Want a tank like the pretty reef pictures? Here's how to start.

[Sk8r]

1. set up rockwork with plenty of flowthrough caves and gaps, and have a pump that can deliver it. As a benchmark, 950 gallons an hour for a 55.
2. figure that fish are nice, but get reef-friendly fish to scale with your tank, ie, for a 55, gobies, blennies, dartfish, fairy wrasse, one small chromis or yellowtail.
3. avoid things like sally lightfoot crabs, arrow crabs, pistol shrimp (no, gobies don't need them, and they can kill the goby as they get older) and other crustaceans that are going to make you unbuild your tank to get rid of. That is REAL disruptive. And don't get a fish that says "reef safe with caution." Murphy's Law says you're going to lose that bet.
4. you will want a downflow box and skimmer, a pretty good one---venturis are good. They oxygenate highly, and can be quite efficient.
5. keep your parameters spot on. You don't have to have a controller---I've operated for decades with a hardware store timer for the lights and a float switch for the ATO pump---but one can be helpful. If you're going to have stony coral a good evaporation rate is useful, unless you have a big tank and are going to need a calcium reactor anyway. If you have a 75 or under, probably tossing kalk powder into your ATO reservoir will do all you need, no kalk reactor, no fancy machinery. Just kalk in the reservoir.
6. avoid chemical solutions to pest problems. Lean to water quality control. Chemical solutions are a lot like using a chain saw to even out a table leg---just a bit of overkill.
7. lean on keeping the balance in your reefing salt mix rather than the latest craze in a highly UNregulated industry...don't believe hype. Dumping in all sorts of additives and monkeying with things like selenium and iodine---no. Your regular water changes with a good reefing salt, plus your kalk if you have stony---that'll do it just fine.
8. Trust your fish to feed your corals. They poo. The bristleworms break down the poo into tiny, tiny bits. Your sandbed processes it. And in general, corals sop up light and calcium (if stony) and grow on fish poo. It's what they've done for millions of years without human help.
9. Buy frags, not colonies. I've had a 3-head hammer become a basketball-sized colony in just a few years. And understand that corals that are aggressively growing will find their own balance--just as trees and bushes sort out the available spots of light in a forest.
10. have the right lights, and if the corals are happy and growing, you're doing all right. Light is important food for corals---or at least, it feeds the creatures in their skins that produce sugars.
11. don't chase minor or transient problems. Spot of brown on your sand? It's a transient. Bubble algaes? Yep. same. Don't freak. These things come and go. The worst thing you can do for your reef is undertake some heroic measure to take care of a minor problem. Aiptasia? Pep shrimp are the least invasive cure.
12. keep your hands out of your tank. Wear nitrile exam gloves when you MUST work in your tank. They keep our rough skin from wounding the corals.
13. be sure your corals are firmly in place: corals that are wobbling in the current don't thrive. You can use a heavy rock, reef putty, or I-C-Gel (a superglue) to secure them underwater. Both the putty and the glue work underwater. And you can lift a coral out of a tank briefly to get the set right.
14. Dip. Dip and have an observation tank. Use an appropriate coral dip. Corals don't have to be qt'ed like fish, because the dip is going to take out many problems---but be observant! And with softies, eggs of predators can survive the dip. Observe in a holding tank. Look them over. Use a magnifying glass. And be very careful of your sources.

This isn't all, but it's a start. Corals are one of the BEST things you can do with a 30 gallon tank, which can hold very few fish, but a whole lot of coral: softie coral is a great 'first reef'.

 

[Sk8r]

Just a footnote: corals are not hard, and many corals, including stony, are amazingly tough, able to survive conditions by contracting, expelling most water, and waiting for the nastiness to pass. I've had bits of coral and sponge, including a small stony coral, actually survive ice cold winter water and then a four week cycle in a new tank. You can safely put coral into your tank as soon as it has cycled, right along with the CUC---this is assuming you are going to test that water every few days and keep its parameters steady, including having an ATO to maintain salinity rock-steady 24/7. Fish, however, should wait four more weeks in quarantine and wait on the ability of the sandbed to increase in response to the CUC's activity.

 

[jpa0741]

Great info! I have been out of the reefing game for awhile and have setup my new system. I will soon be adding coral. In the past I never really dipped coral. I was hoping you could give a more descript procedure for dipping coral and what brand dip is recommended.

 

[Scorpius]

Thank you. This thread has given me a little ray of hope that one day I can figure out how to care for coral. I think the problem with me is that I mess with things too much and freak when something isn't perfect. Nano reef tanks are not for the newbie reefer either. :lol:

 

[Sk8r]

My advice when doing corals is pretty simple---glue em down so they won't fall, be sure the light is right, be sure the water is spot on (8.3 alkalinity, 420 calcium, 1300 magnesium) and that the salinity is exact at 1.024 or 1.025 with no ups and downs (have an ATO)---and otherwise don't touch it. Don't feed the corals if you have fish and bristleworms. Let it be. Have your lights on timer, 8 hours of bright sunlight, an hour of twilight on either end, and keep your hands out of the tank, no matter how tempted.

 

[Scorpius]

My advice when doing corals is pretty simple---glue em down so they won't fall, be sure the light is right, be sure the water is spot on (8.3 alkalinity, 420 calcium, 1300 magnesium) and that the salinity is exact at 1.024 or 1.025 with no ups and downs (have an ATO)---and otherwise don't touch it. Don't feed the corals if you have fish and bristleworms. Let it be. Have your lights on timer, 8 hours of bright sunlight, an hour of twilight on either end, and keep your hands out of the tank, no matter how tempted.

I've only bought corals from my lfs and I think they may not be taking care of them to begin with and when they get to my tank it's the death blow for them. I plan on trying another place for coral once my new tank is setup and cycled.

 

[Sk8r]

Coral RX is what I use. Sea Chem also makes Reef Dip.
I have not covered acroporas, which I do not expect new reefers to be dealing with: acroporas have a particular pest, called red bug, which is difficult to spot, and harder to treat. If you ARE going in for acropora corals (the colored sticks, which also need the highest lighting kits) you need to do some research. SPS, including acroporas, are a much more fragile coral, and are generally on the bleeding edge of what our systems can keep successfully. Not for beginners, by my advice: even really expert reefers with acropora systems can meet serious reverses.
Softie coral is SO successful much that we used to struggle to keep is now classed as 'don't let it get onto rock you can't remove!"
Stony has some difficult species, but the euphyllias (hammer, frog, torch) are fast growers and tough, and caulaestra (candycane) is also pretty hardy.

Note that the parameters in my sig line are good for ALL sorts of tanks. If you have softies, you just don't have to supplement with kalk...but being ON those parameters and keeping up with your water changes will get good results. Fish like those readings too. I suddenly recall I haven't mentioned nitrates, phosphates, or ammonia---and that's because reefs don't tolerate them well at all. You won't have zero of any of the nasty-three but ammonia, but the lower you can get those three readings, generally, the better. Less than 1, if you can manage it. This means that tanks with sponges, bioballs, pad filters, in general any place that gunk can pile up---instead of relying totally on live rock---are going to have problems keeping those low levels. Remember that your corals ARE filters, and if you can get them and live rock carrying your tank, you've got a little nicely-functioning slice of ocean.

If you DO have a nitrate situation you can't remedy, hardy softies like discosoma mushrooms and buttons will still work for you---just work at getting it down, down, down.

 

[jpa0741]

I will also have some SPS are you saying that I should use something else for red bugs and will the coral dip you mentioned take care of flat worms. Those are the 2 pest I probably worry about the most.

 

[Kyle461]

I think one of the biggest realizations I came to was the time it takes to get the "pretty pictures." Starting out I had the idea I could attain that type of tank within a few months. Man was I wrong but I appreciate the time I'm taking now researching and waiting.

 

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

Thanks Sk8r...is it more difficult to maintain a tank with softies AND LPS/SPS? I have heard that the softies tend to like some nitrates/phosphates, but the SPS/LPS don't like any in the water. How do we keep the balance to keep everyone happy? I currently have a small amount of corals (candy cane, sun coral, 2 small zoa colonies and a mushroom) yes...I know not a lot but I just started corals this winter...

 

[Spinelessspade]

Thx for the great thread sk8r

 

[Sk8r]

Coral RX does not promise to handle red bug. It is a serious problem that can have a fish remediation (pipefish, in a long quarantine) but otherwise---just best not put the piece into your tank.

Mixing types of corals has problems. In the wild they live in different sections of the reef, higher up, lower down, different currents, more nutrients, less nutrients. Doing that in a 20 gallon tank is not possible. The only remedy we have is carbon to uptake coral spit from unhappy corals, but best not have them unhappy in the first place. Pick one type that works for your tank, and don't bring in their enemies.

If you already have a mixed reef, honestly, I'd say pick the ones not doing as well and trade them for more of the sort that are doing well. As in planting trees, figure that they will shape themselves, layering and creating the mix of colors and shapes we see as beautiful in the show tanks.

But if every coral boundary is a war zone, nothing much will thrive. Corals can spit effectively in the ocean---but in a closed tank, with the water recirculating, it's not a good strategy: they get their own spit back again and they get madder and madder. Carbon can calm it down.

That's the softies.

Stonies just reach out and touch their neighbors, even if they have to grow new, longer tentacles to do it---and if you see a stony coral slowly getting real long tentacles on one side---move the coral he's aiming at, or there'll be war.

Honestly corals are easy, if you don't pose yourself extra problems. Yes, there are successful mixed reefs, but they're not usually the first reef the owner tried before achieving that level of skill in positioning and arranging water flow. And they're not usually done in a 10 gallon tank. The most successful ones are in tanks that offer more than one inflow---and run carbon constantly.

 

[Cyberdude]

This is a great thread. Thanks for the advise

 

[Sk8r]

Let me do a fast rundown of the types of corals:
1. softies: mushrooms, buttons, zoas, leathers, any coral with no stony skeleton.
2. special-care corals and in-betweens: sun corals, gorgonians, chili corals: I advise against these for beginners. They require feeding and in general if you have other corals that don't, you may constantly battle how-much-is-too-much in the system.
3. stony lps ---any 'fluffy' coral that has a stony base. Hammer types, brains, favia, bubble fox, galaxia, acans, duncans, anything that looks like a rock with a coral skin or that has tentacles---all these require calcium supplementation, usually kalk, and will not thrive without it. THey require strong light, but not super-strong: T5's or reef-capable LEDs or Metal Halide light required.
4. stony sps---the colored sticks, sheets, and folded 'lettuce-like' montiporas---these require hyperclean skimmed water, very strong light, very low nitrate, very low phosphate, in other words, conditions favoring SPS but way more so...Without the right light, right equipment, expert attention and a very stable environment, these are not going to thrive. If you really, really want to dabble in sps, start with montiporas, and watch out for pest nudibranchs---these are the easiest and hardiest sps.

 

[iced98lx]

Just a footnote: corals are not hard, and many corals, including stony, are amazingly tough, able to survive conditions by contracting, expelling most water, and waiting for the nastiness to pass. I've had bits of coral and sponge, including a small stony coral, actually survive ice cold winter water and then a four week cycle in a new tank.

I have one piece of Pink Millepora that has survived 60 degree water, 105 degree water, no water changes for months, etc etc. And it is pink, pretty and growing like a weed when given the proper conditions.

One thing I'd say: If you think it's dead, leave it for a few months to make sure. Especially LPS.

 

[Sk8r]

^ This. Mille is pretty tough. And I once had a completely dead, algaed-brown piece of brain coral i'd consigned to the rockwork as structural---blossom forth with a new growth of brain coral. I had a popped head of frogspawn grow new skeleton. Plate is well-known for blossoming forth from dead skeleton. Currently I have a living 4 head hammer that has grown four more tiny, tiny heads from its bare under-skeleton, and they are developing pretty fast, so they may become viable heads themselves.

 

[miroch]

My leather has not extended its tentacles in about 5 months...it does still have tiny bumps. About a month ago it removed itself from the piece of rock it was on. As my nitrates start to drop im hoping he improves. Im had him for about 3 years.

 

[Hitch08]

5. keep your parameters spot on. You don't have to have a controller---I've operated for decades with a hardware store timer for the lights and a float switch for the ATO pump---but one can be helpful. If you're going to have stony coral a good evaporation rate is useful, unless you have a big tank and are going to need a calcium reactor anyway. If you have a 75 or under, probably tossing kalk powder into your ATO reservoir will do all you need, no kalk reactor, no fancy machinery. Just kalk in the reservoir.

I quoted above the part of your initial post that most confuses me. I'm still in the very early stages of (slowly) building a tank, so I haven't done a lot of research on this. It's many months away for me.

Anyway, why is a good evaporation rate useful? Also, with a 120g tank, will I need a calcium reactor?

Thanks!

 

[Sk8r]

WIth a 120 you likely will need a reactor once you have a big lot of stony coral.

The evaporation rate for a 55 should be about a gallon a day, which is why we have open sumps and/or open tops. Putting kalk into the topoff water means that a gallon of kalk laced water is being delivered to your tank every day thanks to evaporation and that kalk (calcium powder) can feed quite a lot of coral. Kalk is good up to about 70 gallons, and then you have to start thinking about a calcium reactor for a stony reef.

 

[Sk8r]

nitrate seems to be the hidden villain in a lot of reef problems. If you have too heavy a fish load for the processing power of your tank, or if you've got a filter, sponge, or gunk-collection point that causes a nitrate rise, that can be a problem. THe lower you can get nitrate and phosphate, (as commonly seen in fishy tanks) and perish-forbid, no ammonia, the happier your reef will likely be. Precise correlation---I dunno how the numbers run; but if you see a seriously gunky tank, it's not likely going to be a happy reef. If you run carbon, change the bag out now and again: used carbon breaks down and releases everything it collected: don't let it do that. Bioballs are ok for fish, not for reefs. Sponges---I won't have one anywhere in my tank, myself.