What are good beginner corals

Morgan Rodgers · Jun 13, 2019

I am currently cycling my thank and what are good beginner coral

Mjrenz · Jun 13, 2019

Welcome to the forum! A leather coral is going to be one of the most beginner friendly. What size tank and what kind of lighting do you have?

ms32795 · Jun 13, 2019

Welcome, mushrooms & zoas are pretty hardy and easy to care for.

Morgan Rodgers · Jun 13, 2019

Mjrenz said:
Welcome to the forum! A leather coral is going to be one of the most beginner friendly. What size tank and what kind of lighting do you have?

I have a 70g bowfront and I don’t have a light and I need to get one

Gone fishing · Jun 18, 2019

I like green star polyps

Pete_the_Puma · Jun 18, 2019

Light first, corals second!!

If you ever plan on keeping SPS then I would recommend going with "High output" lights from the get go rather than buying something cheap you would need to upgrade down the road. A T5 only fixture would usually do the trick without breaking the bank, most people seem to prefer LEDs or LED/T5 hybrids.

In terms of corals you could start with some softies and if those do well get Birdsnest, staphylopora or Montipora to dip your feet into the SPS world.

Morgan Rodgers · Jun 18, 2019

Pete_the_Puma said:
Light first, corals second!!

If you ever plan on keeping SPS then I would recommend going with "High output" lights from the get go rather than buying something cheap you would need to upgrade down the road. A T5 only fixture would usually do the trick without breaking the bank, most people seem to prefer LEDs or LED/T5 hybrids.

In terms of corals you could start with some softies and if those do well get Birdsnest, staphylopora or Montipora to dip your feet into the SPS world.

I was actually buying marine loop

Pete_the_Puma · Jun 18, 2019

Morgan Rodgers said:
I was actually buying marine loop

I had to google it, seems reasonable although most people would probably tell you to buy the components separately so you can swap/upgrade things later without it all being stuck together...

Anyone know anything about the LEDs that come with that setup?

Gareth elliott · Jun 18, 2019

They are not bad out of the box lps 1 unit plus supplements or a second unit on most tanks will grow sps on top half of most tanks or so. Depends on how deep a tank you have:

Morgan Rodgers · Jun 18, 2019

Gareth elliott said:
They are not bad out of the box lps 1 unit plus supplements or a second unit on most tanks will grow sps on top half of most tanks or so. Depends on how deep a tank you have:

My tank is like a foot deep or so and I was going to have it high up

Gareth elliott · Jun 18, 2019

Morgan Rodgers said:
My tank is like a foot deep or so and I was going to have it high up

Use your phone a free lux app above the waterline, divide by 10-30 for a rough idea what the par is below the surface. Adjust the height accordingly :)

*wide variation in how much factor you need, 1.33 times less par in air than water, your phones sensor ability, just get close

Gareth elliott · Jun 18, 2019

Also my list of beginner corals are based on growing your coral list later and having places to put them.

Ricordea mushrooms florida not yumas.
Disc mushrooms, if on their own rock at least easy to remove them unlike kenya trees.

Photosynthetic gorgorians.
As long as they have enough flow these are almost unkillable.

flchamp89 · Jun 18, 2019

Got shrooms? Very addictive.

jfoster38122 · Jun 19, 2019

I know this should go in the lighting section but since you don't have lights yet I just wanted to say that I just put the Chinese black boxes on both my tanks and they are not a bad option

rknott · Jun 19, 2019

I would recommend reading all the articles in the beginners forum. Once you have all the essentials and you get to the buying corals section I would recommend a green stripped candy cane. I still have mine that was the first coral I bought in 2012 with a mushroom that I still have as well.