Going from FOWLR to Reef-few questions on lighting etc

[NOVAFowlr]

I've had my current tank set up for almost a year now. Cliff notes:
30 gallon tank
protein skimmer
two power heads
30 lbs(plus or minus) live rock
currently stocked with two snails, a clown fish, and a bangai cardinal(all been in place for about 8 months). We lost our six line when life got very crazy and I forgot to feed them for about a week(lesson learned on that one...).
finally got my cyano alagae issue under control but am now battling green hair algae, and think I have started to win that one.

At any rate, I purchased the marineland advanced LED strip light to replace my old halogen, and it has rekindled my love of these tanks. I'm going to return this light to petsmart and purchase from amazon a current USA Orbit Marine aquarium LED light(18-24").

Based on this setup, what kind of corals would be good for a beginner? I've never had corals before, but of course like everyone else would like some bright colored cool ones

I'd also like to add two more fish and some more snails, shrimp etc. I assume that corals are like anything else and add bioload to the tank, and therefore should be added in small inciments?

Thanks for the help,

 

[54seaweed]

as a good start live aqua has a nice selection on beginner coral
Beginner Corals: Corals Suitable for Beginners in Saltwater Aquariums

 

[mr_X]

You can add corals all at once if you like. They do not add much to the bio load, unless you are target feeding them, which isn't necessary. The Marine Land "Reef Capable" fixture will support low to medium light corals only. Anything labeled easy or beginner should be fine.
I suggest you don't add anything to the tank that you aren't in love with. An example would be Kenya Tree- Kenya Tree coral is as invasive and ugly IMO, as pest anemones like aptasia or majano. Just because they are labeled "easy" shouldn't be a reason for you to consider them....unless of course you'd like a brown forest to look at daily

 

[NOVAFowlr]

Already placed my order for the Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED lighting fixture from amazon, I will just return this one to petsmart. It sounds bad, but that has been my intention all along as I wanted to try out a new light to see if it transformed the tank(it did), and I know petsmart is usually insanesly overpriced on items like this.

I appreciate the advice, I want items that are brightly colored and will show up great under the moon lighting setting as that is when I am able to view the tank 5 out of 7 days a week!

 

[Sniperhank]

Sounds like zoa time in there.

 

[keegster803]

I have that marine orbit USA light, it is amazing, it really lights up the tank. I would recommend zoanthids, they are very colorful and are very easy corals. I have the orbit on my fluval spec V and it looks amazing, it's filled with zoas and the tank looks like a garden full of rainbows. 100% recommend zoas


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[NOVAFowlr]

Zoas it is! There are many different ones that I really like after researching. So now that is out of the way, what water parameters do I need to be monitoring for these? I have the master test kit, but it does not check things like phosphate, magnesium, hardness etc. (only checks for nitrate/ite, ammonia, and PH). I of course have a refractometer for salinity, I have read that I should keep the salinity around 1.025?

Thanks for your help,

 

[mr_X]

You can keep LPS as well, like acans, duncans, euphyllia, chalices, favia, and the like. Plenty of beautiful choices out there.