whats a good coral to start off with?

[maroon clown 05]

my tank is a 12 gallon eclipse. I have 36 watts worth of 6500k white light on the way and will have 26 watts of actinic blue. Livestock so far is just a maroon clown- i have about 15 or so lbs of rock, i will be adding more before i add corals, but was just wondering what a good beginner one would be to start with. Ive heard that mushrooms arent too hard to keep- thanks!

[ksheely]

try some types of poloyps

[Frick-n-Frags]

mushrooms would be worth a try, especially if someone in your area is giving them away.
I agree that some of the polyps are tough, like moon polyps or some of those seamats.
Silver quill gorgonian - tough as nails, but needs good flow.

The older and more settled down your tank is, the better chances you will have. You indicate that you are going to add more rock. This will basically be a milder form of starting your tank over and it will have to cycle and settle down all over again. Especially with such a tiny mass of water. Oh yeah, and those new lights are also going to spike your tank and more unpredictable fun stuff will happen (typically algae blooms)

Seriously, get your lights and your rock all squared away and let the thing cook for another 3 months after the last disturbance, THEN start thinking about putting something in there. Too bad you have the fish load, you really shouldn't have that when launching a new reef. You will have enough fun with algae fertilizer just with the live rock getting settled down and the lighting change.
Nobody waits long enough for their tanks to settle down. Good luck with it and go slow, it will be worth it.

ps All you <2 yr old tank owners, guess what, you still aren't fully cycled, watch out for the 16 month blues.

[smiller]

Clove polyps will take low light.

[undrwata]

Frilly Mushrooms can be nice their hardy and grow fast and often have nice color...FWIW

[Dragonlady]

If you bought decent live rock, you may already have some corals (and possibly undiscovered pests such as crabs) that you have not found yet. Zooanthids such as button polyps or yellow polyps might be a good first addition. They are a easy if they do not become overgrown with algae. Mushrooms are pretty easy to keep too.

[Reefraff]

While they can get a little big, leathers are fairly easy as well and are fairly tolerant (if not thrive) on less than perfect water conditions. They do get big, so get a small one and hopefully as it gets bigger, so will its home (wink wink)!

[maroon clown 05]

yikes.. yeah i am having a bit of trouble with the algae growth at this point... ive got a bit of hair algae growing and the stuff that grows on the sides of the tank comes up every few days.. very annoying. i will try a partial water change and hope that helps. i suppose ill be waiting a bit longer then on the corals. when i add my rock if it isnt cured i keep it in a smaller tank until it stops stinking, this should cut down on cycle time right? what i really wanted was an anenome for my clown.. but i'll work my way up i guess - thanks for the info!

[slimytadpole]

finger leathers. Tree-like corals. My first coral was a sinularia tree. Actually, there were 2 on the rock I got. They grow fast, and are rediculously easy to frag. That will give you something to trade with for more corals when the next RC priority mail frag swap comes around (probably late spring).