Starter Coral

Can anyone recommend a good coral to start with? I have dual florescent
balasts, but no metal hydride lights (yet).

--Kurt

KurtG wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good coral to start with? I have dual florescent
balasts, but no metal hydride lights (yet).

Leather corals.

Mike

Candy Cane Coral, Plate Coral, Hairy Mushroom Coral, Zoanthus, Starburst
Polyp
Most sites that sell coral will tell you Beginner, Moderate, advanced or
expert.
I've killed one of each : )

"KurtG" wrote in message
...

Can anyone recommend a good coral to start with? I have dual florescent
balasts, but no metal hydride lights (yet).

--Kurt

Plates are pretty neat. NOt ovely demanding and while they may make it
without anyhting but light its always fun and best to spot feed them.,
I find feeding even mushrooms to be very interesting and I do spot
feed each and every mushroom at leaqst one time during the week.


Plates need decent water flow and a simple spot on a sand bed or low
rock rubble, as they will move somewhat so they need to be where they
will not fall off a ledge etc. They can be had in a variety of colors,
with the oranges bieng more $$$ than the browns and greens, but all
glow under actinics or moonlights just beautifuly.

I find candy cane corals to do fair when they get molested by hermits,
but a tank with a few hermits or no hermits is fine. All gthe books
I read says tubipora is only for advanced folks, but its been one of
the easiest simple corals I have ever fooled with and thnnk its even
easier than shrooms are. (Pipe Organ is what I am referring to) All it
needs is decent PC lights, preferably a sand bed but placed in live
rock is also fine, and some decent water flow. It does require a good
level of calcium if you want it to grow, and in which case it will do
so quite readily. I started off with a spring of abot 3 or 4 polyps
about a year ago, and its been fragged numerous times
already.Presently its the size of a softball after the last frag I did
about 2 weeks ago. It also glows nice under actinics or moon lights.
Its very fragile though, and resembles a thick heavy stand of green
star polyps with a much nicer metallic green coloration.
\


On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:55:47 GMT, "TheRock" wrote:

Candy Cane Coral, Plate Coral, Hairy Mushroom Coral, Zoanthus, Starburst
Polyp
Most sites that sell coral will tell you Beginner, Moderate, advanced or
expert.
I've killed one of each : )

"KurtG" wrote in message
.. .

Can anyone recommend a good coral to start with? I have dual florescent
balasts, but no metal hydride lights (yet).

--Kurt




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Tristan wrote:

All gthe books
I read says tubipora is only for advanced folks, but its been one of
the easiest simple corals I have ever fooled with and thnnk its even
easier than shrooms are. (Pipe Organ is what I am referring to) All it
needs is decent PC lights, preferably a sand bed but placed in live
rock is also fine, and some decent water flow. It does require a good
level of calcium if you want it to grow, and in which case it will do
so quite readily. I started off with a spring of abot 3 or 4 polyps
about a year ago, and its been fragged numerous times
already.Presently its the size of a softball after the last frag I did
about 2 weeks ago. It also glows nice under actinics or moon lights.
Its very fragile though, and resembles a thick heavy stand of green
star polyps with a much nicer metallic green coloration.

Was this a large or small polyp tubipora?

Refuguim or skimmer?

What do you feed it?

Etc.

Mike (poor luck so far with tubipora)

wrote in message
...
Tristan wrote:

All gthe books
I read says tubipora is only for advanced folks, but its been one of
the easiest simple corals I have ever fooled with and thnnk its even
easier than shrooms are. (Pipe Organ is what I am referring to) All it
needs is decent PC lights, preferably a sand bed but placed in live
rock is also fine, and some decent water flow. It does require a good
level of calcium if you want it to grow, and in which case it will do
so quite readily. I started off with a spring of abot 3 or 4 polyps
about a year ago, and its been fragged numerous times
already.Presently its the size of a softball after the last frag I did
about 2 weeks ago. It also glows nice under actinics or moon lights.
Its very fragile though, and resembles a thick heavy stand of green
star polyps with a much nicer metallic green coloration.

Was this a large or small polyp tubipora?

Refuguim or skimmer?

What do you feed it?

Etc.

Mike (poor luck so far with tubipora)


Kurt do you NOT have a skimmer ???

TheRock wrote:
Kurt do you NOT have a skimmer ???

Me? It's on the fedex truck and should be delivered today. :-)

I'd like a refugium, but that may be a few months in my future.

--Kurt

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 05:25:30 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

Tristan wrote:

All gthe books
I read says tubipora is only for advanced folks, but its been one of
the easiest simple corals I have ever fooled with and thnnk its even
easier than shrooms are. (Pipe Organ is what I am referring to) All it
needs is decent PC lights, preferably a sand bed but placed in live
rock is also fine, and some decent water flow. It does require a good
level of calcium if you want it to grow, and in which case it will do
so quite readily. I started off with a spring of abot 3 or 4 polyps
about a year ago, and its been fragged numerous times
already.Presently its the size of a softball after the last frag I did
about 2 weeks ago. It also glows nice under actinics or moon lights.
Its very fragile though, and resembles a thick heavy stand of green
star polyps with a much nicer metallic green coloration.

Was this a large or small polyp tubipora?
Only know of tubipora as "Tubipora musica or pipe organ coral. Never
knew there wa a large or small polyp species.

Refuguim or skimmer?
In display tank......although I do have a small piece currently in the
fuge but its normally in the DT. I run skimmers on everything.

What do you feed it?
Nothing in particular. I feed strictly frozen (home made) foods to my
fish / critters, and whatever fine particulate material they may get
when I feed is all they get. I hear they feed off bacteria in the sand
substare and require a deep sand be, which I have to dispute as I
donot have one sand bed in any of my tanks over 1 to 1.5" in
depth....Not a fan of deep sand beds. And as to what the claim is they
ned to be placed in the sand, I have nice growths of pipe organ
thriving and being fragged regularly thats on live rock well above a
sand bed.

They are extremely delecate as yu probably already know. SOmetimes it
seems yu can just look at them and the stems / branches break off, and
my hermits even small blue leggers and my snails often do break off
polyps. I simply take those broken polyps and stick em in a hole in
live rock as they tend to get buried in sand bed since it is a single
polyp and in no time its a nice cluster po polyps.

Etc.

Mike (poor luck so far with tubipora)

Thats really strange........stuff they say is simple give me hassles
;-)



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Tristan wrote:
On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 05:25:30 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

Tristan wrote:

Was this a large or small polyp tubipora?

Only know of tubipora as "Tubipora musica or pipe organ coral. Never
knew there wa a large or small polyp species.

Dunno if they're seperate species, or simply different varieties. The
ones with larger polyps are suppesed to be hardier.

Refuguim or skimmer?

In display tank......although I do have a small piece currently in the
fuge but its normally in the DT. I run skimmers on everything.

What do you feed it?

Nothing in particular. I feed strictly frozen (home made) foods to my
fish / critters, and whatever fine particulate material they may get
when I feed is all they get. I hear they feed off bacteria in the sand
substare and require a deep sand be, which I have to dispute as I
donot have one sand bed in any of my tanks over 1 to 1.5" in
depth....Not a fan of deep sand beds. And as to what the claim is they
ned to be placed in the sand, I have nice growths of pipe organ
thriving and being fragged regularly thats on live rock well above a
sand bed.

They are extremely delecate as yu probably already know. SOmetimes it
seems yu can just look at them and the stems / branches break off, and
my hermits even small blue leggers and my snails often do break off
polyps. I simply take those broken polyps and stick em in a hole in
live rock as they tend to get buried in sand bed since it is a single
polyp and in no time its a nice cluster po polyps.

Thats really strange........stuff they say is simple give me hassles
;-)

Well, THAT'S a rather big club :-)

Mike

KurtG wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good coral to start with? I have dual florescent
balasts, but no metal hydride lights (yet).

--Kurt

Stick with soft corals - I'd especially stay away from any small polyp
stony stuff until you have some experience.

Zooanthids are a nice begginer choice - very hardy and they come in all
sorts of cool colors (may fade a bit if they don't have enough light, tho.)

Xenia are cool are fairly hardy as well. Fun to watch - the polyps
constantly and continually open and close - they look like little pink
hands constantly grabbing at the water.


How much CF light (watts per gallon) do you have?