Fluval Flex Marine 32.5 Coral Limits?

[Zach72202]

I am pretty new to saltwater, but I am familiar with terms in fishkeeping. I have a bunch of freshwater tanks, but am just starting on my saltwater journey.

The salt I am using, not sure if it matters, is Brightwell Neo Marine reef salt.

I just got my second saltwater system going, a used Fluval Flex Marine 32.5. The previous owner left the sand and a piece of live rock that was in the tank with it, absolutely coated with algae. All of the filter media within it was still wet so I am assuming it is ready to go, but I will let it run for a bit prior to adding any fish. He also was generous enough to give me the small powerhead and Tunze in tank skimmer, (not sure the exact one) that he had been using with it, so I am pretty set to go. In addition to that there is a Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Lite, which I am not sure what that is yet, but I will play with it in time.

I did load up the tank with liverock, got it flowing and just waiting for the dust to settle at this point.

I work for an LFS (second job), so getting livestock is easy and cheap for me. My next step is Tuesday I will be getting about 10 hermits and 10 astria snails to populate the tank, if the water is safe. Hopefully they will get the hair algae on that old rock under control and clean up the glass. I don't to scrub it all clean so when I add them they won't have anything to eat!

That's the situation, but the questions lies in that what coral am I limited to?

I know I can grow Green star polyps, and zoas, but outside of that my coral knowledge falls off. I am mainly looking to play with soft corals initially, but down the road I may want to dip into SPS and LPS if I can.

I plan on using the tank as a passive coral farm for fragging, breeding my Ocellaris Clowns (I have a mated pair in my other tank), and then breeding bangaii cardinals. It's just a 32g so I don't want to go nuts.

From what I have been told I could do frogspawn, hammers, and I do also want to have, what I call "finger leather coral". Not sure if its the proper term, but that's what it looks like to me. Also is there any sps or lps I could try?

Thank you for reading! Any feedback would be great!

 

[MaxTremors]

Does it have the stock lighting? If so, you’d mostly be limited to softies and lps (there are hundreds and hundreds of species that are kept in captivity that would do well in your tank). As far as the stocking limit for corals, you can have as many as you can fit in there while avoiding coral warfare (some will sting other corals, some will expel their stomachs and digest other corals that are too close, and others will release toxins) and ensuring lighting and flow requirements. For the first too kinds of warfare, so long as the corals aren’t touching (and keeping in mind the sweeper tentacles that some species put out at night), you should be okay (and there are many species, particularly soft corals, that don’t mind touching other corals), for the species that release toxins (mostly soft corals, like leathers and zoanthids) as long as you’re running some carbon it should filter it out. As corals grow this is a never ending issue. With the light that comes with that tank should be able to keep Euphylias (hammers, torches, frogspawn) and most leathers, their growth may be slow, but they should get enough light. Another fairly easy and cool lps you might try just starting out is a Duncan coral. I would get some experience (maybe six months) of keeping some of the cheaper more beginner friendly species while your tank matures before trying any more expensive or more difficult species. Just take it slow and do lots of reading, you’ve got plenty of time to plan out the species you want to keep.

 

[Zach72202]

Does it have the stock lighting? If so, you’d mostly be limited to softies and lps (there are hundreds and hundreds of species that are kept in captivity that would do well in your tank). As far as the stocking limit for corals, you can have as many as you can fit in there while avoiding coral warfare (some will sting other corals, some will expel their stomachs and digest other corals that are too close, and others will release toxins) and ensuring lighting and flow requirements. For the first too kinds of warfare, so long as the corals aren’t touching (and keeping in mind the sweeper tentacles that some species put out at night), you should be okay (and there are many species, particularly soft corals, that don’t mind touching other corals), for the species that release toxins (mostly soft corals, like leathers and zoanthids) as long as you’re running some carbon it should filter it out. As corals grow this is a never ending issue. With the light that comes with that tank should be able to keep Euphylias (hammers, torches, frogspawn) and most leathers, their growth may be slow, but they should get enough light. Another fairly easy and cool lps you might try just starting out is a Duncan coral. I would get some experience (maybe six months) of keeping some of the cheaper more beginner friendly species while your tank matures before trying any more expensive or more difficult species. Just take it slow and do lots of reading, you’ve got plenty of time to plan out the species you want to keep.

Makes a lot of sense! The lighting is stock, the Fluval Sea Marine 3.0 (750mm). I really didn't know softies released toxins, but good thing I have a container of carbon and a bag for it lying around. I keep it in an old laundry tote in the closet along with tons of other used equipment, which I refer to as "The basket". I think if I do try some euphylias I will put them as high as I can on the rock so they get the best light. I really didn't think about the fact that there is so many corals to choose from I suppose. I think I will do some reading on the par specs of my light and that should give me at least a baseline to go from.

Thank you for the response!

 

[tmoneylee71]

Does it have the stock lighting? If so, you’d mostly be limited to softies and lps (there are hundreds and hundreds of species that are kept in captivity that would do well in your tank). As far as the stocking limit for corals, you can have as many as you can fit in there while avoiding coral warfare (some will sting other corals, some will expel their stomachs and digest other corals that are too close, and others will release toxins) and ensuring lighting and flow requirements. For the first too kinds of warfare, so long as the corals aren’t touching (and keeping in mind the sweeper tentacles that some species put out at night), you should be okay (and there are many species, particularly soft corals, that don’t mind touching other corals), for the species that release toxins (mostly soft corals, like leathers and zoanthids) as long as you’re running some carbon it should filter it out. As corals grow this is a never ending issue. With the light that comes with that tank should be able to keep Euphylias (hammers, torches, frogspawn) and most leathers, their growth may be slow, but they should get enough light. Another fairly easy and cool lps you might try just starting out is a Duncan coral. I would get some experience (maybe six months) of keeping some of the cheaper more beginner friendly species while your tank matures before trying any more expensive or more difficult species. Just take it slow and do lots of reading, you’ve got plenty of time to plan out the species you want to keep.

 

[jacksonmaurer]

Does it have the stock lighting? If so, you’d mostly be limited to softies and lps (there are hundreds and hundreds of species that are kept in captivity that would do well in your tank). As far as the stocking limit for corals, you can have as many as you can fit in there while avoiding coral warfare (some will sting other corals, some will expel their stomachs and digest other corals that are too close, and others will release toxins) and ensuring lighting and flow requirements. For the first too kinds of warfare, so long as the corals aren’t touching (and keeping in mind the sweeper tentacles that some species put out at night), you should be okay (and there are many species, particularly soft corals, that don’t mind touching other corals), for the species that release toxins (mostly soft corals, like leathers and zoanthids) as long as you’re running some carbon it should filter it out. As corals grow this is a never ending issue. With the light that comes with that tank should be able to keep Euphylias (hammers, torches, frogspawn) and most leathers, their growth may be slow, but they should get enough light. Another fairly easy and cool lps you might try just starting out is a Duncan coral. I would get some experience (maybe six months) of keeping some of the cheaper more beginner friendly species while your tank matures before trying any more expensive or more difficult species. Just take it slow and do lots of reading, you’ve got plenty of time to plan out the species you want to keep.

I don’t think this is true, I have A flvial flex 32 gallon and keep multiple types of acropora including Millie. same color as when I got it a few months ago. You could probably keep a lot of high light corals as long as you keep them towards the top