For those who have to buy something at the lfs...

[Sk8r]

Corals are a good bet. You can easily get too many fish, and you'll reach max fast. Overstocking a tank with corals? You can fill it, grow them, wall to wall. Trim them. Trade the bits. Fish can live in and out among them very happily. And they are living filters...granted you have the right lighting to support their photosynthesis: they're a critter that makes a living off light and water and fish poo.

If you're a compulsive lfs shopper---corals are a much better bet in the long haul.

 

[Saltwater newby]

So, that being said. My tank has cycled and it's showing 5 ppm nitrates. If I get to clown fish and some easy to keep coral, I'll be good to go?? I have Kessils 360we and a Red Sea reefer 350. 73g display tank 18g sump

 

[Saltwater newby]

Corals are a good bet. You can easily get too many fish, and you'll reach max fast. Overstocking a tank with corals? You can fill it, grow them, wall to wall. Trim them. Trade the bits. Fish can live in and out among them very happily. And they are living filters...granted you have the right lighting to support their photosynthesis: they're a critter that makes a living off light and water and fish poo.



If you're a compulsive lfs shopper---corals are a much better bet in the long haul.[/

So, that being said. My tank has cycled and it's showing 5 ppm nitrates. If I get to clown fish and some easy to keep coral, I'll be good to go?? I have Kessils 360we and a Red Sea reefer 350. 73g display tank 18g sump

 

[Dmorty217]

Nitrates won't hurt a clownfish or most other fish for that matter. Some corals won't take too well to nitrates depending on what the nitrates are in the system that you purchased it from

 

[Sk8r]

Try to keep your nitrates under 20. More live rock, better skimmer, less wasted food, and enough crabs and bristle worms, all help.

 

[Sk8r]

The point is, you start, more or less, with a 'perfect' tank---perfect in chemistry, except a nitrate load and maybe a phosphate load. You will want to get those under control, get past the hair algae insanity, get the nitrates down, even for the welfare of fish, which tolerate nitrate better than corals do. But once you've done that, and IF you have appropriate lighting for corals (T5, LED or Halide) you'll find them fairly easy, and something you CAN acquire more varieties of---far more than you can with fish in the same space. Some varieties grow like weeds. The more pricey, the slower it grows. (Which is why it's pricey.) So you can start on a budget, use care to make sure the weedy type don't get to rock you can't part with, and trade your coral excess for equipment, salt, and food, at your lfs, or with club members for more varieties, if you find a reef club. And your fish will (if they're the sort that don't eat corals) be quite happy in the water conditions that corals require.

 

[BlackTip]

My coral purchase from 2 LFS gave me Bryopsis, Dictyota, vermited snails, and aptisia. Their tanks looked clean, and one LFS in particular has excellent looking tanks. I visually inspected, brushed, and dipped each coral. I am still battling all of the above pests.

The tank-raised frags purchased from LA was perfectly clean. I am not touching corals from LFS any more.

 

[Sk8r]

I kind of count on the lfs coral purchases to populate my tank with useful species---like stomatellas, bristleworms, copepods--- Vermetids come and go, ditto aiptasia, which are a temporary thing. But indeed, if you don't want these, there are hyperclean sources.