It's been a few months since I got my live rocks. They were from a tank with no light so they were very white or beige. Every day they seems to becoming more colorful like purple, yellow or even pretty green. Still they are too bare and I would like some more colors. How to I cover them up with some easy to maintain colorful corals besides mushrooms. I already have couple rocks that came covered with green mushrooms.
How to start some corals?
- Thread starter babyduke
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hotrodolds
New member
What kind of lights are you running? How deep is the tank?
It's been about 4-5mos since the live rocks were added. My lighting is weak. Tank is built into the wall and the clearance is minimal so only lights I can and have been using are the Coralife(natural/blue) T8 fluorescent 50/50 (two 18" bulbs). It's a 55 gallon (48"long x 13"width x 19" deep) tank.
You'll probably do very well with mushrooms, some zoas, some soft coral, and a lowlight stony species, bubble coral.
The needed parameters are; 7.9 ph, 8.3-9.3 alkalinity, 400-430 calcium, 1200-1500 magnesium. If you have only one stony coral regular water changes will probably keep your calcium up: if you get more, you may want to consider dripping kalkwasser to keep it up---hand dosing for hungry corals gets spendy as well as obsessive.
The needed parameters are; 7.9 ph, 8.3-9.3 alkalinity, 400-430 calcium, 1200-1500 magnesium. If you have only one stony coral regular water changes will probably keep your calcium up: if you get more, you may want to consider dripping kalkwasser to keep it up---hand dosing for hungry corals gets spendy as well as obsessive.
Sisterlimonpot
Premium Member
Zoanthids are easy to maintain and come in just about every color combination that you can think of. but it's like an addiction once you get those your going to want others.
Normally they come already mounted to a piece of rock, but if not, use a bit of superglue gel to mount them.
When people say polyps, they usually mean zoanthids and palys (palythoa and protopalythoa). They're classified as members of Order Zoanthidea, in Subclass Zoantharia.
Stony corals (what we call SPS and LPS) are in Order Scleractinia, which is also part of Subclass Zoantharia.
The critters we call mushroom corals (or mushroom anenomes) are members of Order Corallimorpharia, in Subclass Zoantharia.
So zoos, mushrooms and hard corals are in the same Subclass, but different Orders. Soft corals and gorgonians are members of a different Subclass, called Octocorallia.
Of course we couldn't be consistent, and only call members of Subclass Zoanthidea "polyps". We also use the term "green star polyps", which refers to a member of Subclass Octocorallia.
Clear as mud? Bob Fenner over at WetWebMedia.com does a very good job of explaining all the Classes, SubClasses, Orders, etc.
Stony corals (what we call SPS and LPS) are in Order Scleractinia, which is also part of Subclass Zoantharia.
The critters we call mushroom corals (or mushroom anenomes) are members of Order Corallimorpharia, in Subclass Zoantharia.
So zoos, mushrooms and hard corals are in the same Subclass, but different Orders. Soft corals and gorgonians are members of a different Subclass, called Octocorallia.
Of course we couldn't be consistent, and only call members of Subclass Zoanthidea "polyps". We also use the term "green star polyps", which refers to a member of Subclass Octocorallia.
Clear as mud? Bob Fenner over at WetWebMedia.com does a very good job of explaining all the Classes, SubClasses, Orders, etc.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
A little heads up. Zoanthids are very toxic. Be carefull handling them, cover your eyes, wash thoroughly, keep away from kids and pets, etc. As I saw in someone's signature once, "Don't eat the Zoas." Other than that, they're very easy to maintain. Good luck.
LiveRound69
New member
zoas , green stars and palys
If you do get the green star polyps, be sure to isolate them from your main rockwork because they grow like a weed and will outcompete other corals for real estate. Kenya tree will drop babies, which will then float all over the tank - they can become a problem too.
You say you have T8s. I may have missed it, but did you ever specify whether they're normal output (NO) or very high output (VHO). If you know the wattage on the bulbs, we can figure it out from that as well. If they're NO, I think you can still do the kenya tree and GSPs, as well as most zoas and palys. It seems to me the frogspawn or candy canes would be pushing the limits of even VHOs, but I'm sure it's possible, especially if you keep them higher up in the tank.
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