When can you add corals?

[Ghostyboythedog]

Hi,
So I've had a saltwater aqaruim with water I it for about a month, and it's finally cycled and we put to clowns in the tank. And I'm just curious for the future when you can put soft corals in the tank.

 

[The_Paradox]

Whenever you want if you have the lights and parameters squared away.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the above however if you leave your lights off the first 4 months and allow your tank to develop biodiversity and microfauna before you start to add coral and turn lights on then your ugly stages will be more manageable. Fish don't need light. Experienced reefers can add coral right away with success. The rest of us don't do well adding coral early typically.

 

[Ghostyboythedog]

Does a light need to be blue or can it be white?

 

[Mikeltee]

When the coralline sets in if you want them to live. See you at the next live sale! Lol

 

[Katrina71]

I added coral the first day I had a clean up crew. I thought it was a plant, and they didn't correct me. Lol. It was green star polyps. It lived just fine.

 

[Ghostyboythedog]

I added coral the first day I had a clean up crew. I thought it was a plant, and they didn't correct me. Lol. It was green star polyps. It lived just fine.

Can you use a white light or do you need a blue light?

 

[Katrina71]

Your light can be either blue or white. Depends on what you like really. What kind of light do you have? And yes, cheap lights will work for beginner soft coral.

 

[fishnchip]

I added mine a week after my clowns. You should be good to go if your lights and parameters and squared away

 

[Lavey29]

Does a light need to be blue or can it be white?

You probably want to Google lighting for a reef rank. Heavy blue and UV. Minimal red and green. Corals don't need white light it's just for viewing pleasure.

 

[Peair]

About three weeks minimum if you have all parameters in range to be safe, Calcium is important for growth.

 

[vanguard]

Soft corals? If you have lights you're ready.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi,
So I've had a saltwater aqaruim with water I it for about a month, and it's finally cycled and we put to clowns in the tank. And I'm just curious for the future when you can put soft corals in the tank.

Start with a couple of beginner coral and allow the tank to mature further as you add. DSome beginners:
candy cane
mushrooms
zoa
trumpet
xenia
Duncan
Green star polyps

 

[Ghostyboythedog]

Okay thank you all so much

 

[crabgrass]

I was planning on doing the 4 month black out thing (BRS 4 month cycle), but a combination of getting impatient and my old tank needing to get broken down much earlier make me accelerate the process.

I moved 10 or so frags/corals from a smaller tank 2 weeks after the display was stood up (everything had been cycled a month before). Then added another 15 a couple weeks later and another 15 at the 2 month mark.

I am not advanced by any mark, and probablh lucky — or will learn my lesson in the next couple months, but avoided any coral casualties so far (outside of a plate coral that was doa). My hammers and torches have all split heads in the last month.

Everything I added, has been pretty easy LPS, plus a few gonis and mushrooms. And nothing expensive. I had a couple Montis I transferred over from the other tank that are doing fine (again easy stuff and cheap).

My rock was precycled for a month before adding it to the display and then I added some live rock from tbs (about 15% of the total rock). I also added a crap ton of pods and some stuff from ipcs, which should help accelerate the microbiome and maybe help with stability (I really don’t know)

My Alk has been very stable the first couple months. ph less so (working on that), but was ok 7.9-8.2. And N and P ar3 full of swings as you would expect in typical new tank (highs and lows, but all within an acceptable range. Eg N 2-20 and P .03 - .2’s). Those numbers need to level out before I put anything expensive into the tank.

No major ugly phase yet outside of the normal diatom bloom. Correline started showing up on the dry rock about a month in and has been very small spots. The stuff on the live rocks is growing pretty quick

TLDR: maybe I am just lucky, but I have gotten away with it so far. Don’t add anything expensive