Good Beginner Corals?

fishy4thomas

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So im thinking about getting some cool corals for my tank (I currently have none). I would like some easy to care for, potentially cheap, colourful corals. I have in my 20g 2 clowns, a cleaner shrimp, 4 blue leg hermits, 4 margarita snails and 1 emerald crab.
Also, could someone please teach me all the coral categories ( like, LPS, SPS, is there more?). I really like the look of LPS like wavign hand or flame torch corals.
Thanks for the help #reefsquad
 

ichthyogeek

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I'm a big fan of soft corals and corallimorphians (i.e. mushroom anemones). They tend to be cheaper than LPS, which in turn tend to be cheaper than SPS.

What are your thoughts on the following (you can google what they look like): Xenia, Green Star Polyps, Ricordea mushroom anemones, Discosoma mushroom anemones, and Rhodactis mushroom anemones? Most of these you can buy pretty cheaply
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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I'm a big fan of soft corals and corallimorphians (i.e. mushroom anemones). They tend to be cheaper than LPS, which in turn tend to be cheaper than SPS.

What are your thoughts on the following (you can google what they look like): Xenia, Green Star Polyps, Ricordea mushroom anemones, Discosoma mushroom anemones, and Rhodactis mushroom anemones? Most of these you can buy pretty cheaply
These all look so awesome. I really like the ones with large waving appendages such as the xenias and the star polyps. What do ou think of flame torches? are those somewhat easy to keep?
 
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Grab a cup, glass, or bottle of your favorite beverage and cruise through the full tank shot / image thread. It should give you an idea of the various corals. Oh - and a note pad, pen, pencil, post-its, etc. View, check out some videos on the corals (tidal gardens does a good job with videos on corals to give an idea) and read a bit. Not saying this in a bad way to learn but more to get an idea of maybe what you are looking for as the tank matures. Do you want sps, softies, lps, mixed, etc.

Why I'm suggesting is because soft corals grow fast and can fill in the tank. Nothing wrong, it is a good idea even for beginners. However some corals are evasive and become pests. Bubble tip anenomes, Xenia, green star polyps, zoas, and kenya trees as example. LPS can also do the same - Hammers and Frogspawn. Grow large. Oh - let us not forget SPS :) Monitpora :D

Anyway the difficult part is how to visualize the end state of your tank. At least for me it was. But there are a lot of solid starter corals in each bucket be it soft, lps, and sps believe it or not. One I'm fond of that doesn't get out of control is the Japanese Willow leather.
 

ichthyogeek

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They certainly look nice, but I’ve never kept one. My only experience in regards to LPS is with Galaxeas (60$ bday gift), and Micromussa lordhowensis.

It seems that you really want “fleshy” or tentacled corals, correct? I know that Euphyllias in general tend to be cheaper than other LPS, but some (like the flame torch) are rather aggressive
 
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fishy4thomas

fishy4thomas

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They certainly look nice, but I’ve never kept one. My only experience in regards to LPS is with Galaxeas (60$ bday gift), and Micromussa lordhowensis.

It seems that you really want “fleshy” or tentacled corals, correct? I know that Euphyllias in general tend to be cheaper than other LPS, but some (like the flame torch) are rather aggressive
Yeah i do find the fleshy, tentacled ones seem to add some life to the tank. I find the waving of tentacles calming. I would only get 1 or 2 pieces of LPS tho
 

Daniel@R2R

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Grab a cup, glass, or bottle of your favorite beverage and cruise through the full tank shot / image thread. It should give you an idea of the various corals. Oh - and a note pad, pen, pencil, post-its, etc. View, check out some videos on the corals (tidal gardens does a good job with videos on corals to give an idea) and read a bit. Not saying this in a bad way to learn but more to get an idea of maybe what you are looking for as the tank matures. Do you want sps, softies, lps, mixed, etc.

Why I'm suggesting is because soft corals grow fast and can fill in the tank. Nothing wrong, it is a good idea even for beginners. However some corals are evasive and become pests. Bubble tip anenomes, Xenia, green star polyps, zoas, and kenya trees as example. LPS can also do the same - Hammers and Frogspawn. Grow large. Oh - let us not forget SPS :) Monitpora :D

Anyway the difficult part is how to visualize the end state of your tank. At least for me it was. But there are a lot of solid starter corals in each bucket be it soft, lps, and sps believe it or not. One I'm fond of that doesn't get out of control is the Japanese Willow leather.
Excellent advice!
 

LordNecro

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I’m not exactly sure what this means though....?
Not to be rude but in my perspective, it means doing research... I started my first tank recently as well after tons of research. Basically what saf is saying is look through other reefer's tank and see what corals might interest you. If you done research you should see the main categories are softies, LPS, and sps, with many different corals under the family. As you mentioned you were interested in torches which is LPS and there are tons of different torches with various colors/rarity, for example, master, dragon soul, holy grail, aussie gold just to name a few. Also as he mentioned watch videos which basically is research. Restating but tidal garden has pretty nice videos regarding specific coral care like torches and blastos. It talks about general things like lighting, flow, placement, etc. Also yeah some beginner corals grow insanely fast and you probably won't want them after a while as they become too large. Also restating again but yeah think about where you want certain corals to be and if they will thrive there.
 
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I’m not exactly sure what this means though....?

I believe they are referring to me saying check out some videos on some of the begineers coral for care, growth challenges, etc. A lot of the so called beginner corals can over run a tank is not properly controlled. Xenia, green star polyps, blue clove polyps, nuclear green pallys, and Kenya tree's come to mind. There are more of course but these while growing fast can take over a tank and in some cases people have started over because of.

There is a thread here that is something like full tank shots. I was just suggesting reading through it to visually see some tanks, with various corals, and write down watch catches your eye. Then let us say you see some white or pink pulsing stalk coral. You reply to the thread, ask what it is, they say Xenia, and you say oh - cool. Let me make a note. Then you check out a few videos - example below. Now you know a bit more about it. Repeat for other corals until you have a list of interest and can build out your tank from there.

Placement can be a problem. Excessive growth another. I ran into this with a rose bubble tip anemone. Pick one up for our 29 gallon bio cube. It split. Cool. It split gain because two is an even number and they wanted odd. Three became four. Pick up another 29 gallon cube and you guessed it. One split again. Too many tanks to manage so I merge them into a 40 breeder. Split, split, and more splits up to 15. Give a few away and upgraded to a 210 gallon today. Holding steady at 8 now. Some may say cool. I say no, they are a pest :) They move sometimes and will sting corals. Some corals anyway. The one it does sting or irritate may be one you want or really like and can't move...so you lose it because the anemone is difficult to move.

Anyway I was only saying to check out some build threads, the display full tank shot thread, make some notes, and then check out a few videos over a cup of coffee, adult beverage, or whatever. It is a bit of fun and may help you visualize and understand pro and con of some corals.

Full tank thread:

Xenia and Tidal Garden video. Tan (I believe that is his name) does a good job talking about some corals.
 

dawson reynolds

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These all look so awesome. I really like the ones with large waving appendages such as the xenias and the star polyps. What do ou think of flame torches? are those somewhat easy to keep?
Zoas gsp mushrooms leather coral. If you want to keep up with calcium and alk. Frogspawn and blastos are good
 

wranodj

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Montipora are excellent for beginners

A3B78B2A-B04F-446B-B9D6-795381936461.jpeg F009DD6D-C393-4963-AB7F-F6C9E774E3B1.jpeg
 

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