starter corals~~!!!!??

[zdawgnight]

I am just about to get into sps. I have a 24 gallon aquapod with a 150 watt mh. there are a bunch of lps in there and I would love some advice on what are good and beautiful starter corals.

[Jasonf08]

start with monti caps, i have found them to be very hearty, grow really fast & survived many of my newb blunders

[KNIGHT5272]

Monti digitata are easy also. Also pocillaporas are fairly easy to grow also.

[DaddyJax]

Turbinaria reniformis. Slow grower and very, very tough!

[dkuster]

I second the vote for pocillaporas, assuming you have strong
lighting.

[DarkXerox]

Yeah Monti Caps and digitatas are a good bet. You could always try a seriatopora histrix as well.

[zdawgnight]

thank you all for posting I appreciate the help. Also my water flow is 2 maxi jet 900s one has a hydor spinning thing on is that enough flow???

[Jasonf08]

I use the standard filter pump replaced with a MJ1200 rated at 300gph & a tunze nanostream rated at 650 gph. I imagine that should be enough for monti cap, but i plan on adding a koralia 1 or 2 to up my flow.

[zdawgnight]

Well here is the dilema I am a college student and my funds are quite low. I think my next purchase is going to be a protien skimmer. I s there a more economic way to get more flow and how imperitive is it? I also dont have much room to place all sorts power heads since its a 24 gallon aquapod

[Jasonf08]

do you have 2 mj900 in the display or one as a filter pump replacment & 1 as a powerhead?

[zdawgnight]

One as the filter pump placement

[Jasonf08]

hmmm with only one display pump you may be better pulling of the rotating head and aiming the flows across the tank at one another. This would create random flow and increase your flow because i know the rotating head really cuts the flow down.

[zdawgnight]

Ok any other reccomendations?

[Jasonf08]

hmm make sure your running a skimmer if your not already. Sps is all about Lighting, Water Quality, & flow... just remember mimic the reef water as close as possible and they grow like mad.

[zdawgnight]

ok thanks alot jason

[The Shan Man]

My first sps coral was a seriatopora... I had it without a skimmer or MH lights!! I am not saying that they will flurish but it stayed alive... It is a tank... Then I started buying all the toyes for sps and now they have become my passion... My tank is now 90% sps and growing all the time... The best thing I did was get a skimmer... You will be amazed at the difference it will make!!!

[zdawgnight]

Well I just upgraded my light froma 70 watt mh to a 150watt mh so the next thing im going to get is a skimmer. I was looking at the tunze nano skimmer. I do have to say you sps guys seem much more helpful then when I was just getting into lps, the lps were not half as helpful.

[2crazyreefers]

IMO the pocilapora - stylaphora & montipora digi would be good starters but I would stay away from caps with that size tank because they would end up taking up too much real estate and shading other corals. I think it would be much nicer with many branching corals rather than a big cap and a few other corals. Just my 2 cents.

[Nitroq2]

What 2crazyreefers said! Caps grow too fast and large for a small tank.

[zdawgnight]

I was just reading some things and it sounded as though I may be limited with the 150watt is this true and if so what types of limitations could I see?????

[KNIGHT5272]

IMO I think you can grow most if not all sps under 150. If you get the tyree type SPS you may have a harder time keeping color since they demand higher light and more flow. You can give it a try and see what colors you get but again SPS is more about water quality and stabability.

Stabability Promotes Success
(thats really cheesy)

[zdawgnight]

Ha ha so it looks like im going to have some fun then with my huge water volume being 24 gallons.

[The Shan Man]

Originally posted by zdawgnight
Ha ha so it looks like im going to have some fun then with my huge water volume being 24 gallons.

Stabability is key in an SPS tank... Depending on the depth of your tank is how much light you will need... If you have a shallow tank then you don't need that 400 watt halide. You can get away with a 150 watt... Personally that is why I don't care for tall tanks because I don't want to run the bigger lights and have to pay the higher electric bills... Running a skimmer will help with water quality and clear your water up so you can have even more light penitration aside from removing the proteins in your tank. Take it a step futher and run Ozone... They are MANY variables to keeping SPS corals... Anyways I am starting to ramble good luck in your new adventrue...

[kev apsley]

I have a 24 JBJ 150watt 14.5k gmann, with all SPS and no skimmer, on a tank that small I don't think a skimmer is mandatory as long as you stay on top of your wc's.

[TIMMYE]

A 150MH will limit some of types of SPS you can keep in different tanks, but your 24 gallon pod you will enough light for pretty much everything you can put in.