Noob Reef Keeper

[saltwater]

Hi im new at this forum and after a few years of planted aquariums i think im ready to take the plunge at a reef. I have a few questions:
1. If I just wanted a FOWLR tank regular lighting should be fine?
2. How many watts per gallon is reccomended fer soft/mushrooms/polyps? I dont know if there is a guideline for WPG is saltwater, maybe Im just stuck in the planted phrase of mind
3. How and what foods do you feed soft/mushroom/polyps? Those liquid foods?
4. Can you reccomend specfic names of soft/mushroom/polyp corals for the absolute newb to corals? It probably depends on the lighting, but Ill choose the lighting around the the corals. Also, I dont know how good Ill be at feeding them, so easy to feed corals are a plus.
5. Is it neccessary to add those mineral things to RO water or does the salt take care of it? And if i added the minerals AND salt would it be bad?

sorry for all the questions!

 

[maestro]

Hi im new at this forum and after a few years of planted aquariums i think im ready to take the plunge at a reef. I have a few questions:
1. If I just wanted a FOWLR tank regular lighting should be fine?
2. How many watts per gallon is reccomended fer soft/mushrooms/polyps? I dont know if there is a guideline for WPG is saltwater, maybe Im just stuck in the planted phrase of mind
3. How and what foods do you feed soft/mushroom/polyps? Those liquid foods?
4. Can you reccomend specfic names of soft/mushroom/polyp corals for the absolute newb to corals? It probably depends on the lighting, but Ill choose the lighting around the the corals. Also, I dont know how good Ill be at feeding them, so easy to feed corals are a plus.
5. Is it neccessary to add those mineral things to RO water or does the salt take care of it? And if i added the minerals AND salt would it be bad?

sorry for all the questions!

hello

1) Regular lighting is fine for FOWLR tanks.
2) Marine keepers dont really use watts per gallon, its more the actual type of ligths you have, soft corals will be ok under 2 t8 (regular) tubes, T5's would be better and make the tank brighter, the large majority of 3) corals dont need regular feeding, get their energy needs indirectly from the light You get get coral foods that you mox in a bit of water and put in the tank, this is really just suplementary feeding.
4) all mushrooms and polyps are fairly hardy, sarcophyton (leather and toadstool corals) are hardy.
5) a good salt is all you need to add to ro water

 

[saltwater]

ok, thanks you were very helpful!

about the corals, do these sound like good beginner corals?
Green flourescent mushroom
Ricordea mushroom
Yellow fiji coral
Kenya tree coral
Colony polyp
Snake polyp
Devil's hand leather coral

 

[steelhealr]

Some thoughts:

-colony polyps can spread like weeds
-I have a yellow Fiji leather and it prefers good light. It is very sensitive to water conditions
-if you plan on keeping LPS in your tank, a Devil's hand shouldn't kept in close proximity...they can have turf wars

SH

 

[maestro]

Id start of with the fiji leather and the normal mushrooms, also the polyps are very hardy, see how these go first, all the above 3 are ideal beginner corals.

 

[Aquascaper]

Green Flourescent Mushroom - All Actinodiscus and Rhodactis are good beginner corals
Ricordea mushroom - Quite hardy but expensive so not for a first coral (not until you can guarantee success)
Yellow fiji coral - Yellow Sacrophytons are harder to keep than the brown varieties
Kenya tree coral - Good beginner coral
Colony polyp - Zooanthids are hardy beginner corals, prefer good lighting (T5's)
Snake polyp - Relatively hardy corals, require good lighting (T5's)
Devil's hand leather coral - Good beginner coral

 

[saltwater]

Would any of these corals "nuke" my tank if they happened to die?

 

[Aquascaper]

None will 'nuke' it as such but they will release pollutants and cause Nitrate Spikes due to the Ammonia, etc.

 

[steelhealr]

Any dying coral can 'potentially' cause water issues. However, a yellow Fiji leather can....especially if you frag it in the tank. Devil's hand may as well. Anything dying in a nano tank can be a headache. It's the tradeoff you make for keeping such a small marine tank. That's why nano reefers have to be the 'keepers of the water'. There is no margin for large error. SH

 

[saltwater]

Hold on a second, does "nuking" only apply to nanos? My tank will have a total of 60 gallons. Is that a "nano" tank?

 

[SkiFletch]

Hold on a second, does "nuking" only apply to nanos? My tank will have a total of 60 gallons. Is that a "nano" tank?

No, nuking applies to any size tank in which a dying or distressed organizm releases toxins that kill most livestock in the tank. Nano's are usually considered 30 gallon or less.