Coral Stocking Help

[zonatus]

I have a standard Coralife Biocube 29 that I've had for about a year now and I'd like to hear some input on the corals I want to get. My current coral/anemone stocking is as follows:

Pink Tube Anemone (I know it's not a real anemone)
Candy Cane Coral
Hollywood Stunner Chalice
Frogspawn
Green Flower Anemone
Discosoma Mushroom
Acans
Pagoda Cup Coral
Duncans
Cyphastrea

There are also the remains of a knopia frag that was overtaken by some strange algae I'd never seen before and a couple of zoa polyps that are barely holding on to life for some reason. So I've just decided to stay away from zoas since they just don't do well in my tank.

Coral Wishlist:

Trachyphyllia
Heteropsammia Cochlea or Walking Dendro
Hammer Coral
Maxi Mini Anemones
Sun Coral (I know about the feeding, but not quite sure how difficult it is)
Purple Photosynthetic Gorgonian
Some Ricordea
Blastomussa
Green/Blue Pavona
A nice Scoly
A small Elegance (This is the one I'm iffiest about but it's also my favorite)
ORA Red Goniopora
Tubipora Musica

Can anyone tell me what they think? Any and all input is appreciated

 

[Joeganja]

Elegance corals are extremely aggressive and their tentacles can kill other corals as well as sting fish. And especially in a 29 gallon I would advise you to get corals that won't have tentacles so large. Hammer corals can be the same way where I've had a hammer corals tentacles extend to another coral and sting it. Aquarists have poor luck with gonioporas as to no one seems to know why they don't last so long in captivity. I had one for about 5 months and it ended up dying on me. They seem to do better if fed. Sun corals and dendros love to be fed like every other day or so. Also like to be target fed. I have a purple photosynthetic gorgonian and I love it extremely easy to take care of as long as you get the flow right. Scolys are nice just very slow growers. I've seen people have some for years and they never split.

 

[zonatus]

I know about how tricky gonioporas are which is why I would get the ORA Red if I can afford it. Everything I've read about that one states that they're much easier to keep than wild gonis. I think that I could do alright with target feeding the sun corals every other day. And I've heard that those purple gorgonians are easy I just haven't seen one at my lfs yet. I'll go ahead and just remove the elegance from my wishlist as they just make me too nervous. I'll probably add the scoly and trachy last as they're so pricey. I'm curious though, how big is the difference between the hammer and the frogspawn as they're both Euphyllia? I've had my frogspawn for months and I haven't had a problem with it at all.

 

[Tahoe61]

I'll add that remember any NPS corals need to be feed routinely or they slowly starve, in a 29 gallon tank it can be tricky balancing feeding NPS corals and maintaining water quality.
Do not over polish the water and the Red Goniopora and Euphyllias should be fine.
You list is pretty extensive, once those corals start to grow it may be a real estate battle.
The more stony corals you acquire, the more you'll have to be consistent with water changes and possibly dosing down the road.

 

[zonatus]

I already feed the acans, flower anemone, and tube anemone whenever I feed the fish, especially the tube anemone, as it NPS. I would only get two or three heads of a sun coral so that I wouldn't have to increase feeding too much. If it grows any more I could always frag them off and sell them or give them to friends, which is what I plan on doing if any of my corals get too big and start fighting. I have a decent amount of nutrients in my water, the nitrates usually read around 5. The fish stocking is very light, just a Wyoming White Clown and a Bandtail Wasp, so I have a little more wiggle room in terms of feeding, since I make sure to give the fish only food that they will eat, and what they miss I guide into a hungry coral or anemone. Most of the mysis cube goes to my 55 gallon freshwater tank. I am aware of the issues of stony corals removing elements from the water, and so far I've been able to keep up with it with weekly water changes (Every Wednesday). I do have calcium supplements and a Salifert test kit on the ready if I do need to start dosing and I can always grab some other supplements.