Stage 1: FOWL. Stage 2: Mushrooms?

[gqsmoothster]

I'm nearing the one year mark of my tank that has thus been FOWLR and a few inverts (cleanup crew & cleaner shrimp). I've got a refugium w/ graciliaria brewing and I'm ready to start making my reef. You can use the quick menu on the left to see my setup details (and my blog).

Question: I'd like to start with mushrooms, polyps, zoos, and the like since I understand they are pretty hardy and my PC lighting will suffice for them. Is there anything I need to do to prepare for this transition in my life? I was thinking of starting with a hairy mushroom or such. My wife likes pulsing xenia, but the LFS says they're a bit more fragile.

Any comments or suggestions?

[zhenya]

There isn't many things that can go wrong with the mushrooms and such if that is what you want for your reef. I would just offer a word of caution as to where you place some of them. Hairy varieties capabale of easily take over your rock structure if you are not careful and so are zoanthids so place them where they can't make contact with the reef structure. I learned my lessons well with the mushrooms...

[Reefland]

I agree with zhenya, mushrooms and zoos are pretty hardy and should do just fine. Xenia is pretty hardy but some people report that they simply can't keep it alive. Should be able to find a stalk pretty cheap to give it a try.

[gqsmoothster]

Thanks for the info. My LFS reports my nitrates are 20-40 ppm, whereas my home kit was pretty close to 0. That should explain why I have a cyanobacteria bloom that's engulfing my entire sand bed. I've removed all filter floss, pump filters, doubled the flow through the sump/fuge, added graciliaria, and will manually remove the mats. Hope this takes care of the source and problem.

[gqsmoothster]

I just picked up my first mushrooms. They are a blue mushroom and then what the LFS called green irredescent mushroom. There's only one mention of the latter on google and I'm not sure what the scientific name is. Can anyone help? They seem to be growing on a hard skeleton so I'm inclined to think that it's not even a true mushroom... which has me worried because I wasn't prepared to turn the chapter into other corals just yet.

[zhenya]

Well, what you have is not mushrooms at all. It is a Caulastrea sp., or also known as candy cane coral.

[Poseidon]

LFS did not know the difference from Candy CAne and Mushrooms? YIKES! I would be very careful about taking advice from them, as far as BUYING, as long as YOU KNOW what it is, you may get a GREAT DEAL! Or just think of the poor schmo who is going to think he bought Caulastrea, and gets MUSHROOMS!

[gqsmoothster]

To give the LFS th benefit of the doubt, I did not specifically ask if it was a mushroom, just that it was labelled as a mushroom (see abovementioned name). Regardless, I'm now worried about this $45 beauty and hoping I can keep it alive. It is beautify in person, let me tell you.

I appreciate the ID so I can now research it fully. Looks like it likes strong flow- I was actually worried it was getting too much flow since I have it under my sump return. Guess that IS a good place for it after all. Just hope my 50/50 PC lights will be OK for it. Didn't want to jump in too fast with the corals, you know.

[Poseidon]

That has been a very good coral for me, it does like to EAT though. The feeding tenticles come out whenever I add Cyclop-eeze to the tank, or any other MEATY food for that matter. Here is a single head, with its tenticles out:

[zhenya]

To add to what Mike said already, this coral can also produce sweepers if crowded by other corals. So, make sure to give it plenty of room and place other coral out of reach of those sweepers( they can be as long as 6 inches sometimes).

here's an image showing sweepers forming on Caulastrea.

[gqsmoothster]

Beautiful pictures and some great advice. I'll have to pick up some cyclop-eeze. I've read some other good posts on dosing.
The LFS has one final day of this great sale (buy one, get one half price) so I'm thinking of picking up some more goodies. I really like the hammer coral and their xenia (pulsing and waving hand). Here's my next round of questions for you all:

1.) Is stocking corals the same as fish where you need to go very slow and give plenty fo time between additions, or can I get away with 4 new pieces of coral in a matter of 2 weeks?

2.) I have seen posts warning of mixes different genre of corals, but I'm still a little unclear about it. Sounds like it should be fine to mix mushrooms and LPS (like hammer and trumpet), but can I also add polyps like xenia (when ready)? I know xenia can be difficult so I'll probably wait on that, but this hammer they have is BEAUTIFUL (but not as beautiful as my wife who wants it even more than I do ;)).

They also have colt but I read they can be trouble with their toxins. I know I have more reading to do, and I've been eating up as much info as I can get, but the sale ends tomorrow so I want to strike while the iron's hot.

3.) Is my 50/50 48" PC (65w x2) lighting in a relatively shallow 55g tank going to be enough for the trumpet to thrive (it looks great now- one week after being put in)? For that matter, how about adding the hammer with this lighting?

All references I've read refer to the lighting needs as "moderate" but I have no definite knowledge of how lighting is scaled.

[Reefland]

I think you will be ok with the addition of a couple more corals in such a short time. You do have the make sure the tank can handle the additional load but corals are no where near the addition as fish.

On teh Hammer, placing it high in your tank should be fine, and I think you would be ok with the Colt as well. The Xenia is hit and miss. Some can't keep them, others can't keep them from over taking their tank.

[gqsmoothster]

Well, I'm very appreciative of everyone's input. I had to make a judgement call today since it was the end of the sale for the LFS.

I took the advice of zhenya very seriously, who made the point that hammers have been coming in in poor condition. I was also worried about the lighting I currently have. After getting to the LFS today I realized two things which pushed me over to make the decision to buy:

1.) This is a ma & pa type local LFS that doesn't sell alot of coral (they carry a decent selection, but the demand here isn't that high). I've actually had my eye on the hammer for about 2 months... so I know it is in good condition (not to mention it has thrived and grown in such)

2.) The home it's been living in at the LFS has only PC lights. It's been at about 2/3 the way towards the top of a 35 gallon tank.

With these two things considered, I went for both the hammer and the frogspawn. Both are magnificent and look great. Again, they are both stable and flourishing.

My next chore is to read up on feeding and nutrients. My calcium is high (900) and my alk is good (90 - i think ppm). I will need to buy a test kit for these so I don't need to rely on the store.

Pictures to follow. Thanks everyone!