Charley Diesing
New member
After taking care of SPS, Softies, and LPS. I can say that SPS was a drag, and a bit too much for me. LPS took paying attention too, but softies are perfect for my Lazy @**! That being said I will be going tank-less for a couple of years. But when I get back into the hobby (physically I'm on the forums and in my LFS's every day)... I want to design a low maintenance system that houses easy to take care of fish, and soft corals only. I will be a Police Officer so its important I have occupants that are easy to take care of because my hours will be long and stressful. And I don't want to deal with an SPS tank!
So with all that said I've compiled some Soft Coral keeping tips I've picked up over the years too making your life easy and low maintenance, but at the same time having success and getting to kickback and watch your masterpiece.
I would say these are my tips for SOFT CORAL KEEPING
1) Don't over-skim: clean water is great but don't strip the water of good nutrients. Like we see with our SPS buddies doing! Go with whats suggested for skimmer. Not 2x-3x suggested skimmer.
2) Keep a steady routine maintenance: Stay steady with your water changes, a lot of soft corals can be kept with good growth without any extra additives/chemicals IE: without adding Calcium/Alk.
3) Stick with softies not sticks This is especially true if you're NOT going to be dosing/Calcium reactor. Don't add things like clams/SPS which suck up a ton of Calcium. If you stick with softies you can get away WITHOUT dosing.
4) Keep track of your Alkalinity A lot of Xenia sucks this stuff up. Depending on your coral list sometimes you'll only have to dose Alkalinity.
5) Lighting? How much? A lot of people hear "Soft corals don't need much light", and they run with that. They tend to go with the bear minimum. This in my experiences has been a misconception. Although Soft corals will live just fine in lower light conditions. Some of the best growth I've ever gotten from my Softies in the past has been under metal halides. Although I agree that you can go over board, the idea that they can't handle high lighting is a without a doubt a misconception.
Please suggest more tips, bash mine, whatever! hahaha
So with all that said I've compiled some Soft Coral keeping tips I've picked up over the years too making your life easy and low maintenance, but at the same time having success and getting to kickback and watch your masterpiece.
I would say these are my tips for SOFT CORAL KEEPING
1) Don't over-skim: clean water is great but don't strip the water of good nutrients. Like we see with our SPS buddies doing! Go with whats suggested for skimmer. Not 2x-3x suggested skimmer.
2) Keep a steady routine maintenance: Stay steady with your water changes, a lot of soft corals can be kept with good growth without any extra additives/chemicals IE: without adding Calcium/Alk.
3) Stick with softies not sticks This is especially true if you're NOT going to be dosing/Calcium reactor. Don't add things like clams/SPS which suck up a ton of Calcium. If you stick with softies you can get away WITHOUT dosing.
4) Keep track of your Alkalinity A lot of Xenia sucks this stuff up. Depending on your coral list sometimes you'll only have to dose Alkalinity.
5) Lighting? How much? A lot of people hear "Soft corals don't need much light", and they run with that. They tend to go with the bear minimum. This in my experiences has been a misconception. Although Soft corals will live just fine in lower light conditions. Some of the best growth I've ever gotten from my Softies in the past has been under metal halides. Although I agree that you can go over board, the idea that they can't handle high lighting is a without a doubt a misconception.
Please suggest more tips, bash mine, whatever! hahaha
