As a beginner, should you go for softie corals or stony?

Sk8r · 02/25/2015, 11:24 AM

Both types are possible under T5, MH or reef-capable LEDs.

Highest light demand is 'most stony' (except bubble coral, which likes to be low down in a bright tank.) You want something around 10,000 k to 13,000 k, a very bright daylight, with the lights about 9" above the water surface. Stony gets half or more of its food from sugar-producing photosynthetic animacules that live in its tissue and produce the pretty color. They also have mouths and tentacles. Some have really long (6") tentacles that can reach upward in a calm area or sideways in a current to reach and annoy a neighbor. You DO need to space these so they can't do this, but be sure they have room to grow.

Stony also HATES to wobble. Generally they won't unfold until they're stable as rock.

Stony requires calcium --- much more than your salt mix can supply. To satisfy this, drop kalk powder into your topoff water. You want your alk at 8.3, your calcium at 420, and your magnesium at 1300, salinity 1.025 and your temperature at 78-80.
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Softies are mushrooms, leathers, buttons, and generally a coral without a skeleton. They require less light to be happy, they don't use calcium as fast as stony, so your water changes should be enough, but try to keep close to that 8.3 alk/420 calcium and 1300 magnesium. Particularly watch the alkalinity with these. Temperature and salinity the same.

Running carbon in your system and changing it monthly is a good idea in a softie tank. Softies don't reach out with tentacles: they spit into the water, and when they're mad, they really spit. In the ocean this just serves to annoy nearby corals into not growing. In a tank, the stuff comes round again as the water circulates and annoys the original spitter, who spits harder. Leathers are particularly good spitters. Carbon absorbs coral spit.

This, incidentally, is why mixing stony and softie coral in the same tank is something best undertaken by second and third year reefers. It's got its problems, and new reefers have enough to watch without trying to psychoanalyze their corals.

Again, stabilize them, start them on the bottom and slowly lift them up until they seem happiest, but no further. Mushrooms are the most tolerant of higher light. Some leathers don't mind it. Buttons are usually happier in lower light...at least in my own experience.
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Fragging is what you do when your coral's outgrown his area. Most stony can just be broken by hand---if it's branching. If it's a 'wall' coral, one solid piece, you'll need goggles and a fine saw. You just cut it in half. And keep the wound clean, and the water quality perfect, ideally in the same tank where it was, so as not to shock it.

Fragging softies usually involves a razor blade and a little dish where the unattached frag can recover and heal. Carbon in the system is beyond a good idea, because both halves will be mad. Getting them attached to a rock--if they're mobile, like a mushroom, just set them on a rock in a glass dish. If they're not, then sometimes laying the frag on a rock and setting a light pebble atop it to hold it there will get it to attach. In the case of xenia, I've gotten it to attach by pinning it to the sand with a light piece of rock--by morning it had attached to the little rock. Note that palythoas (sp?) are toxic, and if you frag them, prepare a separate tank, wear gloves, wear goggles, and discard all water involved. I'd also suggest having both pieces in qt with carbon, to avoid annoying the rest of your tank. Keep pets from sampling the water in which wounded palys have been housed. It's not a 'don't do', but a 'do it carefully,' dispose of the water carefully, and frankly, I'd take a head to toe shower afterward, and above all else don't do something crazy like wipe your eyes with your gloved hand.
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You can often trade frags back to the lfs for store credit. It keeps them supplied and you get some fishfood.

nsfishguy · 02/25/2015, 05:31 PM

I have a small pice of kenya tree that some how got loose and is on the bottom! How do I get it to attach to a piece of rock?

BigCountry74 · 02/25/2015, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nsfishguy

I have a small pice of kenya tree that some how got loose and is on the bottom! How do I get it to attach to a piece of rock?

just cram it into a wedge in the rock. it will attach itself and start to grow

LeRenard · 02/25/2015, 07:29 PM

why do I want my lights 9" off the water. Does that apply to LEDs? Mine are maybe 2 or 3" from the water..

gt93pony · 02/25/2015, 07:40 PM

Softies are less finicky and generally a beginners choice.

Sk8r · 02/26/2015, 10:23 AM

The 9" is for MH: sorry not to specify. OTOH, be SURE that the LEDs are not getting splash: we had a very unfortunate incident that cost us a new LED unit.

FraggledRock · 02/26/2015, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sk8r

The 9" is for MH: sorry not to specify. OTOH, be SURE that the LEDs are not getting splash: we had a very unfortunate incident that cost us a new LED unit.

+1 I have my LEDS about 18" off the water surface.

also in terms of LED's they never "look" as bright as other lights from outside the tank because they are "spotlights" and less light hits our human eyes, but the corals get adequate light.

if you don't believe me, try to look straight into an led light... no i'm serious, don't do that...

Sk8r · 02/26/2015, 10:57 AM

Elevation depends on the lighting strength, and check the instructions or website for your product. LED is highly directional. MH is strong enough it's not good to look at: I have it shielded from the rest of the room.

02/25/2015, 11:24 AM	#1
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	As a beginner, should you go for softie corals or stony? Both types are possible under T5, MH or reef-capable LEDs. Highest light demand is 'most stony' (except bubble coral, which likes to be low down in a bright tank.) You want something around 10,000 k to 13,000 k, a very bright daylight, with the lights about 9" above the water surface. Stony gets half or more of its food from sugar-producing photosynthetic animacules that live in its tissue and produce the pretty color. They also have mouths and tentacles. Some have really long (6") tentacles that can reach upward in a calm area or sideways in a current to reach and annoy a neighbor. You DO need to space these so they can't do this, but be sure they have room to grow. Stony also HATES to wobble. Generally they won't unfold until they're stable as rock. Stony requires calcium --- much more than your salt mix can supply. To satisfy this, drop kalk powder into your topoff water. You want your alk at 8.3, your calcium at 420, and your magnesium at 1300, salinity 1.025 and your temperature at 78-80. -------- Softies are mushrooms, leathers, buttons, and generally a coral without a skeleton. They require less light to be happy, they don't use calcium as fast as stony, so your water changes should be enough, but try to keep close to that 8.3 alk/420 calcium and 1300 magnesium. Particularly watch the alkalinity with these. Temperature and salinity the same. Running carbon in your system and changing it monthly is a good idea in a softie tank. Softies don't reach out with tentacles: they spit into the water, and when they're mad, they really spit. In the ocean this just serves to annoy nearby corals into not growing. In a tank, the stuff comes round again as the water circulates and annoys the original spitter, who spits harder. Leathers are particularly good spitters. Carbon absorbs coral spit. This, incidentally, is why mixing stony and softie coral in the same tank is something best undertaken by second and third year reefers. It's got its problems, and new reefers have enough to watch without trying to psychoanalyze their corals. Again, stabilize them, start them on the bottom and slowly lift them up until they seem happiest, but no further. Mushrooms are the most tolerant of higher light. Some leathers don't mind it. Buttons are usually happier in lower light...at least in my own experience. ------------- Fragging is what you do when your coral's outgrown his area. Most stony can just be broken by hand---if it's branching. If it's a 'wall' coral, one solid piece, you'll need goggles and a fine saw. You just cut it in half. And keep the wound clean, and the water quality perfect, ideally in the same tank where it was, so as not to shock it. Fragging softies usually involves a razor blade and a little dish where the unattached frag can recover and heal. Carbon in the system is beyond a good idea, because both halves will be mad. Getting them attached to a rock--if they're mobile, like a mushroom, just set them on a rock in a glass dish. If they're not, then sometimes laying the frag on a rock and setting a light pebble atop it to hold it there will get it to attach. In the case of xenia, I've gotten it to attach by pinning it to the sand with a light piece of rock--by morning it had attached to the little rock. Note that palythoas (sp?) are toxic, and if you frag them, prepare a separate tank, wear gloves, wear goggles, and discard all water involved. I'd also suggest having both pieces in qt with carbon, to avoid annoying the rest of your tank. Keep pets from sampling the water in which wounded palys have been housed. It's not a 'don't do', but a 'do it carefully,' dispose of the water carefully, and frankly, I'd take a head to toe shower afterward, and above all else don't do something crazy like wipe your eyes with your gloved hand. ---------- You can often trade frags back to the lfs for store credit. It keeps them supplied and you get some fishfood. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%. Last edited by Sk8r; 02/25/2015 at 12:28 PM.

02/26/2015, 10:23 AM	#6
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	The 9" is for MH: sorry not to specify. OTOH, be SURE that the LEDs are not getting splash: we had a very unfortunate incident that cost us a new LED unit. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

02/26/2015, 10:57 AM	#8
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	Elevation depends on the lighting strength, and check the instructions or website for your product. LED is highly directional. MH is strong enough it's not good to look at: I have it shielded from the rest of the room. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

02/25/2015, 05:31 PM	#2
nsfishguy Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 94	I have a small pice of kenya tree that some how got loose and is on the bottom! How do I get it to attach to a piece of rock?

02/25/2015, 07:29 PM	#4
LeRenard Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 116	why do I want my lights 9" off the water. Does that apply to LEDs? Mine are maybe 2 or 3" from the water..

02/25/2015, 07:40 PM	#5
gt93pony Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: East, TN Posts: 71	Softies are less finicky and generally a beginners choice.