Early Corals

[SaltyZack]

Hello all! This is my first post here so don’t beat me up to bad . I have read that some corals do ok with small amounts of Ammonia. I am mid cycle (.25 ammonia and nitrite) and have the itch to add something to give my power heads reason to be using power. What are the best first corals for a juvenile tank?

 

[MoshJosh]

I think the “correct” answer is that you should not introduce corals until a tank is fully cycled, even then many will tell you to wait 3+ months after cycle.

the longer answer is probably that while the ammonia in of itself may not be harmful to some corals the unstable parameters of a new tank very well could be.

In fact some reefers dose ammonia, but this is an “advanced” technique for low nutrient tanks.

If you had to add a coral, some bulletproof soft corals would probably survive. . . But I would wait. . . and the conventional wisdom is you should wait.

 

[Uncle99]

What size tank.
What lighting.

GSP is a good trial coral but keep it on a rock on its own. Don’t let it travel.

Or on the back glass where it can be managed.

 

[19Mateo83]

The patience coral.

 

[DanyL]

There’s more to cycle than just Ammonia.
Ammonia by itself isn’t toxic to corals (at least not in the amounts you usually have during a cycle), however, they also needs phosphate which is usually imported with fish.

You can technically dose PO4 and artificially keep all params in check for this to succeed, and some advanced reefers do it, however - a cycle has more stages than just eliminating ammonia, it’s also a process where the whole system stabilizes, wether it being different bacteria populations, algae, etc.

If this is your first take into this hobby, I would suggest against it. Patience.

 

[Formulator]

Slow down my friend. You really should wait until your tank has stabilized with fish before adding any corals. Some people even recommend waiting up to a year!

If you are intent on setting your money on fire, start with some soft coral. Green star polyps, pulsing xenia, maybe some non-designer zoanthids. If you must have stoney coral, you could try favia, acans, maybe pocillopora if you gotta have sticks.

 

[NanoNana]

I put a single purple ribbon gorgonian in my tank before I had fish. My tanks was empty except rocks and a gorgo for over a month. I dosed nitrates if they were very low and fed the gorgo a little reef roids which bumped PO4. I added a zoa colony and a Duncan coral and gsp to the back glass while fish was in QT. I’m not sorry. It didn’t hurt a thing.

 

[SaltyZack]

Thanks all. I will give it a few more weeks. I don’t plan to go coral crazy but want to start with something small and inexpensive. I will check out some of the mentioned soft corals. I assume an anemone is completely absurd at this point right? I read somewhere that the anemone’s move where the conditions are most favorable. Would it be better to do that (once the cycle is complete) before getting l corals that can be stung. Lights are 2x 150w Nicrews. Tank is a 60 gallon long (48in) with about 60-70lb of life rock.

 

[SaltyZack]

The patience coral.

Not seeing that at the LFS (kidding). I will give it some more time!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Hey nice tank. I suggest you point one of those powerheads upwards at the surface. Agitate it to help with gas exchange and oxygenate the water, also gets dust off the surface which blocks out some light.

 

[NanoNana]

Thanks all. I will give it a few more weeks. I don’t plan to go coral crazy but want to start with something small and inexpensive. I will check out some of the mentioned soft corals. I assume an anemone is completely absurd at this point right? I read somewhere that the anemone’s move where the conditions are most favorable. Would it be better to do that (once the cycle is complete) before getting l corals that can be stung. Lights are 2x 150w Nicrews. Tank is a 60 gallon long (48in) with about 60-70lb of life rock.

Nems need stable parameters. The later the better but at least 6 months post cycle. Your parameters will change when you start adding fish and growing corals start depleting nutrients.

 

[taricha]

I'll just add that there isn't any obvious reason that tough softie corals (GSP, kenya, sinularia, sarcophyton always bulletproof for me) wouldn't do well if you are already lighting the tank.
The usual counsel of "patience" also traditionally implied a long lights-off period.
Personally, once I went lights-on, I'd rather have some corals in the system than just letting nuisance algae have all the nutrients.