Coral Ideas

[golby]

Okay, my tank has been up and running for four months and things are looking good. I've got a trumpet coral frag, a frogspawn frag, anthelia, GSP, and misc. zoas. All seem happy (open each day, feeding tentacles at night etc.) and growing well. I'm looking to get a new coral or two (I'm happy with my fish now).

So, what do folks recommend when considering these characteristics:

(1) my lighting is average--a DIY job resulting in 14 6500K CFL bulbs (note that as I said, the corals I have are doing well with little to no target feeding so there must be sufficient light for photosynthetic algae to be supplying the corals reasonably well)

(2) I want something very hardy--still sufficiently new at this that I don't want to get risky.

(3) I don't want to spend a lot.

(4) I want something that is at least vaguely different than what I've got already.

Thanks in advance!

[driftin]

Low light LPS corals like torch, acans, bubble coral, plate would likely do well for you. You can find a variety of colors and polyp shapes to help "diversify" your tank. Small frags are reasonably priced, these corals readily grow.

When you feel ready for SPS, deep water acro's or some montiporas may do ok, but I'm hesitant to say they would thrive under your lighting. The LPS you have is pretty tolerant of low light.

[ReeferChick85]

How about some ricordeas? They are pretty inexpensive and come in a variety of colors :)

[CoachOJ]

I'd agree with the previous 2 reply's of a bubble or ric and also recommend a Duncan or a Sun Coral. Both are relatively cheap as well

[golby]

Thanks guys and gals. Acans and Plates look pretty cool. My wife peeked over my shoulder and said she thinks that the bubble coral is pretty. I'll do a bit of reading on your suggestions.

Anybody have any success in having ocellaris clowns host with coral?

What do folks think of the leather corals?

[browntrout]

I love ricordias, colors are so bright

[ReeferChick85]

I personally like leather corals especially the fiji yellow leather. I used to have one but it got too big so I relocated it to another tank. I currently have 2 types of leathers,a pinkish sinularia and a green nepthea. I love the way they sway with the water movement and I think they're pretty :) Very easy and hardy corals. The neon green toadstool is pretty cool too! Softie's grow big and pretty fast so you gotta frag it every so often if you think it's getting too big for your tank but I think they make a great addition to a reef tank IMO :)

[redfishsc]

Ocellaris will occasionally host a torch, frogspawn, or hammer. They can also host a Duncan, but more often than not, I've seen the duncan suffer severely since they are irritated by the clowns. Not always though.


Ocellaris will also host xenia, anthelia, goniopora (red variety would be best in your case but kinda expensive).



That being said, if you are using the Edison-base CF bulbs you get from Lowes/Wal-mart, I did this a long time ago on a 15 and 20g tank (connected together). I kept some softies in there, but nothing other than xenia grew much. I did actually have a bird's nest and cactus pavona frag that grew some, but not much.


You will need to consider replacing those bulbs every 6 months, their efficiency drops off very noticeably around then. I have to change my CF bulb over my fuge every 6 months or the algae slows growing.


In your case I'd grab a cheap T5 fixture as fast as I could--- even old T5's will do you better than the edison-base CF's.

[Reefer08]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15318393#post15318393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by golby
Okay, my tank has been up and running for four months and things are looking good. I've got a trumpet coral frag, a frogspawn frag, anthelia, GSP, and misc. zoas. All seem happy (open each day, feeding tentacles at night etc.) and growing well. I'm looking to get a new coral or two (I'm happy with my fish now).

So, what do folks recommend when considering these characteristics:

(1) my lighting is average--a DIY job resulting in 14 6500K CFL bulbs (note that as I said, the corals I have are doing well with little to no target feeding so there must be sufficient light for photosynthetic algae to be supplying the corals reasonably well)

(2) I want something very hardy--still sufficiently new at this that I don't want to get risky.

(3) I don't want to spend a lot.

(4) I want something that is at least vaguely different than what I've got already.

Thanks in advance!

You have 14 6500k power compact lights on your tank? Thats going to look very very ugly. I would highly suggest getting a 50/50 combination of power compacts. 14 6500k bulbs is going to be pretty yellow/white. You can goto your local lfs or petsmart/petco and buy yourself a cheap 50/50 powercompact or something similar.

[Dante_JoseCuerv]

With your setup I'd say some soft corals and some rics. Can't go wrong with those. maybe zoas too? I've got some growing under my CFs and they're growing slowly (I'm glad that they're not spreading like wildfire) but steadily. About a polyp a month or so.

[golby]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15322389#post15322389 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefer08
You have 14 6500k power compact lights on your tank? Thats going to look very very ugly.

Thanks. It's been on my tank for four months, hidden in the canopy, and it provides a cool, uniform light throughout my tank.

[Reefer08]

Sorry man I didn't mean to be rude. I would just suggest getting some blue light in your tank since corals utilize blue light a lot better than white light. Your corals will look a lot better.

[golby]

Reefer08 -- No worries. Thanks for clarifying! I actually have a few coralife 50/50 screw-in bulbs in there as well.

Gonna make a trip to the LFS (the one that I like) to see what I can come up with in the ricordea, plate, acans and leathers. Probably limited by availability. One store had the tiniest sun coral for like $100, a bit out of my price range, especially for three heads.

[CoachOJ]

He must have been trying to sell you a Dendro. I paid $35 for a sun coral around the size of a small fist. Don't know if it has to do with my location though.

[400M1963]

Sun Coral

[woodiecrafts]

A Fox Coral would also do well under your lighting.