Help! Coral placement

Gdk414 · Nov 28, 2016

Hi reef to reef! Thought this would be a fun idea to get some ideas on setting up my first reef tank!
Some of you may, or may not know...(doesn't matter) that I am brand new to salt water tanks and have been setting up my first SW aquarium, a 44 gallon reef tank. Tank's Cycled and ready to start adding corals. I have recently added a seahorse and pajama cardinal.

I am using a 54w jbj unibody led.

Curious what you all would suggest I get, and where to put them on this beautiful pukani I have!
I have about an inch frag if birds nest towards the top that is about 45 days old and is doing good so far! (Fingers crossed.)
I'm looking for beautiful fast growing corals, (or any corals) to slowly start filling up the tank.
Any suggestions/opinions? As if this were your tank how would you do it? Thanks
Geoff from Boston

johnyboy · Nov 28, 2016

Beautiful good luck man ! I'm not sure about the sea horse. They are very gentle animals and slow waters and generally need to be housed alone with other horses. Aside from that, switching to corals, mushrooms are one of my favorite. They are fast growing and great for beginners. It's a big trend right now. As for SPS I waited a while until I understood the chemistry of my water down to the nitty gritty. STABILITY is what you want for SPS and a new tank is not stable so get to know your water and give it time so you can give your SPS the right conditions to thrive. I would with some LPS like mushrooms Duncan's Acans zoas (my favorite). Learn how much your tank is consuming so you can replace it and keep your water stable and clean. Save SPS for later it's really worth the wait. There is plenty of beautiful pieces you can start with. If you have any questions feel free. I remember it can be very confusing in the beginning and I love helping people thrive in this hobby because it's the greatest hobby in the world [emoji289]

Elementalj · Nov 28, 2016

Gdk414 said:
Hi reef to reef! Thought this would be a fun idea to get some ideas on setting up my first reef tank!
Some of you may, or may not know...(doesn't matter) that I am brand new to salt water tanks and have been setting up my first SW aquarium, a 44 gallon reef tank. Tank's Cycled and ready to start adding corals. I have recently added a seahorse and pajama cardinal.

I am using a 54w jbj unibody led.

Curious what you all would suggest I get, and where to put them on this beautiful pukani I have!
I have about an inch frag if birds nest towards the top that is about 45 days old and is doing good so far! (Fingers crossed.)
I'm looking for beautiful fast growing corals, (or any corals) to slowly start filling up the tank.
Any suggestions/opinions? As if this were your tank how would you do it? Thanks
Geoff from Boston

I have that very tank in the shed out back. It's nice to see it in operation again. Since you've got a centerpiece rockscape I'd suggest filling in the floor and substrate first. That way as time moves on and they acclimate to the lighting you can move them up and fill in their space on the floor again.

I personally like mushrooms and star polyps to start a tank out. They're super easy and pretty tolerant of the beginners flux, i.e. Learning the curve for stable water parameters. They don't require a lot of light or super clean water. And best of all is they can be pretty inexpensive and fill out a tank pretty quickly.

Best of luck and hope to see more progession as time moves on. Also, you've come to the perfect site for beginners, were all patient with each other and newbies alike so if you have a dilemma, someone should be there to assist.

Happy reefing! Hope to see more of your work soon!

J

Gdk414 · Nov 28, 2016

Thanks! Great advice. I am taking it slow and learning a lot. I've been learning constantly for about a year and have had the tank up since August. I'm literally obsessed. It's all I think about and watch all the popular YouTube reefing channels in my free time. My friend is a seasoned reefer and helps me a lot too. Plus I've met a handful of awesome ppl around here that are old school reefers and have 20+ yrs each and I feel like a little kid learning how to read all over again lol. But I'm in no rush and eager to learn. I can see how this becomes so consuming!

Desmond · Nov 28, 2016

Beautiful looking rock scale. First thing i would consider is something your seahorse can latch onto. Also remember they are not so good at competing for food. Bear in mind also they are hard to get eating frozen in some cases and need live food. For you corals generally sps do well in high flow areas with good lighting. Lps some will prefer a little less light than othets and also its important that the flow is not trashing them around. You will have some that prefer the sand bed and others that can be placed a little higher. Remember also they can be aggressive and may sting sps if too close. Its easier to help if you know some of the corals you are thinking of.

samba_dad · Nov 28, 2016

Gdk414 said:
Thanks! Great advice. I am taking it slow and learning a lot. I've been learning constantly for about a year and have had the tank up since August. I'm literally obsessed. It's all I think about and watch all the popular YouTube reefing channels in my free time. My friend is a seasoned reefer and helps me a lot too. Plus I've met a handful of awesome ppl around here that are old school reefers and have 20+ yrs each and I feel like a little kid learning how to read all over again lol. But I'm in no rush and eager to learn. I can see how this becomes so consuming!

Your excitement and enthusiasm is contagious and something that almost everyone on here has experienced themselves. Make sure you pay attention to the folks who have been doing things successfully for a long time. That is the key to really getting things headed in the right direction.

Mushrooms are a great choice. The mushrooms I have have reproduced (split in half) multiple times. They are relatively easy and tolerate of unstable water conditions. The best advice I can give you...measure your alkalinity every day and develop a dosing plan that keeps it stable. Almost every new reefer struggles with this at first. For just a few corals, a water change may be all you need to do to keep your alkalinity stable. Good luck!

Desmond · Nov 28, 2016

I would be cautious of corals like green star polyps and musrooms as they can over run a tank. Personally i think if you do want them . It is better to isolate them to a rock on the sand bed away from your main structure. Especially if you want sps down the road. Water changes should be enough to start but when you have more sps lps corals it will be easier to determine what you need to dose. Also invest in a good refractometer and an ro unit for making your own water. Also a big help will be an auto top of unit to replace evaporated water and will keep the salinity in your tank more stable.

Desmond · Nov 28, 2016

As regards to the parameters i would advise not to rush into keeping them all perfect. Stability of your parameters is much more important other than always constantly chasing figures.

samba_dad · Nov 28, 2016

I agree with Desmond. I have green star polyps, xenia (also a famous coral "weed") and mushrooms in my tank. However, they are all isolated from the "main rock" by sand. These things grow like weeds. Also, I would not recommend "chasing" alkalinity or any other parameters other than temperature and salinity (at water changes). Adjusting daily is a recipe for instability. That is different than measuring alkalinity daily. You need to know where you are at and what types of swings your tank experiences. You will always hear the very successful tell you every tank is different. You need to see how yours behaves. Like I said before with just a few corals, water changes may be all that you need. As you add corals, you will have to start supplementing alkalinity. You need stability of temperature (I use 77-78 deg F), salinity (34 ppt), alkalinity (7.5 dKH), calcium (420ppm), nitrate (2-5ppm) & phosphate (smallest measurable number you have on your test kit - 0.03 ppm for me). That is not an exhaustive list of parameters to monitor - for example I monitor magnesium, potassium, pH and iodine and iron weekly. If you do water changes weekly of around 10% that should keep most all of this relatively stable for you.

Why am I writing all of this? Because it is soo tempting to get into that fish store and buy corals you are not ready for yet - especially when the guy selling the corals tells you they are real easy to keep. I am not suggesting they are dishonest, but that to them it is real easy to keep. It happened to me and probably most everyone on this forum at one time or another. So, after killing things and significant discouragement, I established some goals before I tried harder to keep corals. For example, I said once I can keep my alkalinity within 0.25 of my desired goal for 3 months then I would try SPS again. Those sorts of things helped me reduce the number of frags I killed. Good luck! This is a great hobby and I wish you much success!

Gdk414 · Nov 28, 2016

Definitely don't want to rush and chase numbers. Slow and steady. As for sps, not in a hurry either. Saving that for my 90 that I'm setting up. But lps and softies, yes. Maybe some leathers, and torches. Hammers and frogspawn are my favorites. But my all time favorite is acans. Check out this acan I'm getting on Wednesday!

Elementalj · Nov 28, 2016

Gdk414 said:
Definitely don't want to rush and chase numbers. Slow and steady. As for sps, not in a hurry either. Saving that for my 90 that I'm setting up. But lps and softies, yes. Maybe some leathers, and torches. Hammers and frogspawn are my favorites. But my all time favorite is acans. Check out this acan I'm getting on Wednesday!

I feed mine, they're super fleshy[emoji48]