Easy soft coral to start?

[Moe_K]

Okay, lets say a new hobbyist has a tank set up.
They've waited and watched the cycle finish - testing their parameters all the while.
They now see that ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all zero.
The skimmer's working well.
It's been a week or more since the cycle finished, and the hobbyist would now like to get some fish & corals.
They're new to the coral game, and want to keep soft corals.

Let's make recommendations for three lighting levels:
1) Normal output
2) VHO or PC
3) Metal halide

What do you recommend?

 

[MelodyDurham]

OooO!! *eagerly awaits answers, particularly for metal halide*

Thanks, Moe! *high5*

 

[Scuba_Dave]

I think capnella is a great softie coral, good for MH, VHO, or PC. Not sure about NO.
It grows fairly fast, isn't a pain like Xenia. And will fairly quickly drop new corals to aid the newbie in trading.
Also toadstools are great. They do not grow as fast, but can be easily fragged. I removed 1 large toadstool & now 12 are growing on the different rocks where it was located

I would stear clear of Xenia & anything encrusting that is a softie. They quickly spread & will take over valuable real estate

IF just a softie tank, COLORFUL shrooms are nice. But they kill SPS.

 

[Rays]

Colts, any of the leathers, of course 'shrooms in the lower light areas.

 

[NateHanson]

Tree corals are good for all the reasons Dave stated. Nice color too.

Ricordia are nice. Easy to keep. Don't spread out of control. Comes in nice colors too.

I wouldn't completely condemn zenia. I actually think it's pretty, and it is satisfying for a newbie to have a coral that they can practically SEE growing. It doesn't spread out of control if you keep it on a rock in the sand where it can't spread to other rocks. That's what I do in my tank.

 

[Jill & Brian]

I have to put in a vote for xenia too. We got a bunch of rocks with Xenia on it and it really helped to peak the interest of my wife and kids. It started growing right away, and now looks really nice (Although it is getting to be time to trim it back)

We also got a small tree coral that broke into 3 pieces when trying to attach it. I now have 3 tree corals showing nich growth.

My final vote is for zoos. They add color and are pretty hardy. Big Zoo fan

I have all of these under PC lights

 

[Kevin McG]

Well I can surely relate to this thread with 1st hand experience being pretty new myself. I have had good luck with the following soft corals in my tank.

Green Tree
Mushrooms
Torch corals
Galexia(sp?)
Toadstools
zoas
and of course xenia

With lighting I started using a 135watt pc ligting fixture on my 29 but when upgrading to the 180 MH was the only way to go and i am glad I did. The corals i have moved to the new tank look much better than they did in the 29.

 

[nitrofish]

They're new to the coral game, and want to keep soft corals.

Let's make recommendations for three lighting levels:
1) Normal output
2) VHO or PC
3) Metal halide

What do you recommend?[/QUOTE]

I have both a metal halide lit tank and a powercompact lit tank. they both seem to do well for soft corals and large polyp stony corals. some differences are halides give off more heat,powercompacts are cheaper, and more energy effecient.but powercompact is not great for small polyp stony corals, incase you decide to change your tank setup. thats about all I know

 

[aha24]

what about T5's ?

 

[jango]

I had these in my tank from the start all seem to be very hardy and easily kept...
mushrooms, zoa's, toadstool, candy cane, frogspawn and GSP...

 

[jango]

every thing on my list has gone from 130w PC to 175w MH to 250w MH..(250w of halide over a 20l is a beautiful thing..)..

 

[stevenp]

Jeff C, you just made you 666th post.... Better make another one quick to change the number!

I have 65x2 pc over a 20 high. All my corals seem to be doing fine, but time will tell. I have a 175 MH pendant ready to go but I'm hesitant to hang it because I'm afraid of going blind (the tank is *right* next to my recliner).

My vote is for zoa's. I love the variety of color available, they're newbie friendly yet still sought after by experienced aqaurists, easily fragged and spread quickly.

I have a copy of "Aquarium Corals, Husbandry etc." and it ranks right up there with my copy of "Marine Fishes" by Scott Michael for reference. In fact, I even brought it to the auction to do some quick reference before purchasing anything. I recommend the book to anyone starting out.

Steve

 

[nunofs]

I would suggest zoos, mushrooms, ricordea as easy soft corals to start... most leathers should also be easy.

One other thing I'd suggest is to try to get corals that you'll want long term, and try to learn about the compromises of corals some people view as "pests" (like xenia) so that you don't have to remove them later.

Btw, some of the corals that have been recommended (including torch, canycane, frogspawn, etc) above aren't really softies, they're LPS and are harder to keep than softies because they have much higher calcium/alk consumption (to build their skeletons).

Nuno

 

[objectfire]

Let's make recommendations for three lighting levels:
1) Normal output
2) VHO or PC
3) Metal halide

What do you recommend?

Yellow Polyps for 2 and 3, maybe 1 if near the top. They are easy to peel off, unlike Xenia, Anthelia, or Zoanthids. Will consume fish droppings and practically anything else small that falls on them. Believe they filter out dissolved proteins efficiently, as well.

Kent

 

[RichConley]

Got yellow pollyps (4 of them) on a piece of rock from Nitrofish at last month's meeting.


I now have about 20. Theyre neat.

 

[dz6t]

I will stay away from Galaxia.

Green tree seems very hard to kill. Zoos are good. GSP is OK. Yellow polyps tend to melt away when the water chemistry is not yet stable. If coraline alge is desirable, PC light seems to do the trick.

 

[NateHanson]

Green tree seems very hard to kill.

I can help you out there.

 

[nitrofish]

Jeff C, you just made you 666th post.... Better make another one quick to change the number!


holy cow, I didn't realize I was in the 600's.

 

[Nikkoli110]

I have mostly soft corals in my 29. It has 130 watts of pc lights, the aqualight fixture. I keep zoas, xenia, a gree tree coral thats going like nuts, some mushrooms (green hairy ones from Nuno are spreading like crazy!) some rics, green with pink mouths, and some other hard corals. My favorite corals are the zoas, just because of the great different colors that they have, but xenia is a close second. I love the movement, and the pink color of the waving hand xenia that I have. I just have to prune it every few months to keep it from overgrowing the tank, and I also keep a few on isolated pieces of rock around the tank.