What corals shall I get?

[kouma]

Can someone recommend hardy, beautiful, and easy to keep corals for a beginner. With your recommendation, can you also tell me how to take care of the coral (i.e. target feeding, what to feed, what parameters to match, etc.)?

I dont want everything to be green or pink (these are the common colors), if at all I want the best of each available coloration. I really want to impress my wife, since she so far have been supportive She likes corals that look like anemones.

Tank specifications:

- 250Gal with plain sump
- RO/DI Water all the way
- Lights are Tek 8x54W T5HO
- Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates 0/0/0
- Currently no fish


Thanks in advance for the input!

 

[Mark9]

The yellow colony polyps are nice, easy target feeder.
Sun coral in background, easy target feeder as well.

Oops, just realized i'm in the LPS section, these are not LPS.
You may want to start with soft corals.
Corals for Beginners

 

[Peachy Nano]

LPS that are easy and have some great color other than Green & Pink- scolymias, plate corals (short & long tentacle), Acans. All come in a variety of colors and from cheaper to very expensive for rare color variations. All thrive very well with light only but supplemental feedings of Mysis & Brine accelerate growth.
As for you wife liking more movement in corals- frogspawns and torches come in purples and oranges not just standard green. They are also easy to care for with good lighting and supplemental feedings.

 

[Art13]

I would say the torches, frogspawn, and a duncan if she likes anenomes, though you might want to think about adding fish along with them, they like a dirtier tank to grow and thrive in, no nutrients in the water or no target feeding and i don't believe they will fair too well.

 

[leveldrummer]

Hammer coral, Frogspawn, Torch coral, Duncans all get my vote too, they have long tentacles and sway nice with the water movement.

 

[JustClownin]

Hammers, torches, and frogspawns are easy. No special care other then being mindful not to blast them flow and keeping your paramaters in check.

I think war corals are easy too, but they dont had movement like the above LPS.

 

[GroktheCube]

The first corals I put in my tank were a Favia, a Favites, and a Galatea. All 3 have been absolutely bulletproof. I nearly killed them the first day I got them with a contaminated QT (I suspect copper or a strong oxidizer) that stripped all of more than half their tissue. They bounced back in my young tank within two weeks, and have all grown to more than 4x their original size in the past 7 months. About a month ago, I accidentally knocked polyp off of the galaxea moving it. I stuck the single polyp on a plug, and it is now 6 polyps that have encrusted over about 1.5 square inches.

My Symphylia has been very tough too, but also slow growing.

My fasted growing corals have been my Stylophora and Seratiopora by far.

 

[Twwety]

A type of plate coral would be a nice pop of color for the sand and there a lot of fun to watch when they eat, or a fox coral there a very elegant looking coral.

 

[dmh8801]

hammer, frogspawn, duncans. Have all three in a fairly new tank and doing very well. Very easy corals to keep.

 

[Baldguy]

I know you said not too much green but I can't imagine having a tank without Kryptonite Candy Cane. An amazingly bright green you'll see from across the house. Very easy no target feeding needed. That and a Duncan would be the first two corals in my tank. Really none of the corals mentioned require or need target feeding.

 

[frankyrivera]

I know you said not too much green but I can't imagine having a tank without Kryptonite Candy Cane. An amazingly bright green you'll see from across the house. Very easy no target feeding needed. That and a Duncan would be the first two corals in my tank. Really none of the corals mentioned require or need target feeding.

I would have to agree with the candy cane here's a pic of mine

 

[R.ahlskog]

Candy canes grow like mad. Very fast

 

[Boston21]

Someone care to let me in on the secret to growing Candy Canes? I can never get my frags to live, I keep water parameter's pretty constant. Tanks roughly 8 months old. I have a frag that is receding skeleton but still has full color. Not to thread hijack, I just dont think they are good beginner coral's. I have killed 3 frags that I have bought, and the 1 I currently have is showing skeleton (has for 2 months) but still has full color (split once during this time too -_-) (bottom of tank, and decent flow) Could my light be nuking it?

 

[frankyrivera]

Someone care to let me in on the secret to growing Candy Canes? I can never get my frags to live, I keep water parameter's pretty constant. Tanks roughly 8 months old. I have a frag that is receding skeleton but still has full color. Not to thread hijack, I just dont think they are good beginner coral's. I have killed 3 frags that I have bought, and the 1 I currently have is showing skeleton (has for 2 months) but still has full color (split once during this time too -_-) (bottom of tank, and decent flow) Could my light be nuking it?

Can't be the light nuking it mine is at the top loving it. Check your param.

 

[Reef Frog]

For color look into prism brain coral (purple/neon green), scolys, acans & chalice once your tank matures & you have full understanding & control of parameters & nutrient levels.

Yellow is the hardest & most expensive color to get IME. To my knowledge chalices and the rare yellow speckled acan are about it with a few exceptions you sometimes see in photos but rarely have the opportunity to buy. But NPS like suns or dendros are beautiful shades of yellow but require regular feeding.

Orange can be elusive too but you will see orange tinted acans plus plate corals & chalice of course. Blue is 3rd hardest for me to find but can be done with chalice & some zoas if you want to mix them in.