye Brain (A. deshayesiana)
-Folded Brain (S. radians)
-Branching Frogspawn (E. divisa)
-Honey Comb Brain (G. retiformis)
-Pentagon Moon Brain (F. pemtagona)
-Green Scroll (T. peltata)
-Pink Duncan (D. axifuga)
-Australian Donut (S. australis)
-2 assorted Disk Corals (F. repanda)
Softies:
-4 frags of different colored Zoas
-4 different colored Discosoma Mushrooms
How does this list look? Any problems? Too many corals for a 70-80G tank?
-Bubble Coral (P. sinuosa)
-Lobed Brain Coral (L. hemprichii)
-Candy Cane Coral (C. furcata)
-Lord Howe Acan (A. lordhowensis)
-Wellsi Pineapple (B. wellsi)
-Green Crystal Brain (C. lacrymalis)
-Cat’s Eye Brain (A. deshayesiana)
-Folded Brain (S. radians)
-Branching Frogspawn (E. divisa)
-Honey Comb Brain (G. retiformis)
-Pentagon Moon Brain (F. pemtagona)
-Green Scroll (T. peltata)
-Pink Duncan (D. axifuga)
-Australian Donut (S. australis)
-2 assorted Disk Corals (F. repanda)
Softies:
-4 frags of different colored Zoas
-4 different colored Discosoma Mushrooms
How does this list look? Any problems? Too many corals for a 70-80G tank?
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