First coral suggestions?

[djmpj2]

Our tank is about a year old and we are thinking of adding our first coral. What do you think? We do have 1 chocolate chip star. Are there any corals that can withstand CC stars and are hearty enough for a beginner? I would like to add some interesting color to the tank. I will most likely order from saltwaterfish.com.

Thanks
DJ

 

[theatrus]

That choc. chip will probably mow down any corals unfourtunately.

But for hardy corals, zoos of all kinds, mushrooms, leathers, xenia (this is debateable - some people just can't seem to keep it while it grows like weeds in other systems).

 

[afilter]

Agree the CC star will need to go. What do you have for overall lighting?

As for starter corals here is what I have from my profile pretty much in the order I added them:

Corals: Candy coral, kenya tree coral, green button polyps, green cup plate coral, Yellow toadstool, small button polyps, green mushrooms, bubble coral, neon green closed brain, leather, red spotted mushrooms and devil's hand.

With the exception of the green cup plate and brain I would suggest all for starting out. I just started corals in Sept and all are doing great for me so far.

Be careful, corals are very addicting, once you start you cannot stop. I appreciate my corals as much if not more than the fish.

Good luck,

 

[DragonForce]

Depending on what lighting you have will depend on what corals to keep. This is my first tank and I have a frogspawn that is already starting to grow a new head. "Beginner corals" is highly subjective to a number of things.

With that being said, I think more of the low light and softer corals(xenia, mushroom, polyps, leathers) can take more abuse than some of the sps corals for example.

 

[djmpj2]

My Lights

Here are my light specs:

hood system, Dual 65W bulb unit (130W of PC Light!) with straight pin bases. 1x 65W Coralife 10,000K Daylight, 1x 65W Coralife Actinic Compact Fluorescent Lamp plus two 3/4 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LEDs.

Are these good for corals?

So the CC star has to go? No way around it? I really do like the little guy.

D

 

[afilter]

The star will most likely munch on corals. So it is up to you. $8 star vs. $30+ coral. Many LFS will take them back. There are a number of reef safe stars.

As for lighting you are a bit on the low side for corals. Ideally you want to double what you have for a 75g. Rule of thumb is 3-6 wpg. I think you could get away with some of the low light leathers and shrooms as mentioned above positioned in the upper half of the tank.

A lighting option to check out for low caost would be the new corallife slim line T-5. The are only 56w, but put out more lumens so they are more life a 130w pc. I get them at my LFY for $53. With 1-2 or these I think you would be set far all low to medium light corals.

Good luck,

 

[austinsdad]

IMO, Eric Borneman's book, "Aquarium Corals" would be a good resource to have as you begin to "venture".

Good luck.

 

[macman7010]

A chocolate chip starfish will eat an anemone so I can gurantee you it will nibble on any coral that goes in that tank. They are totally not reef safe and meant only for fish only aquariums. I have never really understood why pet shops sell CC stars considering they are unsafe with so many animals.

 

[Jermz79]

Yup the CC star has to go! I put one in my 29gal and I had one rock with about 4 shrooms on it .... within 15 minutes that CC star was on that rock and devoured 2 shrooms!!

 

[lando]

I have to agree. The CC star will have to go. You really do not have enough light to support too many corals. If you can get mushrooms or polyps high enough in the tank and close to the light you should be okay for low-light corals.