Am I ready for corals

[Rick's Reviews]

So I'm currently looking into adding more corals to my aquriam as I feel I have enough fish, currently I have 4x firefish, 2 X clown, 2 X chromis, 1 spotted mandarin, 1 flame scooter, 1 blue sapphire damsel, pistol shrimp, fire shrimp, peppermint shrimp

I have cuc that varies from red legged dwarf, blue legged, Halloween hermit, bumblebee, nacarius snails strawberry lipped conch + more
Bubble tip anemone (still not great since adding)

200litre 45g aquarium, started last Feb, fishless cycled, started adding life in September

Coral I have candy cane, mushroom, green star and fire cracker.. green star and fire cracker I have attached to little islands which I will eventually move

My aquarium has been great so far from research and reef2reef help I received I have only lost a couple hermits, snails and one high fin goby (it was with pistol shrimp for a couple of months but got kicked out)

So in preparation for more corals I have purchased 20kg reef salt, (unsure if this will make a difference), salifert alk test kit , I currently have calcium test kit plus I have aqua forest calcium, I purchased TLF revieve for a soft dip, I also have seachem coral dip.
I have also purchase 5 litres of kh blend alkaline solution

I currently do not have any corraline algae in my aquarium
anything I can do to help growth of coralline without chemicals?

Anything I may be missing?

I think I am going more towards the candy cane Caulastraea type of corals, easy care and maintenance also great colours and formation
Thank you

 

[Mark Bradley]

I am lucky to have a great LFS (Living Reef/Dartford) who has guided me on my coral additions. I, like you, was patient before adding fish and clean up crew. I’ve tended to add corals one at a time to ensure I site them appropriately and they are happy.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I am lucky to have a great LFS (Living Reef/Dartford) who has guided me on my coral additions. I, like you, was patient before adding fish and clean up crew. I’ve tended to add corals one at a time to ensure I site them appropriately and they are happy.

Goes without saying water conditions are optimum and I also do frequent ICP tests - water consistency is key. I keep away from SPS tbh.

 

[gibec]

Your tank might be ready, but not yo wallet.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Keep in mind that the presence and growth of coralline algae signals good or optimal conditions for the growth of...coralline algae, and not every and all coral species. I have a RSM with broken fluorescent lighting that is overrun with coralline, but it's heavily stocked with fish, and I just can't seem to get "easy" SPS, like pocillopora, to grow. I've since decided that it's going to be my softie tank, and put in a spotband butterflyfish to cement the deal and discourage me from trying anything else.

If there's anything that I can recommend aside from leather corals for you it would be grube's gorgonian. It's nearly indestructible and doesn't look like any other soft coral, so it will give you the heady feeling of success even if your tank isn't quite ready for the SPS.