Good Coral mix???

[fcruz420]

Im in the planning stage and probably soon to launch

Tank 6 gallons, Salt (instant ocean) 1.022/1.023, Temps between 78/80. Im running an AC20 and K-nano. I will be switching to Tropic marin salt . What do you consider optimum salt/temp levels should be?

Sooooooooo I would like to house the following:
Zoos, Ricordeas, Mushrooms, Hammer and Xenia corals.

Is that too much? Does it sound like a good mixture for a non-stressful environment?

 

[Phyl]

In a 6g tank I don't think you'll have enough room for a hammer and much else (sweepers in that small space will likely not allow much else to thrive). Xenia tends to like to spread and grow. May not be easy to keep in check in such a small tank either. Keep your rock little and you'll be able to remove pieces to "frag" the corals that grow too fast.

Good luck!

 

[mnat]

I had frogspawn (which is pretty much the same as hammer) in a 12g and it got too big for the tank. The problem is it will sting anything around it and it can get a lot bigger than is looks. Ours went from one head to eight heads in less than a year. Zoas, rics, mushrooms will all be fine, I have successfully kept favia under my PC lights in the 12g. Dendros are non photosynthetic and can be pretty small, you just have to feed them.

 

[fcruz420]

Thanks Phyl and Mnat. I guess I will stick to my original plan ;D

 

[fcruz420]

meaning I will stick with Zoos, rics and mushrooms lol

 

[NikkiT]

I think zoas and mushrooms are an excellent choice. I started with zoas and mushrooms in my 20g in december of 2008. . . and by january 2009, i had to give away most of them because they had overgrown my 20g. However, thats a good problem to have. You might also want to consider trumpets, Mike (MNAT) has kept them successfully under PCs.

 

[fcruz420]

I think zoas and mushrooms are an excellent choice. I started with zoas and mushrooms in my 20g in december of 2008. . . and by january 2009, i had to give away most of them because they had overgrown my 20g. However, thats a good problem to have. You might also want to consider trumpets, Mike (MNAT) has kept them successfully under PCs.

Awesome. Im going to be using a T5 fixture as the LED build isnt too promising in the fluval edge. ;D

 

[mikem]

I would also bring your salt up somewhere closer to .025 or .026.

 

[fcruz420]

I would also bring your salt up somewhere closer to .025 or .026.

Thx Mikem. Im debating on reef crystals and tropic marin. I think IO mixes at 0.22/0.23 and if figured it would be ok to at least cycle.. Any thoughts on those 2 salts?

 

[mnat]

As far as salt goes here is my opinion. Even if you do a one gallon water change a week, that would be roughly 200 weeks until you kill your salt (if you buy a 200g bucket). Since the expense is going to be low I would go with the higher end salt. I use Trop Marin, and I know some people have had issues with them recently, but that is what I would go with.

 

[Phyl]

Normally I'd agree about buying the most expensive salt... but I just don't trust TM these days. After things not quite being "right" with the tank we've changed over to Seachem. We had used RC with no problems for quite a while, though we haven't used it in over a year.

 

[mnat]

If not Trop Marin, maybe Brightwell or Seachem especially if you can find their new salt which is supposed to be excellent.

 

[fcruz420]

Cool comments. BTW how do you edit posts? I dont see a button/link to do so...

Back to Corals. I've read a lot about seachem being Awesome for dosing supplements and brightwells being Awesome for vitamin/coral food . I'm going to check Foster&Smith regarding these new salts.

I think GARF uses seachem for all of their supplements as well. ;D

 

[JRWOHLER]

OG II has sale on Reef Crystals....160G bucket will last you a lonnnng time.
I have had good luck with them. You won't need tons of calcium with zoas and rics.