Need some help buying corals for first time.

[Mike in CT]

Hi! First I will give some details about my tank. It is a recently redone 75 G fish only that Im hoping to turn into
a mixed reef with medium fish bioload. It has a 29 G sump, lifereef skimmer and a refugium that I have
yet to add anything into. I have 1 Tao Tronic 125 watt led fixture with plans for another soon.
I have only 2 fish right now and the tank is fully cycled and has a 75 lbs of dry rock.
I am going to a frag farmers market in a few weeks and I want to pick a few corals to start out with
(they will be going to a 20g quarantine tank). I have been reading up as much as I can but I am afraid
when I get there I will be overwhelmed by the selection and will trouble deciding what to get.
I have around $150 (not much I know, but still getting a lot of equipment bills coming in!)
or so to spend (the frag market happens to fall on my birthday.....happy birthday to me!! haha)
and I was wondering if anyone could tell me a few corals I should put on my short list, and maybe some corals
I would be wise to avoid at this point. Also, its about an hours drive from the market to my house. How do most people
get their corals home in good shape? I was thinking about bringing a cooler filled with tank temperature water in
some gallons bags to keep it at a good temp for the drive home......is this a good idea?

I would appreciate any advice!
Thanks,
Mike

 

[ritter6788]

Zoanthids are a good choice to start out with. Some LPS like frogspawn, hammer, torch are good too. I'd avoid anything sps or high dollar until you get more comfortable with corals.

The corals you buy will be bagged up with water in them so an empty cooler to place the bags for the ride home should work fine.

Good luck!

 

[FragStar101]

Agree some lps and zoas/palys are good choice

 

[Lokii_37]

I would also avoid green star polyps and Xenia. They are very hard to get ride of in your tank once they have a foot hold. Some people like them some don't but just be aware once they are in the tank the will spread.


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[ReeferBob]

Zoas for sure they are very hardy. Get a couple of different types. Cheap too. Maybe some Kenya Tree and Leathers. I doubt you can keep Frogspawn alive with that new a tank. Also your Coral should be drip acclimated same as any other animal. Here is a good guide.

Fish, Coral, and Invertebrate Acclimation Procedure: Adding New Fish to a Tank

 

[Mike in CT]

Thanks everyone......all your advice is a big help!

 

[EpicWin]

Mike! welcome to the addiction. IT seems like not too long ago i was in your shoes. GO get yourself some nice green zoas and a dull cheap acro of some type. if you are successful for a while then get more expensive stuff... biggest advice is ask on here for opinions on issues a lot... peeps here are very helpful and this hobby can seem like rocket science at times....

 

[Tabasco1]

The best advice I can give is to think about what you want in your tank long term. Know the requirements ( lighting/flow) for those animals and pick up aquacultured corals as they are usually more hardy.

I shy away from any general classification as a recommendation. Some zoas are great starters. But some are very difficult. I'd prob look for pink zippers, radio active dragon eyes and other colorful hardy zoas. Price will also help guide you. The more $ something is, generally but not always it is an indicator of slow growing or requiring more experience.

If you are confident in your husbandry you could start out with some frogspawn and hardier chalice like the original mummy eye or Hollywood stunner.

I wouldn't put anything in my tank that I didn't want long term just because it is hardy( indestructible). If you like leathers or Kenya trees, go for it. But especially Kenya trees are very hard to get rid of.

You can also ask the vendors at the market and they should be able to tell you what the coral conditions are and how hardy it is. Don't be scared to ask.

Have fun and happy bday!!

 

[Rikerbear]

zoas/paly, shrooms, lps - duncans, candy cane, maybe a leather or two. I for one love my green star polys, my xenia, and even love my anthelia......I know some consider them 'weeds', but I enjoy them. If they start to get out of hand just remove some and sell it, give it away, or if worse comes to worse, compost it :tongue:
Good luck at the frag market, and Happy birthday!

 

[byronious]

One of my first corals was a two headed Green Duncan. Still one of my favorites. I love how I can put food in the center and it closes right up on it. It is now sprouting about 8 new heads.

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[Mike in CT]

Its pretty funny...my 75 has been pretty much languishing for while due to the time restraints of raising 3 young boys.
Then I set up a 12g freshwater for my 7 year old (who love love loves his tank btw, its been set up for about 4 months and
it is still the highpoint of his day to feed and observe them together) well I caught the bug again decided to redo my tank because
it had been in its current state for over 12 years and needed a major over haul. Next thing you know I am drilling for an over flow,
building a sump, drooling over skimmers and ordering a ro/di unit!
I first set up my 75 in the mid 90's (not much online then!) and was always thought I could never have a reef tank, but
I feel a lot for confident now with all the information here and other places online.

Thanks again for all your help. Hopefully I will post some pictures of what I come home with in a couple weeks.

 

[Paul C.]

What part of CT are u from Mike? Branford here

 

[jtomasi]

My favorite "easy" corals that are relatively cheap are candy cane and duncar. I like zoas but they inevitable melt away, which is suprising beuase I have many SPS and other "tougher" coral that grow like crazy. Never figured out why, never really cared, just stopped buying them. Try and get a cheap montipora too - it will be a good proxy to see if your lights are sufficiant enough for higher end stuff. I wouldnt buy more than one of anything, again, to see if it will do well in your tank.

 

[Mike in CT]

Hi Paul, I live in South Meriden.

 

[Paul C.]

Hey Mike, find any good stores yet? Theres a few down in Greenwich i've been thinking about making a trip to see. Let me know if you find something that may be worth me taking a trip. More up in the Boston, NH way..

 

[PaulKreider]

+1 on picking up a cheap monti cap, go for a red or green cap, they ushually run atounf 5-10$ good way to test out lighting, water quality for the sps world. And i Second getting a small zoas colony, eagle eyes, radioactive dragon eyes, bambams, are all quite hardy and relitivly cheap.

 

[steamer51]

The first corals I bought were at a frag swap and I had no idea what I was doing. I asked a lot of questions starting with "what is that?" People in the hobby and vendors are very helpful and usually honest and fair when selling you something. You may come to the next frag swap in another month or so somewhere else that they are selling at and they want your first purchase to be successful so you will buy more. Don't be shy about asking questions, it is important to be informed and people in the hobby respect that. They don't respect people who think they know everything and spend money foolishly (not saying you would be like that).

 

[Mike in CT]

Oh I might be like that if I had the money...haha..
No, I need to make every penny count and this and other forums have helped me make informative decisions and saved me a lot of headaches. I have kept fish for over 30 years but coral is totally new to me and sometimes I feel like my head could explode from all the information available... But I love it!


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[mcarroll]

Certainly lots of people run mixed reefs and just deal with the clashes and the polyps showing up in "unwanted" places, etc.

Instead, I would really recommend deciding between softies/stonies in advance, that way you have none of those problems and it's that much easier and simpler to cater to what you love the most.

Personally, I consider "zoanthids and mushrooms are easy" the worst advice I ever got.

Not only are zoa's a lot more touchy and disease/pest prone than that advice would lead you to believe, but there are plenty of super easy stony corals to get started with. I am convinced, however, that mushrooms are the hardiest critters out there - for better or worse! They can potentially spread like crazy by drifting around your tank to find new places, so containment isn't even possible.

Orange or green Montipora cap. or any of the more common M. digitata, as well as Pocillopora birdsnests would be just some of the great options to start with on the stony side.

-Matt


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