Coral Recommendations

[noschmo]

Please let me know which corals are best for nano's. I have had plenty of experience with marine fish but in the old days, we never kept coral or reef aquaria. Corals that are easy to grow, undemanding of high ligthrequirements, easy to feed/ etc. Thank you.

 

[reeferman06]

leathers, xenia, zooanthids, mushrooms are the easier ones of all the corals, and they are great for begginners! good luck

 

[hgbarwick]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7459605#post7459605 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reeferman06
leathers, xenia, zooanthids, mushrooms are the easier ones of all the corals, and they are great for begginners! good luck

Yes those would be the best choice for starting out.

 

[Pico Keeper]

What they said. Except I dont agree with the leathers. although they are easy to keep. They can be moody and usually dont respond well to some of the byproducts for certain medias.

When I add either purigen, carbon, or phosguard to my filtration my leather wilts up until I remove it.


- Mushrooms are too easy
- Zoanthids are too easy too. You almost can't kill them.
- Xenia and Green Star Polyps are almost like weeds. Make sure you have them isolated so they dont take over your tank.
- Kenya Tree Coral is another super easy coral to keep

Once you got those masters you can try your hand at:
-Blastos
-Brain
-Fungia
-Favia
-Other LPS

When you master those its SPS time..

 

[mcrbar910]

I love my pulsing xenia. I am a newbie with a couple leathers, candycane, xenia, polyps, and a single shroom. So far so good. The pulsing xenia is so cool to watch it is my favorite of what I have.

 

[noschmo]

coral

coral

Thank you all for the input. I have now gotten into some coral books and are quickly getting up to speed.

 

[ezcompany]

save yourself money and skip right into SPS

 

[Chad Vossen]

my favorites are xenia, hammer coral, ricordia, green star polyps and yellow polyps, rock anemone, zoas, mushrooms

i dont like my leather corals much at all. but i run purigen constantly... a bag ripped open and now its in my sandbed!!!

 

[ENraged]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7484980#post7484980 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ezcompany
save yourself money and skip right into SPS

Must be me but i just dont see the big deal with sps but i am a strange one

 

[mcrbar910]

I think undemanding and not requiring a lot of light might limit the sps out of the picture from what I have heard, but I am a newbie. I am sticking to the things prev mentioned for ease of lighting and upkeep for my nano.

 

[LBCBJ]

DO NOT START WITH SPS. They require pristine water, high water flow, and lots of light (MH).
If you're just starting out I would suggest just getting a few mushrooms, which don't require any of the req's above, plus their cheap, so if you screw up, its no big deal.

 

[ezcompany]

i'm just joking guys -_-

 

[agent007]

I bought a pulsing xenia from petco recently. It was small piece, about 1.5" tall, single trunk. My emerald crabs are having it for lunch. Do you think a larger frag will prevent my emeralds from chewing on it?

 

[tomu]

Leathers, Mushrooms, and button polyps are the three best beginner corals IMO. You could also look at some LPS. Low flow, and they dont need halides. You could toss them a piece of krill every now and again, they seem to like that.

 

[hgbarwick]

I would take those emrald crabs out of your tank if they are killing your pullsing xenia. Go with sme blue leg or red leg hermit crabs

 

[Tate]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7486734#post7486734 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ENraged
Must be me but i just dont see the big deal with sps but i am a strange one

I agree with you. To me SPS are the most demanding and at the same time the least exciting of the corals. I'm not knocking the guys who keep them, I just don't find them to be that interesting.

 

[Pico Keeper]

That's what most people think when they first get into the hobby. I was all about softies and lps when I first started SW. Now I dream of SPS tanks.

I am actually a big Mixed Reef tank fan. I like the whole "slice of ocean thing" which usually means you see corals or all types, and fish and inverts.

 

[Pico Keeper]

That's what most people think when they first get into the hobby. I was all about softies and lps when I first started SW. Now I dream of SPS tanks.

I am actually a big Mixed Reef tank fan. I like the whole "slice of ocean thing" which usually means you see corals or all types, and fish and inverts.

 

[agent007]

I looked into hermit crabs but read that they will eat smaller animals including snails. I've got a fair amount of nassarius snails and mexican turbos working
day and night. Don't want to have to replace those too frequently.

I think the solution mght be to get different coral. Coral that my emeralds wont eat.

 

[klondike4001]

The blue legs won't eat your snails.

Candy Cane, Zoas, Leathers, Star polyps, digitata tends to do quite well in nanos along with most monti caps.