classroom looking for coral addition advice

[themartins]

Hi all. We're looking for some advice on some corals that would work well in our tank with our current lighting and flow. Also, we're new to corals so help on where to place them would help us as well. We've included a tank picture to hopefully help with possible placement ideas. Right now we have an xenia frag. (right behind the Hiwaiin featherduster) and a zoanthid frag. on the rock to the right of the featherduster. We're looking for any advice and maybe pictures of your tank to see where you placed things and what our tank can look like in the future.

tank specs:
size: 38 gal. set up last August
lighting: Coralife T5 4 bulb fixture (2 actinic/2 10,000K) with lunar leds
water flow: 2 powerheads (see picture)
filters: Fluval 204 canister set up with LR, ChemiPure Elite, & Purigen
Whisper 60 hang on the back - set up just for increased flow and
increased biological filtration
inhabitants: 2 occelaris clowns, 3 P.J. cardinals, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 Yasha Hase goby, red banded pistol shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 scarlet reef hermit crabs, 1 tiny emerald crab, 1 Hawaiin featherduster, clean up crew snails

 

[Badfishofbabylon]

I would start out with some easy soft corals like mushrooms, toad stools, Kenya trees, or maybe some more zoas. Wait a few weeks and if they do well try something a little more demanding like an LPS such as Acan Lords, Duncans, or a Lobo. If those stay healthy try something harder; I use this method when ever I set up a new tank. No two systems are the same even if they have the same equipment, so it's best to add corals slowly and watch how they react to your water parameters, flow, lighting, etc.

Here's a link to some good starter corals. (I would stay away from the SPS though.)

Beginner Corals: Corals Suitable for Beginners in Saltwater Aquariums


And here is a Photo of my brothers tank that I am helping him with, his system is pretty close to yours; 55 gal, Fluval 204 canister, 2 powerheads, but he has a 6 bulb T5 fixture.

Hope this helps & good luck!

 

[crister13]

That's some great advice given above. I think you could go with a torch coral when your ready for lps. Here's what my tank looked like but now I'm switching substrate.

 

[themartins]

Thank you for the suggestions and photos. The tanks look great and give us something to look forward to. I've made a list to have on hand for when I look at our LFS frag tank later, if the budget allows.

 

[MacDracor]

One word of warning about Kenya Tree coral. I bought one about 3 months ago. Was about 2 inches tall. I know have 6, ranging from 3-6 inches tall. They give new meaning to the phrase "sea weed".
Super easy to grow. Almost too easy.....
Personally, I'd stick with shrooms, zoas, maybe leather (though they are notorious for allelopathy), etc. Euphylia corals (torch, frogspawn, hammer) are fairly easy. Blastomussa is slow growing, but undemanding. Galaxea, bubble coral, duncan, all good choices. A few SPS will even do ok under that light. Mostly Montiporas, such as capricornis and digitata.

 

[Crabs]

And don't forget Ricorda's. There r sum real beauties in this species

 

[themartins]

Great information, thank you for all of the suggestions! We actually ended up purchasing 1 ricordea yesterday afternoon. We'll try to upload a picture later today. We'll keep our coral list handy, hopefully we can add 1 new coral per week or so.

 

[Sniperhank]

If you can get yourself a duncan, do it. They are hardy LPS and grow rather quickly, even more so if you target feed them. One of the great things about duncans is that they not aggressive at all, even though their tentacles are out waving in the water. They are one of my favorite corals and have two of them in my current setup.

 

[Qube]

+1 on the Duncan! Fast growing and gives some color and motion to the tank!! Frags can be bought relatively cheap too!!

 

[themartins]

I'll have to see if our LFS can order a duncan frag in for us. Thank you for the suggestion. Here is a photo of the ricordea that we purchased. When we first put it in the tank the peppermint shrimp were all over it, checking it out. They're leaving it alone now, though.

 

[Crabs]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Peppermint's. They won't hurt coral but I've seen them bothering other tank inhabitants. And don't believe it when people say they eat Aptasia. I've never seen it although I've had a couple in the past. They would gang up on my Cleaner Shrimp. That's when they had to go