Starting a reef

[Bmac]

Hello all. A few months ago I came across a wonderful deal on Craigslist for a 125 gallon tank and stand. I set it up and got it cycled. I am looking to start adding coral but just don't know where to start. I have:
- 3 dimmable led lights
- bubble magus 180 ex protein
skimmer
- eshopps 200cs sump with a mag
12 return
- 2p25 and Wp40 (around 6000gph)
-Tunze ato

My basic tesrs are all fine
-0 ammonia
-0 nitrite
-less than 5ppm nitrate
-1.024 salinity

I plan on ordering more Salifert test kits. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mr_X]

Which LED lights? The Chinese Tao panels?
Are fish in the tank yet?

[Bmac]

The Chinese yes. Yes I have a kole tang, atlantic tang and two false percula clownfish.

[mr_X]

What corals do you like? I would start with soft corals and some lps, but make sure they are corals you really like, because soft corals do tend to grow fast, and some times take over.
Just don't make the mistake that many of us do in the beginning and put anything in the tank just to have something to look at. No brown corals!
You'll need calcium, alk, and mag test kits eventually..once you fill your tank up.
I assume for now you'll just be doing weekly water changes to replace trace elements?

[Bmac]

Yes. Weekly water changes. Would never put anything without color in my tank. I really like some of the zoas they have out there. But I would love a nice hammer coral. There is so much to learn it's almost overwhelming.

[mr_X]

Yeah, zoas are generally easy to keep. Hammers can be as well.

[BigRedsReefs10]

Zoas and palys make great starter corals. Also check out ricordea , my favorite softies. Hammers and frogspawns are pretty easy and can tolerate a wide range of flows and lighting ( torches can be a little more picky IME)

[Bmac]

Sweet. I'm too excited. Any corals to completely avoid?

[BigRedsReefs10]

Stay away from sps until your system stabilizes and personally I will never add Xenia to my tanks it took over my first tank. Also no anemones for 9-12 months

[Bmac]

I do not want anemones at all.

[BigRedsReefs10]

Most important part about building a reef IMO is to plan ahead with what corals you would like to add and scape the tank (as best you can) to those corals particular needs in flow and lighting. Check out sites like liveaquaria.com they'll give you a general idea of what they like and let you see pictures of the different corals.

[bribo12]

Originally Posted by BigRedsReefs10

Most important part about building a reef IMO is to plan ahead with what corals you would like to add and scape the tank (as best you can) to those corals particular needs in flow and lighting. Check out sites like liveaquaria.com they'll give you a general idea of what they like and let you see pictures of the different corals.

+1
This is a good way to setup a tanks scape. The only issue is once you get to kinda know what you're doing and start impulse buying corals your screwed lol. I know I will go to a store not intending to buy a piece of coral, see something I must have for the right price and get it not knowing where the heck it's gonna go in my tank lol. That may just be me though

[BigRedsReefs10]

Originally Posted by bribo12

+1
This is a good way to setup a tanks scape. The only issue is once you get to kinda know what you're doing and start impulse buying corals your screwed lol. I know I will go to a store not intending to buy a piece of coral, see something I must have for the right price and get it not knowing where the heck it's gonna go in my tank lol. That may just be me though

No not just you but with 5 DTs I've always got a place to put it :p

[Bmac]

Ok so the LFS was out of all the good softies so I picked up a frogspawn and hammer coral and since I frequent the store often they threw in what they called a capricornis.