Planning For CORALS!

Hello everyone!

So my tank just got done cycling about a week ago and am about to add my first fish tomorrow. Now, I know it will be a month or so before I add my first coral, however I wanted to get some information abbot how to take care of them. I will be keeping mostly leathers and SPS. The reasoning is because I have a JBJ nanocube CF Quad.

So the quesiotn I have is, what can I do to prepare my tank for corals? And are there any additives that would be beneficial for prepping my tank?

Also, can anyone provide me with a weeks worth of coral care? Like what you add to the tank to take care of the coral such as calcium and food and such.

Not sure if I am making myself clear so I apologize haha

THANKS for the help guys!

-Allen

 

Hey Allen

I assume you mean leathers and LPS corals and not SPS

LPS large polyp stoney, things like torches, hammers, bubble, brains etc
SPS - small polyp stoney things like Montipora, Acropora etc

LPS corals are not as demaning on lighting or water quality as SPS corals
leather corals etc can produce defensive toxins (chemical warfare) and in a nano cube those things need to be considered carefully before mixing SPS and Leathers

but a mix of LPS and leathers is not so bad, you should consider running activated carbon to help deal with these toxins
but whilst your learning SPS corals are probably not ideal IMO

preperation
start with some generally easy to keep corals - leathers are a good choice
as are - Toadstools, Zoanthids, mushroom colonies, Yellow polyps, anthellia, green star polyps and loads of other non demanding species that I cant recall right now

these corals in general can be kept providing you have adequate lighting, adequate flow
and adequate water quality

test kits would be ideal at this stage for
Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium - you should not need to supplement these providing you use a decent quality salt mix and are prepared to do 5% weekly or 10% fortnightly water changes

but its still a good idea to have the test kits - so that you get accustomed to monitoring and then are able to control those 3 parameters

Steve

 

Great info thanks. You learn something everyday on this site

 

You are right! I did mean LPS instead of SPS. Thank you for all of the great information!
I am currently running some activated carbon in my media basket and have a skimmer on the way. I really like Zoanthids and green star polyps so I will probably start out with them, and If I have success I will move on from there.

What are considered good water conditions for corals when testing? Other than 0 for nitrates, Nitrites, and ammonia.

Thanks again for the info! Very helpful

 

Mushrooms.
Leathers. (finger, cabbage, toadstools)
Soft branching corals like colt, kenya tree.
Most zoanthids and palys.
Anthelia

 

Calcium 400-500ppm
Alkalinity 8-12dKh
Magnesium 1200-1500ppm
Ph 8.2-8.4

Those will be good starter points and should be enough to get your soft coral going fast. The key is to never add anything you can't test for though, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend adding anything just yet. The first step is to get test kits and see where you're at. You may be able to do very well with just weekly water changes.

 

Great info given already on corals. Starting with Zoas and Green Star Polyps is a good way to go. They are pretty easy to maintain (don't need lots of light, resilient), some even think GSP is a nuisance as it can grow like weeds. If you do get some GSP just make sure to keep it on its own rock/area so it doesn't overtake things if you get more corals.

 

I have seen them growing up some peoples glass. Does it do this on its own? I actually thing it looks pretty cool myself.

 

+1 I wish it would take over my back glass.

 

if you place a colony close to the glass, yes it will start encrusting over it, in the same manner than coraline would form on it

you can speed up the process by making small frags and peeling back the purple matt from the rock its on and then gluing using superglue the piece of matt to the glass . it will then start growing over the glass much faster if you use this method

Steve