Some corals are easier than fish...
They don't jump.
They don't get ich.
You can dip them, observe them a few days for survivor-pests, and chuck them right on in.
Lighting is critical: you MUST have enough light for the corals, because that is a big part of what they eat: they're photosynthetic, like, say, daisies. They're living filters, and help clean the water. Stony corals also eat calcium and a little bit of magnesium, and corals and fish are generally happy if their water has a DKH alkalinity of about 8.3. You need an ATO to make this happen. And keeping a low phosphate and nitrate helps a lot: there are ways to knock this way down.
Do they grow fast? Yes. Some are prolific as crabgrass...green star polyp (gsp), xenia, discosoma mushrooms. These are never tagged as 'rare', for good reason, and even fish that nip corals may not want a mouthful of these.
Then there are the 'rare' fellows. These don't grow fast. Many don't thrive well. Guess why they're called 'rare'.
Do they have pests? Yes. Red bug is nasty for sps. Nudibranchs and some asterinas are not good for zoas. An ailment called brown jelly afflicts lps. This is why you DIP all corals in a recommended dip, and observe them closely for surviving eggs. Remember: things travel on what they eat. And they lay their eggs on it.
Good beginner corals:
in softies---the buttons and mushrooms. Palys are toxic: read the caution up in the stickies. They can be worked with, but be careful.
In stony-large-polyp: (lps): hammer, frog. Torch is same family, but hotter. Caulestra or trumpet. Acans. Takes bright light, moderately clean water.
In stony-small-polyp: (sps): montipora. Takes bright light, hyper-clean water, though monti is tough enough it will survive in good light and lps conditions.
Do I feed them? for most, not specifically. They eat fish poo as predigested by bristleworms, ie, real fine stuff, though some lps will grab food bits, and some few can open mouths and take in food (plate). They generally eat light, and sps eats very little BUT light and chemicals from the water. A few (Sun coral, etc, some gorgonians, are non-photosynthetic, so they depend on the current (you) to bring them food. They require special care.)
Signs of trouble? generally, if they expand out and you see polyps, they're pretty happy. If they're distressed at the water, they may shrivel down, because they expel a lot of their water and wait for good---you'll often see a single little polyp finger sticking out, testing, waiting. Fish don't have that option: they have to breathe it. Corals can protect themselves---but it's a clue you'd better fix the water.
SOfties spit chemicals when angry, and a tank can really pitch a fit. Carbon will remove this from the water and calm everybody down.
Many lps have tentacles (sweepers) up to 6" long that can reach a neighbor and sting. Hammers and frog and torch don't have them. Those in caulestra are real short. In general, lps types are 'fluffy' when happy. Go for branching types and avoid 'wall' corals, which are generally harder.
Sps have a bad reaction called RTN, or receding: the tissue dies off the skeleton. This leads to death if you can't reverse it. Fragging off the bad bit and a little of the good, then regluing the live bit to a plug can help, but it's iffy, and you need to figure what's wrong and fix it. SPS are fussy corals, and if your params go off, if nitrate rises, if lights aren't right---they're not going to survive. Montiporas are a good start on sps, and come in a lot of types and colors. Don't try anything harder as a novice---get some experience and have top end equipment before you invest in a lot of sps.
Most coral can be broken by hand with a little effort, easy for a woman. Montipora can be broken by looking at it angrily.
There is hardly any way for us to look at a picture of sps and tell you its species: you have to see a whole shelf of it growing and see what pattern its branching makes before you can really id some of the 'colored stick' types.
You MUST supplement calcium (by kalk put in the topoff, under 100 gallons; by calcium reactor over 100 gallons---and if packed, say under 70 for kalk)---for all stony corals and clams.
Coral reefs can be left for vacation: feeding them is a matter of steady supply of light and calcium and fish poo. Put your fish on autofeeder, your water on ATO with reservoir, and your lights on timer and all will be well. I can leave mine for a month on end with no trouble.
The LESS you have your ungloved hands in a reef, the happier the reef will be. Our natural skin oils are not their favorite thing, and they don't like to rock (unsecured knocking about in the current) or be moved.
I keep good middle-of-the-road parameters in my sig line: I keep lps. I don't own a controller: I do have an ATO and used to run metal halide lights on timer. Now I've switched to Radion Pro and am still learning it.
HTH.
They don't jump.
They don't get ich.
You can dip them, observe them a few days for survivor-pests, and chuck them right on in.
Lighting is critical: you MUST have enough light for the corals, because that is a big part of what they eat: they're photosynthetic, like, say, daisies. They're living filters, and help clean the water. Stony corals also eat calcium and a little bit of magnesium, and corals and fish are generally happy if their water has a DKH alkalinity of about 8.3. You need an ATO to make this happen. And keeping a low phosphate and nitrate helps a lot: there are ways to knock this way down.
Do they grow fast? Yes. Some are prolific as crabgrass...green star polyp (gsp), xenia, discosoma mushrooms. These are never tagged as 'rare', for good reason, and even fish that nip corals may not want a mouthful of these.
Then there are the 'rare' fellows. These don't grow fast. Many don't thrive well. Guess why they're called 'rare'.
Do they have pests? Yes. Red bug is nasty for sps. Nudibranchs and some asterinas are not good for zoas. An ailment called brown jelly afflicts lps. This is why you DIP all corals in a recommended dip, and observe them closely for surviving eggs. Remember: things travel on what they eat. And they lay their eggs on it.
Good beginner corals:
in softies---the buttons and mushrooms. Palys are toxic: read the caution up in the stickies. They can be worked with, but be careful.
In stony-large-polyp: (lps): hammer, frog. Torch is same family, but hotter. Caulestra or trumpet. Acans. Takes bright light, moderately clean water.
In stony-small-polyp: (sps): montipora. Takes bright light, hyper-clean water, though monti is tough enough it will survive in good light and lps conditions.
Do I feed them? for most, not specifically. They eat fish poo as predigested by bristleworms, ie, real fine stuff, though some lps will grab food bits, and some few can open mouths and take in food (plate). They generally eat light, and sps eats very little BUT light and chemicals from the water. A few (Sun coral, etc, some gorgonians, are non-photosynthetic, so they depend on the current (you) to bring them food. They require special care.)
Signs of trouble? generally, if they expand out and you see polyps, they're pretty happy. If they're distressed at the water, they may shrivel down, because they expel a lot of their water and wait for good---you'll often see a single little polyp finger sticking out, testing, waiting. Fish don't have that option: they have to breathe it. Corals can protect themselves---but it's a clue you'd better fix the water.
SOfties spit chemicals when angry, and a tank can really pitch a fit. Carbon will remove this from the water and calm everybody down.
Many lps have tentacles (sweepers) up to 6" long that can reach a neighbor and sting. Hammers and frog and torch don't have them. Those in caulestra are real short. In general, lps types are 'fluffy' when happy. Go for branching types and avoid 'wall' corals, which are generally harder.
Sps have a bad reaction called RTN, or receding: the tissue dies off the skeleton. This leads to death if you can't reverse it. Fragging off the bad bit and a little of the good, then regluing the live bit to a plug can help, but it's iffy, and you need to figure what's wrong and fix it. SPS are fussy corals, and if your params go off, if nitrate rises, if lights aren't right---they're not going to survive. Montiporas are a good start on sps, and come in a lot of types and colors. Don't try anything harder as a novice---get some experience and have top end equipment before you invest in a lot of sps.
Most coral can be broken by hand with a little effort, easy for a woman. Montipora can be broken by looking at it angrily.
There is hardly any way for us to look at a picture of sps and tell you its species: you have to see a whole shelf of it growing and see what pattern its branching makes before you can really id some of the 'colored stick' types.
You MUST supplement calcium (by kalk put in the topoff, under 100 gallons; by calcium reactor over 100 gallons---and if packed, say under 70 for kalk)---for all stony corals and clams.
Coral reefs can be left for vacation: feeding them is a matter of steady supply of light and calcium and fish poo. Put your fish on autofeeder, your water on ATO with reservoir, and your lights on timer and all will be well. I can leave mine for a month on end with no trouble.
The LESS you have your ungloved hands in a reef, the happier the reef will be. Our natural skin oils are not their favorite thing, and they don't like to rock (unsecured knocking about in the current) or be moved.
I keep good middle-of-the-road parameters in my sig line: I keep lps. I don't own a controller: I do have an ATO and used to run metal halide lights on timer. Now I've switched to Radion Pro and am still learning it.
HTH.
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