corals

im trying to decide what corals i want for my 29gal tank. whats the difference between soft sps lps ect. i dont get it? what would be the best for me this will be my first saltwater im going to do 4 t5 bulbs.

 

I strongly urge you to start with soft coral. These include the following (not limited to): GSP, zoas, xenia, anthelia, leather coral (kenya tree, toadstool etc.), mushrooms, and A LOT MORE. This group of coral is by far the easiest. As you get more experianced then you could move to LPS and SPS.
I highly reccomend this book for coral information Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History By: Eric H. Borneman
Good Luck!
JJL

 

Ok, soft corals have no skeleton to them, just flesh and are generally very easy to care for. LPS or large polyp stony, has a skeleton and larger sized polyps. Usually pretty easy to care for but probably a little more so than softies. These are my personal favs. SPS or small polyp stony have a hard skeleton, very small polyps and are your harder to care for and slower growing corals.

 

ok thanks so i should do softs and a few lps?

 

Yeah, that would be a good place to start. Any kind of mushroom, kenya, toadstool would be a good softie to start with. Plus mushrooms come in lots of colors. Zoanthids would also be good to start with. If you want some good LPS then I've found acans to be pretty good to start with as well as duncans.

 

SPS: Small polyp stony corals. Need intense lighting, excellent water quality, higher flow. Acropora, montipora, pocillopora...... May require dosing of ca/alk/magnesium as the colonies grow.

LPS: Large polyp corals. Mod to intense lighting, needs very good water quality and mod to high flow. Look at brain corals, bubble corals, hammer.

Soft: Octocorals, because of the number of tentacles per polyps. No skeletal stucture. Tolerate a wider range of lighting, flow and water quality. Gorgonians, Sea fans, xenia, Green star polyps.

These are generalizations but you get the idea.

 

i like the look of brain corals