Beginner Coral?

[Jennie]

What would be a beginner coral for a 10g setup?

[GaryP]

Jennie,

That would depend on what kind of lights you have (watts & type) as well as some other factors like whether you have a protein skimmer on your 10 gal. How about giving us some more details and I'm sure someone can make a good recommendation.

Gary

[Yancey]

Hey Jennie, if your setting up a 10g, check www.nano-reef.com the people there are pretty helpfull (some don't know jack though) and searching the forums can mine lots of info. They also have a beginners FAQ somewhere on the site. But in general good beggining corals are... mushrooms, zoanthanids/polyps, Star polyps, trumpet/calustra. Good luck

[Tim Marvin]

Mushrooms, zoo's, and brains are some low light corals. These will do well if you keep up with your water changes and have 50-100 watts of light. 1 or 2 power compacts would do great on that tank. You'll need a couple small powerheads in there also.

[Jennie]

Was just laughing at myself for not giving anyone anything to work with! The tank has been setup since the beginning of the year with 25lbs of Agralive fine grain sand and apx 13lbs of live rock. There is 1 Sandsifting star, 1 peppermint shrimp, 2 hermits, and a snail. I have a powersweep powerhead and a whisper filter for water movement. For the lighting all I have now are 2 Mini Fluorescent bulbs (6500K Daylight). No skimmer. As of last night readings were: Ammonia 0, NitrItes 0, and NitrAtes were 5. These reading have been stable for about 2 months now.

[Tim Marvin]

Mushrooms, zoos, xenia, and maybe star polyps.

[Tim Marvin]

How many watts are those mini's?

[Jennie]

The minis are 10 watts (each). Until I can find something I can afford, Im stuck with them.

[matt]

You might look at ahsupply.com for a nice 2X36W P.C. set up for a ten gallon. I'd suggest losing the sand sifting star; it really belongs in a much bigger tank. In a tank this size, it will eat anything and everything that tries to live in your sand bed.

[Jennie]

My original thinking was that I'd start with the ten gallon (was warned that it would be harder to keep stable) and learn the ropes. I have a few other tanks (5, 29, and 125 Oceanic) that currently have freshwater fish in them. Should any of those tanks become available in the future and I feel like I have learned enough then I can upgrade. As beautiful as these SW tanks are, they are still more expensive than Freshwater, so that also gives me time to figure what outfitting the other tanks are going to cost me.

[GaryP]

I would suggest spending your money on upgrading your lights before investing in corals. Some mushrooms aren't going to require a lot of light. Most other corals do. The one's that don't require light are going to require feeding that could have a negative impact on your water quality.

When you get your lights, let me know. I can probably hook you up with some good beginner type soft corals like Xenia, clove polyps, and maybe some shrooms.

Gary

[Ram_Puppy]

I have six of the coralife 20 watt 50/50's over my 30 gallon hex, and they are awesome. I am getting excellent growth (in my newb opinion) off my xenia, star polyps, and colt, all of which are in the bottom 1/2 of the tank. You can get them at CB pets of your in san antonio...

[Jennie]

I agree about the lights Gary, the more I think about it the wiser it seems. And thanks also for the offer with the corals. As to the 125 being great for SW, don't think that I haven't thought about it.....lol But currently my Oscars are loving it! It blows my mind thinking of seting up that 125 since I feel like Im over my head sometimes with the 10.

[Markster]

I started with a 29 gal as my first SW and then reef. I moved to a 58 gal, then 75 gal. I have never looked back but have made my share of mistakes. Good luck.

[GaryP]

IMO, the larger the tank the easier it is to take care of. The only negative is cost. More water, salt, chemicals, and equipment replacement costs (pumps, bulbs, etc).

If I have learned one thing from this hobby, its always better to put your money into equipment in the beginning than try to pump money into a tank afterwards. Every dollar you put into a tank in the beginning will pay for itself in the long run. I wish I had learned that lesson several thousand dollars ago.

Gary

[brewercm]

If you check with hellolights they have the coralife 96W quad PC for $97 that is a great light and fits nicely on that tank if you are sticking with 10 Gallon. I have one of these sitting over my 25 hex and it works out great.

[RobertG]

IMO, the larger the tank the easier it is to take care of. The only negative is cost. More water, salt, chemicals, and equipment replacement costs (pumps, bulbs, etc).

If I have learned one thing from this hobby, its always better to put your money into equipment in the beginning than try to pump money into a tank afterwards. Every dollar you put into a tank in the beginning will pay for itself in the long run. I wish I had learned that lesson several thousand dollars ago.

Gary

Well Put Gary, I could not of stated any better. Strongly Agree!!!!

My first tank was a 50 FW, Bye Bye. 75G SW then a 115G REEF now I have 240G REEF. The bigger the better, Maint. Wise. Among other reasons. :-D

I would not of done so fair had I started that small..

[dan]

I AGREE. GO BIGGER. i have a 250gal. now. i'm looking at a 450 for my next tank. just have to sell this one so i can buy it. is'nt this hobby'' AWSOME DUDE ''

[alexwolf]

i have a 175 bowfront, a 7 gal bowfront, and we are adding a 15 gal in the bedroom. I like the look of small tanks, partially because you can see things you cant in a bigger tank. A friend of mine has a boxing crab. It is awesome!!! I would never see it in the 175 though. Same goes for shrimp. I cant ever find them. I have learned the trick is keeping the bioload low in a tank that small. I cant even find my new zoo frags in my 175, they get blown everywhere lol.

[mharris7]

I have a DIY 70watt halide over my 10 gal - you can make one for under $100 if you use catalina brand bulbs. I have a thread w/pics somewhere here on this site and there's some good threads on the same/similar projects in the DIY section of nano-reefs.com.....