Good starter corals?

[databuffer]

So I’m very very new to reef keeping, and looking to get some input on what I should do next.
I’m planning on having a softie + nem reef. At the moment I have 2 RFAs, and 1 Kenya I got on my first live rock. I was going to hold off a bit on corals, but the kenya has nearly doubled in size over the last 2 days, 4 new branches and an extra 1/2 inch on its main stem - and I swear the RFAs are splitting, even though everywhere I read says they don’t do asexual reproduction. In other words - they’re doing fantastic and I want to try my luck.

What are some good frags to look out for, that arent going to take a toll on my bank, or die on me randomly?

And uh. Where are some good places to buy average coral? Every site I find is in the market of selling ‘holy grail’ types

 

[TheNative192]

So I’m very very new to reef keeping, and looking to get some input on what I should do next.
I’m planning on having a softie + nem reef. At the moment I have 2 RFAs, and 1 Kenya I got on my first live rock. I was going to hold off a bit on corals, but the kenya has nearly doubled in size over the last 2 days, 4 new branches and an extra 1/2 inch on its main stem - and I swear the RFAs are splitting, even though everywhere I read says they don’t do asexual reproduction. In other words - they’re doing fantastic and I want to try my luck.

What are some good frags to look out for, that arent going to take a toll on my bank, or die on me randomly?

And uh. Where are some good places to buy average coral? Every site I find is in the market of selling ‘holy grail’ types

So I am a personal fan of top shelf aquatics. I got a couple of corals from them and all are living and healthy. I had a couple of other corals from other large names that did not do too well but I have only really ordered corals from 4-5 brands. I also highly recommend looking on Facebook marketplace under "Fake" corals since lots of other reefers sell frags at a reasonable price (depending on your area). I got thousands of dollars of retail coral for around $250 dollars so if there is a local reefer you might be able to score a good deal.

As for the type of soft corals, the go to is usually zoas, & palythoa corals. Palys are great because they are larger but just make sure to handle them with gloves & eye where and to run carbon in the system as they can release toxins. Other options include mushroom corals. There are a lot of options for those. Toadstool also is great and other leather corals. Now most will tell you to avoid Xenia & Green star polyps or other polyp corals but if you are looking for a coral that grows like crazy & can survive a nuclear bomb GSP is the call. A lot of people like to put it on the back wall which is something I am doing now and I really like how it looks. The key is with GSP make sure it is on an island because it can take over a tank and kill your other corals. Xenia releases pieces of itself so even though it looks awesome it can spread and take over the tank as well although it is not as fast as GSP. I personally have pulsing xenia (which does look awesome) & GSP in my main display tank but some people would never add them in even on an island. My personal favorites are Zoas/Palys though for soft corals.

Not my image but here is an example of a GSP wall.

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

My bedroom 15g is primarily nems and softies (1 hammer and 1 sunset monti). I’d have zoas if the 5 sexy shrimp in there would allow it, but they don’t. Mushrooms are a great softie though, they have crazy colors/patterns and multiple different textures. Add in bounces, and they can look even crazier. They are also very resilient, I had some red discos survive a tank crash in my 40b back in June.