What type of corals should I start off with

assuming you have good gear

assuming you have good gear

well if you have a decent skimmer, decent lighting and either 60-80 lbs of live rock or a filter, Mushrooms and Frog Spawn are usually very good starting points. They are pretty hearty corals that seem to do well. Also star polyps tend to be pretty hearty corals. The biggest advise I can possibly give you is DONT RUSH A REEF TANK. This isn't that show on Animal Planet, if you rush into filling up your tank, you will probably crash it. The nice thing about the FrogSpawn and the Mushrooms is that you really don't have to feed them, they use light for the most part. Also some leathers are pretty hearty as well. STAY AWAY from any SPS (Small Polyp Stoney Corals). Unless you have a calcium reactor or dose and your Alk and Magnesium is up to par, they will just be wasted money.
 
+1 for mushrooms, those things seem to live through anything, i've also had good luck with zoas going in the tank early on, I just wouldn't get any 50$ per polyp zoas...The very first corals I had were a kenya tree and about 3 polyps of green zoas. Both did well, the kenya trees did very very well...anyone that has started with one and had a whole forest of trees 6 months later knows what i'm talking about.
 
I agree with our visitor from Arizona, know what you are buying and try to avoid buying things because they look nice. The safest bet is to start with softies and LPS. I would not start with SPS until you have some experience under your belt. They have more requirements that you may not be able to fill, at least at this time.

If you are like me when I went to my first frag swap, I did not know the difference between the three main types of corals. There are thousand of different corals and I have no idea the name for 90% of them. But you can learn fairly quickly to spot SPS, or at least know to ask the vendors if they are SPS.

Unfortunately the members don't wear tshirts or anything to make them stand out, but I think they give the members name tags or something? Anyway, you will find most people that attend are willing to answer questions. Just don't be afraid to ask.
 
If you wait and check the club regularly, You may can get some give away items such as Green star polyp, some mushroom, Kenya tree, Xenia, yellow polyp, some palys. At least I can give you a type of Green star polyp that I also got from a club member. Others are growing now (red, green, blue mushroom, yellow polyp etc). Yes, I got all of these from club members for free. Someday I can give you too. So save your money for other items. If you want to try SPS with two part dosing or a calcium reactor, I can recommend "Pink lace bird's nest" and "Larry jackson purple tip" from H@rry's frag because they are doing great in my tank. I don't have a skimmer, a good light and even live rocks but have a kind of chaeto refugium.
 
Id start with frogspawn and any lps, fungia is good and hearty, galaxia, trumpet coral, fox coral, blue ridge coral are also imho good starters. I wouldn't do mushrooms or green star polyps due to the fact they spread out rapidly. Thats fine if thats what you want to keep, but most people evolve in this hobby and change what they want to look at everyday in their tanks. All things I listed can be removed easily and will not spread all over a nice pice of rock that you might have to get rid of someday because you no longer want the coral thats attached all over its surface. Just speaking from experience. You must choose but choose wisely!
 
Anything that Jason Fox guy sells will work great!!!


Just kidding.... Start with zoas or LPS.....Stay away from trees, mushrooms, and green star polyps they spread like mad and once you are a little more advanced you will not be able to get rid of them.

From your post it sounds like your tank is in the middle of a cycle. Have you checked your levels? With that algae bloom you might hold off on corals for a while??
 
Thx for the advice I'm going to keep doing some more searching, and all I keep hearing is that this hobby will makeu develop patience. I had my water levels checked and everything is great I got a clean up crew of some snails and crabs so I got that issue handled, so do I have to dose for the regular hardy corals.
I've got 2 Radion lights with a echotech MP40 can't tell u the size of the sump but the guys at Memphis recommend it and it has a dbl sock system with a eshopps protein skimmer cost me 250 so I hope it's great with a return pump
 
I would look into softies first.. Google soft coral pics and go for what you like. IMO you can't really go wrong with zoa polyps either. They grow easily and bring a lot of color to the tank. Have fun and welcome to your new addiction LOl.
 
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