A few good starter corals for a newbie

[FishPharmD]

Well, my nitrites are beginning to drop off (finally), and I'm starting to think about corals. I want to put some in before I start putting in fish. Can you give me a few examples of good corals for a beginner? I want something that will be relatively easy to keep, but is beautiful and rewarding. Softies, LPS, mushrooms/polyps, etc. Pretty much anything but SPS...I'm told I don't have enough lighting for those. I have 2 x 110w VHO with URL Super Actinic R and Aqua Sun 10000K. How many should I start with? One at a time, or several colonies at once? Fish first or coral first? TIA!

[scubadude]

Hey Fish

You probably know this already but you realize you should wait till you have zero nitrites, and ammonia before you put in fish/coral right? And you should also have low nitrates (under 20, preferably zero) I would maintain all levels zero for atleast a week or two personally before I put any livestock in. But when you are ready for livestock I would definately start with your fish, and the above corals you mentioned should be fine with your lighting after the fish are added, just go slow the faster you increase your bioload the more problems you are likely to have. And one other suggestion that might get you more responses the next time you post...do your test and put your readings in your post that way we can see where you are at. Heres a few good really kewl corals to start with

Yellow toadstool leathers (the real yellow ones, not the brown ones)
Zooanthus/Button polyps (sooo many different flavors/colors to choose from)
Mushrooms (again lots of colors to choose from, take a look at ricordeas, and tonga bullseyes they are very colorful usually)

[Bamm Bamm]

I agree leather and mushrooms are great starter corals. But wait until your tank is completely cycled=)

[Tattooedlife]

Polyps, Mushrooms, Bubble coral.

[Poseidon]

Just like Rocky said... You gotta WAIT!!! Sorry. My first Corals were Hammer, Xenia, and Anthelia. I still have all 3 today. I lost count how many stalks of Pulsating Xenia that I've given away. My hammer had to "heads" when I bought it, now it has 19!!! and Anthelia ALMOST took over half my tank. I've actually been trying to get rid of it lately, it seems I can't even KILL that stuff!! LOL

[Wind]

what kinds of blue colored or purple sps are good for beginners? and hardy? and not too expensive

[FishPharmD]

HaHa guys, ok, thanks for the info.....I KNOW to wait until I'm fully cycled, unless I just have the notion to go waste a lot of money. When I meant timeframe, I was thinking more along the lines of fish first, or coral first? Scubadude answered that one for me. I will wait until I've got 0ppm on everything, and then a week or two more for good measure.
Have you guys ever heard of Bio-Spira? Evidently it's a 2 or 3 oz. package of LIVE nitrifying bacteria, like 5,000,000 CFU or something like that. Supposedly it cycles your tank overnight. As for me, I'm gonna leave the cycling to Mother Nature...she always seems to do a better job anyway.
I can't wait to get some snails and stuff in here to take care of the algae...it's getting way annoying. My rock was covered in the red slime/brown diatom stuff within 4 days of setting the tank up. No good......but it will make some turbo or margarita snails really happy!

[scubadude]

what kinds of blue colored or purple sps are good for beginners? and hardy? and not too expensive

Hey Wind,
Montipora Digitata, definately....you can find some really nice purple, and if you can get a hold of some of ORA's new german montipora digitata it has purple/blue polyps I might have some pics of it somewhere if you want me to dig it up let me know.

Have you guys ever heard of Bio-Spira? Evidently it's a 2 or 3 oz. package of LIVE nitrifying bacteria, like 5,000,000 CFU or something like that.

Sounds to me like another product to add to the list that we really dont need, geez that list is getting pretty darn long too!

Hey Fish,
Are you getting those snails still? Watcha gonna do w/em if you dont want them?...hehe...lemme know if you dont want them I might work a trade w/you on them...I wanna do an experiment w/them....if you decide to keep em no biggie either way.

[Wind]

shoots!!.. do u have some?? thanks...

[FishPharmD]

Hey Fish,
Are you getting those snails still? Watcha gonna do w/em if you dont want them?...hehe...lemme know if you dont want them I might work a trade w/you on them...I wanna do an experiment w/them....if you decide to keep em no biggie either way.

Strange, I was just about to ask you about some "spare frags" you might have "floatin' around" hahaha.

Actually, yes, just got them in today. Dude sent 'em to me wrapped up in a sopping wet paper towel in a plastic LFS baggie. More than 75% actually survived, at least so far....couldn't believe it. I looked in there earlier and saw a hermit "gettin' his munch on" on one of the smaller ones.

So, I've got around 40 or so....I dropped them into my new tank to help get rid of some bad algae (rusty-looking stuff), b/c I didn't want to risk putting more expensive snails in just yet.

You're welcome to all of them that I can find....they mostly started digging down into the gravel. And yes, bartering will be accepted....preferably some frags you've got way too much of that you need to get rid of. I got these dudes for pretty cheap so I'd feel wrong any other way. PM me with an offer dude, and I'll do it. Can we wait a couple weeks though? Nitrite still at 0.25ppm :-(

[FishPharmD]

One more thing.....

I saw a coral at my local LFS where I'm a "short order hand". It was in a flat, whitish rock that was thin and flat and a bit concave. Out the top of it were some tiny, electric green polyp looking things. Beautiful coral!!! Does this ring a bell, and if so, could I keep it with my lights? (in due time, of course!) I betcha it's an SPS though...I don't know anything about corals, but if I were to guess, I'd say it was. I'll look around for a picture of it. Thanks.

[scubadude]

shoots!!.. do u have some?? thanks...

Huh? you lost me on this statement you want pics?

One more thing.....some tiny, electric green polyp looking things.

;;
Thats a purty vague description, Ill give you the first thing that pops into my head though


Its called neomeris annulata, which is an algae.....but thats just a guess from a broad description

[FishPharmD]

Its called neomeris annulata, which is an algae.....but thats just a guess from a broad description

Nope, it's definately a coral, unless I'm just a stupid idiot. It looks like coral to me. The search for pictures hasn't revealed this particular specimen yet, but I'll keep looking. BTW, your pic didn't show up.