Another newbie Need Help!

[raypadro]

Hello everybody,My name is Ray from Puerto Rico and I have some questions.

First I have a 55 gal,wet dry,about 90 pounds live rock,about 40 pounds of live sand,8 gal refugium,Seaclone 100 protein skimmer,2 65w PC daylights 10,000k
2 65w PC atnics,9w UV and a couple Maxi jets powerheads for water movement.

The system was established about 3 months ago and my question is
can I start try to ad some frags to my system or is too soon?

What corals you recomend to me that are good for a beginer with only 3 months experience?

Most important, based on my setup what should I try first?


Thanks for your time and interest,really appreciate PD.sorry for my english

[FragOutpost]

Hello Ray and welcome to Frag Outpost.

It sounds like you are off to a pretty good start with your tank. After 3 months of cycling your tank you should be ready to start adding some frags. Have you tested your Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels?

Good beginner corals include mushrooms & ricordea, zoanthids, and most soft corals like xenia, leather corals, green star polyps, sarcophyton (toadstools) sinularia, nepthea (kenya tree), colt coral, clove polyps, anthelia, and sea fans.

I would remove the bio balls from the wet dry as the bio balls will promote the growth of aerobic bacteria which will increase the level of nitrates. Most soft corals don't mind slightly elevated nitrate levels and some actually prefer a nutrient rich environment, but the bio balls will cause the nitrate to exceed desired levels.

If you eventually decide to try more difficult corals then I would recommend increasing the amount of light for your tank.

Are you growing any macroalgae in your refugium?

Good luck with your tank.
How is the livestock selection at the local fish stores in Puerto Rico?

[raypadro]

Hello Fragoutpost,I test my tank today and:


PH 8.2
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Calcium 460
Phosphate .50
Salinity 0.024

Testing seems to be very close to that for the last 2 months.I already have a
sun coral,2 Gorgonians,a small rock with some mushrooms and another rock with some polips.What I like more is zoos so if you can explain me how to frag that and where can I get some pieces to start with I really apreciate.

I have some Chaetomorpha in my refugium but only for a couple days,I have to buy it on Ebay because any local shop have in stock.

Here in PR we have a good selection of corals and inverts but tend to be expensive because almost everything they sell came from US.

Thanks for your time,Ray.

[FragOutpost]

All of your parameters seem to be in check.
What are you feeding the sun coral?

My lfs usually carries a wide celection of zoanthids at good prices so I usually don't purchase zoanthids online. If your local stores do not stock any zoanthids then the other option is to purchase them over the internet and shipping could possibly get expensive. I'm not sure though as I've never shipped anything to PR before.

What kinds or color combinations are you looking for?

[raypadro]

Well,I'm feeding brine shrimp to my sun coral 2 times a week, at night when is open.For the zoos nobody here sells frags just colonies and like I said before are expensive.

As for the shipping to PR ussualy is the same to PR than to any other state in the US because we use the US Postal Service and rates are the same(if you use USPS)Fedex or UPS alittle higher.

About color combinations I guess that anything is good to start.

[FragOutpost]

PM sent.