When am I ready for Coral?

[Hoxie]

I've been getting mixed reviews from my LFS, the internet, R2R, etc. as to when I should be good to attempt coral. I'm new to coral but have mild experience in the saltwater world. Tank has been cycled and has 2 fish in there with live rock. I have had a little battle with not being content on the setup pre-coral and have moved around the setup several times causing ammonia spikes. (over feeding and no cleaning crew I believe)

I'm getting my cleaning crew today, and always get tempted to scoop up more when at the LFS. But I want to do this right and not sacrifice any coral lives because of ignorance.

Please guide me almighty reef masters!!!

Thank you!!!!

 

[ryanjohn1]

How long has tank been running?

 

[Hoxie]

How long has tank been running?

Not very long, a month.

 

[DrkNMighty]

You are 100% going to get mixed responses to this question. Some will say it’s fine right away others will say wait months. I personally would wait if I was only at one month. You really are wanting your tank parameters to stabilize and to get through some of the first ugly stages.

 

[Hoxie]

You are 100% going to get mixed responses to this question. Some will say it’s fine right away others will say wait months. I personally would wait if I was only at one month. You really are wanting your tank parameters to stabilize and to get through some of the first ugly stages.

Thank you for your input! Much appreciated!

 

[ryanjohn1]

That’s kinda where I was going with that. You really sorta wait stability in your tank first. Month maybe two. With fish and clean up crew they slowly add coral. Don’t be disheartened when you loose a coral or 2. Everyone looses coral at times

 

[Lavey29]

You are 100% going to get mixed responses to this question. Some will say it’s fine right away others will say wait months. I personally would wait if I was only at one month. You really are wanting your tank parameters to stabilize and to get through some of the first ugly stages.

This is correct. You can leave lights off the first 3 or 4 months and let the tank develop biodiversity and microfauna before you turn lights on for corals. Fish don't need lights and this will make you ugly stages more manageable the first year. Very experienced reefers can add coral right away with success but most of us do better with patience and letting the tank stabilize a little first after start up.

 

[Hoxie]

Thank you for all of your prompt responses and helpful info. Its awesome that there are people like you and a groups like this where people are super supportive even with opposing opinions at times!

Much appreciated!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

When you feel you can accept the monetary loss, go for it if you feel confident. Go buy some $15 zoa's and try it out. If you're not confident then wait a while

 

[slingfox]

I put a handful of coral on frag racks into my tank at the one month mark. When the ugly stage came (algae, then dinos, then cyano, and then algae again) the dinos killed all of my SPS frags, one of my two zoa frags, and one of my two hammer frags. Two torch and one hammer were the only survivors. I started with dry Marco rock and CaribSea live sand. I have since added live rock from KP Aquatics and periodically dosing bottled bacteria to help build the microbiome. I am at the six month mark now and the uglies are finally under control (ie, I haven't had to manual remove algae for a few weeks and there is so little growth on my rocks am considering tying seaweed to a rock to feed the CUC).

If you want to experiment you can pick up a variety of cheaper frags and see how they do. Perhaps you will be lucky and the uglies will not decimate your tank. For me, dinos killed all of snails and hermit crabs and most of my first set of coral. If I had to do it again I would have waited longer to put in coral. For me the most hearty coral were hammers and torches.

 

[Dan_P]

I've been getting mixed reviews from my LFS, the internet, R2R, etc. as to when I should be good to attempt coral. I'm new to coral but have mild experience in the saltwater world. Tank has been cycled and has 2 fish in there with live rock. I have had a little battle with not being content on the setup pre-coral and have moved around the setup several times causing ammonia spikes. (over feeding and no cleaning crew I believe)

I'm getting my cleaning crew today, and always get tempted to scoop up more when at the LFS. But I want to do this right and not sacrifice any coral lives because of ignorance.

Please guide me almighty reef masters!!!

Thank you!!!!

When you move a rock and see an ammonia increase, that is a good sign your aquarium is not ready for much. Adding a cleanup crew now only makes sense if you are going to feed them. There aren’t enough things growing in a new aquarium for them to eat. I like the advice of testing the aquarium with something easy. If it does not grow, that should be a red flag for further purchases.