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Beginner coral


bbatman99

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Hi Brad. It depends.

 

They all look to me to be good, hardy choices but they won't all do well under the same conditions. For example, the birdsnest likes a lot of light and flow while the devil's hand would be happier with a lot less. The stony corals will need calcium and alk supplementation, while the softies may be be able to get their calcium and carbonate from just regular water changes.

 

That's not to say you *can't* combine them in a mixed reef, just that you need to keep their individual requirements in mind when setting things up.

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I started out with softies and then went over to SPS and LPS and clams. You can sometimes mix the two by placement and how you set-up your tank.

 

Besides supplementation as Andy mentioned, some corals like/need bright light and some others don't.

 

Before you go out and buy, some reading is reconmended so you don't burn those $$.

 

hth

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I'd say so. The Koralia is about 800 gph right? So that gives about 30x turn-over in your tank, which IMO is about the bare minimum for SPS -- some people say 20x is the bottom line, but I didn't start seeing much happiness in SPS until I hit 30x.

 

In a shorter tank (18" tall or less) the 150MH should be fine for everything but the really light-hungry corals. I'm keeping clams (crocea and derasa), SPS and LPS in my 55 under dual 150W halides (Phoenix 14k) and the only thing that hasn't seemed to be getting enough light was an Acropora loripes frag that browned out and RTN'd on me... and I'm not positive that the light was the problem.

 

Doing a mixed reef in a shallow tank is tricky. In a tall tank you can have a lot of flow at the top for SPS, then slow things down at the bottom for LPS and softies. Same for light... lots up high and less at the bottom. Hard to do that in a short tank.

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To weigh in on flow... I have a Koralia 3 and a Koralia 2 in a 29gal tank. I have to be careful about how to point them so that there isn't direct flow punishing any one coral, but I think that level of flow is perfect for my tank.

 

I'm getting better polyp extention and better growth since upgrading my flow (I think...)

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No, I have them on opposite sides. One (K3) is on the right side glass (high and towards the front glass) and pointing across the tank. The other (K2) is on the back glass on the far left side, low - pointing toward the front glass and a little up.

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There really is a big difference in there list of corals. Some I would have to question in a 29 together. Your lighting looks good. So what is it you're after for your tank and viewing pleasure? That is really the question. Maybe look at tank pictures and other setups to help. Even the nano setups. You can go crazy looking but you may find one and then see what it would take to duplicate it for your self. I guess that's what we all really try to do.

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I agree with CCR stick with the softies in a small tank do a nice mixture of leathers, zoa/paly, and mushrooms as you may have a hard time keeping hard corals in this tank with softies as most give off a chemical that irritates hard corals if skimmer is inadequate and I think for a beginner softies are the way to start as you can always switch over later but I find most keep there softie tank or go to a larger system to house both once they get that experience under there belt.

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I have been able to keep hard and soft corals in my nano with no issues. I have mid to high level flow up high and 150w halide. SPS growth has been very good so far and my zoanthids and other softies are doing great.

It can be done, but you have to have great water quality and do weekly water changes (it is what I do).

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