Info overload! Can someone help with some 'starter' ideas?

[KarenLR75]

I try to do as much research by reading through threads but between different people's opinions, experiences, etc. I have gotten myself totally muddled on what types of coral (and within those 'types) we should try getting a few frags of to start out with.

While we were originally interested in zoes...reading about how several of them can overtake a tank, has made me pause. Then I get confused over whether one should avoid green polyp coral, mushroom corals, etc.

I'm beginning to think it feels like almost every coral has a chance of overtaking a tank, but when I've looked up some general 'beginner' coral lists, I cannot remember if it was an Elegance coral or a goniopora coral that was on the list (under one of its other names)....but I knew as I had already found out the hard way that NEITHER of these corals is considered by most to be good 'beginner corals'.

Yep, I know this as I actually own 1 of each. Bought on spur of the moment at a sale and taking the LFS's word that these corals were good to start with. The LFS we buy from knows we have 5 prior years of saltwater experience but we've stressed that we are NEW to corals.

So, besides the Elegance & a Red Goniopora, we have 2 pieces of Montipora, a open brain coral (scoly), and a Green Hydnophora ? coral...Tank is 112 gallons (30+ gallon sump).

I've heard some folks recommend Duncan corals...I've tried to scan LPS & SPS forums along with 'Softies' but much of what I like is detected by 'sight'. I look at Tanks of the Month but they are all done by experienced aquarists. I know different corals may not be able to go near each other but are there any that can? Like nice, neighborly corals?

I'm not trying to get out of doing my homework but if there are any solid 'rules of the road' that people follow for corals that you are willing to enlighten us about, we'd sure appreciate not making any more mistakes than we have to...

Also, my gosh these things are expensive though...I cannot believe how much some frags cost!! MIND BLOWN!

PS: Sorry to keep coming back with questions! I literally am overwhelmed trying to absorb/find so much information.

 

[rffanat1c]

Isolate zoanthids to one rock. They will pretty much stay there until the rock is full then heads break off to grow elsewhere. Any frogspawn, hammer or torch faired well for me in the beginning. Acans are pretty easy and do not spread fast.


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[Xxero]

It's good that you're thinking along these lines now because I'm currently having to remove quite a few "Well-Suited For The Beginning Aquarist" corals from my display. It seems like most soft corals have the potential to take over a tank either by spreading or growing too large and becoming a nuisance. Pruning and isolating these corals is the answer, but it's crazy how quickly they can get out of control. I have recently removed:

* YELLOW -Green Button Polyps. Easy and beautiful but invasive and deadly. Stinks too because this was a 15 pound piece of Live Rock.
*RED - Yellow Polyp Colony. Same as above.
*GREEN - Kenya Tree Coral. It was beautiful and I loved it, but it grew to take up over 1/3 of my display. Constant pruning gets involved, and my LFS only wants so many Kenya frags. Then what?
*BLUE - Green Mushrooms. They grow and spread like crazy. They will crawl over surfaces, and also detach and float around the tank. These have a very powerful sting to them, as well.

Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations for you. Like myself, I think it will come down to personal tastes in what you want, then the inevitable research that follows. It's not just the soft corals that can get out of control. I had a beautiful Torch Coral, but it's sweeping tentacles grew as long as 12 inches! Another 1/3 of my display. Research, smart choices, isolation/control, and pruning needs - These will be my guides to future purchases instead of "Well-Suited For The Beginning Aquarist" :bigeyes:

 

[pdt7361]

First...can you tell us more about what you want and your setup?

What kind of lights do you have for corals?

Do you have a plan of what you'd like for your tank to look like?...SPS, LPS, softies, or trying for a mix?

And if you go with LPS and/or SPS, are you setup for dosing things like cal, alk, and mag?

These questions should be able to help identify some good starter corals for your tank.

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[Subsea]

Yes, many differrent corals create competition to get sunlight. Softies use noxious chemicals against SPS. This is easily corrected with moderate use of GAC. LPS have sweeper tentacles which keep competition back. Give them room in the tank. If their is no space, then frag and sell as the best nutrient export method that a hobbiest could have.

When I hear “horror stories” of softies smothering a tank, I laugh. It does not happen that fast. Please let us not exaggerate and scare the newbies. Consider it a testimony to good husbandry instead of ugly green star polyps taking over Tank.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FDt8QTAp0Cs
25 year old 75G Jaubert Plenum with 30G EcoSystem refugium. Video is 5 years ago. That means that in 5 years, GSP covered back wall.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

That's life on the reef, competition, overgrowing, chemical warfare, there's plenty you can do to handle it. i'm not going to throw a thousand ideas at you but probably the easiest way to go without worry too much about overgrowing is LPS spaced appropriately, easy to move they don't carpet, and as long as you keep other corals out of range of their sweepers you are fine certain ones like galaxia should be avoided because they have extremely long sweepers. zoanthids if I dont want them spreading I put on a pedestal or solo rock on the sand so when they start to spread over the sand I can cut them off and glue them to a frag. Any wayward jumper from either zoas or capnella trees or other softies are easily controlled by judicial application of Kalk paste, remove as much as you can smother the remaining flesh in kalk past to eradicate it. I'll see if I can dig up a pic of my old fully mixed reef, it was I daresay thoroughly vetted and filled with all the "you cant keep those in the same tank" corals.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

here is the glory of an older tank that hass tons of everything, at the time this tank was 11 years old or so.

 

[Sk8r]

With the elegance and goniopora, you've started down the aisle to stony coral, requiring about a 10,000k light and constant calcium supplementation once they start to eat. Don't combine softies with them---presents some problems. Calcium can be supplemented by kalk: qv. It's easy. Keep them 6" from each other, don't touch them, and with enough calcium and enough light, (go to the water parameters note atop the NTTH forum) you'll be fine. You've chosen two of the most delicate. I would have recommended hammer and candy cane.

 

[HBtank]

As others have said, don't be overly concerned with anything "taking over"; one caveat, simple mushrooms. These can split, move, and spread fairly quickly, and it will always be the ugliest one you have. Just be wise with random shrooms, my nemesis came as an "extra" on a frag.

GSP I love. Just contain it somewhere and enjoy your little lawn. It grows in a very predictable way. Similar with Zoas, just place them right and you will be fine, parts of your tank (often lower light areas on the bottom) devoted to zoas, shrooms (good ones like ricordia) and other hardy "beginner" corals can be one of the best parts of a mixed tank. Collecting these can be a good way to build up a tank and learn with hardy coral that will end up actually being a focal point.

When most people talk about a coral "taking over", they really mean "over 6 months while they sat there watching it become a problem" without doing 15 minutes of fragging, or they placed it in a crowded spot to begin with, or because they can't reach/remove that part of the tank, etc..

Going forward, I like Sk8trs suggestions, a Candy Cane and Hammer were two that I started with in addition to some other LPS and zoas/shrooms as I worked towards SPS.

 

[KarenLR75]

It's good that you're thinking along these lines now because I'm currently having to remove quite a few "Well-Suited For The Beginning Aquarist" corals from my display. It seems like most soft corals have the potential to take over a tank either by spreading or growing too large and becoming a nuisance. Pruning and isolating these corals is the answer, but it's crazy how quickly they can get out of control. I have recently removed:

* YELLOW -Green Button Polyps. Easy and beautiful but invasive and deadly. Stinks too because this was a 15 pound piece of Live Rock.
*RED - Yellow Polyp Colony. Same as above.
*GREEN - Kenya Tree Coral. It was beautiful and I loved it, but it grew to take up over 1/3 of my display. Constant pruning gets involved, and my LFS only wants so many Kenya frags. Then what?
*BLUE - Green Mushrooms. They grow and spread like crazy. They will crawl over surfaces, and also detach and float around the tank. These have a very powerful sting to them, as well.

Ouch! I feel for you having to get that nice chunk of live rock out! The Kenya Tree Colony is lovely!!!! I hear you about the pruning...and I guess unless you are part of groups that do swaps or want to get into the business of selling frags (in your spare time, of course), then your LFS can only take so many as you noted. Such as shame as it's so nice.

I definitely have ruled out, for us, mushrooms. I truly get the points others raise about it sometimes being about husbandry on many corals and not that all corals have some sort of rogue/crazy growth going on. Much like trimming/cutting our own hair. We have to do the maintenance or ALL of our corals in our tank are going to be 'out of control' at some point.

 

[KarenLR75]

First...can you tell us more about what you want and your setup?

What kind of lights do you have for corals?

Do you have a plan of what you'd like for your tank to look like?...SPS, LPS, softies, or trying for a mix?

And if you go with LPS and/or SPS, are you setup for dosing things like cal, alk, and mag?

These questions should be able to help identify some good starter corals for your tank.

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We have 4 LED light units/modules for reef/coral tanks. Water resistant. Some are more on the blue spectrum and others on the white spectrum. We have an ATO and have considered when the time comes to use Kalk, maybe putting it in the ATO but haven't decided on this yet. Lights are on a controller that handles when they come up (ramp up) and when they go down (ramp down). We are I guess one of the rare folks that use the cloud and storm features.

112 gallon with hood and stand and over 30+ gallons in sump/refugium. Protein skimmer.

At first, our montipora was not happy but we did not have them located in a good part of the tank so we moved them and they perked back up - one looks better than it ever did in the LFS and both are showing signs of growth. Actually, our Elegance coral is thriving as is the Goniopora - they both are...more 'rich' in color than we saw when at the LFS. The Elegance coral has grown noticeably just in a few months.

The open brain coral (Scoly) color's look better in our tank as does the hydnophora but they are both relatively new...as of right now I'd say they seem happy.

We do dose for Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, etc. Our plans had always been to have a mix of both LPS and SPS and MAYBE some softies. Ironically, when researching and looking at images online, we were always more attracted to SPS's; however, our LFS does not have a wide inventory and I actually thought, incorrectly, that some of what we had was SPS. I was shocked to find out the Elegance was an LPS. Additional bit of irony is our non-aquarium friends assume it is an anemone. I'd like to have some corals that are more 'plating' to add 'levels' to the rock structure or even overhangs while keeping in mind that we can't have something under it that needs the lighting to grow as it could block the light out.

 

[pdt7361]

It definitely sounds like you are setup up well to handle the LPS corals you have chosen. Like others have said, if you want to do softies you should consider isolating them on an island of their own.
Some personal favorites that are easy would be acans, duncans, hammers, and frogspawn.
All are easy and you're current dosing will take care of their needs.

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[KarenLR75]

With the elegance and goniopora, you've started down the aisle to stony coral, requiring about a 10,000k light and constant calcium supplementation once they start to eat. Don't combine softies with them---presents some problems. Calcium can be supplemented by kalk: qv. It's easy. Keep them 6" from each other, don't touch them, and with enough calcium and enough light, (go to the water parameters note atop the NTTH forum) you'll be fine. You've chosen two of the most delicate. I would have recommended hammer and candy cane.

Yeah, I definitely started down the LPS road, but I love these corals thus far. The Elegance was my first. I have roughly an 8 inch perimeter around the Elegance and ideas for placement as it grows (around the same area where it is currently located). The Elegance is just on the sand bed as is the brain coral (for right now).

I'll go take a look at the various hammers and candy cane. Noted on not combining softies with the LPS's. I don't have all the full technical info on the lights as I'm the aquarium 'assistant' - it's my husband's tank and while over the years I've learned a lot about saltwater fish and what they need, I don't have a strong feel for all of the light terminology these days. I'm also the one tasked sometimes with asking questions but often I ask as I want to learn.

Here is a pic of the Elegance & the Goniopora (Mandarin is photo-bombing..lol)

Also a pic of the Elegance when we first got it..baby Elegance

 

[Vincero]

I have a mixture of corals in a 15 gallon reef. I'm new to the hobby, and while I would do almost everything differently next time... it's not because of my coral selection.

I have different zoas, mushrooms, and ricordea. While they're growing and splitting, they're not 'overtaking' anything... and certainly not at a pace that I can't control if need be. They're easy to frag and remove -- even more so if you position them strategically.

The only coral I'd avoid is the Kenya tree because of its aggresive branch dropping. That one does sound like a bit of a pain to keep on top of.

If it's your first tank, get the corals you want, position them wisely and use it as an opportunity to learn.

 

[sde1500]

Very few zoas will actually over take your tank. Actually almost no coral will, unless you choose to let it. I'd say almost any coral beyond the harder to care for SPS corals are fine for beginners. My first coral purchase was a torch that has done great in my tank and is still one of my favorite corals even though I really love zoas. If you want a lot of colors, hard to beat zoas though.

 

[Xxero]

My eventual goal is to re-create a small, glass, rectangular chunk of as close to a natural reef environment as possible. I personally do not like or want a saltwater aquarium that is polk-a-dotted with small isolated rocks/frag plugs of 3 inch pieces of various coral species. I made the early mistake of placing incompatible/potent corals directly onto connected rock structures, and I wanted to show you what not to do. I am also in the same position of trying to research what corals are compatible even if they do begin to get a little out of control. I think it depends on the look that you are going for, but an example of what I am talking about looks like this:

https://youtu.be/0h8N3eK-G3U

(Apologies to the owner of this tank because I do not remember who it belongs to.)

If you haven't already, you should start a tank journal for yourself in the Tank Journal Forum so we can keep up with your future selections. Good luck! :bigeyes:

 

[Vincero]

That's a great looking tank!!