Growing corals: how to.

[Sk8r]

Corals are filters. They are the one thing you can have wall to wall without overcrowding.

BUT don't buy them that way: leave space around them and let them self-adjust to each other and shape themselves to fit as they grow. That's how you get that beautiful Tank of the Month layering. A TOTM isn't 'bought'. It's grown.

Any size tank can be a reef, if it has appropriate lighting, and it doesn't take much for some corals. In fact, corals are one of the BEST uses for a smaller tank, because they're fine in a small tank, as long as you can light it well.

If you're doing softies, ask about invasive species and your structural rock: green star and mushrooms are SO successful in modern tanks, they can get pushy.

If you're doing stony, you need to supplement calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity buffer once they start eating. If you're under a 100, a kalk drip may do this handily. If you're over 100 g, you'll be thinking about a calcium reactor.

Lighting: for stony coral, you'll want T5 reef-capable, LED reef-capable, or Metal Halide. My advice in today's market would be one of the first 2. In point of fact, for softies, T5 is nice lighting.

I frankly don't advise a beginner taking on SPS unless they're ready to commit bigtime to equipment. Our systems still have room for improvement with this type of coral. A little mistake can cost you with these. LPS is far more forgiving.
But it will come: when I started serious reefing, back in the 80's, we couldn't keep stony at all well, and were happy if purple mushrooms divided. Now we complain about them proliferating too fast. So just wait. We'll figure it out.

I also suggest a logbook: coral doesn't like to exit the 'good zone', so note your test numbers down, and dose what you must dose BEFORE you go into the 'bad' territory.

Generally start a new coral low and move it up higher to avoid 'burning' it. Give every coral 6" of room on the downstream side. Test weekly until you get established with a dosing system like kalk: then it can slow down a bit.
Have an autotopoff. Again, corals don't like big surprises.

But they're not that fragile: you can take a coral out of the water, no trouble. Just swish them very gently to encourage them to retract their tissue. You don't have to qt them, but dip is mandatory: they have their own set of parasites. You could benefit from a little observation before putting them into your tank, just a nice glass container where you can look for crawly passengers.

And outside of that---really, really, really, they're much easier than a fish-only, IF you pay attention and have the right supplements going. Fish don't always tell you they're having trouble until they're in serious trouble. An annoyed coral tucks up pdq and if you get up one morning and find your corals pinched-looking, you know to test the water immediately. I can look at my tank and tell you instantly without testing a thing whether or not I need to take a round of tests. They are their own ongoing test-kit, and I honestly (myself) wouldn't keep a fish-only without sneaking a mushroom rock into the fuge---again, if the lighting's adequate but the shrooms tuck, you've got a water problem. If they're expanded to the max and happy, your water's good and will be good as long as they stay that way. Fastest way to analyze tank health I know of.

[Misled]

Very nice read Sk8r. I remember back in the 80's, my first reef, (45 tall), had the most beautiful aptaisa I've ever seen. The center was well over the size of a silver dollar and I hand fed it daily. Not that it's something most would have now, but it was easy to keep. I'm setting up a nano for a manjanothat've saved. It has very nice color and bubble tips. It's fairly large and sitting in my fuge.
Most would think I'm a bit strange, but when fed regularly, they tend to get bigger and if left to themselvs don't tend to breed much.

[Sk8r]

Yep: i've got a doozie right now: thing must be two inches tall. But---as we learn to say of bubble algae, it's an interesting texture. Of course it's on a specimen rock, surrounded by very happy hammer and frog and caulestra, and I ask myself---is it worth annoying my corals with peppermint shrimp? If it doesn't reproduce too much, I'll probably skip the shrimp for a while.

I tried mushrooms for old time's sake---produced a footlong rock absolutely covered in purples and greens and donated it to my lfs for display.

I'm thinking of naming them. Sk8r's Folly, perhaps. 800.00 a mushroom, to be renamed in honor of whoever buys them------and if you want those, I swear I'll toss in some purple turf algae!

Seriously---I've found the purple, orange-eyed thing I got on a lark is all of a sudden growing. New little eyes popping up all over. Acan! That's the name. I just looked it up. It's the first time I've tried one, and what pleases the monster hammer apparently suits it fine---a not-great skimmer, plenty of krill, and occasional bits of dry tuna flake cat treat from Petco. My fish are fond of tuna: not real often a royal gramma gets to feast on same.

[lacosta28]

Thanks for another thread full of great information Sk8r. So how established does my tank need to be before I can add my first coral? What would you recommend for a beginner? I have a 90g with live rock, sump with refugium and skimmer. My tank is a month old and the only thing in it right now is my CUC. I will eventually have a clown in there but nother for another month.

[jdyer88]

I know you are asking Sk8r (which is a great idea), but here is my humble opinion. within a month or two you should be able to try some mushrooms or zoas. These seem to be very forgiving first corals, and as your tank stabilizes they will grow more quickly. when they are thriving, and you will know when this is, try a forgiving lps like an open brain or acan. By that time you will probably have researched the reef chemistry forum on trace element and calcium and those lps should do nicely (thats the way it went for me anyway). I was using kalk in my ATO but it just wasn't enough, so now I am a 2 part guy. I am fearful of calcium reactors, just one more thing that could break and kill everything so I don't mind mixing and dosing my two part. keep reading sk8r's and other mod's posts and you will be fine

[Sk8r]

Be honest with yourself: how likely are you to throw the salinity way off? Got an ATO? (autotopoff?) Can you do a chemical test and keep a log book? If you can get your water to the parameters in my sig---and basically, you get the mg where you need to by dosing mg, and then add buffer and calcium to match, and you're good until the mg falls naturally in a few weeks or a coral eats all the calcium. Ultimately stony gets real greedy for calcium, but there's a way to handle that with very little work---namely dumping Mrs. Wages' Pickling Lime into your ATO reservoir and just testing the mg weekly. Piece of cake.

If you can manage all of that, you're good to go. Corals have NO requirement except good or at least decent lighting, water at those perams, and a coral choice that takes light into account. They're quite tough: I've had stony bubble coral actually survive a cycle with ammonia and everything: came on some live rock. You may find your future clown hosting in one of your corals: they'll do that sort of thing, and if it's a gentle perc, you're ok. If you've got a maroon, it can damage a coral by roughness. Start your fish into quarantine now; but for coral, just choose, and be sure to dip it in something like Coral RX and look it over: remember, hitchhikers travel on what they eat.

There's another chapter to coral care which involves superglue. You need to fix the new coral firmly to the rock, and you can do this by clever rock stacking, or (with a softie) using rubber band to get it to adhere to a rock, then by clever rock stacking; or by supergluing (they sell a stuff called IC Gel that sets under water, but you have to make like a statue for about 5 min holding it: also reef putty, which can fill a hole and give a squishy socket for a frag plug to go into---it hardens underwater, and I find it easier to use than superglue, which usually ends up on my fingers)---

The idea is NOT to let a coral wobble on its base. If it is to grow, it needs to be absolutely stable. This from my own experience: nothing ever takes off that's wobbling in the current.

Good beginner stony: hammer, frogspawn or candycane. No long tentacles and pretty hardy and a fast grower.

Good beginner softie: zoas, mushrooms, Kenya tree.

Absolutely get the name of what you're buying, so you don't come home with a mystery coral and no way to ask anybody how to take care of it.

Understand that corals may live, in a sense, for a thousand years. They break off bits that become independent corals. They're tough, given their minimum requirements, and you can fill a tank with them. Expect them to double in size in a year---or less---and then expect the double to double, and THAT double to double...if you get the idea that it can get way out of hand, yep---the doubling thing can fill your tank in a few years, so give it room to grow!

[Aquarist007]

Great post sk8r
To add acceptable ranges for
calcium 390 to 420 ppm
alkalinity 8 to 11-5 dkH
magnesium 1300 to 1400 ppm
salinity 35 ppm which is sea water (1.0265 sg)
All measure the levels before you dose and use the chemical calculator in the reef chemistry form for information on what and how much to daily dose.

[Sk8r]

Truth to tell, calcium reactors can cause a problem if you goof, and first year is not the time to do that, imho, unless you have experience with lab work, etc.

On the other hand, for a tank under 100 g, even my 50 which is plastered with corals, a kalk (lime) dose in the topoff water does what a calcium reactor does without the extra equipment, and without too much risk. I've had a few topoff accidents that have flooded my tank with kalk in a white cloud, and never lost a thing, nor even had a coral or snail inconvenienced. It has the virtue of being totally run by 2 things: your evaporation, and your ato. I have a huge topoff reservoir for my little 54 g: I have 32 gallons---and I add kalk every few months, because the measurement doesn't matter much: kalk will only dissolve to a certain extent, and then 'waits' in the reservoir bottom for the next fresh water addition. I can tell you more about setting that up when you need it---but it's dead easy if you just lid the topoff bucket, keep it from ever running dry, and pay attention to your magnesium level.

There are so many people starting with smaller tanks---and corals are such a nice, colorful thing to do with a little tank, it really should be encouraged earlier: there's nothing scary about them, and many little fish live in them and enjoy them: chromis absolutely love sleeping among the heads of hammer coral.

[jdyer88]

I agree that kalkwasser is a great choice, it just didn't work for me because of the volume of my system, about 220g in all. Many will try to scare you off of it by saying you need to drip it with a doser, but the ATO route kills 2 birds with one stone. you get the ease of anATO and a doser for your kalk! I used to have a 90g dt and kalk was the absolute perfect option for me. It is very inexpensive as calcium supplements go, and very effective. Just remember that the amount of magnesium in your system directly correlates to the amount of calcium that is usable. BRS has a great video on how mag and calc work together. They use visual aids for people like me that don't understand posts buy people like RandyHolmes-Farley. (not bad mouthing him, just saying his knowledge of chemistry is about 1,000,000x more than mine)

[Sk8r]

I think it might amuse people to see what a 3-head hammer can grow into in a few years. Almost all of this was a pretty big single head until fragged. So give your corals room enough! This is a 54 gallon tank.

[samdaman]

I cannot keep xenia or anthelia alive. I can keep any other thing except those. Is it one of those "depends on every tank coral, Some do good some do bad"?

[Misled]

Originally Posted by samdaman

I cannot keep xenia or anthelia alive.

Consider yourself lucky. If I couldn't though, it might annoy me. Xenia is the plague to me. It will come back after a nuclear attack. My anthellia stays in check because of the sponges surrounding it. It can't get past them, so it doesn't spread.

[jdyer88]

i've heard that xenia actually thrives in more nutrient rich water. So an sps tank that is sparkling clean all the time might not support xenia, or lps for that matter.

[lacosta28]

Thank you Sk8r and Jdyer88. I have been doing a lot of reading on the basics and I am pretty confident in taking care of fish. Corals intimidate me because there are so much more things to learn. With all the new information you guys gave me I will read into it some more. I just bought my BRS RO unit so I will have to wait until my next check to get an ATO. After I get those two things situated I will then look into getting my first coral. Thanks again.

[Sk8r]

You'll do fine. Just remember these corals have the tide go out on them and come rushing back, they survive fish and everything else that goes on---so they're FAR from as delicate as most believe. Get one of the hardier ones, and you'll enjoy it, I think. It's very exciting (for me, at least) when you suddenly realize your hitherto quiet coral has grown a second mouth and the thing is about to branch into two heads. And it doesn't take too long to happen, in good water.

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by jdyer88

i've heard that xenia actually thrives in more nutrient rich water. So an sps tank that is sparkling clean all the time might not support xenia, or lps for that matter.

they do like bacteria in the water. In tanks that I have used np biopellets with, the xenia is doing very well