What corals are best for beginners and why?
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Soft corals and lps corals are always great start out corals. Mushrooms, Duncan corals, hammers, xenia, polyps, and leather corals.
Soft corals and lps corals are always great start out corals. Mushrooms, Duncan corals, hammers, xenia, polyps, and leather corals.
dantimdad
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Johann,
This topic could take months to cover. Honestly.
You first have to ask: How long has my tank been cycled? What light am I going to use? What size is my tank and do I have a plan for corals that outgrow it? Are my water parameters stable? How much flow do I have? Am I willing to feed my corals regularly?
Once you answer those questions, you can find out what corals do best under your conditions.
A good place to start looking to see if you can handle "beginner" corals is on sites that sell corals that give you the parameters their corals were grown under and what they recommend.
This topic could take months to cover. Honestly.
You first have to ask: How long has my tank been cycled? What light am I going to use? What size is my tank and do I have a plan for corals that outgrow it? Are my water parameters stable? How much flow do I have? Am I willing to feed my corals regularly?
Once you answer those questions, you can find out what corals do best under your conditions.
A good place to start looking to see if you can handle "beginner" corals is on sites that sell corals that give you the parameters their corals were grown under and what they recommend.
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Good advice from above
Good advice from above
Zeal
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Welcome to R2R!#WelcometoR2R
Soft corals and lps corals are always great start out corals. Mushrooms, Duncan corals, hammers, xenia, polyps, and leather corals.
Well there goes the thread
Flippers4pups
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Soft corals, leathers, mushrooms, green star polyps, palythoas.....
Some LPS like torches and hammers.
Some LPS like torches and hammers.
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Welcome to R2R
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Hi welcome to R2R there are a lot of beginner corals be careful and research before you buy. Many can be invasive, I like leathers or zoos but zoos can be kind of invasive to
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I've attempted to grow Zoas, a Soft Leather Mushroom and a Hammer and Frogspawn Coral frag (aka Euphyllia Corals). The only ones that have done well for me are the Euphyllia and these coral frags have been through all kinds of issues (ie tank transfer, major rock scape reorganization and additions, different LED lights, fluctuations in temperature and salinity and this is the result after all that:
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Very good! Like the site.
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Euphyllia and duncans!! A GSP (green star polyp). Zoas
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There are different ways this can be answered, but I believe mushrooms are very hardy for the most part. Some of them can even survive out of the tank for extended periods of time. Start with discosoma and rhodactis.
GSPs and cloves are very forgiving. Make sure they don't encrust onto your rock work as they can and do become pests over time (though there are medicines that will kill them in case its necessary)
Palys are fairly easy too but read the warnings about their toxins. Zoas can be easy to keep alive but I find that knowing more about them will help them drive and spread.
I'd wait a bit before adding LPS. Duncans seem to be sensitive to change and always get ticked off after a water change or any other change in chemistry. Torches are aggressive, though hammers and frogspawns seem to be ok once you're a little more in.
GSPs and cloves are very forgiving. Make sure they don't encrust onto your rock work as they can and do become pests over time (though there are medicines that will kill them in case its necessary)
Palys are fairly easy too but read the warnings about their toxins. Zoas can be easy to keep alive but I find that knowing more about them will help them drive and spread.
I'd wait a bit before adding LPS. Duncans seem to be sensitive to change and always get ticked off after a water change or any other change in chemistry. Torches are aggressive, though hammers and frogspawns seem to be ok once you're a little more in.
Stick with some zoas on rocks that can’t spread, personally I feel like lps are easy and that soft corals get pushed too much to beginners but that’s just me because I’m not a fan of soft corals at all personally I think they are just ugly but aye if you like it go for it just stay alway from sps for s few months about 4 months till you get used to it, also a tip when you get started don’t cheap out get a high end light and a dosing pump that will help you out because when I started I just would throw alk and calc in the tank after a test and not spread my dose out and it caused me issues so keep it very stable, I’m also a big fan of apex I just got it and I can’t say how much I love it, I know I’m crazy for dropping that much cash on a biocube 29 but I got lots of high end corals so why not just go all out it’s well worth it no matter how big or tiny the tank is get a apex!!
Also buy from good venders such as wwc and jfox so you have really healthy coral to start, I will say stay away from cornbread corals as I’ve had some issues and them being complete goofs and also ny aquatics.
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Welcome, Johann.
Some good advice here and a little bit of less good. But I would suggest a couple of inexpensive corals other than most SPS to start with. Even though they may not be the most beautiful specimens, this will give you a chance to see how they do in your tank and what changes you might need to make before spending bigger money.
I would not advise discosoma (mushrooms). Although they are a hardy and easy to maintain coral, they can become very invasive regardless of where or how carefully you initially place them. Ricordia are less so, but also not the greatest choice for a new tank. Zoanthids and most colony corals will remain pretty manageable if you keep them isolated on their own rocks.
To make better recommendations we'd need more info about your setup (lighting, flow, age, volume, etc.)
Some good advice here and a little bit of less good. But I would suggest a couple of inexpensive corals other than most SPS to start with. Even though they may not be the most beautiful specimens, this will give you a chance to see how they do in your tank and what changes you might need to make before spending bigger money.
I would not advise discosoma (mushrooms). Although they are a hardy and easy to maintain coral, they can become very invasive regardless of where or how carefully you initially place them. Ricordia are less so, but also not the greatest choice for a new tank. Zoanthids and most colony corals will remain pretty manageable if you keep them isolated on their own rocks.
To make better recommendations we'd need more info about your setup (lighting, flow, age, volume, etc.)
Some other corals that are quite forgiving; leptastrea and leptoseris. Both are quite adaptive to available light and amount of flow. They're also both typically encrusting, which will give your reef some nice colors & patterns as each matures. Blasto. merletti also tend to be quite easy to please and not terribly finicky. Rounding out the list from above and my suggestions would also be cynarina. Give 'em some light and lower flow (i.e. just set them on your substrate) .. feed them occasionally if you feel like it. They're darn near bomb-proof and come in some amazing colors. As your reef matures, you can add in caulastraea (trumpet/candy cane coral) and cyphastrea - another very forgiving encrusting coral that comes in a plethora of color combinations.
While there are some fairly easy-going SPS, (pocillipora, seratiphora, stylophora, montipora), I would stay away from them until your tank is up and stable for a year and you've got your testing and maintenance routines in place and well-practiced. Once you get to that point, then those are the SPS I'd start with as they're some of the most forgiving and adaptable ones.
While there are some fairly easy-going SPS, (pocillipora, seratiphora, stylophora, montipora), I would stay away from them until your tank is up and stable for a year and you've got your testing and maintenance routines in place and well-practiced. Once you get to that point, then those are the SPS I'd start with as they're some of the most forgiving and adaptable ones.
