There are some coral species so hardy I've seen them survive an actual (though mild) cycle. They're what we USED to keep before we had the equipment we do now. And if given that advanced equipment, they turn out to multiply superfast and take over the tank. They ARE aggressive growers...
And fish that ordinarily nip corals don't seem to like these...including some of the more problematic small angels, etc. So it would be possible to maintain an easy-grow reef with a few species that aren't as reefsafe as others.
It's also pretty easy to create new specimen rocks: just set a piece of rubble atop a discosoma mushroom community and give it a few weeks: you'll have a nice new mushroom rock to give to your buddy who's getting into the hobby.
The downside is your lfs quickly becomes overstocked with these. But you can sometimes (if he has a lot of turnover) trade a few for salt and fish kibble.
The tank parameters to shoot for are in my sig line. The species that are toughest and hardest to kill are: green star polyp, discosoma mushrooms (the smooth purples, reds, greens, and browns, including green-stripe, though they're not as aggressive growers); also yellow star polyp; and brown-green button polyp (which glow nicely green under actinic); xenia in some tanks; clove polyp; kenya tree, and some smooth leather encrusting corals.
In such tanks, give up ever using the live rock as a basis of a stony reef: these are the corals nothing eats, and your being able to use that live rock for any purpose but such a tank is not likely...but you can later sell it off as 'specimen rock' to beginners who want the look; and hey, it's a pretty tank that will wow your neighbors, who won't know it's easy-grow.
If anybody has ever found a species of fish or invert we commonly keep that WILL actually eat these corals faster than they grow, let me know; but my old tank, back in the day, had a mix of wrasses, dwarf angel, etc, and a tang, and I never lost a polyp to nibbling. They're more tolerant of nitrate, they're living filters themselves, so they actually help moderate your chemistry, and all you need to do is watch your alkalinity and keep the chemistry so that all these corals are fluffed out and happy.
Many are 'spitters'---ie, they exude chemicals when annoyed, so run carbon nearly continually and change it out monthly, and that will take care of the problem.
I'm pretty sure you could keep these with a sumpless (but big canister) rig; and with T5s.
And fish that ordinarily nip corals don't seem to like these...including some of the more problematic small angels, etc. So it would be possible to maintain an easy-grow reef with a few species that aren't as reefsafe as others.
It's also pretty easy to create new specimen rocks: just set a piece of rubble atop a discosoma mushroom community and give it a few weeks: you'll have a nice new mushroom rock to give to your buddy who's getting into the hobby.
The downside is your lfs quickly becomes overstocked with these. But you can sometimes (if he has a lot of turnover) trade a few for salt and fish kibble.
The tank parameters to shoot for are in my sig line. The species that are toughest and hardest to kill are: green star polyp, discosoma mushrooms (the smooth purples, reds, greens, and browns, including green-stripe, though they're not as aggressive growers); also yellow star polyp; and brown-green button polyp (which glow nicely green under actinic); xenia in some tanks; clove polyp; kenya tree, and some smooth leather encrusting corals.
In such tanks, give up ever using the live rock as a basis of a stony reef: these are the corals nothing eats, and your being able to use that live rock for any purpose but such a tank is not likely...but you can later sell it off as 'specimen rock' to beginners who want the look; and hey, it's a pretty tank that will wow your neighbors, who won't know it's easy-grow.
If anybody has ever found a species of fish or invert we commonly keep that WILL actually eat these corals faster than they grow, let me know; but my old tank, back in the day, had a mix of wrasses, dwarf angel, etc, and a tang, and I never lost a polyp to nibbling. They're more tolerant of nitrate, they're living filters themselves, so they actually help moderate your chemistry, and all you need to do is watch your alkalinity and keep the chemistry so that all these corals are fluffed out and happy.
Many are 'spitters'---ie, they exude chemicals when annoyed, so run carbon nearly continually and change it out monthly, and that will take care of the problem.
I'm pretty sure you could keep these with a sumpless (but big canister) rig; and with T5s.
) the day after filling it and placing my base rock + live sand. They survived the cycle no problem and are slowly growing very large, they haven't spread much but I've only been using a single 50/50 Reef Brite Tech LED up until replacing it with some Reef Breeder Photons just a few weeks back. The mushrooms are unique-ish as I've never seen this coloration before; the main disc is a purplish-reddish-brownish color with a areas/splotches of a green tint (hard to describe and doesn't show up well in pictures), they also randomly have bright neon-green (almost blue-ish) spots randomly throughout, under the atinics they glow very uniquely.
