Corals for Beginners

Natural living coral can provide a lot of beauty and movement to your saltwater fish tank, but please note that most corals should be left to the more experienced saltwater enthusiasts. Corals can be quite expensive varying greatly depending on the shape, type and availability of the coral, so make sure you know what you're getting yourself into beforehand.

Your local pet stores are the best places to shop around for corals. If you don't want to waste gas driving around town, you should probably call around and make a list of all of the local pet stores that carry coral. Most pet stores will be more than happy to help and answer any questions you have about the corals you are interested in and what corals would be best suited for your fish tank. Corals can be ordered from off of the computer but as I have learned, you pay a lot for shipping and you are not guaranteed live arrival in most places. If you are guaranteed live arrival and your coral expires during shipping, it cannot be actually replaced, so it is either refunded with a gift certificate or it is replaced with a similar, but still not the same, coral.

Certain types of coral require intense lighting that can only be supplemented with a very expensive and hot halide light and there are some that need a heavy current flow to grow properly because they are used to more turbulent waters in the wild. Coral species such as Acropora and Montipora are better left to coral experts; they are both expensive and hard to maintain.

The best type of coral for a beginner are the soft corals. They require less care and lighting that can only be supplemented by expensive marine lighting fixtures. Mushrooms and fungi coral including Ricordea (which are actually a type of carpet anemone and should not be placed by any other corals or they will be stung) are colorful additions to a beginner's coral saltwater fish tank. SPS, or small polyp stony coral like the Blastmussa can be brightly colored or can blend into their surroundings. These are less difficult for a beginner to take care of but still require a good amount of lighting. There are also the LPS, or large polyp stony corals, such as Brain corals like the Trachphylia or Symphilia are very interesting corals, some having a wide range of movement depending upon the current, but these corals should only be kept by someone who has had a reef tank for a while and has a proper biological filter going.