Help me decide what I should get for me first coral

[Hairyteeth]

Did no one mention gsp!?! Green star polyp is super easy to care for and may be just the thing for the clowns to host and every bodies happy!

 

[apwhite]

1. Devils hand is a fine beginner coral and quite pretty. Yes you'd need to frag it often, but if you succeed in reefing all corals will need trimming back and managing. Like a healthy garden. The amount of management is overblown by lazy reefers IMO. Just keep up with it and don't wait for it to take over the tank (as any coral will eventually)

2. If the clown likes the torch, sometimes they can be kind of rough. This is a problem for small frags so it depends on the personality of the fish and the size of colony. It might prefer its old home anyways. I think this risk is overstated and healthy corals are fine with a rough resident.

3. Both are fine for beginners IMO. Soft corals tend to be a bit hardier but if you keep up with maintenance you can keep a torch just as well. Sometimes they don't do well but this seems to be an issue of quality specimens rather than poor husbandry.

4. No photosynthetic coral requires direct feeding. But some may benefit. It would not hurt to feed mysis or pellets or whatever else it takes occasionally but this is unnecessary. The clown may bring it food sometimes as well.

5. Any light which is bright enough will grow any coral. Remember, the sun is white, not windex. Corals are adaptable to spectrum as well. It is important to know as well that white has a lot of blue in it anyways, especially most cheap (generally "cool white") leds. The spectrum you use is mostly for aesthetics. Bluer lights make more fluorescent pop and certain wavelengths trigger more brilliant coloration. Do not feel the need to blow your budget on premium reef lights unless you think the tank is ugly.

Thank you so much for your help! Just a few more questions—how often would I need to frag these corals? And is one more difficult to frag than the other?

 

[apwhite]

Great post . First things first . Welcome to r2r

let’s try to make this as enjoyable as possible .

after reading your entire post , I had a list of suggestions other than the 2 you questioned .
But I need to ask if your lights will be sufficient for corals .
and if so . Are they restricted to only soft corals such as the devils hand .
or lps such as the torch .
That being said ..
I have never had any luck with torch corals . But hammerCorals , are much hardier IME

there are plenty of corals that would do great and not take over too fast .
such as Zoas . Acan , favia .
I have heard of clowns and torch , hammers together but not too sure if any long term damage can occur

Thanks for the help! I’m totally open to other suggestions; the main reason why I narrowed it down to these two is due to availability

 

[apwhite]

We have a 10g waterbox zoa garden, which host 2 osceliaris clowns.
Very low maintenance and showy.

This is so cool! Is there a picture of it somewhere on the site?

 

[Rmckoy]

Thanks for the help! I’m totally open to other suggestions; the main reason why I narrowed it down to these two is due to availability

As mentioned above. .
Zoas not plays . They are colourful and hardy .

my personal fav are acans , favia open brains .

 

[Pistondog]

This is so cool! Is there a picture of it somewhere on the site?

I'll try to get a shot when the lights are on tomorrow.