I posted this in the Red Sea Max Owners Club earlier on last week, so some of you will have already read this, but I realised that there are a lot of newbies that wouldn't see it down there so I thought I'd post it here as well :) I hope it can help everyone out in any way even if only a little bit :)
The following posts/articles are about the corals in your tank and what is required of you in the beginning to ready your tank for some new additions and then some of the ways to keep them all happy and healthy. An overview of what the different types are and some examples of these corals is also going to be written but that is coming in part two. The sort of corals that might be suitable to the lifestyle and time constraints you have, then what needs to be done to prepare your tank, buying and adding your new corals and then feeding and other things that are required to keep your new polyped friends happy!
This post is part 1 of 2 for corals and your tank. The second part is a breakdown of each type of coral, soft corals, large polyp stony corals and small polyp stony corals, and an in depth look at them with care requirements, a bit of info and some pictures will be the second part of the article. An overview will be provided about each type and then examples of each sort of coral will be given and the sorts of requirements they will need to be kept alive and prosper in your tank.
Lifestyle vs Corals
As we all know, have read and been told numerous times the saltwater hobby can be very time consuming and impossible to keep up with. This is only true due to poor planning and a lack of understanding or dedication as a well thought out and cared for tank can almost take care of itself and if you throw in a controller to the mix it makes life even easier. However once we start to throw corals at our tanks then things may start to change depending on what you start to add to your tank. Lifestyle vs corals also has to factor in how much you want to spend on your tank because the most demanding corals also require more money in the short term and sometimes in the long term. For the following I will assume that you have a good schedule for your tank maintenance and the following is added on to what is required of having a fish-only tank, so if I haven't mentioned any tasks I have assumed you are already doing them to keep your fish happy. Timings can vary according to how you have your tank set up and the way you have gone about doing things in preparation for your corals. They have also been measured in how much extra time you can spend on your weekly tank maintenance duties rather than what your lifestyle is like
No Extra Time:
If you lead a very busy lifestyle and can't spare any extra time for your tank maintenance aside from what you are already doing then I would recommend that you only look into keeping some of the easy to keep soft corals like zoanthids, leather corals or mushrooms and ricordeas as they are tough little buggers and will live happily if you just keep up the regular maintenance, I would not recommend anything harder to keep as it will add a little bit of time onto what you already have to do for your tank. They don't require any extra feeding either.
0-30 Minutes Extra:
If you are in the case where you can spend a little extra time on your tank here and there to do a few extra tests and such chores then you could happily add any soft corals as well as some of the lps corals that require not much extra maintenance and are easy to keep. If you go down the road of some of the lps corals then a little extra time will need to be spent to ensure that they are feed to make sure they can grow and are happy and healthy.
30 Minutes To An Hour Extra:
With this extra time you can keep any soft coral you wish as they add little to no extra time to your weekly tank duties and also you will be able to happily keep and grow just about all of the lps corals as most of the extra time they require is in feeding them and a few additional tests. This is where you can start to also dedicate some of your weekly duties to keeping a few easy to keep sps corals like birds nests and montipora. A few extra tests are definitely needed and also some of the dosing requirements and jobs that will keep your water parameters are able to be kept running with this time schedule. If you only want to keep sps corals then you can afford a few of the slightly harder to keep corals as the time taken that would be used for feeding can be put towards tank parameters and stability.
Over An Hour Extra:
With all this spare time you could get an extra job to help pay for your terrible addiction. If you'd rather be with your tank during this time (like I suspect most of us would be) then the tank is your oyster! You can pretty much set up whatever you want for any corals. While the initial set up of things may take a few hours after that you're pretty much set until it comes to things like topping up dosers, checking reactors and other little tasks but with this time do not hesitate to try your hand at any coral that your heart desires!
Preparing Your Tank
Once you are comfortable with your tank and your reefing abilities, you may want to up the challenge and one of the best ways to do this is by adding corals. The next question is "Well I have my tank what else will I need?" well I'll do my best to help you make that jump from what you have to what you need. Due to the hardy nature of most soft corals a lot of the following equipment is not necessary. The majority of the equipment only applies to lps (in a lesser extent) and sps which are the most demanding and will potentially require some/all of the equipment and parameters.
One extra thing to note that isn't parameters or equipment is the all consuming algae's that we have or may have in our tanks. Algae and corals don't mix well as algae's can and will very quickly overgrow a coral or even an entire colony of coral. So before you add some corals to your tank try to get rid of or control all of the algae in the tank so that it won't pose a threat to you new friends.
Equipment:
Test Kits:
The following tests are ones that you should already have for your tank and they include ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and a hydrometer or much better a refractometer. These tests are all very necessary regardless if there are corals in your tank or not. The following tests are strongly recommended, if you want to try your hand at sps keeping as the other corals with the exception of some lps corals will not need to have these parameters checked for and they are; calcium, alkalinity, phosphate (needs to be an accurate test kit, 0.001ppm is great! Also a test to have corals or not) and magnesium (not as necessary but highly recommended). They are the main test kits that you will need to keep healthy sps. There a multitude of other trace elements but none of them have much scientific research on their effects in the home aquaria as of the time of writing this.
Skimmer:
The skimmer the most important piece of equipment you can have along with lighting. (This is an oversimplification but for the purpose of this piece it's the way I will be looking at things) The skimmer is the key piece of equipment as it pulls out a lovely percentage of the dissolved organic carbons (DOCs), by binding them to the air bubbles that are passed through the water, that are free floating around in your tank. It is also very helpful with phosphate removal too. Without a skimmer there will be a build up of DOCs which could eventually lead to a tank crash.
Lighting:
The other most important part of your soon to be coral filled tank is it's lighting. To keep any sps corals you will need a large amount of high intensity lighting as sps corals are photosynthetic and gain a large amount of their daily energy requirements through the process of photosynthesis so strong lighting is a must for sps corals, some lps corals and clams. There are so many different types of lighting out there these days and people will argue to the end of days which is better so I won't be going into that but I will list the different types out there. The most common and popular types of lighting out on the market at the moment are Metal Halide lighting, LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting and t5 or VHO (Very High Output) florescent bulbs. All have their pros and cons and all are able to keep sps successfully so it is up to you to choose which type of light setup you would like and what looks the most appeasing to your eye. For most lps and soft corals they will still require lighting as they are photosynthetic as well but not nearly as intense as sps corals require so most t5 tubes are fine for this and small LED setups.
Water Movement:
Most corals will love have a good circulation of water around them and it is also great exercise for your fish. Some corals like low quiet flow areas and it's up to you to do your research on what your corals need. For sps the genreal rule of thumb is lots and lots of water flow! So get an extra powerhead or two to bump up the amount of water circulation in your tank if you want to keep sps and some lps corals happy but make sure you know who likes what when placing your corals as some will die very quickly if placed in a spot with too high a flow. The best way to get water movement is through your returns from filters, sumps and the likes and of course adding an additional powerhead to that always helps bump up the flow a little and adds a bit of randomisation depending on which way it's pointed.
Dosers:
Due to the nature and speed at which a small polyp stony coral can uptake certain elements from the water a doser may become a necessity. While you corals are small or still frags this is less important as they won't uptake from the water as quick but once they start to become colonies of size they will start to uptake more as they grow and your water changes may not suffice anymore and a more active method of adding those elements back into the water may be needed. There are several ways of dosing usually done in two or three part dosing or kalkwasser dosing and depending on what you choose to dose and how will vary what you need but that will be explained further on.
Reactors:
Depending on the levels in your tank and how much certain levels can get to, thinking about a more active way of filtering may be required. For some having a bag of carbon and/or GFO may be enough with some filter sponges but for others who really want to control their levels then some more serious ways of nutrient removal needs to be though about. The reactors that are always a great addition to any tank, especially if you want sps and fish, are phosphate reactors, reactors with carbon and/or GFO, CO2 reactors, calcium reactors and/or kalkwasser reactors. Some of these reactors are nutrient removal methods and the others are more like dosers by adding elements to your tank.
The only real equipment that is truly an absolute must (for the purpose of this piece) is a skimmer and some sort of lighting (strong lighting if sps). Dosers and reactors and other methods of filtration are all secondary and can be employed as you see fit. If you have a high bioload (ie close to the 1-2 inch of fish per 5 gallon) then I would definitely recommend adding some extra methods of filtration in or a bigger skimmer to keep up with the bioload.
Parameters:
For the reef aquaria there are a few extra parameters that need to be considered once you start to add corals into the mix and not just fish. Ammonia, nitrite still need to be zero and nitrate as close to zero as possible. The one thing to remember about having a beautiful reef is not if your levels are exact to what is recommended but that they are stable and stay at the same levels constantly. That is the most important factors, while occasionally your levels may need to be adjusted do it slowly and over time and try to keep them stable and your corals will do far better if your parameters are stable and a little bit off than if you can get the perfect parameters but they change constantly. Don't forever chase the numbers, keep them stable once they are close to what they need to be. You will have a much happier and healthier reef that way. While some corals are hardier than others and certain species have slightly different needs, these are generally the levels of each element you want to be aiming for as it will happily keep just about everything.
Salinity: 1.025-1.026 Specific Gravity (35ppm)
Temperature: 25-27°C (77-81°F)
Calcium: 400-450ppm
Alkalinity: 8-10dKH
pH: 8.1-8.4
Phosphate: >0.03ppm (Close to zero but sps will colour better when levels are just slightly higher than zero but no higher than 0.03ppm as problems will start to arise if they get any higher)
Magnesium: 1250-1350ppm
For an awesome place to fully explain all the parameters and some of the levels they should be at including the trace elements, further reading can be found here:
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Buying Corals
There are many things that you need to look for when buying corals just like you would when you purchase a fish. But before you leave home I want you to have a small plan in mind as to what is going to happen, what you want and the potential homes that it may live depending on the requirements the coral has.
When you get to your lfs (can't do any of this if buying online (unless wysiwyg)) there are a few things that you need to look for when choosing your corals and regardless of what the guy at the lfs might say (unless you know him/her personally and trust them) these are the best ways to tel the health of the coral you wish to purchase.
The first thing to do is to know what the corals your are going to buy should look like. So do some research google some photos so that you know what you want and what it should look like when it's healthy and happy then look for is polyp extension, this is the number one give away as to whether the little (or big) guy is happy and healthy. The staff member at the lfs might tell you that the coral only just came in or has been moved tanks or something else like that to convince you that this is why he is all closed up and this very well may be the case but in that situation if you just have to have that coral, put some money down and come back the next day to make sure that that was in fact the reason as to why he was closed. If you are refused that offer then I wouldn't go for it. If you won't get the chance to get back then you can buy it but do it with some caution.
Colouration is the next thing to look for as a nice colourful corals is always a good sign, however don't be fooled as a browned sps coral (especially acropora) doesn't signify it's health but rather that the lighting it's under isn't enough, as a brown sps means, usually, a high amount of zooxanthellae present to compensate as the light most likely isn't high enough and some of the most beautiful corals I have seen have been bought as browned out acropora.
This is part of colouration but much more serious as if a coral is bleached then stay away completely as it is most likely about to die and generally can't be saved (there are ways to do so but that's more advanced than what I'll be going into).
Any sort of tissue necrosis is another stay away as it means the coral is slowly dying as it is most likely not getting enough nutrients that it needs but there may be other reasons so be wary and give it some space for the beginning.
Bugs, bugs & more bugs when buying your new corals one thing to always check for around their base, in between their polyps and hidden anywhere are a manner of different little bug hitch hikers as they can be very bad for your tank and can be brought in via the back of a coral. Things to watch out for are red bugs, flatworms, nudibranches (rare but worth checking for) and the worst of them all (only if you have acropora) are acropora eating flatworms (AEF) as they can do serious damage to your acro's.
Those are the main things that you need to check for when looking at buying yourself a new polyp friend, most of the stuff above is uncommon especially when obvious but always keep a keen eye out like you would when buying yourself a new fish.
Settling In To Your Tank
So you've got your new friend home with you safe and sound and you're itching to get him/her (they don't have genders but its always nice) into the tank, don't just dump it in! That's a sure-fire way to kill them straight up. The first thing is to acclimatise your new coral/s so they can adjust over a period of time to the levels in your tank. This can be done in buckets, the floating method in your tank in the bag still or specially designed acclimatisation containers. Depending on the coral and your tank the acclimatisation period can be anywhere from 30 minutes for hardy soft corals all the way out to an hour for sensitive sps corals and the time you have to watch over this process. The process involves slowly replacing the water in the container that the coral is in with tank water until it is all tank water. The best way to do this is by dripping tank water into the container and once the water reaches a specific level taking water out and continuing to drip tank water in until you have replaced all the water. The other way to do it is to take out a small amount of water (~20%) and replace it with tank water then wait a while (~10-15 minutes) and repeat and continue doing so till all the water has been replaced. Make sure your temperatures are the same in the container and in the tank before you start the process or you can kill the coral with the shock of the temp change. If you are going to be floating the bag in your tank then turn the lights off as they will heat the bag up very quickly and this is not a good thing.
This step isn't a necessity but it is highly recommended and that its a 'dip' as a treatment to try and remove any unwanted pests or diseases. There are two types of dips and they are a freshwater dip or a medicated dip. The freshwater dip is great at eliminating parasites, brown-jelly infections and cyno overgrowths as these things cannot handle the freshwater. For the freshwater dip the temperature of the water and the and pH of it both need to be the same as that of your tank. You can get the pH right by adding some sodium bicarbonate/baking soda as this will bring the pH to about 8.2, make sure you use fresh pure RO/DI water for the freshwater. Most sps corals do not do well with a freshwater dip so they should not go anywhere near one.
The medicated dip is the most popular way to dip a new coral before it enters your tank. This involves getting some tank water and adding a solutions that is sold for the purpose of being used as a dip. These medications have instructions on how they need to be used, for how long and in what concentrations. A 10-20 minute dip is a good period of time for the medicated dip if not mentioned. Some people have also used bayer insecticide as a dip but I will leave that up to your judgement as some people strongly recommend against but if you wish to read more about doing it this way a link for it is provided at the bottom.
After the coral has been dipped, this applies for both types, they need to be rinsed off in a second container of just tank water by being given a very gentle swirl and for sps corals it can be a bit more vigorous as this will not affect them. Once rinsed off and free of parasites, you can move on to the next step
Once your coral has become adjusted to your tank parameters, is free of parasites and is now ready to enter their new home they can be placed into your quarantine tank if you have one set up. It is always a good idea to quarantine your corals just like you would a fish to look for any problems and for it to get special attention. The lights do not need to be as strong as the coral will be fine with lower lighting while in quarantine. A week is a good period of time to quarantine your new animal as it is long enough for the coral to start to adjust and for you to find any problems but not long enough that when you place it in your display tank it stresses the coral again.
For soft corals and some lps corals they can go straight to their designated location as light is not an issue for them unless you have very strong lighting in which case they'll need to follow the following steps. For sps corals and some lps corals or if you have intense lighting your corals will need a chance to adjust to the new lighting in their new home. This can be done in one of two ways depending on your lighting rig. For lights that are dimmable i.e. LEDs then you can lower the intensity of your lights down and slowly bring them back up over a 1-2 weeks. This won't affect any other corals in your tank or your fish. If you don't want to take this approach or don't have dimmable lights then to acclimatise your corals they will need to start out on the bottom of your tank and over the same 1-2 week period slowly moved up the tank into their final position. Sometimes your coral will not be happy with the final position you have chosen for it and its colouration may change or seem off this is a good indicator to try a different position that has a changed amount of flow or lighting. Anemones will move around until they find their happy place so please be cautious when adding an anemone to your tank as they can and will sting things on their way around the tank.
Dosing, Feeding & Supplementing
This topic is about what is required of you by your corals to keep them happy and healthy, there are plenty of choices and ways of doing things so I will list a few common ones and give some break downs but at the end of the day it's up to you as to what path you choose to follow and what you deem fit for your tank.
Dosing:
For soft corals there is no dosing required as they do not tank any elements out of your tank in any vast quantities that your wc can't handle replacing, the same generally applies to LPS corals. Most importantly in this section is what needs to be done if you wish to grow an incredible sps garden. While your sps corals are still small dosing is not crucial as they will not be removing much from the water but regular testing can give you a great indication as to when you need to start dosing, For example how many days after a wc does it take your calcium levels to drop below 400ppm if they do at all. If the answer is only a few days then I would highly recommend a dosing program to begin in your tank. I won't be going into zeovit systems as they are something else entirely and you can check out the link at the bottom if you wish to know more.
There are a few ways to dose things into your tank. The main things that will need to be dosed in your tank are Calcium and alkalinity and magnesium is also one that is commonly dosed but not as critical as the others, other trace elements don't need dosing as not much study has been done on their effects in home aquaria. Depending on the size of your corals and what corals you choose will depend on if you do dose, how much, when and what you dose.
Two/Three Part Dosing:
Two/three part dosing is dosing each element individually by timing or volume depending on what sort of doser you have. The elements that get dosed by parts are calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Two-part dosing is calcium and alkalinity and then three-part dosing is calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. To dose two or three part you will need to buy a doser that has the number of dosing lines that you will need depending on the part that you choose. Dosers either does in time period each line is on for or in mls (volume) so depending on the sort of doser you get it will depend on the way you work out how much or how long. Two/three part solutions can be brought pre-made with instructions on how much and their concentrations or you can make your own dosing liquids through the use of baking soda, a calcium ingredient like calcium chloride dihydrate (Damprid) and a magnesium liquid depending on what you wish to dose. For instructions on how to make these formulas and the sorts of ingredients required there are two links below for those who wish to read further.
Kalkwasser:
Dosing kalkwasser can be some what simplified when compared to dosing two/three part as it only requires dosing of one element in the long run. Kalkwasser a.k.a limewater is calcium hydroxide and is a great way of maintaining your calcium and alkalinity levels without having to dose two-part. There are a few ways to dose kalkwasser and they are having it slowly and constantly drip into the aquarium in a high flow area, using a doser to specifically add certain amounts at certain times or hooking it up to your automatic top-off and have it enter your system that way. Kalkwasser has a very high pH of 12 so be careful not to overdose it as it can be potentially very harmful for your tank. Kalkwasser is a very good doser at keeping your calcium and alkalinity levels at where they should be however to bring your levels to the right spot it can take a little while using kalkwasser due to the fact it shouldn't be added in vast quantities. Therefore using a two-part dose manually to get your calcium and alkalinity levels to the right spot is a great idea and then just using the kalkwasser from there-after. Kalkwasser does not affect the magnesium in your tank so if it gets used quickly then dosing a magnesium product or solution may still be required.
Calcium Reactors:
Calcium reactors are used purely to keep calcium concentrations high and only really need to be considered if you are planning a tank filled with fast growing sps and clams as they use large amounts of calcium that other methods may not be able to keep up with. The main problem with calcium reactors is the low pH of the return water as high amounts of CO2 need to be added to the water to make the media dissolve and hence releasing the calcium into the water which also lowers the pH. Therefore something to help keep pH and alkalinity up is needed as calcium reactors do not affect these factors except lowering the pH. You could supplement these factors with dosing two-part of alkalinity and magnesium or kalkwasser and magnesium, it is up to your choice as to what you do and also the requirements of what gets used in your tank and how fast it is used up.
Feeding:
For feeding of corals I won't talking about them in terms of their type (soft, lps or sps) but rather on the size of their polyps or 'mouths' as this is more determinate of what sort of food they will/can eat.
Large Polyps/Mouths:
These corals will usually take a wide array of foods as they aren't restricted to the size of what they can eat. They will eat just about anything from the flake/pellets you feed your fish, mysis or any other small pods and also large meaty foods like chopped up prawn (shrimp) or fish. They will only need to be feed once to twice a week depending on their size and how mush of your daily fish feeding they catch. Corals with large polyps/mouths are corals like hammer and frogspawn, plate corals and anemones to name a few that could be fed on these things.
Medium Polyps/Mouths:
These guys will love any food you feed them and are all mainly lps corals. They will usually accept any of the above but in smaller pieces that are suitable for their polyp/mouth size. These are corals like candy canes, blasto, acans, trumpet corals and ricordea.
Small Polyps/Mouths:
These corals are basically all sps corals and some lps corals and some soft corals like sea fans or gorgonians. The soft corals with small polyps/mouths will need to be fed phytoplankton and other tiny foods to keep them alive as they don't contain photosynthetic algae. The sps corals don't usually need feeding as the majority of their energy requirements come the photosynthetic algae that they have symbiotic relationships with, so keeping them with strong lighting is all that is necessary with them. Some people feed their sps corals with phytoplankton and other microscopic nutrients and have great success with this but be careful as high nutrients will burn your sps corals and they should only be fed once a week at most and if you plan on doing so try not to directly target feeding but more in the area or at powerhead that blows towards the corals to try and avoid any burning.
Supplements:
Supplements are not a necessity and only need to be considered if you feel like you want to add a bit more to your tank or that your corals are lacking a bit. Zeovit systems use heavy amounts of supplements and due to the scope of this type of system I will not be covering it so if you wish to read more on it then please see the link for Zeovit systems below. Most supplements consist of essential amino acids or carbon dosing of some form to add a little bit of extra nutrient to the system for the corals to uptake through the saltwater rather than feed on directly. Do to the extra nutrients being put into your system you have to keep a careful eye on your levels so that you don't crash your tank. There is not a lot of scientifically proven information out there on the effects and necessities of keeping corals and supplementing so this means try if you want but please do some research first and see what others have achieved with it before going out and buying something. I have seen some amazing tanks that have extensive and comprehensive supplementing programs so have a look and follow the instructions given by the manufacturer if you wish to try some to see how they affect your tank.
And remember:
Research, Research, Research
*Disclaimer* I don't claim to be an expert or know everything and I don't have the years of experience that some other reefers have but I do want to help you all and make things a little less scary and more approachable, so please take what I say or ignore it completely it's up to you at the end of the day. People may disagree about certain aspects of what I've said or think otherwise and there's nothing wrong with that. By all means argue something I've said but please keep it civil as I don't want this to don't turn this into a "you're wrong and I don't like you" I would love to discuss all this with anyone so question away and hopefully this can help everyone in a little way!
Through all my research and love of all things aquatic this is my effort to try and help those who might need it.
References
All the following sources are great places to look for more info on what I've gone through and they really help. I own each of these books and have more and I would highly recommend getting one or two books to help you along the way as their knowledge is invaluable!
Books:
Borneman, E 2001, Aquarium Corals Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History, TFH Publications, Neptune, NJ
Delbeek, C & Sprung, J 2005, The Reef Aquarium Science, Art, and Technology, Ricordea Publishing, Miami Gardens, FL
Michael, S 2001, Marine Fishes, TFH Publications, Neptune, NJ
Shimek, R 2004, Marine Invertebrates, TFH Publications, Neptune, NJ
Websites:
Bayer Insecticide As A Coral Dip, watchguy123, 2012, Reef2Reef
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters, Randy Holmes-Farley, 2004, Reefkeeping.com
ZeoVit Basic Information, Various Authors, 2005, ZeoVit.com
DIY - Maintaining Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium, MagicJ/Randy Holmes-Farley, 2011, The Reefuge
Calcium and Alkalinity Demand, Randy Holmes-Farley, 2004, Reefkeeping.com