Coral pests

[Fox]

I have a list of 5 coral I want to have,2 of them being stony corals. I hear I should wait 1 year before adding them,meaning that for a year theese will be the only coral:Ricordea,Zoa,Clove Polyps. But from what I know all of them should have an island? Apparently cloves and zoas should,but I also think ricordea beacuse they are semi aggresive. I don't want the main rock to be barren in that one year,is there a slow growing soft coral?

 

[sushiboss]

Hey there. Saw no one responded so I’ll give my .02$.

You don’t necessarily have to wait that long for sps but you need to have a relatively stable environment for sps to thrive and grow.

Clove polyps are an invasive coral that is steer away from unless you absolutely love the tank. They can and will outgrow most things.

As for recommendations
- Duncan’s are super easy and an lps
-rhodactis mushrooms are easy and similar to ricordeas
-toadstools which I am in love with!
-pretty much any zoa isolated to a rock
-candy canes
-and ofcourse green star polyps or gsp for short (although same issue as clove polyps there invasive! So watch out)


Then as you begin to see success with these you could probably start with
-hammers
-frogspawns (touch up in difficulty from hammers)
-acans (touch up from frogspawns)
-montipora or any chalice almost
-torches (touch up from acans in difficulty)

Stay away from
-goniopora
-acropora
-most sps and plate corals

These are much much harder to handle and really require stability to survive.

Ofcourse all things considered make sure you have good water chemistry and husbandry both inside and outside of you’re tank and test frequently!

Happy reefing

 

[X-37B]

If you use 50-100% live rock you can add corals as soon as your tank is stable. This is based on you having experience in the hobby.
If your new then go slow as the only thing that happens when rushing this hobby is problems.

If your using all dead rock then you will need to wait until the ugly phase is over and the tank is stable. Time varies with each system.

Your rock islands for those coral is a good idea.

Trying to handle the uglies with alot of coral in your system is counter productive. You see post here all the time with those issues.

Stability is your goal. Set your range for all parameters and focus on keeping them in range by testing and have a "plan" to implement when your parameters get out of range.