More money than common sense

sparrow1013 · Apr 7, 2025

I’ve had saltwater aquariums for about 15 years now. I have never watched not even one BRS video or any other instructional video. I don’t take advice from ppl online, though I do listen, but not actually follow their advice. I found out quick that the reptile community is very much like the aquarium community. You’re only doing it right if you have the best of everything that does anything in a setup. I’ve never paid more than $70 for a light. I still use the same penplax canister filter that I paid $80 for when I bought by biggest tank. That was 12 years ago. Homemade protein skimmer because it’s better at its job that the one I paid money for. Water changes maybe 4 times a year at most. I pretty much made it an experiment to see if cheap could work and how cheap was too cheap. Lol. Not because I was on a budget but because I’m hardheaded and there was no way it was as complicated as the average person makes its sound. Never kept corals until about 6 months ago. Decided to give it a shot despite my lack of understanding when it came to lighting. I guessed at what I needed and ordered 2 popbloom 65 watt lights to put one on each side of the tank. Didn’t think that was quite sufficient so I ordered 2 hygger 36 watt lights to add with the 2 popblooms. The tank is a 75 gallon 48” aquarium. Found out that was too much light…..so I reverted to just the 2 popbloom lights. I see that the tank has a couple unevenly lit areas but that actually works well for the mix of what I have in there so far. I’m pleasantly surprised that none of the corals I bought have died as of yet.
I had to buy calcium, magnesium, and some other tests to check my water because honestly I never checked anything before other than the ph and alkalinity due to things in my tank that I know affect that. I had tests for nitrates and such but never use them. The corals I added so far are hairy mushroom, candy cane coral, rhodactus mushrooms, palythoa, Duncan, clove polyp, anthelia ( that I’m thinking I should take out), and toadstool. Started with what I thought was the easier stuff to keep.

So for anyone that read the above, if you were me, would you go ahead and buy some more difficult corals and try my luck, and if so, suggestions? I’m impatient so the faster it grows the better. Lol

I may have painted a picture of myself that made me look dumb or foolish by making it sound like I didn’t or don’t do any research beforehand. My father-in-law is the retired boat captain for the UGA marine research boat. I learned what I know from him. I set my first tank up the same way their tanks were set up. Which wasn’t pretty but very functional. Lol
So I’m not remedial, instead I like to call it whimsical. I work from home and it’s not much work at all so I spend most of my time entertaining myself with my ideas. I will admit that I’ve found that the purpose of certain high end equipment is to make less work for the keeper and worth it.

VintageReefer · Apr 7, 2025

What corals are you curious to add? If the tank is healthy and you are on top of alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, I see no reason you can’t add torches or hammers or scolymia or most lps.

If you want to have a wing it style and check things once every few months and make corrections as needed, I would avoid sps. They like stability.

sparrow1013 · Apr 7, 2025

I’m gonna stay on top of testing now that I have corals. Before when it was only fish, inverts and a few anemones it was fine not to. If everything seems stable consistently over time I may check it less but for now I want to keep an eye on parameters because they are all still newish and some have only been in my tank a week. I don’t want to add stress with water issues. I’m mostly worried I’m going to add something that becomes a nuisance. I’ve had to break down my entire setup just to get one stupid ******* fish out. I don’t want to have to do that with corals on my rocks.

edsbeaker · Apr 7, 2025

Hello and welcome!

There are many ways to have a successful reef! I say go with whatever works for you.

There are many corals that are considered harder to keep that are really inexpensive. You could try those as an experiment and go from there.

Bohemian Waxwing · Apr 7, 2025

If you aren't too interested in testing, your best best would be to stay away from sensitive corals and corals which quickly grow exoskeletons.

Here's what you said you have:

hairy mushroom, candy cane coral, rhodactus mushrooms, palythoa, Duncan, clove polyp, anthelia ( that I’m thinking I should take out), and toadstool

Here are some other options which will fit in nicely:

Nepthea leather corals:

Blastomussa:

Micromussa lord:

Leptastrea (this is an encrusting coral which will spread across the rocks):

Devil's hand leather (gets big!):

Favia (the one in the pic is called Dragon Soul favia - it is very common and not expensive)

The leathers have negligible mineral uptake. Some of the others will use some alk and calcium but they grow so slowly that it likely won't require any kind of dosing if you are doing water changes (until they get big). All very low maintenance and inexpensive coral if you stay away from the high end colour variants.