New To Corals.....

I have had my tank running for a couple of weeks now. I'm up to 100lbs of liverock, 2 ocelleris clown fish, 2 yellow tail damsels, and a blue damsel. While I admire the progress of my tank i am very eager to begin research on corals. Im looking for a nudge in the right direction for various types of information including but certainly not limited to recommended beginner corals, coral acclimation, calcium dosing, and any other important aspects of keeping corals...

As always, any and all help is appreciated in advance.

 

First of all, Have you owned an aquarium before or have you only been a saltwater aquarist for a couple of weeks?

If you are new I would recommend starting a FOWLR system and not jump into a reef system because reefs are the hardest, most expensive, and most time consuming of all 3 marine systems (Fish Only, Fish Only With Live Rock, and reef). I would get the hang of taking care of livestock and get adventurous with shrimps, feather dusters, and sponges and once you can take care of those for a good amount of time I would recommend starting a reef. I didn't start my reef until I had 5 years of experience with a FO system (which experienced many casualties due to my inexperience).

I'd also recommend these 2 books to read before starting: The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Once you think you're ready for a reef aquarium I would read at least the first of a 3 Volume Book Series for reef aquariums called The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates by Julian Sprung and J. Charles Delbeek. The 3 Volume series carry a hefty price tag but I believe that they are worth every penny. These books have saved me from making many mistakes and unnecessary livestock deaths.

Have fun and good luck!

 

Your first step needs to be to slow down. Your live rock and sand need to cycle before you should even add fish. This process usually takes at leat 6 weeks. everyone starts a little fast when there first starting out but this only cost you more money in the end. I would not add anything more until your ammonia and nitrite is reading 0. You will then want to begin your maintenance schedule. At this point you will be able to start adding some other fish. When you have all your fish I would start looking at corals. There are a lot of colorfull corals that are very hardy and great for beginners to reef keeping. I would look into zoas, mushrooms, star polyps, yellow polyps, leathers, kenya trees, xenia and anthia for starters.

In the beginning you probably wont want to dose anything. 20% water changes weekly should keep all parameters good enough to keep some nice beginner corals. By the time you get confortable keeping your water params monitored and in check you will be ready if you choose to move into some of the hardy to keep species.

 

I have cycled my rock in a separate tank before introducing to this system. Also, I have monitored the levels of all basic parameters and they have maintained at 0 (nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia) PH at 8.2-8.4, SG at 1.022 in the process of raising slowly to 1.024-1.026. I have brown algae starting to grow on the rock and noticeable spread of coraline.(small purple spots growing on rock that had none before.)

I am not adding corals TODAY! In all of my previous posts I have always stated that I research before I do anything. So that is what this is, My attempt at collecting information.

jaredrthrbswimn - I will look into the books you have advised.

Thanx....