Post Ugly Stage (2 Questions...Lights/Beginner Coral)

[NeilRogers]

I think I am through (or mostly through) the ugly stage...now I have two questions that I need the sage advice of the board on...

1) Lighting. I have a 32 gallon biocube and have read many different articles on the lighting, which ones should be on at one time and it looks like they all recommend different things. During the ugly stage, I cut the lighting completely off for several days and the tank cleared up. I'm not sure if that was just the progression of the ugly stage or the lights being off that helped.

2) Right now, I have four fish, a cleaner shrimp, and a cleanup crew. Would like to add a 'beginner' soft coral but have no idea what type to add.

Thank you as always.

 

[Tomb85]

Hi, depending on what coral you would like to have depends on what light you would want. If you want sps you want a good light. If you want lps/ softies you won't need to spend half as much on a light.

 

[twentyleagues]

Well I would say Your parameters will dictate whether or not you will get any more of the ugly stage with your light on. Your clean up crew roster will have an effect on how bad it could be also. Maintenace will also play a roll.

As for lights and corals are you using the stock lights or are you swapping out? Stock lighting will most likely be fine for most soft corals and possibly some lps. You said you were looking for good beginner soft corals. Zoanthids will add a lot of color and a lot of the standard zoas are not that hard to keep. Things like xenia, kenya tree and mushrooms are also typically easier too. Be aware that xenia and kenya tree can get out of control pretty quickly. Finger leathers, photosynthetic gorgonians, toad stool leathers, devils hand, are all pretty easy also. Stick with more "bread and butter" corals instead of the super rare colored morphs they are typically more forgiving of parameter shifts. LPS stuff like candy cane/ trumpet corals, standard green or "blue" hammers, some of the blastos, duncans, require you to make sure stuff like calc, alk and mag are with in a certian range and are a little harder but not bad. I see duncans listed as beginner friendly all the time and they pretty much are. You just need to feed them directly once or twice a week with mysis or pellets they are not too picky and have a good feeding response.

The rest will be standard maintenance like water changes with a good quality salt, manual clean up of any algaes that your clean up crew doesnt get or wont get. For the most part with beginner corals either soft of lps weekly 10-20% water changes will keep your calc, alk, mag in line for a very long time.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Lights are only needed for corals or photosynthetic animals like clams. If no corals or clams, then you can turn your lights down or off.

It looks like you are just finishing the diatoms stage, which is the very beginning of the algae stage. Next will be green algae and possibly cyano. It takes about a year for a tank to stabilize.

Beginner coral usually refers to soft corals, but they will only survive if the tank environment is suitable. Corals are a delicate animal, better to do the research in advance. Learn about the type of corals (softie's, lps, and sps), learn how to prepare your tank for them to thrive.

 

[slingfox]

You might not be through the ugly stage especially if your tank is under a year old and haven't used higher intensity lighting yet. I am in month 7 now and only considered myself through the ugly stage after a 3 month battle with dino, cyano, and GHA. I have had euphillia since month 3 but only started to add some SPS which are more sensitive. I have been gradually bringing up my lighting intensity for the last 3 weeks or so.

Depending on what type of coral you plan for, you will should try to get within that par level eventually wherever you plan to la e the coral. If you have a local reefing club they may have a par meter for club members to borrow. That is how i measured par in my tank once I started to think about lighting. Otherwise some LFS rent out par meters.

 

[MrGisonni]

Many of the recommended beginner corals are the ones that grow out of control and become problematic. Reefers end up having to remove them after a little while. I would recommend ricordia anemones they're beautiful and will never become a problem.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the above posts you received however you should know that your tank will experience a variety of ugly phases the first year. The diatom stage is only the beginning so don't spend a lot of money on corals that may not survive the first year. Go with easy and affordable stuff and focus on stability and weekly water changes.