Coral Help - What should start with

[newland]

Hi all i'm in the process of setting up a new Saltwater tank.

I've been doing all the research on the hardware side and have completly fergot about the corel side of things.

I'm looking for some really nice (soft) corels which will move in the tank. Also Colour is really important to me too. Can anyone recomend some good corels to get to start off with.

Also how much would i require. its going to be for a 30 gallon tank woth a 15 gallon sump.

Also how hard is to to bread the corel?

Thank you

 

[amstar15]

what type of lighting do you have on the tank? how long has it been running? do you have any live rock? what is your substrate?

 

[Salt Freak]

depends on the coral the mushrooms and polyps are pretty easy just cut them and tie them onto a piece of rock and they will start to grow there own colony on the rock now you hard corals like SPS LPS are extremely hard there is a very low chance they will reproduce in the home aquarium they have to have the right amount of lunar light in the cycle and the water conditions have to perfect.the easier corals to keep are probaly the polyps and mushrooms. Correct me if i'm wrong i'm pretty sure that is how they reproduce.

 

[newland]

At the moment

I'm still in the process of building the tank.
I'm not rushing into anything here. I'm trying to get all the information first before doing anything.

For the lighting i'm planning on haveing 2-3 18" bulbs most probably 3 as i have 3 for it. But if someone says only use 2 then i'll only use 2

I'll need to aquire some live rock yes? does it have to be LIVE? or can i use dead coral or even some other rock thats got lots of holes in it. What about breaseblock. Thats got loads of holes in it like coral? Anyone tried this?

I assume i need some live rock and some coral. Also how much live rock would i need? Its a 30 Gallon UK tank.

 

[amstar15]

live rock is usually 1 to 1 1/2 pounds per gallon. You state you have room for 2 or 3 18" bulbs. are these going to be flourescents? power compact? vho? halide (doubt it) lighting plays a major role in what type of corals you can and can not keep.

 

[Ed4567]

Corals can reporduce in two ways:
-Asexually- polyps divide producing identicle copies of themselves causing the coral to increase in size.
-Sexually- the coral releases eggs or sperm into the water column where hopefully they meet and form lavae which eventually settle forming new corals.

The former is to be expected in a tank if conditions are good, however the latter is unlikely to happen.

For your first coral I'd recommend greenstar polyps, mushrooms or any easy soft coral.

 

[newland]

I was thiking of using flourescents but if anyone can recomend something better then great.

I have three flourescents fittings. If there are better bulbs i can use other than flourescents in these fittings then please tell me what i should use.

 

[Ed4567]

If the tank is less than 15" high then 3 normal fluorescent tubes should be ok for lowish light corals as long as they cover the full length of the tank. Alternatives are T-5 fluorescent tubes which give out more light but require a special ballast and reflectors or VHO (very high output) tubes. If you wanted an open top style tank you could also go for a 150 watt metal halide fixture which would be idea and wouldnt be that much more expensive.

 

[newland]

Thanks for all the lighting help.

What i have currently is 3 * 18" T5 tubes
My tank will be 24" deep. and i plan to have live rock stached up in the corner of the tank. Its a corner tank of dimond shape. So i plan to have live rock going up the corner.

I'm assuming i need live rock for coral to attach to.
If so what can i use for live rock? If i just put loads of dead coral in would that become live rock after time? if so how long?

would the best aproach be to put lots of dead rock in with some live rock too?

Thank you