Am I Ok For Corals?

[Jonny967]

Hi,

I have had my 400ltr marine setup for around 3 months now with 40Kg live rock, tested the water and everything is fine and all the fish seem to be doing well (I have a yellow tang, 2 clowns and a regal).
What i would like to know is if it is now safe to introduce a few corals and which ones together. Also i would like an anemone? The one with the tentacles that the clowns make home as you can tell i don't know much about corals and any advice would be appreciated.
P.S what is the best way to handle corals/anemone that possess a sting?

 

[Jozlyn]

The majority of corals need very strong lighting, so the first question is: What sort of lighting do you have? Morphs & zoas do ok under low light conditions but can take over the tank. Sinularia and acan's also tolerate low light as well.
Bubble tip anemones (BTA's) are the usual choice for clowns but they can and do use anything as a host! i.e. morphs, elegance coral etc.

 

[ox5477]

There are tons of good starter corals out there that require medium intensity light and will survive off of just this (though an occational feeding of baby brine or phytoplankton will benefit them). These include zoos, leathers, kenya tree, xenia, mushrooms, and quite a few other anenome like corals.

For an anenome, I believe each species of clown has a species of anenome that tends more towards so some research there would help. Also, anenome's can be very picky about water quality so I would make sure you have a very healthy and more importantly static water chemistry as if an anenome dies, it will release poisons when it dies and kill all your hard work..

Ox

 

[Sea Turtle]

I had my tank for about 3 months before I added some sps hard corals. I started with a real small frag from the lfs. This way if it didn't work out it wouldn't cost an arm an a leg.

If this works out over the next month or two and seems to be thriving, then I would say, go for it.

Ox and Jozlyn are right. Water quality, high intensity light and calcium will be required for hard corals to survive. Also, with a new tank, you will need to check the water quality every other day. Sometimes, when I added the first of my corals, I would check it every night.

 

[kj23502]

That's about a 105 usg. What kind of lights do you have. I'd lean toward a couple 175 or 250 watt metal hallides. I'm still learning all this, but that's what's been suggested for mine. My original tank was going to be 60"l x 26"h and now it's 48"L x 24" W x 24" H.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Jonny,

I am a little new to this still but what I am gathering from this post it that we might be overlooking a couple of very important things that if not used could be detrimental to your coral.

Do you or are you currently using a RO/DI filter for your tank water?

Are you currently dosing calcium and alkalinity to you tank?

Do you have a sufficient protien skimmer?

Do you have sufficient water movement?

I am sure that some other people can add in more thoughts but these are what stood out in my mind as to what will be required to support corals.

 

[ox5477]

well there are some reefers who swear by using special gloves made specifically for the trade that are rubber and have long sleeves to cover your arm up to and past your elbow to protect you from stinging corals and I would assume to keep your dirty hands from messing the water too (but, in reality, these are glorified dishwasher gloves... you know the yellow ones you see the stay at home moms wear on TV). But, really these are not completely neccessary as long as you handle most corals delicately and carefully (many TFF members I believe do not use gloves as they are more of a pain then anything else). Obv for an organism that is known to be poisonous or deadly to humans... lion fish for example..... I would use heavy protection and try to not physically handle the fish at all while trasnfering it.

Turtle covered many of the things that of course we blindly all skipped over, but I believe everything on that list is important.

To add... you mentioned you checked stats, but what are you testing for? beyond the basic tests for ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and pH, a good test for calcium, alkalinity and phosphorus are also pretty essential as sps corals need a good supply for these things to grow properly (except for the phos, you want this to be 0 or as close to zero as possible).

Also, if you dont have one right now, DIYing a sump into your set-up would help as well as you can hide alot of the equiptment in the cabinet and can also have a refugium that serves as a place to have macroalgae which help keep nitrates and phosphates down.

Ox

 

[Jonny967]

To add... you mentioned you checked stats, but what are you testing for? beyond the basic tests for ammonium, nitrite, nitrate and pH, a good test for calcium, alkalinity and phosphorus are also pretty essential as sps corals need a good supply for these things to grow properly (except for the phos, you want this to be 0 or as close to zero as possible).



Ox

Cheers for all the info i am basically testing for all of the above you mentioned, I am using four T5 bulbs for lighting which from reading up a bit seems to be ok for corals. My LFS sells live rock with some small corals growing off so buying a piece and seeing how it gets on is the way forward i think.
As for the amenone i think a lot more research will be needed as i dont want to rush into anything and try to run before i can walk .

 

[ox5477]

Good thinking Jonny. Ask anyone and they will agree with this. Always better to take your time when setting up anything marine. Worth the extra time, patience and research in the end.

Ox