Can I finally get a few soft coral?

[Fishbro]

Hey everyone so my Biocube 32 has been set up for a month and a week and a half now and my parameters read as follows:

pH: 8.3
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Alkalinity: 7.3
Calcium: 470
Magnesium: 1360
Phosphate: 0
Salinity: 1.025

I have no fish in the tank yet as I am doing a long QT for all of them just to be safe but there is a clean up crew and not too much algae since they chomp it down. I have been noticing the start of coralline growth and lots of pods (never added any) so I take that as a good thing.
Corals I am thinking are probably some leather and zoas. Any other corals that would be beginner friendly you guys recommend? Also do my parameters look good for coral?

 

[Doctorgori]

Looks good ....I’m gonna stamp your papers

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

your parameters are pretty stable, just keep an eye on your Nitrates 20, calcium a little high, 450ppm is like your top parameter just try to get them lower I would start with a few softies and see how they do before introducing more.

 

[Mr Fishface]

I think you would be good to add some soft corals for sure. I started with the more basic ones - Green star polyps and mushrooms I believe were my first corals. Xenia is another really easy one. I like mushrooms, they are easy and hardy. Don't die if you make mistakes but only spread when the conditions get stable and stay better in my experience. Various leathers are good choices. Be aware that zoas can be one of the more tricky soft corals. Sometimes they grow easy and are hardy, sometimes they are finicky and don't do well. Some people with successful tanks never have luck with them even.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Sounds like you are ready for soft corals, but since you mentioned quarantining your fish I wanted to point out that anything "wet" which includes corals both soft and hard can bring parasites into your tank and negate your good quarantine work.

 

[Fishbro]

Sounds like you are ready for soft corals, but since you mentioned quarantining your fish I wanted to point out that anything "wet" which includes corals both soft and hard can bring parasites into your tank and negate your good quarantine work.

Yes thanks for reminding me I forgot to say I’m going to dip all the corals in coral rx so that should take care of most hitchhikers but I’m not trying to make my tank a sterile reef which is pretty hard to do anyways cause I can’t QT the coral.

 

[NS Mike D]

the only thing I can add (really good advice here) is that if you start with GSP, xenia, mushrooms or any other hardy fast spreading coral, to add them to their own rock so that they are easier contained and less likely to overrun the rock work.

Also, as far as your Nitrates and Calcium, keep in mind that once established, the corals will start uptaking these so don't do anything radical and stick to your current routine.

I know some folks hate these fast growers (and veiw them like weeds) but I like them. I will add kenya tree to the list. Really flows nicely. It will drop branches and repopulate, but I never had a problem with it overtaking anything. The breakoffs seemed to take hold in areas that I didn't have or plan to have other corals, like behind rock or under a shade and grew slow enough to be attractive adding aesthetics to an otherwise barren section of the tank

 

[Fishbro]

the only thing I can add (really good advice here) is that if you start with GSP, xenia, mushrooms or any other hardy fast spreading coral, to add them to their own rock so that they are easier contained and less likely to overrun the rock work.

Also, as far as your Nitrates and Calcium, keep in mind that once established, the corals will start uptaking these so don't do anything radical and stick to your current routine.

I know some folks hate these fast growers (and veiw them like weeds) but I like them. I will add kenya tree to the list. Really flows nicely. It will drop branches and repopulate, but I never had a problem with it overtaking anything. The breakoffs seemed to take hold in areas that I didn't have or plan to have other corals, like behind rock or under a shade and grew slow enough to be attractive adding aesthetics to an otherwise barren section of the tank

Ok I think I will for sure start with some mushrooms, but I’m not too sure about Xenia, GSP, and Kenya Tree, I’ll decide if I want those when at my LFS today haha. As for mushrooms I’ll start with Ricordea, Rhodactis, and I was thinking Discosoma but I’ve heard those are very invasive. Is there any other mushroom types I’m missing?

 

[NS Mike D]

Ok I think I will for sure start with some mushrooms, but I’m not too sure about Xenia, GSP, and Kenya Tree, I’ll decide if I want those when at my LFS today haha. As for mushrooms I’ll start with Ricordea, Rhodactis, and I was thinking Discosoma but I’ve heard those are very invasive. Is there any other mushroom types I’m missing?

I started oh discosomas. Red, Green and Blue. Red and Greens were the size of a nickle to a quarter. The blues got 2x - 3x that size, didn't spread as fast and were very dramatic. I don't recall how I contained them. I remember them covering entire rock, but at some point they retracted as I added more corals. I am sure I pruned some back. They did a great job of covering rock work before algae could take over.


I found ricordea to be more difficult to keep and have no experience with Rhodactis.

 

[MohrReefs]

I hear Xenia can split and send fragments around the tank in attempts to spread. The only reason I'm cautious about that.

 

[jeffchapok]

I'd pass on zoas for a while. I tried them early on and had zero success keeping them alive until about the 9 month mark.

My earliest successes were toadstool leathers, cabbage leathers and hairy shrooms. Even GSP was finicky at first, although I blame my early struggles with GHA growing over it for much of that.

I have a gorgeous Kenya tree that has gotten huge, and yes, it's dropped a few branches but if you don't like them you can just pluck them out.

I also had xenia which I loved, but I accidentally killed it with a hydrogen peroxide incident. I had no problem with it overtaking anything and plan to get some more soon.

My Kenya tree: