best starter sps coral to start with?

[marinerfr]

Hi wana get into sps i want to see wat u guys would reccomend for my 1st sps coral thanks:beer:

 

[gofor100]

Most of the plating Montiporas are pretty forgiving. Other than that, Millepora corals are also a good choice if you want to start getting some "color sticks".

The main thing that people will tell you is to make sure you can keep your calcium/alkalinity/magnesium at optimal levels for at least a couple of weeks before adding any SPS/Acros (of course also keeping your ammonia/nitrate/nitrite levels low).

So as long as you've done that, and you have the appropriate lighting, you should be good to go.

Good luck!

 

[Cybernobbie]

Most of the plating Montiporas are pretty forgiving. Other than that, Millepora corals are also a good choice if you want to start getting some "color sticks".

The main thing that people will tell you is to make sure you can keep your calcium/alkalinity/magnesium at optimal levels for at least a couple of weeks before adding any SPS/Acros (of course also keeping your ammonia/nitrate/nitrite levels low).

So as long as you've done that, and you have the appropriate lighting, you should be good to go.

Good luck!

+1

Montipora digitata and Pocillopora damicornis are one of the easiest SPS corals to keep. After some time i would suggest Seriatopora hystrix and seriatopora caliendrum.

 

[ir_danno22]

green birds nest is a nice one. it grows pretty quick and does not require as much light as the average sps. i thought my montipora piece was bleaching out when i added it to my tank but it was just getting acclimated to the lights. it's growing quite well for being one of my first sps corals.

 

[Medicoles]

Agree with the above posts. Any of the digis, montis, or birdnests are great for starter SPS.

 

[Paco]

I agree though I will comment that Monti Caps can be quite sensitive to Alk swings. I got lazy with dosing and killed an orange one and nearly wiped out an Idaho Grape. Now that I'm dosing with a LiterMeter the Idaho Grape has come back with a vengeance

 

[outy]

i jst started with montis, and a birdsnest. great growth on the montis and the birdnest im watching as its the newest

take it slow

 

[Supasalty]

My first sps was a orange digitata that grew like a weed.

 

[Tritonian]

I started on monti digi's and it's true, they are weeds.
For everything else, like gofor100 said:
alk, ca, mag.
temp(don't let it get too hot).
GFO + GAC.
lots of flow and good lighting.
but out of all of that. alk, ca, mag, could not stress that more.
It's a good place to start because once you go sps, you don't stop.
They are built from those elements and consume them rapidly.

 

[curlykid]

i wouldn't start with a birds-nest. I keep acropora, but birdsnest are the hardest to get to color up IMO. I would start with pocillopora without any holes in them, those are crabs. i had two of them in my pocillopora, one died, the other died, then the coral bleached to a small centimeter area of brown tissue. Now, about 6 months later, it regrew half of the tissue. I think it's very stressful to the coral if their little buddies die.

 

[fcmatt]

how does everyone feel about porites as a starter coral?

 

[mv123]

motipora digitata and montipora capricornis grow like weeds, start with them for sure. Plus, they actually look really good in the long run when they get big, so you will never regret them.

 

[neoalchemist74]

how does everyone feel about porites as a starter coral?

Porites, probably the easiest, very forgiving, low light needed but slow growers and hard to find good colors

 

[Cybernobbie]

Porites, probably the easiest, very forgiving, low light needed but slow growers and hard to find good colors

Porites lichen looks really nice, but you have to keep you nitrate and phosphate levels low. Otherwise the coral will turn from a pale yellow to a more yellow-to-brown color.