New Reefer Ready. Want to get first ever coral, but nervous. What do I syart with?

[NashobaTek]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Olefreebe]

Welcome to reef2reef! Knowing your build or not I would always recommend starting with a zoa.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

Welcome

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello and welcome to the channel.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Welcome to R2R! You’ve joined a great community with lots of friendly folks willing to help when needed.

Welcome.

Once you're tank is ready get something easy, like GSP and see how that goes.

 

[ReefRxSWFL]

Some type of leather coral. Zoas and palys can be a PIA, and LPS can be a challenge if you arent dosing or have a good water change schedule.

 

[SPR1968]

Hi and welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[bg2311]

When you get a chance please share your tank parameters. If everything is cycled and your parameters stable, +1 on the GSP (green star polyp). It is cheap, very hardy, and was our first coral in our 120g. Just be sure to isolate it to a rock island if you don't want it spreading as it will slowly reach out and crawl if it can latch on to other rocks/glass. It adds a lot of color and flow to the tank. Our clown fish actually prefer to host in it instead of the anemones.

 

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome to R2R!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world. Lots of choices of soft corals. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[Salty Rambler]

Welcome to R2R! Some great beginner coral suggestions above.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[pseudorand]

My tank is about a year and a half old. I added Corals about 6 months ago. I have a good number that have survived, but probably more that haven't. Advice from my recent learning/experience.

• Green button polyps (protopalythoa, I think) are immortal. They came with my live rock. Nothing will kill them.
• Get at least 1 ICP test before adding corals. ICP from three different companies identified low iodine in my tank, which I think is the root cause of my biggest die off. You don't have to get your numbers perfect, just make sure nothing is way off.
• Start slow. I got pulled in by the black Friday sales and local reefers taking down tanks. I bought 30+ frags for $500. Good deal. But most didn't make it (due to the iodine issue). Spend a bit more per frag to buy just a few and prove they'll live before going big.
• I'm not sold on QT or dipping. I dipped all my corals and QTd them for 45 days. All did well in QT except a few zoas. Then they died in my DT. It's a lot of work and expense. If you're buying from a well known specialized dealer like WWC or from the president of the local reef club, I think the risk is low and the stress on the corals of dipping and multiple moves is probably bad. This may be especially true if your QT doesn't have great light. Low light won't kill them quick, but they adjust to it. Then when you put them in high light in your DT, that can kill them quick. (This is my other hypothesis about why my frags didn't make it in QT).
• Consider rock nems. They don't die. They come in lots of colors. I love them.
• Buy from local reefers. Of my frags that lived, ones from local reefers are over-represented. My hypothesis is that if it survived and grew enough to need fragging for someone else, it's more likely to do well for you. Maybe it's something in the water that even RO/DI doesn't remove or something like that. (This is just speculation on my part, nothing scientific.)

 

[JL15219]

Hello and Welcome
Seems like a lot of good suggestions above....I started with zoas.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hello, new reefer ready. Want to purchase first coal but nervous. What do you sughest?

Welcome! Glad you joined

First, what do YOU like - its your tank... I suggest not just buying willy nilly ... my BF told me earlier this week "I saw the most amazing pale PINK coral (notice my R2R ID...) but we don't have room" ... and we don't have room because he bought willy nilly based on price and not preferences or future planning

Great info already on here, but TOTALLY disagree about not dipping corals! In fact, due to not dipping I spend so much time and money cleaning up that i've expanded to going all three types of dip in BRS 2019 video (1) iodine based, 2) natural based, 3) hydrogen perixode (on plug base only) and strongly considering adding 4th Bayer dip (not in video) because if BUGS also came into my DT ... well, I might just meltdown...

The comment about "trusted" source... is everyone going to buy from TSM online... think not (but TSM does have a special fish order underway for me)... and my local reef club president's past tank corals in/out/in/out has been compared to brothel with all the comings and goings... People don't know what they don't have visible symptoms YET...

Some would have unprotected s*x (and just put it in) and some would use condom (and 1st dip their corals).

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby, except bad things. Go slow, research and it all works out... and, if not right away then its all a learning journey and you'll have first hand "how I solved it" war stories to help out other people down the road

Keep us posted on what you end up getting!!

TSM Aquatics - The Largest Saltwaterfish Store In The Country!

Welcome to the new TSM Aquatics forum on Reef2Reef. We were formerly known as TSM Corals founded by Ray Casper. TSM Aquatics is located at 1 Enterprise Court Sewell, NJ 08080 and is the largest retail store open to the public that sells saltwaterfish and corals in the country! TSM operates...

www.reef2reef.com

My tank is about a year and a half old. I added Corals about 6 months ago. I have a good number that have survived, but probably more that haven't. Advice from my recent learning/experience.

• Green button polyps (protopalythoa, I think) are immortal. They came with my live rock. Nothing will kill them.
• Get at least 1 ICP test before adding corals. ICP from three different companies identified low iodine in my tank, which I think is the root cause of my biggest die off. You don't have to get your numbers perfect, just make sure nothing is way off.
• Start slow. I got pulled in by the black Friday sales and local reefers taking down tanks. I bought 30+ frags for $500. Good deal. But most didn't make it (due to the iodine issue). Spend a bit more per frag to buy just a few and prove they'll live before going big.
• I'm not sold on QT or dipping. I dipped all my corals and QTd them for 45 days. All did well in QT except a few zoas. Then they died in my DT. It's a lot of work and expense. If you're buying from a well known specialized dealer like WWC or from the president of the local reef club, I think the risk is low and the stress on the corals of dipping and multiple moves is probably bad. This may be especially true if your QT doesn't have great light. Low light won't kill them quick, but they adjust to it. Then when you put them in high light in your DT, that can kill them quick. (This is my other hypothesis about why my frags didn't make it in QT).
• Consider rock nems. They don't die. They come in lots of colors. I love them.
• Buy from local reefers. Of my frags that lived, ones from local reefers are over-represented. My hypothesis is that if it survived and grew enough to need fragging for someone else, it's more likely to do well for you. Maybe it's something in the water that even RO/DI doesn't remove or something like that. (This is just speculation on my part, nothing scientific.)