What kind of corals should I get?

Discussion in 'Coral' started by stepho, Feb 10, 2009.

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  1. stepho

    stepho Panda Puffer

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    Hi everyone! I want to start adding some more corals to my tank.

    It is a 98gal tank with 4 96w PC lighting. 2 daylight and 2 actinic.

    I have a couple Xenia frags that are really doing good. I also have some kenya tree frags I wasn't sure about at first... but they started turning up all over the place so I guess they are good too. What else should I add?
     
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  3. scenario1313

    scenario1313 Tassled File Fish

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  4. GuitarMan89

    GuitarMan89 Giant Squid

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    You know what I like that seems to be underated, favia or favites.
     
  5. Yuri Kapustin

    Yuri Kapustin Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Im a huge fan of torch corals. I love the green and pink ones. My green one is very hardy and sways just like an anemone. I love them.
     
  6. stepho

    stepho Panda Puffer

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    Thanks for the replies guys.

    I am looking on liveaquaria at their coral selection. What level lighting would my lights be considered?
     
  7. Screwtape

    Screwtape Tonozukai Fairy Wrasse

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    PC are considered the lowest level of lights suitable for corals when compared to T5 or Metal Halide, but that said, it really depends where you place the corals in your tank. I believe people are able to keep even some hardier SPS or high light corals under the lights. You might want to check out the lighting forum here for some more details.

    Also, I think the question should be which corals do YOU want to keep? What looks good/interesting to you? :)
    Then just keep in mind what your tank should be able to support and where you have room in your tank to provide the coral the conditions it needs as far as lighting, calcium/alkalinity, and water flow etc. LiveAquaria is a good place to get a good broad overview of what a coral needs, there are lots of other good resources out there as well for more specifics. Search around some coral selling websites (there are a LOT) and see what looks nice to you.

    EDIT: Just to give you an idea of some of MY favorite corals right now that might work under PCs. I think frogspawn or other Euphyllia are really cool, and very popular, they provide a lot of movement in the tank which is nice. They also have relatively low lighting requirements so that might be a good option.
    Also Favia/Favites are another good option and there are some VERY colorful and interesting options for those out there and they also are relatively low light requirements generally.
    I'm also a big fan of Echinophyllia or other "Chalice" corals (again low lights generally) that have great coloration.
    Just take it slow and I would recommend not starting out with the really expensive stuff until you're sure your tank/husbandry can support it. Only thing with Favia/Favites/Chalices is that they are generally relatively slow growers, some branching (there are two kinds, "branching" and "wall") Euphyllia can grow relatively faster and I think is fascinating to watch grow.

    My 2c...

    Good luck!
     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2009
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