Whats a good beginner coral reef

[El_fishman616]

I just set up a 65 gallon tank an upgrade from my 49 gallon corner tank which was only live rock and fish only tank. Now I like to get in to corals. I would like to know what types of corals would be good to start out with since I be new to the coral reef game?

 

[carey]

Hi. welcome to the forum!

what type of lighting do you have? and how deep is your tank?

 

[CleverBs]

Lighting is key so you must first decide how intense of light you will get. I suggest you get enough light to grow anything in your tank or you will wish you would of gotten stronger light later down the road when you are wishing you could grow an sps but you don't have enough to accommodate any.

 

[joy13]

For beginner corals in that big of tank you need a least t5 lights with 4 tubes I find I can grow things like softies like leathers,muchrooms and zos also lps. There are some very easy corals to try to stay away from like green star polyps, xenia, kenya tree, blue cloves and waving hand. This is a decent site to start researching with https://sites.google.com/a/asira.org/www2/caresheets

 

[El_fishman616]

I just order a 120 watt 14k Led light. The height of the 65 gallon is 24" tall

 

[needmorecowbell]

That's not very much for that big of a tank. Check out Fishneedit.com for some great reef capable lights. Their 4bulb t5s are what I use i and love it.

 

[El_fishman616]

I did some research on them and talking to ppls seems like LEDs were the way to go from what ppl have said but that why I'm here as well any advice is good advice for me

 

[Hinds04]

I did some research on them and talking to ppls seems like LEDs were the way to go from what ppl have said but that why I'm here as well any advice is good advice for me

Sounds like you ordered before you took any advice from here. You are gonna need more light than that for anything besides low light corals.

 

[El_fishman616]

I might then but talking to many ppls Leds is the new way to go and just like to know what type of corals u think I can start out with

 

[AquaRick]

I might then but talking to many ppls Leds is the new way to go and just like to know what type of corals u think I can start out with

Not all LEDs are equal.

 

[Leighton79]

LED's are the way to go, but not the cheap junk that's so abundant from china. This sort of ubiquitous rubbish has no coral growing capability at all.

If you are thinking about LED's then this sort of thing is what you need to be thinking along the lines of...

http://aquaillumination.com/sol/

Truly awesome lights, my LFS has one on display/demo at the moment and they are beyond anything I've ever seen, he has two fixtures over a 250 litre tank being controlled by the controller box, gone are the days of supplemental actinics and the such, you can program the units to run any kind of cycle you wish, with a plethora of different colour mixes cooked up by the blue and white LED's.

Epic, I'll be buying some this year without a shadow of a doubt.

 

[AquaRick]

AI will be releasing their Vega fixture in the next month or so. It's going to be an upgrade to the Sol. Just a thought in case you go that route.

 

[Leighton79]

The sol's will drop in price then!

Over here in the UK they are currently £400 per unit, what do they go for across the pond?

 

[El_fishman616]

I full agree I didn't go the cheap route but I also didn't buy top of the line I paid a good 350 for my led unit but I also think you don't always have to have top of the line equipment to be successful I would have to say to be successful in this hobby you have to maintain it more importantly then just having the best stuff money can buy. But all these tips do help me out

 

[KAhner]

That's true to an extent, but not with LEDs. Their application in the aquarium trade, or growing anything for that matter, is so new that there is a huge variance in quality. It should really change within the next couple years. Prices will drop and the truth will come out. You won't see these crap fixtures with half watt LEDs sold as reef capable. Oh and I didn't look at the one you bought so I'm not saying it's crap.

 

[needmorecowbell]

It is going to be a pretty light at 350 but not reef capable. It will make the colors of your fish show more an there's probably settings on the fixture at that price.

 

[Sincity]

I got tricked with the led scams. Thought I had a reef capable one for my nano and found out after I almost lost all my corals and anemone. Quickly bought a two bulb t5 and saved the tank. The LEDs looked amazing just didn't have the punch to grow corals. I just didn't do my research first kinda my fault but t5s are tried and true and cheaper I'm gonna stick with them until LEDs are around a bit more.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Ya they mark up the prices on them like crazy just because their new. It's just like music players. An iPhone/ iPod touch is the best (debatable I know..) but it is expensive. Their are knockoffs of things like it that are just a bit less expensive but junky. In a few years they drop like crazy and a new thing will come that is overpriced. The new thing that will be in reefs is plasma I heard. They have a lot of work to do with it though.

 

[El_fishman616]

Oh yea sometimes new things always comes out every month it's insane cant even have the newest phone for a week because the lates and greats thing came out 2 days after lol.. But yea I check in to t5 I can always return the LEDs is I decide not to go with them I just want to be successful in the coral game

 

[KAhner]

Actually plasma arc has been around for a while. And the LEDs aren't really like marked up rediculous. The diodes r pretty expensive and there r only a couple manufacturers that make quality ones. The best probably being Cree.