Do I have to wait to add corals?

[Parsely]

I set up my first tank a couple months ago, a 13.5 gallon fluval evo. I have a pair of clownfish in there and a small CUC. I just had the ugly stage flare up (diatoms I think), got some trochus snails and they took care of it pretty quickly and it looks like its almost all gone now.

I want to start getting some corals, nothing crazy just some zoas for now.

Is it ok for me to start adding zoas now, or do I need to wait longer?

 

[leighton.bingham]

I set up my first tank a couple months ago, a 13.5 gallon fluval evo. I have a pair of clownfish in there and a small CUC. I just had the ugly stage flare up (diatoms I think), got some trochus snails and they took care of it pretty quickly and it looks like its almost all gone now.

I want to start getting some corals, nothing crazy just some zoas for now.

Is it ok for me to start adding zoas now, or do I need to wait longer?

Pending, your water, and lighting parameters are good. Is would say add some coral.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Have you done any tests on your water for things like Ammonia, Alkalinity etc? Also, what type of lighting do you have? What do you have for flow in the tank? All of these will impact what type of coral will likely survive in your tank.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I always suggest to get a $10 zoa whenever you want to try it. Use it as a tester, if it does well, then go ahead with more expensive purchases.

 

[NoohpyT]

Personally I always suggest to get a $10 zoa whenever you want to try it. Use it as a tester, if it does well, then go ahead with more expensive purchases.

This^

 

[Rob Biederman]

I set up my first tank a couple months ago, a 13.5 gallon fluval evo. I have a pair of clownfish in there and a small CUC. I just had the ugly stage flare up (diatoms I think), got some trochus snails and they took care of it pretty quickly and it looks like its almost all gone now.

I want to start getting some corals, nothing crazy just some zoas for now.

Is it ok for me to start adding zoas now, or do I need to wait longer?

Zoas should be good since they aren't stony corals.

 

[Parsely]

Have you done any tests on your water for things like Ammonia, Alkalinity etc? Also, what type of lighting do you have? What do you have for flow in the tank? All of these will impact what type of coral will likely survive in your tank.

stock lighting, return pumps and a powerhead for flow, ammonia 0, havent tested alkalinity for a while so i will check that first,

 

[Parsely]

Personally I always suggest to get a $10 zoa whenever you want to try it. Use it as a tester, if it does well, then go ahead with more expensive purchases.

Great idea, thank you!

 

[RaymondL]

I set up my first tank a couple months ago, a 13.5 gallon fluval evo. I have a pair of clownfish in there and a small CUC. I just had the ugly stage flare up (diatoms I think), got some trochus snails and they took care of it pretty quickly and it looks like its almost all gone now.

I want to start getting some corals, nothing crazy just some zoas for now.

Is it ok for me to start adding zoas now, or do I need to wait longer?

I just asked the same thing - didn't see your post.

What did you end up doing, and how did it work out for you?

 

[Parsely]

I added some zoas first that seem to be doing really well. There is a bit of algae that grows between the polyps but it doesn’t seem to be too bad, hopefully that goes away soon.

Since the Zoas looked great, I added a frogspawn and Duncan as well. The frogspawn had some issues but i think it was just in a bad spot with the flow so I moved the pump around and it’s great looking now, the Duncan is growing quickly and doing great too. So all in all everything seems to be good.

the advice I got here I think is the smartest, just test it out with a small cheap coral first and see how it does for a couple of weeks.

the other advice I received here that I’m really happy I did was to get corals you actually like. Don’t just get beginner friendly you don’t really like because you read they’re easy.

 

[RaymondL]

I added some zoas first that seem to be doing really well. There is a bit of algae that grows between the polyps but it doesn’t seem to be too bad, hopefully that goes away soon.

Since the Zoas looked great, I added a frogspawn and Duncan as well. The frogspawn had some issues but i think it was just in a bad spot with the flow so I moved the pump around and it’s great looking now, the Duncan is growing quickly and doing great too. So all in all everything seems to be good.

the advice I got here I think is the smartest, just test it out with a small cheap coral first and see how it does for a couple of weeks.

the other advice I received here that I’m really happy I did was to get corals you actually like. Don’t just get beginner friendly you don’t really like because you read they’re easy.

I'm elated to hear that it all worked out for you! I'll start with the Zoas as you had - thanks. I have the same tank by the way.....so the snails did the job for the diatoms - but what then do they consume once the diatoms are gone as you say?

Curious to know what upgrades if any did you do for the EVO - if anything.

Thanks

 

[Parsely]

Im a beginner still so I'm not certain on the snails, they just scavenge I guess and keep any small flare ups in control?

No upgrades, I'm running everything stock. The only thing I added was a powerhead to move the water around a bit more

 

[RaymondL]

Im a beginner still so I'm not certain on the snails, they just scavenge I guess and keep any small flare ups in control?

No upgrades, I'm running everything stock. The only thing I added was a powerhead to move the water around a bit more

Where do you place your powerhead? One thing I noticed with the stock lid is that it heats up the water quickly as there's no airflow, so I purchased a cooling fan that goes on top of the feeder hole - works great.

 

[Parsely]

Nice idea with the fan. I originally had it on the same black wall as the return pump heads but on the other side, but that was blasting the frogspawn coral too much so i moved it kind of under the return pump heads and pointed away from the corals. They seem to like that a lot better

 

[RaymondL]

I did the same with the power head - it's tough to find out where is the best spot is as I"ve had to move it around a lot.

This is the fan I used: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1270255350/fluval-evo-135-cooling-fan

 

[Parsely]

Nice, I'll check it out. Thanks

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Should be good make sure your params are good and then start off with a kenya tree and a zoa frag