corals for a 10 gallon

[minireefkeeper26]

I know that an anemone is too big for a 10 gallon reef, but what corals stay reletively small? I was thinking about getting a sun coral, and some zoos. I have an 80 watt power compact. I want some acropora hard corals and sps corals but I really don't know which ones to get. I guess if they get too big I will just have to propagate. Any recommendations on really colorfull corals for a 10 gallon. Thank you for all your help.

[dhoffroad]

don't take this the wrong way, but you sound like you need to do a little more looking arround before you decied on stocking your tank....a suncoral is nice and yea they have nice color ( when they are open ) but you need to be able to "spot feed" on a very regular basis to keep it alive and second IMO you need to forget all about having ANY SPS in that tank. I'm not sure if you can even keep monties under that lighting, much less acro's....

it sounds like your new to this so what I would sugest is start out with your basics ( zoos, shrooms, etc ) and then work into the more demanding corals....

[minireefkeeper26]

thank you dhoffroad for your response. I am sorta new at this, but not that new. I have been researching what corals to put in my tank for a while by quite a few local fish stores that specialize in saltwater. I have gotten the same response from them all. " There is no limit to what you can stalk in your tank with that amount of lilghting", besides anemones,(anything with sweeper tentacles). My uncle has a 96 watt fixture over his 10 gallon and no problems with any sps corals. Are you new as well? He has given me some ideas, but his recommendations don't have the color I would like. I did visit aquacon.com and they had some great corals on sale there. Everyone should check them out! The guy that works there sold me a purple tri color acropora. They need intense light and that's what I have. He also told me since my lighting is high put any other corals at the bottom and move them up gradually and I shouldn't have any problems keeping whatever I can afford.

[dhoffroad]

so EVERYONE is telling you that 80w of PC is intense lighting ??

anyway sounds like your mind is already made up on the light thing IMO it's the WRONG set up for SPS. I had SPS under 96w of PC in my old 10gal and when I changed tanks to a 20L with MH the colors actualy came out of the "brown SPS" not to mention the growth was way better than with PC's....so yea I'm telling you what I know by experience, not by what someone has told me....

anyhow one more thing which I'm sure you do know is that SPS do require more than light to thrive, right...

oh yea one more thing go over to RC and ask in the SPS keepers section about what they think about your lighting set up and keeping SPS and get those guys' opinions...believe me allot of them know a lot more about SPS than you or I prob ever will...

[wharyat]

I completely agree with dh.

Without MH, you won't have the beautiful, intensely colored SPS that you want.

[dobejazz]

I would have to add that as non light loving corals keeping sun corals is very labor intensive feeding each polyp and so much feeding I think would keep the water dirtier than SPS would like. Sun corals also prefer low to medium flow where as SPS do better in high flow tanks

[minireefkeeper26]

thank you dobejazz, could I place the sun coral in a place in my tank with low to medium flow, like by the filter intake, and put the sps high in my tank near my powerhead? I do have a few spots that aren't such a high current and some spots with high flow. What sps corals do you like that are colorfull?

[minireefkeeper26]

I saw this website today and decided to post it. This tank is lit with power compacts and not metal halide, and its beutiful. Plus I am sure they are saving tons of money / heat.

[minireefkeeper26]

http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/NoteDetail.asp?id=96

[dhoffroad]

whatever...yea it CAN be done but you ALREADY KNOW THAT don't you....

remember that water quality , stability, etc are vital to SPS keeping maintaining Ca and alk are a must with no bouncing arround of ANY parameter.....

just fo rthe heck of it why don't you take pics of that "pruple acro" you got now and start up a tank thread for your tank post the pics and keep us all updated on your progress....

good luck with your tank, clearly you only listening to what you want to hear....Danny

[minireefkeeper26]

aragalive sand comes with all trace elements, ph buffer, for the life of the tank. I am assured by CaribSea that I will not ever have to worry about alkalinity as long as I use a good brand of salt mix.

[dobejazz]

I don't keep any SPS just softies and a few LPS. Sorry I really have no experience with SPS corals.

[dhoffroad]

Originally Posted by minireefkeeper26

aragalive sand comes with all trace elements, ph buffer, for the life of the tank. I am assured by CaribSea that I will not ever have to worry about alkalinity as long as I use a good brand of salt mix.

this is the last post I'm gona post here because I'm about to toatly flame you but I'm tryin to be nice. if you were to have a SPS dominated tank (not sayin that you are) there is NO WAY IN HELL that a "good brand of salt mix" will keep up with the demand of SPS.....do you even know anything about SPS except for that they can have nice color ??

once again good luck on your tank....I'm done...

[milhouse74]

Originally Posted by minireefkeeper26

I saw this website today and decided to post it. This tank is lit with power compacts and not metal halide, and its beutiful. Plus I am sure they are saving tons of money / heat.

I wouldn't go by 1 SPS piece so high in a tank as meaning you can keep all the things you think you can. You will also have much better color and growth with the proper lighting.

Why not look into a 70W Halide if you really want to keep these things?

[milhouse74]

Originally Posted by minireefkeeper26

aragalive sand comes with all trace elements, ph buffer, for the life of the tank. I am assured by CaribSea that I will not ever have to worry about alkalinity as long as I use a good brand of salt mix.

Agra alive contains bacteria, the theory is it will cycle your tank quicker. Also do to the type of sand, yes it will help buffer PH which is only one of the many many worries when you have SPS. As far as trace elements? Sorry nope.

http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/produ...aragalive.html

Please think about the total years of experiance your ignoring on these boards. I would love for you to start a thread about your tank, and lets see the progress, growth, and coloration over time.

The one thing we all learned here very quickly is NEVER listen to those selling you rpoducts, stores or manufactorers.

Oh better yet, send me a piece of your frag to put in my 30 Gallon lit by a 250 Watt HQI and we can compare colors and growth over time.

What unfair due to my tanks size, fine I will toss it in my 7.8 gallon tank with my 70 Watt HQI.

Milhouse