RESEARCHING CORALS, Thinging of these!

MyPartOfTheSEA

New member
Hello everyone!

I have a AP24 with a Sunpod 150w lighting. I have ordered the Remora protein skimmer.


These are the corals and clam that I am looking into getting. Just one at a time.

Please tell me any opinions that you may have. Are they hard to keep or not.


1. Ricordia
2. Yellow Fiji Leather
3.Frogspawn
4. Torch
5. Hammor
6. Trumpet
7. Derasa Clam
8. Toadstool
9. Xenia
10.Plate Coral

The fish that I would like to have once I am done stocking my tank with corals are just two Clown fish!

Any info will help.

Thanks
 
How long has your tank been up if I might ask?

I would stick to doing some easy stuff first if you haven't done saltwater tanks before. They are usually inexpensive and if you happen to make any mistakes you can learn from them with relatively low loss :)

On the bright side, once you get into it, it really isn't that hard of a hobby at all if you keep at it and like to research and learn a lot :)

Some of the easier ones on your list would be the xenia toadstool and possibly the ricordia and fiji leather (though im not too experienced with fiji leather) ..

For the rics yumas are great but I'd say the florida morphs are a bit easier to take care of at first.

For your LPS the easist would be a trumpet or frogspawn imo, but with those you'll have to start keeping an eye on your Calcium, alk, and magnesium levels. (many people sometimes ignore magnesium and rightfully can with regular water changes but after I started into SPS corals I got a test kit and additive to dose as mine was a little low.. just depends on how much you have going in the tank)

Frogspawn can have some sweeper tentacles. These are ones that extend out at night looking for food or even defending territory if other corals it doesnt like are placed close to it. Make sure you have some good clearance room for this. Same goes for a hammer, they are all very similar in the Euphyllia family (or genus? forget hte word)

As far as Torches go - they are beautiful and I want one for my tank but they can have really long sweeper tentacles and their sting is worse than the others.. these NEED room to do their thing or you will have some coral wars going on

I love plate corals. They will do best if you supplement their diet of light with a little bit of food. They are best placed on the sand bed and every so often when you feed you should be able to put a piece of food on it\its tentacles.. and watch it slowly go up and into the mouth like an escalator.

I think the only thing I haven't covered is a clam. Please please please check out the "Tridacnid and other mollusks" forum. I'm not even sure if 150W is enough, but it could be if you place a clam kind of high up. They are quite a bit more challenging than corals imo, definitely need to keep up with Ca\Alk\Mg. I am also unsure of how large derasas can get, make sure that if you have live rock and all even if a baby clam can fit, if an adult one will too or you'll be selling your clam when it grows out or buying a new tank for it :)

Most of this is from my own personal experience so please dont take it like it is written in stone.. but i hope what i've learned helps you start out :)

Don't be afraid to go slow either, this is a hobby where patience is a big factor.. kind of like gardening. You can start with small plants and with patience and determination you will have a lovely garden eventually :)
 
Have only four from the list, they are not difficult, especially candycanes with thin skeleton and xenia.
Hammers and frogspawn adapt longer to a new conditions, and feel better in some tanks, but not in others - can't name the single factor. Will send stinging tentacles, better to place them downstream from other corals, except their own kind.
 
Wow thank you for all the info!!!

Well I do plan and have taken everything real slow!

I had a 55 gallon tank that I did real fast, and well you know the outcome of that tank. Everything was great and then it just crashed and burned hard!!

Now I have this 24 gallon AP, and I have been going real slow!

I have put in only 1 coral a month! Plus I know people want movement in the tank fast and go out and get fish! Well fish can cause problems for the tank. So I plan not to get fish till my tank has matured much more!

Well yesterday I did get a Frogspawn. I left the lights off for about 4 hours, and that did make a big difference. It was opening within an hour or so. When the lights came on it opened all the way up.

Did not show signs of stress to much!!!

As for watching the Cal and Alk. The only thing that I dose is Trace minirals. Like I said I rely on my weekly water changes of 5 gallons.
 
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