# coral advice!!



## jimmylam009 (Dec 14, 2011)

Im planing to have a tank and i need some advice! 

What coral is good that nice when its small but grow fast and become really valuable? 

please list some names and it would be nice to have some pictures 

i bet this will help some coral collectors haha.

or list some corals that we could buy small and become really valuable when it grows?

thanks in advance


Also how far apart should each of my corals should be?


i wanna make a small tank with only corals maybe a 10 gallon?


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## phil_n_fish (Nov 19, 2011)

Welcome to the forum!

I had a 10 gallon nano reef tank and it was tons of fun but difficult. A 10 gallon is harder to take care of than a 40 gallon because the water consistancy in the small tank changes faster and more dramatically. 
But it all pays off because you can still have some pretty interesting coral in there.

If you can tell me what kind of lighting you will have I can tell you more specifically what you can have. 
For fluorescent lighting, you can use low light coral and invertebrates like sea mushrooms, sponges, and fan worms. 

For LED lighting you can have soft corals and polyp corals. The LED lighting is alittle more pricy but its real bright for a 10 gallon.

And use a power head and a protein skimmer in your tank.

Growing Coral frags are a good source of income for people but for a 10 gallon you will be killing the water temperature because you will have to use strong lighting like a halide light. Sea mushrooms is a good thing to produce and sell. They will either spread eggs or split using fission fast. My mushrooms did both, I looked in my tank one night and eggs were floating through my whole tank.

For fish, I always followed my rule of 1 fish per 10 gallons unless they are super small. I put a black & white striped damsel in mine.

mushroom coral-
red
green stripped
lavender
bullseye

polyp colony-
yellow colony
button colony
starburst
*you will see different names at your LFS

soft corals-
Toadstool Mushroom Leather
Thin Finger Leather
Spaghetti Finger Leather
Tree Coral
Cabbage Leather
Kenya Tree
*there's too many to name but check with your LFS to see what they have in.

BTW you will need to use super clean water for your tank like RO water which has absolutely nothing in it and your salt mix will put the good stuff in the water. And don't put soft or stony corals too close to each other because they will sting each other.


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## jimmylam009 (Dec 14, 2011)

i was thinking of getting a small led for my tank but im scared some coral cant handle strong light ? or is it ok? 

and why did u say it was difficult to for a 10 gal tank? is it because of frequent water change? or what?


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## phil_n_fish (Nov 19, 2011)

its difficult because the water quality is less stable because there is less water to work with. If you overfeed, it will effect the fish faster and more intense than if you working in a 40 gallon. 

The LED wont sunburn the coral. I had a fluorescent and it was barely enough for the mushrooms. So I would recommend using atleast LED plus it would give that shimmering look.

You can find a LED light strip that doubles as a moon light for a ten gallon for less then 25 bucks. I have one from marineland


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## phil_pl (Apr 10, 2009)

jimmylam009 said:


> i was thinking of getting a small led for my tank but im scared some coral cant handle strong light ? or is it ok?
> 
> and why did u say it was difficult to for a 10 gal tank? is it because of frequent water change? or what?


LED lighting can work on this is size tank. Personally I would get a fixture that can be raised or lowered over the tank to adjust the amount of light in the tank.

You will have to stay up with your water changes very well with a small tank. It will be harder to maintain good water quality in a 10 gal tank because the water volume is so small. This can lead to very fast changes in water parameters. For example if you compare a 10 gal aquarium to a 100 gal if you have the same exact problem in both tanks (say a fish decaying) the amount of ammonia released in the two aquariums will be equal but the concentration in the 10 gal aquarium will be 10x greater than in the 100gal. 
Not to make it sound impossible, I have a 10gal SW running in my bedroom. Hope this helps.


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## jimmylam009 (Dec 14, 2011)

wow sounds hard crazy! .. how bout i work with 20? cause i have a fw tank that is 20 and i want to convert it sw.. my 20 gal also have the marineland led.. what yall think?


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## cidly24 (Sep 9, 2011)

LED lighting can work on this is size tank


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Yea it can work, but in a 10g? Not much going in there. Just a handful of Nano Corals.
Saltwater Aquarium Corals for Marine Reef Aquariums: Nano Corals
you'll only need T-5 lighting for that small a depth. But, you'll only be getting corals in there, no fish.


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