anything I should know before getting my first coral?

[muggle0981]

Corals i have in my tank

mushrooms
Cabbage
Kenya trees
Zoas
Hammers
Totadstool
Sun coral

Basically all soft and lps

for whatever reason cant get acans to sustain

all easy corals, im a novice

never have dipped in the 14 years ive been reefing

i dont qt fish either and have never had a problem,

But thats me, and if disaster strikes i own it

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I am worried for gsp bc it encrusts. I really like the look of Xenia and I have metal tongs for when I need to get rid of some. Xenia floats off? Never heard of anyone say that. I am just gonna keep it isolated on its own rock. And it can’t grow on sand right?

Gsp encrusts and can be pulled off like removing a bandaid. It's not hard to trim it quarterly to keep it where you want it.

And yes, Xenia polyps can and do just release, float off in the water and attach elsewhere. This is why so many won't touch it. Seen too many tanks absolutely overtaken. Do yourself a favor and Google Xenia takeover. You'll see what I mean

 

[Hunter]

Any softies in particular you’d recommend? This will be my first coral and they’ll have abt 100 par.

I’m not much of a softie coral guy, but the other users have good recommendations. Xenia will almost certainly grow but you’ll never be able to get rid of them (not necessarily a bad thing if you like them), green star polyps, zoanthids, mushrooms, leather corals is a good place to start. If you want to get into some lps corals you can try acans or maybe a chalice to start. I would get a small variety and see what thrives and take it from there

 

[rioreef]

Gsp, xenia, and mushrooms will all take over. It was mentioned Xenia can float to another location and spread. Don’t know about that but mushrooms definitely will do that. Gsp on on its own ock, not close to other rocks and the rock it is on, get one that has vertical height for a more interesting look as it gets encrusted.

 

[attiland]

ah i have heard so many horror stories with gsp that I'm a little hesitant. i would keep it on its own rock but I only got 2 rocks as of now and im planning one all for the xenia so maybe gonna skip on the gsp. bit scared of zoas bc of the palytoxins, I don't want to start right off with something poisonous. maybe later once I learn more abt them. def gonna go with a mushroom. also, could you please answer my question as to how to add corals to tank? half the recommend dose of reef dip and remove frag plug and glue to rock? is that it? is the glue necessary? thanks!

GSP has bad rep because it is too easy to keep. Grows fast and easy to control. Go by your gut if you like it get it. The littlest will do it grows fast

 

[Hunter]

Yeah we’re all sweaty reefers on this site which is dope, but there’s nothing bad with starting out with xenias and gsp. My first coral was a xenia which I thought was awesome since it grew like weeds, and I had an entire tank full in no time. Yeah it can be a “pest” at later stages of the hobby, but its pretty dope to start with. If you like it then get it. No doubt in a few years you’ll want to upgrade your tank again, and you can rethink your coral selections once you have more experience then

 

[StevenLacy1769]

ah i have heard so many horror stories with gsp that I'm a little hesitant. i would keep it on its own rock but I only got 2 rocks as of now and im planning one all for the xenia so maybe gonna skip on the gsp. bit scared of zoas bc of the palytoxins, I don't want to start right off with something poisonous. maybe later once I learn more abt them. def gonna go with a mushroom. also, could you please answer my question as to how to add corals to tank? half the recommend dose of reef dip and remove frag plug and glue to rock? is that it? is the glue necessary? thanks!

My GSPs are fine, had them for 6 months and dont seem to be a problem.

 

[blasterman]

GSP grows like a weed, but if you keep it on an isolated rock it can't go anywhere and does kind of look cool. Reefers make the mistake of putting it on their main rockwork, or on a wall of their tank, then get mad when it grows out of control because there's no gap to keep it in bounds. Or get creative....I saw a guy glue a piece to a plaster skull so it looked like a had radioactive hair.

Xenia can grow like crazy, but it requires excess nitrate to grow like this. You haven't said what your nutrients are, and if either nitrate or phosphate are zero everything will die anyways. Young tanks are notoriously unstable when it comes to nutrients. This is what causes problems with corals.