beginner coral

[jun_18T]

im thinking of adding a few corals to my new tank. what would you guys suggest for a good beginner coral. i mean something that will be easy to take care of. and also....how do you guys acclimate the corals....are they the same as fish????

thanks!

[nona]

green star polyps, colt coral, mushrooms, zoanthids.. I always temperature acclimate my corals.

[IslandCrow]

Those are all good suggestions for beginner corals. As invertebrates, it is even more important to properly acclimate corals, as they're usually more sensitive to changes in PH and salinity in addition to temperature. I'll usually start by floating the bag with the coral for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on the approximate temperature difference) to temperature acclimate them. I'll then drip acclimate them for a couple hours using some airline tubing with a couple knots tied in it to regulate the drip rate into the container containing the coral. A couple drops a second seems to work for me. You can also just slowly add water from the tank into the bag/container containing the coral. You want to add about twice as much water from the tank as there originally was in the bag. I use this method when the tank water is significantly warmer or colder than the air temperature. That way, I can keep the bag with the coral floating in the tank to keep the temperature stable.

And then sometimes (especially with the hardier corals), I'll just temperature acclimate, expose the coral to the air for 20-30 seconds until it builds up a good slime coat, and plop it in the tank. That's certainly not the "accepted" method, but you start getting a feel for what corals you can get away with. For instance, I wouldn't do that with a $50 acro frag, but I would with a $5 zoanthid.