What are some super easy corals?

I was going FOWLR with my 120, but I was given a Kenya Tree coral and a small green star cluster that are doing well. Add two (I know, only 2) mushrooms that are doing well, and I am starting to think that I want to add a few more things. I don't have super strong flow, but it isn't bad at all. I have decent LED lighting that is more than a fish only tank needs.





So what are some easy things to try next? I want to try to stay away from having to add supliments if at all possible as I want to keep this as simple as possible.





For equipment I have a big Reef Octopus skimmer, a GFO reactor, 40 gallon sump with macro in it, plenty of live rock, but as you can see, nothing fancy. I do, however, have prety rock solid water parameters.





Ideas/recommendations?

 

Wow. Thanks for the tips. I noticed that my green stars and Kenya really started doing well when I got the GFO up and running in my tank. Found out after a lot of asking around due to a hair algae problem that the rock was probably locked full of phosphates from the previous "owner" who let his tank do a slow death over 4 years with no maintenance outside of top off water. Seems like the GFO has really been helping to "export" that stuff and thins are doing well.

Yea, the two mushroom heads I have are doing OK. One is smaller at the size of a nickel, and the other is a little bigger than a quarter, but they started out as tiny little "bumps" that were in that guy's toxic tank so it has taken a while. They aren't real pretty, sort of a deep reddish brown, but still cool to know that they survived his tank and are growing in mine now.

I would love to give some stuff a whirl. I will send a couple of you a PM. I hate to be a "mooch" though, so we will have to work out the details.

 

PMs sent.

 

Agreed.

 

So I've got a few new corals in the tank. They all are in there soaking in the water, nutrients, and light and seem to be doing well.


I picked up coral from a tank with flatworms (won't say who) but got a thing of CoralRx One Shot. After a nice long shaking of the frags in the water, and a few "assisted removals" I think that I got all of the nasty stuff off of them. Just another reason to dip your corals.


I've dealt with my own share of issues from using a previously neglected tank that had so much nasty phosphate that was leached into and locked into the live rock that I've had a year long battle with extracting it and knocking down my algae, but I've been blessed with no nasty critters (so far), no aiptasia, and overall good luck keeping nasty stuff out. Hopefully the one-shot did the trick. It was crazy how the little flatworms wouldn't die, but did let go. Some were swimming in the treated water in the bucket even after the corals went into the tank. Not sure if that is normal or not.


Anyway, I am convinced that corals need to be dipped now. There were a few other things than flatworms in there. One looked like a teeny-tiny shrimp. Sorry baby shrimp thing. I don't want you.


Need more proof? Look at this picture. This was after dipping two small frags....


Each one of those spots is a hitchhiker. None of that is "dirt" or detritus... All little nasties that I don't want in my tank.







Of course some of you will say that it wasn't enough, and that I should QT the coral, etc. I am already getting myself scared after reading some things online about flatworms. Maybe I'm doomed now. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/crying.gif

 

It was a hard battle until I started running a GFO reactor a few months ago. Then things really started to shape up. Now the hair algae (that was literally covering EVERYTHING in the tank) is almost gone.

 

I went to their website and it says to shake the coral for 5-10 minutes in the bucket of treated saltwater. I think that I did about 15 minutes total each... They looked really "clean" when I rinsed them in the clean saltwater.

 

That sounds so scary, but a quick google search gives instructions and everything. Might have to try that next time.