Finally adding some coral

My tank is a about 4 months old now and I'm going to add some of my first few corals. Its a 125. To start off I plan on adding 2-3 Zoa's, a green star polyp and may be a green brain. I know that all these are good beginner coral and from what I've read will do fine even if I didnt feed them, except the brain. I've done a lot of reading around and have seen different suggestions on what to add. For the polyps, going off what I have read, I was going to get some zooplex from kent marine and some reef roids and alternate feddings. I've also heard good things about cyclopleeze. And for the brain it seems they do well with food for filter feeders as well as a peice of shrimp or something like that fed to them once a week.
Also, when I add say the zooplex, how do i add it? Do I turn the pump off for a short while or do I just add it to the place with the most circulation? And for the brain I was reading to feed them at night so that thir tentacles are out to grab the food. What tool would I use to place say the peice of shrimp in it tentacles.
Thx

 

ok I don't feed any of my zoas and they do just fine. I do feed my brain every now and again just for s & g but that's about it.

 

ive never fed my zoas or polyps . theyve flourished on there own. my brain doesnt really get fed either, but hes got a nice flow by him, so hes gettin his nutrients that way.

 

be worned star polyps will over take your tank, wish i've never got them. started with a 2 inch size rock and now almost half the tank is filled with them. no room to put anything else

 

ive been gettin mine to grow on my overflow. cover up the black, trimmin it away from thewater slots. thought it would like nicer than the black

 

Ya ive been told about the star polyp growth. If theyre that bi of a pain I might cancel those and order something else. Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe an electric torch coral or a frogspawn.

 

First of all I wouldn't dose any of that food, it's really not needed and will just add nutrients to your tank that could just end up working against you in the form of algae/nitrates/phosphates. If you do dose any of that stuff use it very sparingly until you have a more well stocked tank.

You could try a Euphyllia species, they are generally pretty easy and resilient (and inexpensive), frogspawn, torch, hammer.

I'm not sure exactly what type of brain you're talking about, there are a large number of corals that are all referred to as brains. Trachyphyllia, lobophyllia, symphyllia, goniastrea, platygyra, sometimes favia, favites, diploastrea, or even scolymia and cynarina etc etc.

My first corals were some zoos and a head of hammer.

I would throw some mysis shrimp your brain's (whatever brain you end up with) way once or twice a week, that's all I would do personally. To feed it I would use a syringe from a test kit and use a short piece of airline tubing to connect it to a long rigid plastic tube that's the same outer diameter as the nozzle of the syringe. Unfortunately my LFS had the plastic tube for me so I'm not 100% sure where to get that.

 

I was gonna get a green brain coral.

 

Ive heard that star polyps multiply VERY fast also, well heres my experience with them. I have both Green and Pink Stars and neither one of them have spread at all. These were one of my first corals also.
I have Frogspawns i have only had a couple months now with several heads, Ive got More mushrooms than i could count, and Ive got 10 frags off a kenya tree within the past 3 months

 

Don't put the star polyps in a area where you can't control the spread. I made that mistake and I trim it when it tries to grow around the rock where I don't want it to. Otherwise it will spread to other rocks and places you may not want it. One of my favorite corals in the tank but if I had it to do over it would be placed on its own rock in the bottom half... and specifically a rock that I can pick up to trim or make sure it doesn't touch other rocks that I don't want it to spread to. None of the corals you mention need to be fed. I occasionally feed my wellso brain but it's not necessary. It has survived all kinds of mishaps including 91 degree temps.