Need advice on name and foods for specific corals

Rioux87 · Sep 27, 2019

Im totally new to salt water aquarium but im learning fast and i’m passionate. I would like some advice on what type of food i need to use and what are the name of those corals in the picture

and i bought a eed starfish (rod fromia) without beein well informed that i should keep away from it since my tank is new. Would really like it to not die in a week :s thx in advance

kireek · Sep 27, 2019

Welcome to Reef2Reef @Rioux87 !

Looks like you have a Sarcophyton coral,fuzzy mushrooms, a head of euphyillia (maybe),a head of Duncan coral and a Sinularia.

I usually just feed my fish which in turn will feed the corals with their waste products. Seems that you don't have any fish though yet? I would worry about keeping that star fish fed for now.I don't know what they eat though. Someone on #reefsquad will. @Ron Reefman ?

Rioux87 · Sep 28, 2019

kireek said:
Welcome to Reef2Reef @Rioux87 !

Looks like you have a Sarcophyton coral,fuzzy mushrooms, a head of euphyillia (maybe),a head of Duncan coral and a Sinularia.

I usually just feed my fish which in turn will feed the corals with their waste products. Seems that you don't have any fish though yet? I would worry about keeping that star fish fed for now.I don't know what they eat though. Someone on #reefsquad will. @Ron Reefman ?

I fed my corals and my 2 clowns fish, cleaning shrimp, pistol shrimp, directly with myosis shrimp. Bit was wondering some of my corals needs something else than myosis shrimphaha

BayouReefer · Sep 28, 2019

It is good to feed corals also. Rotifers, mysis, phytoplankton are a couple. You can also feed a powder mixed in with the frozen called Reef-Roids. You just have to be careful when adding Reef-Roids because it will spike your Nitrates if it stays in the water column.

ScottR · Sep 28, 2019

The euphyllia looks like a hammer coral. The best food for your corals is a good light. Most of their food is made within themselves. I like to feed frozen food to my fish (LRS is my favorite). The corals will get food when desired from food column when feeding. There are supplements like reef roids which is popular that you can use to feed if you want. Don’t go overboard thinking your corals are always hungry and need to be fed daily.

Rioux87 · Sep 28, 2019

Yeah i learn it the hard way, went up to 80-90ppm nitrate after feeding my corals with that powder. Need to be more careful and dont over feed my tank lol

Zero1091 · Sep 28, 2019

+1 on reef roids but be warned you must have a filtration system that can support it or phosphates and nitrates will go up.
A little goes a long way, only use maybe once a week to start off.

Benepets is another good broadcast food for corals,
Or reef chili, and coral frenzy to name a few others.

As for the star fish,
Your parameters need to be stable otherwise it wont do well, they do not like swings in parameters.
It also needs a mature tank with algae growing as its food source so it can eat. You can try offering strips of dried seaweed but it may not actively accept it.

John Robbins · Sep 28, 2019

If it were my tank, I would just add some fish (if it is as it appears and you have none) and let their waste be the food for the corals. The corals will get the vast majority of their food through photosynthesis via their symbiosis with zooxanthellae. As others have stated, coral foods can easily lead to excessive nutrient levels. If you do choose to use them, do so sparingly and test your nitrate and phosphate levels frequently. If you do not have any fish, you may see an ammonia and nitrite spike also when you feed coral food.

Keep up the good work!

Ron Reefman · Sep 28, 2019

ScottR (post #5) is right. If you have a good light, you really don't need to feed your corals much at all. 99% of the corals we keep in our tanks have an algae (zooxanthellae) that lives inside the coral polyps. Like all plants, it uses light to do photosynthesis and that ends up feeding the coral most of what it needs. One last point, terrestrial plants and most water plants use light in the red end of the spectrum to do photosynthesis. The zooxanthellae inside your coral uses light in the blue spectrum. That's why most t5 and led fixtures have so much blue and why even MH lighting is at the very 'cool' end of white which has a lot of blue mixed in.

If you get fish, they will add food (their detritus... poop). And you can add some food specifically for the coral, but IMHO it's more to make us feel good about feeding our coral and in hopes that it will be healthier and grow faster. Food is low on the list of coral needs as far as being healthy!

I feed a very wide variety of foods, and in very limited quantities. Too much food brings on a host of nasty problems if you aren't removing ammonia, nitrates and phosphates well enough. Feed less, do water changes and there is far less need for fancy filtration.

Your sea star is fighting very long odds on survival of more than 2 or 3 months before it starves to death (IMHO). They look OK and colorful for weeks and weeks, then they start to look bad and in days they are dead. Sorry. But in my experience (with other peoples sea stars like yours) only 1 in 10 survives long term and that is only possible in a big, mature tank. The LFS who sold it to you should probably take it back or I'd quit buying anything from them. There are other sea stars (serpent and brittle stars) that have much better chances of long term survival in an aquarium.

You need to think seriously about doing research on any animal you think about putting in your tank. Ask questions here and lots of people will try to help.

Good luck. It's a difficult hobby during the first year or two. But you'll learn and it gets easier... usually!

ScottR · Sep 28, 2019

Ron Reefman said:
ScottR (post #5) is right. If you have a good light, you really don't need to feed your corals much at all. 99% of the corals we keep in our tanks have an algae (zooxanthellae) that lives inside the coral polyps. Like all plants, it uses light to do photosynthesis and that ends up feeding the coral most of what it needs. One last point, terrestrial plants and most water plants use light in the red end of the spectrum to do photosynthesis. The zooxanthellae inside your coral uses light in the blue spectrum. That's why most t5 and led fixtures have so much blue and why even MH lighting is at the very 'cool' end of white which has a lot of blue mixed in.

If you get fish, they will add food (their detritus... poop). And you can add some food specifically for the coral, but IMHO it's more to make us feel good about feeding our coral and in hopes that it will be healthier and grow faster. Food is low on the list of coral needs as far as being healthy!

I feed a very wide variety of foods, and in very limited quantities. Too much food brings on a host of nasty problems if you aren't removing ammonia, nitrates and phosphates well enough. Feed less, do water changes and there is far less need for fancy filtration.

Your sea star is fighting very long odds on survival of more than 2 or 3 months before it starves to death (IMHO). They look OK and colorful for weeks and weeks, then they start to look bad and in days they are dead. Sorry. But in my experience (with other peoples sea stars like yours) only 1 in 10 survives long term and that is only possible in a big, mature tank. The LFS who sold it to you should probably take it back or I'd quit buying anything from them. There are other sea stars (serpent and brittle stars) that have much better chances of long term survival in an aquarium.

You need to think seriously about doing research on any animal you think about putting in your tank. Ask questions here and lots of people will try to help.

Good luck. It's a difficult hobby during the first year or two. But you'll learn and it gets easier... usually!

Thanks Ron. And well said.