Starter corals? Feeding?

My husband and I are new to Saltwater and eventually we want to get corals and have our 75 gal be a full reef. What corals would be good for starters like us and what kind of supplements would we need to have? Right now, we have what I believe a tiny mushroom (dark teal/purple/green)growing from our live rock as well a one tiny polyp-brown. Any suggestions on what to get to start out with and what to feed so we wont kill any of them?? I appreciate all of the help Anything thing else you would like to share I would like to hear!

 

kjc2001 hello

some suggestions from me on good beginners corals

Green star polyps (Personal favourite of mine)
Zoanthids - check out the sponsors sites for some amazing colours on these
Leathers - soft corals
Toadstools - soft coral
colt coral - soft coral
Clove polyps
yellow polyps

and IME, regular water changes, adequate lighting, and reasonable flow can supply all the needs of these species without any complicated addititives being required

feed weekly with one of the commercial liquid invert formulaes (dont overfeed or feed to often as your water quality will suffer)

Must have missed loads of this post, so anyone else?

Steve

 

Honestly, my corals eat what the rest of the tank eats. I tried "coral foods", but have just as much success with Rod's food 3 times a week, pellet and flake now and again, and nori sheets everyday. I only have "softies"- mushrooms, toadstool, frogspawn- nothing too complicated, and they have multiplied and grown on just that diet. Mushrooms are almost indestructible, add color, and multiply well. Good luck!

 

tell us the rest of your hardware and we can give a better answer.

these are all great beginner suggestions. IME, nothing in this list actually needs to be fed more than adequate lighting.

 

I am with Steve on this. Green star polyps are awesome. Mine grow like crazy. Easily the fastest growing coral I have.

Also xenias seem to do good for me and kenya trees.

 

Our Hardware: Pro Clear Aquatics Model 125 Wet/Dry Filter with out Prefilter, QUIET ONE PUMP 4000, and 48 inch Aqualight Deluxe Double Linear Strip 4x65 watt...humm not sure if Im missing anything else

Also, would the Kent marine products help? Im getting a blue tang on friday and is there a preventative I can use while in QT? I was thinking about getting a coralife turbo twist 9 watt UV Sterilizer for the tank, would this help eliminate any bad bacteria/organisms?

As far as liquid products, is there a preventative out there for ich and such to use?

 

can you tell us a bit more about the lights, the wattage sounds like they are PC to me

can you confim colour temps/ colours etc - some lamps are better for Algae than they are for coral

Kent make good products what type are you thinking of? as in a tank of softies/ beginners corals, no need to mess with Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iodine etc

The liquid food I implied was in fact Kent ,Microvert and I use 1 drop per gallon weekly
although bbliss comments on Rods food where a good alternative
and in fact Peredhils point that on a tank full of beginners corals, there is no real need to add foods
was equally vaild


if you are going to put your fish in a QT prior to putting in main tank - you can use copper based meds at dosage as per packaging for preventative treatments (varies with the product you buy)

A UV is used by a number of people on DTs to help prevent parasitic outbreaks , but as with most things in this hobby there are points for and against their continual usage on reef set ups

and finally there are reef safe meds for treating parasites in the tank with corals in
I cant name any at present (Kick Ich ?), but then I dont have any parasite issues ( I may later regret typing this, but I pray thats not the case)

Steve

 

Ya the lights are made by Coralife:

10,000K and True Actinic Blue straight pin base compact fluorescent lamps

Forgot to add the heater: Fluval E Series 300 watt heater

Also- about the QT- what is a good size/brand to buy? I was thinking about the Marineland 6 gal Eclipse??

 

Hey KJC
many people keep the species of corals I listed under PC lighting and your looks OK to me ( T5 myself so no expert on PC)

I have looked at your set up on the show your tank thread
and my 1st impression is whilst is looks nice, I cant seem much in the way of flow- aside from the return pipes ( maybe some pipes are hidden and I cant see them)
Im used to seeing a couple or more powerheads in addition to return pipes


can you describe the water movement you have in your tank please
as this makes a difference to species being kept and their suitablity in your tank

Steve

 

Steve- The only two we have are the ones you see in the pictures, would it beneficial to get something in addition? We are beginners by all means and we are willing to spend the $$ in order to have a tank that runs well. What ever you think we might need to order we can... this is our main hobby and we actually just bought a 29gal bio cube for our bedroom!