I currently have a fish only tank. I want to start going with some coral, any suggestions for someone new to corals and or anemones? My tank is a 55 gallon led lit, I have a hippo tang, a cinnamon clown, two damsels, a fire fish, fire shrimp, and a standard cleaning crew. Any insight would be great.
Good first coral
- Thread starter walton
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I have a nice toadstool mushroom I could cut a piece from. It was given to me way back when by a member wanting to help out a newbie. I would love to pass a piece on. Might be able to hook you up with something else too. I am not too far from you. Straight down Browns Bridge almost to Cherokee County line.
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For now with a couple basic corals it won't be much of a change at all. The first thing will be testing calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Don't go with cheap API test kits. Get good ones.
Next (not right away) you may need to change salts. If you using Instant Ocean you could go to Reef Crystal. There are lots of good ones designed to help maintain the elements that corals will consume.
Other than that, go slow, read lots of threads on this forum and ask lots of questions.
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Next (not right away) you may need to change salts. If you using Instant Ocean you could go to Reef Crystal. There are lots of good ones designed to help maintain the elements that corals will consume.
Other than that, go slow, read lots of threads on this forum and ask lots of questions.
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It's an led light bar I'm not sure of its luminescence level. I will amass the testing kits you spoke of, as well as switch salts. I have been quite patient with adding fish to the tune of one every couple of months. I just want to ensure I do things right. I saw your pictures mystery, quite amazing I must say.
With the LED bar you will be very limited but some softies should do fine. After you get going you will want to upgrade but wait until you know what you really want. Buying once is a lot cheaper than buying twice. 
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Even with the best of everything it takes time for you to learn and for your tank to be ready. Starting with something easy that grows well helps to build you confidence. . Besides, although they sometimes are looked down on, soft corals can be beautiful too.
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. Besides, although they sometimes are looked down on, soft corals can be beautiful too.
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By the way, I snapped those two pics as I typed that post. I might be able to give you one of those mushrooms too if I can figure out how to get it off that rock. That whole rock with shrooms was also given too me.
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I think softies happen to be great indicators as far as water parameters go, sometimes you can kinda tell whats up before you would in other species of coral or anemones; or at least that's been my experience with a mixed reef.
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The "Frag Swap" is right around the corner. Great opportunity to get a wide variety of choice corals on a budget and socialize a bit. Nothing worse than dropping $100 on a coral that you bring home and it dies. Bringing home several $10-20 frags will get you started and it will not hurt as much if one or two do not make it.
