Which corals would be good for a newbie

[MrX1oo1]

i have a lot of shade in my nano and i'd like to place some coral in there. i'm looking for some nice hardy coral that'll do well in a small tank. my tank is going on 6 months now. if not non-photosynthetic perhaps just some that'll do well in shade. i'm guessing thats only non-photosynthetic coral though lol

 

[Kolognekoral]

MrX, in a nano you will run into problems providing enough current for many NPCs, as well as their size can be an issue. A few that are easier and small would be Tubastrea sps (sun corals, my first choice), cylinder roses and possibly some frags from a large-polyp gorgonian. Also, pollution of such a confined environment may become an issue, as these animals must be fed regularly. I would read as much as possible before making the jump.

I don't want to discourage you, simply highlight some of the possible problem areas. With careful management and planning, all is possible!

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Actually, I think a nano tank is the way to go for starting with some of the easier non-photos. Flow would be the biggest issue, but the easier ones such as Tubastrea and some of the easier gorgonians don't have major flow requirements IME. I would definitely go with either Tubastrea, Dendrophyllia, or some of the larger polyped gorgs such as Diodogorgia or Menella (stay away from blueberry gorgs though). As far as keeping the parameters in check, I would primarily focus on constructing a constant water changing device. This can be built using a Litermeter III and remote pump module. The nice thing about using a nano tank in this instance is that you can do 10% daily changes if you wanted without batting an eye. Just get a large holding tank for new saltwater and pump the old saltwater into a drain or a large bucket that you'll empty out regularly. You could also put in a small skimmer to keep things even cleaner (I'd probably go with a Tunze Nano skimmer - never used it but it's the only one at that size that's probably not garbage). I'd go bare-bottomed in this kind of setup so you can keep it clean more easily. As far as feeding, it would depend upon the coral. But I'd figure that you'd be looking at trying to target feed twice a day - another reason why a small tank is best.

Definitely do the research before starting it though.

 

[dendro982]

The main problem will be with water quality: you will have to feed around 1/4 teaspoon of the microfood during the day. If Saphire skimmer will be able to handle this - then good.

You always can make areas of higher flow, using small powerheads.

Using the small colonies will help to keep the number of mouthes to feed to a minimum. The big colony always can be fragmented to the small, and what was left - given to somebody else.

Tubastrea is quite hardy, but it should be fed at twice a week by meaty defrozen food, like mysis, Ocean Plankton, shopped raw grocery seafood - without salt or presevatives. Washing it before using will help with water quality.

The sun coral is usually available in 3 colors: orange-yellow, lemon-yellow, black (very dark brown) and the 4th - the brown with long branches, is more rare. If your supplier is not a chain store, there is a good chance to find the relatives of sun coral, in pinkish color.

Very few heads of each - and you will have quite a variety in your tank.

One restriction - they should be placed on the rock, where the food will not drop inside the rock branches. Otherwise it may rot there.

I don't have Menella gorgonian, but after it I would place Swiftia and Diodogorgia.

Swiftia - if you will not bruise it by basted debris during cleaning.

It's more bright in the light, S. kofoididi is a glowing tangerine color, S. excerta - yellow with red polyps (but sick S. kofoidi will look the same color, it recovered well in my case).

Diodogorgia - red or yellow finger gorgonian, with white (actually transparent) polyps, so large, that you will be able to see the process of eating, with some magnification or photo camera with macromode.

Vertically shaped are more durable, in my humble experience, but of course I don't have a statistics .

Scleronephthya and chili coral will likely to be problematic - the amount of flow and feeding, particularly small food for one, and variety of different kinds of food - for another. Plus chili doesn't like light very much, IMHE again.

Tube anemone: I'm in love with them, hardy, feed them just as a fish, but they:
- may grow to a very big size, and I don't know, how to recognize the smaller varieties. Already asked about it.
- will require the PVC tube with the finest sand, as a replacement of a deep sand bed - they bury their bodies there.
- require low flow - practically impossible in the same tank with scleros.
- the fish should have place to swim around it, without touching. The same "no contact" rule - for corals.
- in the store they may look 2.5 times smaller, that in tank. I planned one amount of space for mine, and had to do reaquascaping to find the place for it. In low flow, not anywhere
Even with all of this - it was the best buy for a money, ever.

HTH

 

[MrX1oo1]

Awesome thanks for all the great replies, that helps alot. diodogorgia, tubastrea, sun corals and the dendrophyllia look like great choices for under my shelf. I probably won't buy any of these till i find a nice small sump or build one myself. creating some sort of ATO or draining system is gonna be a challenge since i live in a two story upstairs. aninjaatemyshoe, my tank is already been running for six months now, so it's already set up i just have all that shaded space under my shelf rockwork. thanks again for the help