Corals for beginners

[LaloJ]

What are the recommended corals for beginners, or low care corals? What are the must have items in the tank besides lighting, water circulation and temperature control? I'm a fish guy but I'm currently interested in setting up a nano reef, so I've read a few things about corals along over the years, sps tanks are spectacular but my tastes are based more on soft corals: zoanthids, discosomas, bubble coral and leather toadstool coral, I would put them as my favorites.
I'm planning a 10 gallon tank, and changing the salt I will use for this tank, I use instant ocean but will likely use reef crystals or tropic marine for this tank.

 

[BaliReefBox]

Try these you may have more luck than me, Im still killing even these

https://www.tokopedia.com/mixedmart2023/jumbo-size-simulation-fake-coral-karang-laut-reef-sea-fish-tank?extParam=ivf%3Dfalse%26src%3Dsearch

 

[littlefoxx]

Zoas and leathers seem the easiest for care! Rock flower anemones are hard either in my opinion. Bubble coral is a little more challenging

 

[bakbay]

Mushrooms — they can survive through a zombie apocalypse! I’ve put them in a newly cycled tank and they opened up like nothing happened. Zoas didn’t fare too well for me.

 

[LaloJ]

Zoas and leathers seem the easiest for care! Rock flower anemones are hard either in my opinion. Bubble coral is a little more challenging

Some people have recommended palys to me, but they are not as beautiful as the zoas, in addition to the warnings that there are due to the toxins that some corals have. I love sun coral but there is no way I would try it right now.

 

[LaloJ]

Mushrooms — they can survive through a zombie apocalypse! I’ve put them in a newly cycled tank and they opened up like nothing happened. Zoas didn’t fare too well for me.

I've read about how easy zoanthids can be for a lot of people, and how complicated they are for other people or in some tanks they just don't seem to thrive, I hope it's not me, what do you think about favias?

 

[bakbay]

Favias and LPS in general are easy as well but if you’re looking for the easiest corals to get started, I’ve found mushrooms, zoas, toadstools, xenia, Kenya tree, GSP, etc to be the easiest. With all these softies, I would resist all temptations and put them on their own rock/island. They spread like wildfires and very hard to control!

 

[littlefoxx]

Some people have recommended palys to me, but they are not as beautiful as the zoas, in addition to the warnings that there are due to the toxins that some corals have. I love sun coral but there is no way I would try it right now.

Yeah really if you keep them both happy you dont have to worry about it. Had a few emerald crabs die from trying to eat zoas but like they were trying to eat them so cant really blame the zoa lol. Ive got a garden in my tank and I love them

 

[Bribo12]

Duncan’s are super hardy and add a lot of movement

 

[nothing_fancy]

Definitely second Duncan corals, great starter coral, doesn't require great lighting, survives in less than perfect conditions but will obviously thrive in best conditions. Some really nice looking corals that are very hardy are blastomusa merletti. I have one that fell off my frag rack and deep into the rock work, I didn't notice for weeks, when I did I figured it was a goner. Then one day I found it something had pushed it out enough for me to see it, it must've been fully shaded for weeks maybe a month, totally fine and actually was growing like that. With leathers I would be careful at first, they are fairly easy to keep but you could have issues if they aren't doing well as they release a toxin during allelopathy, they can also get huge very quickly. Things like zoas are also very easy to keep but be mindful that they will spread everywhere and can be invasive unless you really like zoas

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would say duncans, zoas or mushrooms would be my picks for starter coral.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Keep in mind that space is precious and limited in a small tank.... bubble coral is aggressive, so you will need to leave space around it. Toadstool leather grows very fast and shades everything else out, I took mine out of my 15 gallon cause the shade was killing half the tank. Duncans are good, but grow very fast, I took mine out of my 32 gallon after 1.5 years because it took up almost half the tank.

 

[snorklr]

unfortunately there's a fine line between an easy beginners coral and an invasive weed...kenya trees will drop branches and make you feel like you know what you're doing and give you some nice movement...and the ones they drop are large enough to easily remove if you dont want them...not sure if they put out any toxins but i couldnt keep xenia alive in a tank full of kenya...

 

[kevgib67]

I would definitely skip bubble coral as surrounding corals would need to be at least 6” away and that would take up a lot of real estate in a 10 gallon. One coral not mentioned would be a candy coral. Easy to care for and grows well.

 

[CWalters]

Mushrooms — they can survive through a zombie apocalypse! I’ve put them in a newly cycled tank and they opened up like nothing happened. Zoas didn’t fare too well for me.

This ^^ I had a mushroom fall off one of my rocks and fell into a cave. 2 months later I realized one of my urchins was carrying it around. Healthy as ever.

 

[LaloJ]

Thank you all so much for the tips, to be honest I didn't think Candy and blasto were easy to care for, I have stayed away from reef tanks because I somehow feel the water chemistry is more complicated, but with changes in water I expect some items to be replenished directly with new fresh water, besides I wouldn't want to use my 50 gallon tank to test corals due to the size, I preferred something small that has a more practical and quick maintenance. I was thinking of adding trace elements and maybe magnesium as additives, any suggestions?

 

[merkmerk73]

Avoid the ugly brown mushrooms and leathers

They’re easy but they’re ugly and won’t be worth anything to trade in

GSP is one of the best looking easy corals you can get and it has nice color

 

[nothing_fancy]

Thank you all so much for the tips, to be honest I didn't think Candy and blasto were easy to care for, I have stayed away from reef tanks because I somehow feel the water chemistry is more complicated, but with changes in water I expect some items to be replenished directly with new fresh water, besides I wouldn't want to use my 50 gallon tank to test corals due to the size, I preferred something small that has a more practical and quick maintenance. I was thinking of adding trace elements and maybe magnesium as additives, any suggestions?

In a system thats less than 50 gallons water changes should suffice for everything you need if you're using something like Reef Crystals. I wouldn't dose anything until later anyhow, maybe 6months in and at that point you could look into something like "All for Reef" for a small tank under 50g.

 

[LaloJ]

Avoid the ugly brown mushrooms and leathers

They’re easy but they’re ugly and won’t be worth anything to trade in

GSP is one of the best looking easy corals you can get and it has nice color

I have seen GSP and clavularia 'disappear' in a reef tank while other more complicated corals thrived, why is that?? The polyps seemed to get smaller and whiter and then it just wasn't there anymore.

 

[JoJosReef]

Bubble coral out for a 10gal. Too big, too aggressive.

Great Softies for beginners:
1. GSP (put it on an island or get the branching GSP variety)
2. Rhodactis mushrooms
3. Pulsing xenia stricly on an island; in a 10gal I would weigh heavily decision to add
4. Toadstools
5. Zoanthids
6. Palythoas--keep separated on islands/easy maintenance areas depending on variants (e.g., nuclear green palys will overrun everything if you don't keep them separated. Ditto with pandoras aka fairy dust aka cinnamon apples)
7. Cloves

Great LPS for beginners:
1. Duncan (hit or miss, but generally good canary in a gold mine to tell you if something is off)
2. Trumpet/Candy Cane (Caulastrea)
3. Favias / Blastos / Acans, when you get a bit more comfortable and have mid-light/mid-flow spots to place them

Great SPS for beginners:
1. Pavonas --> beware the "hairy/cactus" pavona, which allegedly can be very invasive
2. Cephastreas --> careful for placement as they can encrust to the point of invasiveness
3. Birds nest / styplophora, when you get more comfortable

Great Nems for beginners:
1. Rock Flower Anemones, aka RFAs

Great macroalgae for beginners:
1. Codium
2. Botrycladia
3. Gracilaria hayi aka pom pom Gracilaria

All of the above depends on how you set up and run your tank. Live rock is going to give you a major boost. Water changes in a 10g are pretty easy to do or even automate. Algae control methods affect your corals.

-------------------------

Easy corals NOT recommended:
1. Kenya trees--drop trees, spread everywhere
2. Pocciliopora--if unlucky, can get the type that spread by dropping polyps and get everywhere
3. Discosomas--in my experience, can be hard to keep in one place; let loose and float around to other parts of tank

Good luck!