My VERY first coral

Hi,

im new with salt water tanks. I have a 30 gallon tank thats been running for about 5months, well and clear, and I currently have 6 chromies, two clowns and a hermit crab.

My question is, is it possible to get any type of coral now, and if any what are the most easiest to care for?

Thanks,

Rick

 

Tell us about your lights.. Type, watts, etc..
We can go from there..

Good Luck. Larry

 

Zoanthids, leathers, mushrooms, palythoas are all good beginner corals. Make sure you have ample water movement, decent lighting, and proper chemistry.

Good luck!

 

Hey, I have a 29 gal, I have had it up and running for about 4 months now. I have a 150 watt halide and two t5's for lighting I have to chromi's and two lyretail anthias in my tank. I have about 30 pounds of live rock and a few hermit crabs. I have 3 beautiful acro frags that I've had for two months now and are doing great, I also have some green mushrooms a metalic brain and some wellsi blastomussa, Everything is doing great in my tank. I say all of this because I feel it doesn't matter how long your tank has been set up as long as it has cycled and your chemicles are stable. I test my water every week and do a water change once a month and all of my coral is growing and doing awesome.
for a starter coral I would go with some mushrooms or some leather. something very easy and inexpensive you could also do some polyps, green stars, glove polyps, all are great to start a tank with.

Good luck Salt water aquariums are amazing and I hope I have helped

 

You may be a little ahead of yourself. Before you endeavor to keep coral, of any kind, you have to have ample lighting as mentioned. Now, most "soft" coral (those without a skeletal structure) don't require the intensity of Metal Halide or even T5 so tell us what "type" of lights you have. Secondly, we need to know, and more importantly, you need to know what your "big 3" are, namely; Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity. Also, Nitrate levels should be 30 ppm or lower although I have kept soft coral at 40 ppm for some time until I got the level to drop with no real harmful effects. Post this info and we can take it from there.

 

36" Glo T5 HO , 39 watt high , double light configuration .I also have two Koralia power heads. As mentioned, I'll be getting a master test kit to check all those parameters, I gues having a cristal clear water does not men everithing ;D.
thanks
rick.

 

So you got 2 T5s over a 30 gallon? Depending on how high the aquarium is (which it would help to know) you could keep softies and zoas definately. Most people are going to argue with me, I can hear it now, but:

On my old 75 (20" High), which ran for over a year, I only had 2 x 54 watt T5s over it, I kept Bubbles, Donuts, Brains, Frogspawns, Hammers, zoas, mushrooms and xenia. All of them did great......even the Frogspawns and Hammers grew, although kind of slow.