- Today in the 5:00 Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide
this time we're gonna fill these tanks with corals
and you get to see the tanks transform
with a big thanks to team at Route 66 Marine.
(upbeat music)
Hey I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv
and the 5:00 Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide.
This is a clear, simplified, and direct path
to setting up that first successful reef tank.
It's time to talk corals.
The challenge with corals for a first tank
is knowing when a tank is ready for coral.
Identifying corals that don't take a lot of time
or skill to maintain, and look cool,
but also fill out the tank quickly,
as well as finding some proper sources
for corals that won't break the bank.
There are two ways to identify if a tank is ready for coral.
The first is coralline algae, that purple, calcareous algae
that we seeded to the tank at the end
of phase two of the cycle.
When you see it spreading around the rock and glass,
it means the tank is capable
of supporting a calcifying organism,
and a great sign the tank is ready for corals.
This is particularly valuable if you're starting
with more expensive corals or sensitive species.
Outside that is just a test coral,
throw in a low-cost coral frag or two and see how they do.
This is the most common path.
If they don't do well, give it a bit more time.
It's also a good time to ask your peers
what might be causing the issue.
Reef2Reef.com is a number one forum for that,
as well as our #askBRStv Facebook Group.
In each case, 10s of thousands of reefers answer
hundreds of questions a day.
If you're a Facebook user, I encourage you
to search for #askBRStv group.
It's a pretty cool, easy way to learn something new
every day and see some awesome tanks.
When the is tank, we shared a list of corals
which are great starter corals.
Eric at Route 66 Marine was kind enough to send us a ton
of examples of these corals so we can share them with you.
The types of new reefer corals we asked for included
zoanthid colonies, which come in all kinds of colors,
nephthea, sinularia, leathers, which can grow rapidly
into large neon yellow or green branches.
Toadstool leathers with very cool sweeper polyps.
A new tank owner favorite with polysine zinnia.
Zinnia not only looks cool but grows fast.
And faster growing tissue
can uptake nutrients quickly and clean the tank.
Fast-growing sheets of waving green star polyps
are perfect for a new tank, as well as bubble corals.
Bubble corals are a favorite of company who comes
over to see the tank for the first time.
Similar to that is euphyllia coral, like torches,
frog spawn, and hammer corals,
which all have large colorful polyps,
often fluorescent, neon tips.
Caulastrea, trumpet, or candy cane corals,
which are easy to care for additions,
as well as mushrooms, and last but not least,
duncans are also super popular new tank corals.
So most of these corals made it into these two tanks
in one form or another, so you can see
what a reef tank starts to look like.
Even a brand new tank.
However cool it is now, it'll be 100 times cooler
when the corals settle in and begin the process
of growing out and coloring up.
So when you'd go get your first corals,
most good stores will show you how
to temperature acclimate them by floating the bag,
and then maybe even drip acclimate them slowly,
turning over the water in the bag
to tank water before adding them.
Something else we've done, by adding a cup of solo water
at a time, it doesn't have to be dripped.
However, one of the things that many new reefers miss
is dipping the corals before adding to the tank.
There are four major types of dip
and we're only going to suggest one here.
But I do want you to know what the others are for
when the time comes to evolve your fragging game.
The four types are what I would describe
is for coral parasites,
second for mild bacterial infections,
third for more aggressive bacterial or fungal infections,
and fourth for rogue algae.
The only one I'm gonna recommend for new reefers doing
this for their first time is to dip for parasites.
The most common these days being Two Little Fishies
Revive Coral and BrightWell's Koral MD Pro.
These often smell like pine oil or similar,
and totally safe for corals, but will either outright kill
or irritate all kinds of coral parasites, worms,
and bugs, to the point they just fall off.
Just follow the directions
and dip the coral for five to 10 minutes
and you can watch the pests fall off the the bottom.
I believe this type of dip is the most important
for a new reefer because we do wanna
limit the introduction of pests to the aquarium.
And when you find yourself a bit further down the line,
you might start to spot the signs of brown
bacterial infections on your euphyllia or zoanthids.
It's one of the cooler parts of owning a reef tank,
that constant evolution of knowledge acquisition,
and then application of knowledge.
In this case, a mild option is BrightWell's Frag Recover,
mild meaning it can be used pretty safely
as a preventative with most corals.
A bit more aggressive route would
be Tropic Marin's Pro-Coral Cure, or Lugol's Iodine,
or BrightWell's Medicoral Dip.
All these are a type of thing a more experienced reefer
would use when they can clearly identify bacterial issues,
often seen in green star polyps
or zoanthids that won't open.
A quick dip can often turn that all around in a single day.
The last dip is what I'd call an algae dip
with hydrogen peroxide.
It's largely safe and in a matter of minutes,
removes rogue algae from most frag plugs
or even the coral itself.
When I say removes, I mean clean like a brand new plug.
I'd say this dip is for more experienced reefers
because there isn't a clear list of what corals
it's safe for and which ones it isn't.
As long as it wasn't expensive, it'd be really nice
if some additive company actually offered a solution
with a clear list of corals it could be used on,
because I think it'd be one of the more popular dips
out there if there was more clear guidance.
Okay so where do you get your corals from?
Well in the beginning, I'd say 100% from a local fish store.
The team at Route 66 Marine, who provided us these corals
supply some of the best stores out there.
There's normally one store in each city
that has a special relationship with somebody
like the Route 66 team and gets the best stuff.
So take an afternoon to tour the stores and find out.
Outside that you can often save a few bucks by ordering
online but it just isn't as cool of an experience.
For standard, affordable corals,
LiveAquaria is a hobby favorite.
World Wide Corals is a bit more of a boutique experience
for some of the best stuff.
But the best deals are with local reef clubs.
So check out that Reef2Reef club section
for one in your area.
People are always trading corals for cheap.
But my number one place to pick up corals
above all others is coral conferences.
Nowhere else can you go to see 10 to 20,000 corals
all in one place, some of which are really cheap,
but also mixed in with those thousand dollar
limited edition corals that you can see in person as well.
There are smaller conferences
in nearly every city, every year.
Again local clubs normally put them on,
but the big shows like Reef-A-Palooza hit California,
New York, Chicago, and Orlando every year.
Once you get into this, it's absolutely worth a short drive,
or even flight to go see what's really available
in this hobby.
Randy and I normally attend them as well,
so you can stop by and say hi or even ask questions.
Okay so these tanks have coral now.
One of these things that you're gonna learn fairly quickly
is many of them uptake calcium
and alkalinity from the water to grow.
So we need to replace it.
Luckily with a few quick tips,
this is something anyone can do.
As always, the entire 5:00 Minute Guide is available here,
but if you wanna know what this calcium and alkalinity thing
is all about, and you should, because it's important,
it's up next right here.