First coral

Cerberusfish · Jan 17, 2020

So I've just about got my lighting set up. Flow is good, parameters are good. 75 gallon tank, looking to upgrade from a cannister to a sump. I've got 3 skunk cleaners, 2 ocellaris clowns, 2 firefish gobies, 1 Royal gramma, 1 bengai cardinal, 1 feather duster worm, a tomini tang, and some snails and hermit crabs. Looking for a relatively easy going first coral. Thinking a feather gorgonian or possibly a finger leather. Trying to avoid mushrooms and other corals that will grow huge or take over large areas of my tank like star polyps. Also looking to eventally get into LPS and maybe an SPS at some point if both of those go well (probably Monti's or acros)

reef lover · Jan 18, 2020

Sinularias, gorgs, toadstools, and zoas are all good hardy starters that arent invasive.

Cerberusfish · Jan 23, 2020

So I've got lighting pretty much squared away (low-med) its highest par rating is about 125 and most of the tank is between 60-100. So id say I can handle low light corals especially since I'm already looking at new lights with higher intensity and I can use these ones as acclimation lighting effectively. However I'm having a few issues I'm addressing and want to know your opinions on proceeding. I'm noticing a touch of red cyano that I'm going to deal with in the next 24 hours. If I can't get a handle on it I'll use some chemi clean I have lying around. I've got some green hair that I'm dealing with (cut the lights down and added phosguard to my filter) as well as a bad diatoms outbreak I'm dealing with the same way. Would all of that just over take my new corals and give me more problems than it's worth?

lapin · Jan 23, 2020

New tank is going to grow stuff. For red cyano cut your white lights down and siphon it out. For green stuff get some critter to eat it. Diatoms will go away as soon as it uses are the sicila is used up out of the sand.
No need to worry

Cerberusfish · Jan 23, 2020

So I could go ahead and get a coral and put it in there without issue? If the cyano gets away from me how much trouble will it cause if it grows on the coral? Could I just smack it off with a turkey baster and the coral would be fine?