Good soft corals for starters

[guitaris70]

I just got a galaxea the other day and a purple sea fan. They are thriving right now and have got me really interested in to adding some more soft corals and making a reef tank. What are some soft corals that would thrive under 4 T5 HO bulbs 2 are daylight 10K and 2 are blue actinic 10k? Thanks for any responses!

 

[guitaris70]

Also hard corals would not thrive under this lighting right? It would be in a 54 gallon corner tank with 78 pounds of live rock

 

[Tahoe61]

The galaxea is actually a stony coral. Just a heads up the Purple Sea Fan will need to be target feed routinely a fine particulate food a couple times a week if it's a non-photosynthetic coral.
But for soft corals, most Sinularia, Xenia, GSP.
What brand is the fixture, do you know the watts?

 

[guitaris70]

It's a coralife and oh it is? It's doing great so far! And yeah I was told to target feed them both with Plankton

 

[rock_lobster]

Yes 4 t5HO will be fine for any coral as long as the high demand coral like SPS are near the top. Good soft corals are mushrooms, leathers and zoas. Softies are generally the easiest to keep and most of them are beginner coral.

 

[guitaris70]

It's 156 watts total a coralife fixture and is this Galaxea right?

 

[guitaris70]

Yes it's placed about 6 inches from the top of the water and it looks even better than it did at the store they had it just under some lower quality Leds. And is the term sps for soft corals? And what's lps mean? Just curious lol

 

[guitaris70]

I'm using all RO/DI water I have my own unit and have magnesium, calcium, and pro dKH buffer from Kent marine and test kits and all, is strontium supplementing necessary someone said no, because through water changes it will replenish that element and doesn't need to be supplemented

 

[Brew12]

Yes it's placed about 6 inches from the top of the water and it looks even better than it did at the store they had it just under some lower quality Leds. And is the term sps for soft corals? And what's lps mean? Just curious lol

Soft corals do not have a hard coraline structure.

sps= small polyp stony coral
lps= large polyp stony coral
soft corals would be the third general category (non stony corals)

 

[guitaris70]

So are soft corals generally hardier and easier to take care for compared to hard corals ?

 

[Tahoe61]

Yes, dosing is not typically required with a soft coral tank, routine water changes are suggested. Consistency is the key with chemistry near those values found in normal salt water regardless of coral type. Corals with a calcium carbonate structure such as stony corals will perish more readily in an aquarium that does not monitor and maintain nsw values.


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

 

[guitaris70]

Yes, dosing is not typically required with a soft coral tank, routine water changes are suggested. Consistency is the key with chemistry near those values found in normal salt water regardless of coral type. Corals with a calcium carbonate structure such as stony corals will perish more readily in an aquarium that does not monitor and maintain nsw values.


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

Do the corals get the food right away when I target feed? Should I turn off powerhead during target feeding?

 

[Tahoe61]

With the large polyp corals you can take a liter soda bottle and cut it in half, place a very small portion of the food in the tank, wait 20 minutes until the corals open as a feeding response and then place the 1/2 liter bottle over a coral such as a fungia, tachy, dendrophyllia, add remaining food slurring to the container.
If you do not have shrimp or hermit crabs that will steal food from LPS then you can also just turn off the pumps and place (use a turkey baster) chopped meaty sea foods on the coral, give them 15-20 minutes and then turn pumps back on.
A non photosynthetic sea fan or slash gorgonian needs particle within the water column, turning off pumps while you feed these corals is probably optimal.