Possible first coral tomorrow

[thatreefguy22]

I've been one this forum since October 2013, as well as my first tank, a 20 gallon long.
so far, I'm looking great!

Fish stock:
2 perc. clown fish (might be false perc.)

inverts/clean crew:
2 mexican turbo snails

equipment in/on the tank:
Hydor Koralia nano 425
eshopps overflow box pf-300
proflex model 1 refugium/sump (no fuge just yet. still want to get cheato.)
75watt heater
x2 200 micron filter socks, one with reef carbon pellets in a mesh pouch.
live rock rubble in the fuge section.
1200 maxi jet return pump. with almost 4ft head loss.

Lighting:
Aquatic life dual lamp t5ho. 10,000k, 420/460nm actinic blue.


I'm getting pretty good flow, it looks like to me!
and lighting wise, I'm ready for some coral!

here are my tank parameters as of today---->
latest water change was 1/5/2014, about 25%. about 5 gallons.

Temp>around 78F
SG>about 1.025
Mg>1320ppm
Ca>475ppm
alk>10.6dKH
nitrate>0~4ppm

So, I want some help deciding on a soft coral or polyp/zoa.
anything that is hardy, easy to acclimate.

I also would eventually wanna add something with long polyps that move in the current.

would duncans, torch corals, or candy cane/trumpet corals do okay with my water parameters?

I'm probably not going to far with adding many more fish, maybe 1 more at the most.

any inverts that would do good for my tank?

I know, I have a lot of questions. I should have planned, i know. But I used a lot of the time I had to research maintaining the tank itself!

Thanks a lot, All!!
:fish2::fish2::fish2:

 

[Reeferz412]

You could look up a tiny clean up crew on reefcleaners.org. John will hook you up with a sweet and affordable CUC. blue legged hermits, turbo snails, cerith snails are just some ideal CUC candidates.

I am not sure your dual t5 will do well to grow lps corals such as frogspawn, torch, or hammer. If places high up on the rockwork you could pull it off. A quad t5 fixture would be more ideal.

 

[thatreefguy22]

You could look up a tiny clean up crew on reefcleaners.org. John will hook you up with a sweet and affordable CUC. blue legged hermits, turbo snails, cerith snails are just some ideal CUC candidates.

I am not sure your dual t5 will do well to grow lps corals such as frogspawn, torch, or hammer. If places high up on the rockwork you could pull it off. A quad t5 fixture would be more ideal.

This light is expandable, up to 3, total of 6 lamps. one more I could add LPS.

Would duncans be okay? or do you know of any long tentacle corals I could add at some point?

I might go with zoas and grow them for my first coal. I know they grow fast...which isn't the best. but whatever works haha

 

[pkirby]

a 20l is not a very wide tank, nor very deep... I think you can get by fine with LPS and 2 t5ho bulbs...

Torch/Hammer/Frogspawn flow well and don't require much light.

 

[thatreefguy22]

a 20l is not a very wide tank, nor very deep... I think you can get by fine with LPS and 2 t5ho bulbs...

Torch/Hammer/Frogspawn flow well and don't require much light.

yeah, it's only 12" deep and 12" wide. .5" in one of those two haha.
so, I have a bit more of variety of corals I can get! I love the corals that sway in the current.

I will check my LFS tomorrow.

 

[thatreefguy22]

here's a picture I just took.

 

[BlindZide]

My first coral was a frogspawn. Loved it until I got my Duncan. Now I have all kinds of LPS. My hammer coral is my favorite and my fastest grower.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

My hammer coral is my favorite and my fastest grower.

I'm with BlindZide on this one. My first coral was an Aussie Purple Tip Hammer and is still my favorite. I think any LPS or Zoa will do just fine in your tank. You could probably get away with some SPS down the road if you put them up high enough since your tank isn't very deep.

But I would start with an LPS.

 

[thatreefguy22]

I'm with BlindZide on this one. My first coral was an Aussie Purple Tip Hammer and is still my favorite. I think any LPS or Zoa will do just fine in your tank. You could probably get away with some SPS down the road if you put them up high enough since your tank isn't very deep.

But I would start with an LPS.

hey! and yeah, I think I might go for a LPS frag.

 

[thatreefguy22]

weird, the light looks different in photo, than in person. It's much more blue in person

 

[BlindZide]

Yeah, cameras do that sometimes.

 

[thatreefguy22]

Yeah, cameras do that sometimes.

yeah..

here's another question...how should I acclimate my coral to my light after it's acclimated to my water?
I don't have any timer, yet.

 

[BlindZide]

Bottom of tank for 1-2 weeks and gradually move it up. But for LPS most of them are bottom placers anyway.

 

[skidoctor]

I would take the drive to Canandaigua and hit up The Salty Dog. Adam and Kyle are great and they will steer you in the right direction. Plus they just received a shipment of some pretty sweet corals today.

 

[living_waters]

Its been said already but definitely go LPs when I started I bought bunch of different softies just to go LPs later they just look awesome in the flow!

 

[thatreefguy22]

Its been said already but definitely go LPs when I started I bought bunch of different softies just to go LPs later they just look awesome in the flow!

I'm definitely going to get a softie. I really like the hammer and torch for the movement in flow they give, along with vibrant colors.

 

[thatreefguy22]

I would take the drive to Canandaigua and hit up The Salty Dog. Adam and Kyle are great and they will steer you in the right direction. Plus they just received a shipment of some pretty sweet corals today.

Hey you're not too far from me! haha. I will have to check them out sometime

 

[Bpawl]

My first coral was a frog spawn and I had a similar T5ho on my tank that was similar to yours. 3 years and multiple heads later its still around and doing great, even after all my moves and mistakes.

 

[thatreefguy22]

My first coral was a frog spawn and I had a similar T5ho on my tank that was similar to yours. 3 years and multiple heads later its still around and doing great, even after all my moves and mistakes.

Wow, seems like that coral is a keeper! hardy lil fella I wanna try and look for a torch or hammer frag...if not. then, I'll just look at a toadstool, or frogspawn.

 

[thatreefguy22]

Okay, I got my first frag, ever.
but due to limitations on coral/frags both LFS's in my area had...I picked a small colony of zoa. Temperature acclimation process right now, and then drip, and then dip. My LFS was nice and gave me the last bottle of dip they had, for free! so I bought garlic guard for $6, just to say thanks.

Pretty excited to have this coral in my tank!