Good beginer corals

[beedyb220]

I am looking for a list of good hardy corals to begin with. I am only running fluorescents at the moment. I will be upgrading to power compacts soon. I have a 55g tank with 3 fish.

Thanks in advance,
Bryan Norfleet

[lfduty]

Nice to have you with SCMAS

[fuzzyt]

May want to try xenia. The stuff is interesting to watch and can grow like crazy. What kind of filtration are you using?

You might be somewhat limited in what corals you can keep with PCs. Generally the soft corals and some LPS are okay. Just research a little before you purchase. It can be an expensive lesson.

Oh, and welcome to SCMAS!

Best of luck! :)

[Joe69]

I would personally wait on corals until you upgrade to PC lighting. You might also want to look into T-5 lighting which is along the same lines as PC but nicer.

[BLUEMANDJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9983155#post9983155 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Joe69
I would personally wait on corals until you upgrade to PC lighting. You might also want to look into T-5 lighting which is along the same lines as PC but nicer.


They also have less heat and longer bulb life.


As for some corals. I might have a couple of leathers that might make it under your lighting.

[murfman]

What are you end goals for the tank? If you want to upgrade to MH and do SPS and clams, I would wait until you get your lighting for that. Softies will fight your SPS with chemical warfare and since softies grow faster, you may run yourself out of room, real fast.

[beedyb220]

Has anyone here had any success creating their own canopy with lights? Looking the the best solution $$$ wise.

[Joe69]

I have built all my own canopies (with help) to custom fit my lightning system. I believe if you search through this forum you will find threads of mine with pics of my canopies. I'm not sure how else to retrofit an existing canopy with the amount of lights you need to keep corals. You could always go without a canopy and have your lights hang from the ceiling, such as a pendant as well.

[murfman]

I built mine for PCs and MH. LMK if you need any tips.

[Sk8r]

Re your original question, bubble coral is a stony that really doesn't like strong light---if you have mh, you have to find it a shady spot, so you might try a small one and see how you get along.

[murfman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9986237#post9986237 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
Re your original question, bubble coral is a stony that really doesn't like strong light---if you have mh, you have to find it a shady spot, so you might try a small one and see how you get along.

I have mine under 250W MH and it is growing like gang busters.

[Rocmtnreef]

I would stick with Live Rock, Zoos, and Fish only. Save your money for the PC lighting, you'll want at least four watts per gallon for good growth and maintenance. Your live rock will look much nicer and grow coraline easyier under PC.

[beedyb220]

Could I get away with 1 250W MH for a 55gallon?

[lfduty]

you can do that i have 1 175 on my 40g breeder and have seen some growth

[Thurge]

You can, but the ends of the tank will not get nearly as much light as the center. In one respect that may give you an advantage because you will have areas for lower light corals and high light corals. Depending on the reflector and how high you hang it, you should be able to cover about 3 feet of tank length with one light.

[Pippi2773]

We've been running PCs in our 29 for about 10 months now with no deaths and really nice growth. In my tank I have zoos, shrooms, frogspawn, riccordia, xenia, starpolyps, cauliflower, bubble, leathers and candycane. It's really all about research and proper placement.

[LarryW]

I built a canopy for a 72g bowfront years ago. I had 2 250 MH in there without any issues. I used the Icecap variable speed fans which were awesome. I have zoas in my 7g right now with a single 32wPC fixture, and they are really happy. i plan on keeping LPS, and SPS in my 120 though.