Coral

[fishguy777]

I’ve only kept fowlr tanks so far, and I want to try doing corals. I’m looking for cheap, colorful, fast growing, and easy to care for.

The tank is a Red Sea 3XL 900 G2+
It has three nicrew 150 W on it, and I have the controller. Are these lights sufficient?

Not sure if it matter, but I also have a bag of charcoal in there (for ammonia) simplicity 800DC skimmer, 55 watt lifeguard UV, algae refugium, and some bio media from previous tanks. Also, might get the reef mat in the near future…

For fish, I have
8” threadfin snapper
6” magnificent foxface
5” blue throat trigger
5” emperor angelfish (is this a problem?)
4” polleni grouper
4” purple tang
3” bi color angel

I plan to get a ray, shark, harlequin tusk, and maybe some tangs.

How should my rock structure be for corals? I started watching puff daddy reef on YT, and he has a shark in his reef tank, and to avoid the shark knocking over coral, he made “shelves” or “levels” with his rock. So that the coral and shark stay away from eachother.

For flow, I have two crossflow jebao wave makers. Ones the SCP-150, the other one is a tiny bit smaller, I forgot the model name.

And I will either have a mesh or glass lid. Will this dilute the light from the nicrew lights?

And last thing, I’m on a well, so I never used an RODI. Do I need one? Never ran into any issues

After all this, what corals would you recommend. Going for cheap, colorful, fast growing, and easy to take care of.

And lastly, any tips or things I should know about coral? What’s your process for adding new coral? Any test kits you recommend? How do you dose and with what? Any other equipment I should look into?


Thanks!

 

[fishyjoes]

I can only comment on two aspects of your questions:

RO/DI
Whether you need RO/DI or not depends on what's in your well water. I would get RO/DI unless I knew for sure the source water was pristine and that it would stay that way year round.

Coral Recommendation
The corals I have personally had success with (as a coral beginner) that fit your criteria (cheep, colorful, easy, fast) are hollywood stunner chalice and montipora

Some options with a bit slower growth I would also suggest candy cane, duncan, and cyphastrea (they still show decent progress over time, not glacial)

 

[Katrina71]

Oh my goodness! How do you have that beautiful rock and no coral? That has taken restraint!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally, I would say your lights are sufficient to grow anything. So it comes down to water parameters, you will need good test kits to track nitrate and phosphate and alk as the most important, and also will want calcium and perhaps a magnesium tester. I prefer the hanna test kits.

Keeping the parameters as stable as possible is the main goal for the corals to be healthy and happy.

I would suggest to buy a $12 tds meter from amazon and test your water, if the tds is not zero then a rodi unit is a good idea.

 

[Cdavis66]

I can only comment on two aspects of your questions:

RO/DI
Whether you need RO/DI or not depends on what's in your well water. I would get RO/DI unless I knew for sure the source water was pristine and that it would stay that way year round.

Coral Recommendation
The corals I have personally had success with (as a coral beginner) that fit your criteria (cheep, colorful, easy, fast) are hollywood stunner chalice and montipora

Some options with a bit slower growth I would also suggest candy cane, duncan, and cyphastrea (they still show decent progress over time, not glacial)

My duncan has grown 2-3 times the size in 3 months. I would say it grows fairly quick.

 

[Katrina71]

Your angels might be a problem. I'd go inexpensive until you see.

 

[fishguy777]

Your angels might be a problem. I'd go inexpensive until you see.

Do you think they would go after coral like it’s food? Or more like picking at rocks? Do you think I’d see it right away?

 

[Katrina71]

Do you think they would go after coral like it’s food? Or more like picking at rocks? Do you think I’d see it right away?

They would just pick at it.

 

[Seansea]

The bi color will pick. I have one and he picks at coral constantly. Doesnt devour but picks. Think the emporer will take zoas out of the equation. I think greenstar polyps, zenia, any leathers like toadstools and such, clove polyps, kenya trees , colt corals and mushrooms. All easy corals that most coral devourers find repugnant. Could try some easy sps but will have to pay closer attention to water parameters. Stylophora, montipora, pocillipora and cyphastrea are easy to keep if you keep calcium, alk and magnesium stable. You got some big eaters in that tank and so.e known coral tasters. Lights should be good enough for any of the above.

 

[Troylee]

I’d stick with softies or something along those lines that likes dirty water.. with the fish you currently have and wanting to add a shark it will foul your water quickly unless you do crazy water changes… messy eaters!