my first coral? what do i do?

[ant81]

im starting a reef tank converting my 7 year FOWLR to reef..i wanted to know what are the general steps i need to do from when i buy my first coral to placing it in my aquarium all the way to feeding it? any tips?

Also what should i get as corals that i wont regret having in the long run

Thank you

[dan1789]

Good starter choices are Green Start Polyps (can spread rapidly and people often regret putting it in their tank, but I think it's cool), mushrooms (same as GSP), many Zoas and Pallys are good for beginners and Torch/hammer/frogspawn. I'm fairly new to reef keeping and these all grew no trouble at all. The biggest thing is going to be keeping your parameters stable (cal, Alk, and Mg). You will have to test daily until you figure out how much your tank is consuming each day and how much to dose. Dosing pumps will make this much easier. Once you can keep your levels stable you can start adding more LPS coral and if your lighting is good start dabbling in sps, but they aren't as forgiving as softies and LPS. The more coral you add the more Ca and Alk they will consume so test often until you have the hang of it. Suggested levels: Ca 425. Alk 8.0. Mg 1350-1400. Hope this helps.

[Bike2k]

Here is a good article on about.com

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/cor...5-Easy-Corals/

It gives some suggestions

[Sugar Magnolia]

Steer clear of xenia, mushrooms and star polyps unless you plan to keep them isolated from the main rockwork. Also, clove polyps. They spawn frequently in home aquaria and can easily cover every rock surface in the tank.

Consider purchasing Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals. It's a great reference guide for the care of corals commonly available in the hobby.

[aandfsoccr04]

What's the lighting over your tank? That will give a pretty good idea of the corals you are able to keep. Duncans, frogspawn, hammers, and torch are always good corals to start out with.

[ant81]

i have the 160W Maxspect Raxor 16000K just got it last week

[ant81]

but what do i do as soon as i buy a coral? i just acclimate it in my tank place it on a rock? and then feed it ?

[DanielJay]

I just started getting into coral myself. I dip my coral in Coral RX and then put the frags at the bottom of my tank. Then slowly move them to where I am wanting. Still learning myself.

[ant81]

why coral RX? what does that do?

[Aquat]

It's a brand of coral dip that's suppose to eliminate any harmful pest, parasite and hitchhikers.

[PowerNap]

Emperor Angelfish? They get big and a 75 gallon is way too small for a fish that size.

[ant81]

so when i buy a coral i have to dip it in coral RX and then?

[ant81]

anybody?

[MARINECRITTERS]

Hey, getting into the reef hobby is very exciting, there are a few steps that you must follow to save future headaches.
First off water quality, when it comes to corals and water quality they must be optimal. This means low nutrients, but not too low.
When nutrients is too low the corals will essentially "starve" not from a lack of food but a lack of organics in the water, a lack of these " elements " will inhibit coral growth, intern this means sad coral. When there is too much nutrient in the water the coral will actually shrink up and slowly waste away, too much nutrients are actually toxic to the coral. Nutrients are just the dissolved organics in the water produced from waste, left over food and brought in from fresh water and salt mixes.
One way you can tell if you have too much is If you have algae growth, you can also test for it in the form of nitrate and phosphate. In most cases people have too much nutrients, but it get's removed through various forms of filtration such as chemical mechanical and biological, most mechanical filters only produces nutrients from build up of detritus and excess foods.
But protein skimmers filter out smaller particles and they completley remove them from the aquarium preventing nutrient build up. With chemical, carbon can remove organics from the water from the extremely tiny pores in it, these pores actually absorb the organics, another from of chemical filtiration removes specifically phosphates, GFO or granular ferric oxide.
Both of these medias are best utilized when running in a reactor, as the water is exposed to all of the media instead of it just sitting in the side of a sump. Now for the Biological filteration or as I call it, the natural method. There are so many forms of this filter such as refugiums, bio pellet reactors, nitrate reactors and love rock filtiration. Live Rock is some of the most imporatant filters you will have when it comes to reef filters. It works by housing thousands of bacterias which convert ammonia to a less harmless compound, nitrite and then the least toxic, nitrate.
There are also strands of bacterias that convert ntrate to nitrogen gas which bubbles out of the aquarium into the atmosphere. The general rule for the amount of rock in a reef is a pound and a half per gallon. Refugiums are another great form of natural filteration, it utilizes plants to consume nutrients, the plants are kept in a seperate tank so fish and snails dont consume them. When lighting a refugium it should be altered to the display tank lights to normalize PH.
Another great thing about refugiums is they provide a great home for pods, which make a great food for fish.
Now when it comes to keeping corals there are three things you must consider, do they require calcium supplements? How much light do they need? Must I continually feed the coral?
For hard corals the create a calcium carbonate base to house their fleshy polyps. This means there must be sufficent amounts of certain elements in the water ( calcium alkalinty and magnesium ), they can be manually added with supplements or replenished with water changes. If you plan on keeping a lot of hard corals you must manually dose ( dosing pumps can automate it ) as they consume more elements then water changes can replenish. If you wan't healthy soft corals additions of calcium are benefitial, as they contain sclerites which help maintain their structure. When adding supplements you must add all three, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium as each one counters the other, meaning if you have low of something then you will have low another thing.
For lighting you must do your research, LED's are very strong and capable of maintaining a sps reef, halides can be even stronger.
Coral feeding is not needed, while it is benefital, it is not needed. Unless it is a NPS tank. If you decided to feed your corals then you must take in to account the polyp size as each coral will only accept a certain type of food.

Hope this helped.

[ant81]

thank you very helpful...im just waiting to buy a coral and then ill dip it in small bucket of coral RX then rinse the coral in another bucket of fresh saltwater and then transfer it in my main tank...is that all?

[ant81]

also is a Juvenille Emperor Angelfish possible to keep with reefs even if on some sites its says not reef safe? what do u suggest as a good complete test kit?

[ant81]

so for corals i have to stay away from xenia, mushrooms and star polyps or else ill regret it later? any other corals not to get?

[marvelousone]

leathers and zoa's are easy. I drip mine before putting in tank. Dip them also to kill unwanted bugs. I know people that dip them, rinse them and in the tank they go.