Begginer Corals?

I want to buy my first coral or frag for my tank.

Its a 65 gallon with 2x 250w MH.
I am looking for sugestions on what corals to get.
I am new to reef tanks...

I want something easy to take care of but pretty and interesting...
I was thinking a Zoa or maybe a mushroom?

sugestions?

 

Those are two Excellent choices. Thats what i started with in my reef tank about 5months ago and they are doing fantastic. I just recently got me a Green Favia (think i spelled that right) think they are also called Moon Corals. they are pretty easy to care for aswell and bright green florescents are always a plus in my book.. Xenias also do really well. but gotta watch them or they will take over. =)

 

Zoa's and mushrooms are both pretty easy to keep, but I don't know if they qualify as interesting. How long has your tank been running? With two 250W MH's you have lots of options but you don't want to jump into corals too soon. A tank where fish are doing great still might not be good enough for coral yet.

 

if your interested in sps at a later date, i wouldnt do shroom or zoa. its best to keep a tank within the same family for better results. even though a mixed reef will prosper also. xenia's will take over your tank. with the halides your options are endless. check out some lps's instead of shrooms and zoa's

 

I started with Mushroom's, Kenya tree, Finger leather, Zoa's, candy cane's.

I also started with Xenia, I know some say that they are hard to keep but
I have yet to have any problems keeping them.

I have however found 2 things out. One, if they are closed and stay that
way for any length of time, check you water, something is wrong guaranteed.
Two, if you don't want them to spread like wildfire, put them on a rock and keep
them out of reach of any other surface including other rocks, glass. cause if they
can stretch out and reach something they are going to spread! Mine however
still haven't spread to the sand. When I want to frag them I just put another rock
or somthing right next ot them and within a day or two I have more.

 

Good choices each...

Try a Kenya tree for some good upward growth. Very durable, but can spread like a weed. Will require vigorous pruning in future. But a very pretty addition.

 

My tank has been up since septemeber. i had a few fish in there but now im converting it to a reef tank so i sold them.

There is 80 pounds of LR. I run a canister filter and 2 powerheads.

SG= 1.024
Sal.= 36 ppt
temp=76-79 deg.
nitrate and nitrite=0

LR= 80 pounds
added some last week getting more clean up crew tomorrow

 

Our first coral was a toadstool leather...It was a nice size when we first got it and it has nearly doubled in size...We put our first coral in at about 7 weeks, I know some would say that is too soon, but it has worked for us. We now have a tank with many corals and they are all thriving...Good luck, man..8)

 

Star polyps are a safe bet they come ina range of colours and always seem to do well .they will also spread/grow onto surrounding surfaces which is cool . I wanted a matt of this growing on my back glass so I rested a colony onto the glass, 2mths later I moved the rock and now I have a 3-4 square inch matt on my glass. It will do the same onto rock or whatever. Ive seen it growing on powerheads!

 

I've never had much luck with these - the easiest one i have ever kept are jasmine polyps