When to add coral?

[alex277]

I’m completely new to coral, and am looking to get a few frags for my tank in the near future, but trying to get my nitrate correct first. I have a Waterbox 220, that has had fish in it for about 10 months now, I’m taking my time with stocking this tank. Anywho, my plan for the tank is lps dominant, with a handful of soft coral and like 1 birdsnest SPS (requires moderate lighting). My current nitrate is right around 20ppm but I’m trying to get it in the range I want, then adjust refugium and feeding to stabilize it there. That said, given the type of corals and the level of tank maturity, being up about a year now including the cycle, what nitrate should I shoot for, long term? And should I wait for my nitrate to hit that level before adding in anything? I was thinking of getting the soft coral first, are those okay to add now, or when it gets a bit lower, or should I wait until the nitrate comes way down? I also hear soft and lps prefer a bit more nitrate, what is a good goal to shoot for? I am just trying to figure out if I should start getting coral now or wait on levels to come down, and how far down exactly, if so. Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[BanditMan15]

I’m completely new to coral, and am looking to get a few frags for my tank in the near future, but trying to get my nitrate correct first. I have a Waterbox 220, that has had fish in it for about 10 months now, I’m taking my time with stocking this tank. Anywho, my plan for the tank is lps dominant, with a handful of soft coral and like 1 birdsnest SPS (requires moderate lighting). My current nitrate is right around 20ppm but I’m trying to get it in the range I want, then adjust refugium and feeding to stabilize it there. That said, given the type of corals and the level of tank maturity, being up about a year now including the cycle, what nitrate should I shoot for, long term? And should I wait for my nitrate to hit that level before adding in anything? I was thinking of getting the soft coral first, are those okay to add now, or when it gets a bit lower, or should I wait until the nitrate comes way down? I also hear soft and lps prefer a bit more nitrate, what is a good goal to shoot for? I am just trying to figure out if I should start getting coral now or wait on levels to come down, and how far down exactly, if so. Thanks for any help in advance!

Anywhere between 10 to 20 is good range. Your good to add now, but make sure your alk, calcium, and Mag levels are in good order as well.

 

[Matt Bravo]

I have a mixed reef sitting at 7ppm nitrate. there’s a few acros in there that encourage me to keep nitrates a bit lower. Anyway LPS would probably appreciate 10-20s nitrates.

I would also recommend starting with zoas, I understand you want lps dominant but start with hardier corals and work your way up. Let the zoa get comfortable then buy a few more softies or get a cheap lps like a candy cane or a blasto.
But most importantly, don’t rush it, good luck

 

[Cell]

20 is fine. Instead of chasing a number, if you've reached an equilibrium and have achieved relative stability over the past year, then you accomplished your mission and should give one or two frags a shot and see how they do. As you continue to add livestock and monitor your levels, you can adjust as needed.

 

[Propane]

Your biggest concern with adding corals to a 10 month old tank would be flow and light. Tanks probably balancing out pretty good. I wouldnt be worried about adding most any coral at this point. Prolly wouldnt do touchy sps but you could add a lot at this point IMO.

 

[Great Reef Coralation]

In my recommendation, start adding something like Green Star Polyp or Zoa's. They are a bit hardier, LPS and soft corals as a first in the tank are typically going to show any unstability a bit more in my experience. My Kenya tree and Pocillipora were hit the hardest when trasferred to a new tank. GSP went days without a light and terrible flow, and acts like nothing happened!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Things like birdsnest frags are very cheap if you can get them from a local hobbyist, check you local online classifieds, there is always someone selling birdsnest frag for $10-$20, same with many types of monit's, zoa's, mushrooms, and various leathers. If you're not sure, just get a cheap frag as a tester, save the $100+ purchases for later on when you're more confident.

 

[Idech]

I started with easy corals such as GSP and xenia and kenya tree about 6-8 weeks after cycling. Start with easy ones and if they do well, add increasingly difficult ones, slowly.

It’s easy to lose a lot of money if you go too fast !

 

[Cthulukelele]

If you're being ultra conservative, consistent coralline algae growth for a month or 2 is a good metric of stability and capability to grow most coral.

 

[mike550]

@alex277 lots of good advice here, and please consider a few other things

• If you can borrow or rent a PAR meter to get a sense of what your lighting intensity is that’s always good to know.
• Completely agree with starting with GSP and Kenyan Tree. I use them as my bellwethers to see how the tank is doing. Zoas, softies, LPS are all great additions.
• Careful with both GSP and clove polyps (especially blue) they can grow like weeds. I put them both on standalone rocks so they stay a bit more contained.
• I always dip my corals (CoralRx) before adding them to my tank. TidalGardens has a great video on acclimation and dipping.
• I put all my corals on a frag rack to start so I can watch them before I glue them down someplace.

 

[steveschuerger]

My first corals were Duncans and Candy Cane and a mushroom leather. Still have the Duncans and Leather. Great starter corals that you‘ll continue to enjoy later on. Make sure you have an “island” for the GSP. It’ll grow like a weed if happy. Weird thing is I couldn’t ever get them happy. Others to consider are Micromussa (Acans) and Favia/Favites. That selection gives you a fairly easy bunch of corals that can provide movement and lots of color(in many cases). Also what lights are you using? Any pics? Have you considered a build thread? It’s great way to document your tank.
‘As far a nitrates go, as has been mentioned LPS in general like a modest amount of them. Also a small amount of phosphate is deemed important, though for whatever reason I’ve got a tank filled with LPS and they seem happy with less than 5 ppm nitrates and practically non-existent phosphates, so I’m an outlier there.
As far as light and flow, leathers seem to thrive with a goodly amount of both, GSP can take fair amount of flow and I’ve seen them in in moderate lighting. Duncans love water flow in my experience and can handle low to moderate lighting, as far as the others I mentioned decent flow to prevent detritus build up and low to moderate lighting, though corals are pretty adaptable if given the chance to acclimate.
And yeah frag racks are important.