JGon Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 What is a good beginner and easy to care for sps coral?? I wanna try it but I want something easy for a beginner like me to care for. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Monti caps (montipora capricornis) and digis (montipora digitata) and hydrophoria coral would be my first picks. hydrophoria acts a bit or a cross between SPS and LPS in that it inflates quite a bit like a LPS but branches like a SPS. It's a bit aggressive but one of the greenest coral's you'll find and is just as easy as the other 2 IMO.Birdsnest are often listed as an easy SPS, but they can be very finicky in my experience. They are relatively hardy once established but they are the slowest adapting SPS and if you can't get them to settle to where you put them it's not uncommon to lose an entire colony very quickly. Other plating monti's such as undata are usually easy for SPS as well. After these, there are a few types of acros near the easier side of the SPS spectrum (slimers, staghorns, setosa, and others), but I would get comfortable with these first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 If you think your ready to try a monti, I have a frag your more than welcome to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 If you think your ready to try a monti, I have a frag your more than welcome to.Dan, I will take you up on that! When are you available??Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I'm available any evening after 7, or the weekend. I'll PM you my phone/address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Monti caps (montipora capricornis) and digis (montipora digitata) and hydrophoria coral would be my first picks. hydrophoria acts a bit or a cross between SPS and LPS in that it inflates quite a bit like a LPS but branches like a SPS. It's a bit aggressive but one of the greenest coral's you'll find and is just as easy as the other 2 IMO. Birdsnest are often listed as an easy SPS, but they can be very finicky in my experience. They are relatively hardy once established but they are the slowest adapting SPS and if you can't get them to settle to where you put them it's not uncommon to lose an entire colony very quickly. Other plating monti's such as undata are usually easy for SPS as well. After these, there are a few types of acros near the easier side of the SPS spectrum (slimers, staghorns, setosa, and others), but I would get comfortable with these first. I really appreciate all that info jestep. I'm gonna give it a go and see how it turns out. Monti frags aren't expensive are they?? If I succeed with one I wanna go for another one later on. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Only certain monti frags are expensive. Totally depends on color and formation. I've got monti frags that I've paid from $0 all the way to $100 for a tiny 0.75" frag. Funny enough, my favorite coral, the Jedi mind trick - green with purple/blue edge Montipora undata - is reasonably cheap in Austin due to how common it is locally. Online, they are expensive. As with just about everything in this hobby, price totally depends on how fast it grows, and how much people want it. So generally if it's pretty and slow growing, it's expensive. If it's pretty and fast growing, it's reasonably cheap. If it's fast growing and ugly, you can't give it away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryD Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Only certain monti frags are expensive. Totally depends on color and formation. I've got monti frags that I've paid from $0 all the way to $100 for a tiny 0.75" frag. Funny enough, my favorite coral, the Jedi mind trick - green with purple/blue edge Montipora undata - is reasonably cheap in Austin due to how common it is locally. Online, they are expensive. As with just about everything in this hobby, price totally depends on how fast it grows, and how much people want it. So generally if it's pretty and slow growing, it's expensive. If it's pretty and fast growing, it's reasonably cheap. If it's fast growing and ugly, you can't give it away. Read that last part as almost any clove, Xenia, or gsp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Pretty much. Although Xenia try to trick you with their cool pulsing... Oh look! It's moving! Neato! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryD Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I have some in my current take that I have gotten rid of twice and then a little bit later I will find a stalk growing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Dan, thank you so much for the test frags. I will update on the progress and keep you all in the loop. Hopefully all goes well. Sent from my SPH-L520 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 No problem. Hopefully this will be the first of many SPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 If you're down in South Austin, or ever go to aquadome, I have some nice green cap you can have. I bought it from Ty about a year ago and was nearly the size of a basketball at that time. I've got way more than I know what to do with at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Rainbow Phoenix monti and beach bum monti defy the "montipora are cheap" law. Those are usually $250-300 for a frag of less than 1". They're about as beautifully colored as you could expect any coral to be though. Otherwise yeah most standard solid color montipora are dirt cheap/free depending on where you're at. For locals here I typically will do a $20 4 pack of large monti frags. Like 2-4" per frag Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 If you're down in South Austin, or ever go to aquadome, I have some nice green cap you can have. I bought it from Ty about a year ago and was nearly the size of a basketball at that time. I've got way more than I know what to do with at this point.Wow. Sounds good jestep. I do make a trip down south once or a couple times a week. About where are you located??Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Rainbow Phoenix monti and beach bum monti defy the "montipora are cheap" law. Those are usually $250-300 for a frag of less than 1". They're about as beautifully colored as you could expect any coral to be though. Otherwise yeah most standard solid color montipora are dirt cheap/free depending on where you're at. For locals here I typically will do a $20 4 pack of large monti frags. Like 2-4" per frag Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Woah. I don't think I wanna get into those just yet. I wanna make sure these test frags survive and thrive first before taking the plunge into something more expensive like that. Lol. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 If you're down in South Austin, or ever go to aquadome, I have some nice green cap you can have. I bought it from Ty about a year ago and was nearly the size of a basketball at that time. I've got way more than I know what to do with at this point.Wow. Sounds good jestep. I do make a trip down south once or a couple times a week. About where are you located??Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk I'm way southwest, towards bee caves. Aqua dome is usually my meet up spot because there's always something there I can find that I "need" at the same time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 If you're down in South Austin, or ever go to aquadome, I have some nice green cap you can have. I bought it from Ty about a year ago and was nearly the size of a basketball at that time. I've got way more than I know what to do with at this point.Wow. Sounds good jestep. I do make a trip down south once or a couple times a week. About where are you located??Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk I'm way southwest, towards bee caves. Aqua dome is usually my meet up spot because there's always something there I can find that I "need" at the same time... Nice. Sounds good. When are you normally available??Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 So the test frags have been in the tank for over 24 hours now. The monti has had good polyp extension. The blue acro not so much. There is some extension, but only for short periods of time and not as much as there should be. It looks like 20% extension on the polyps. It's only been a day though, and I'm still playing around with placement. The monti seems happy where it's at. I'll leave it be for a while unless it starts to show displeasure. We'll see how the acro does throughout the day tomorrow. Here they are. Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics. Haha. I snapped this picture of the acro just now and there was no polyp extension at the moment. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Current placement. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Can't tell from the pics, but make sure the acro is getting strong flow. That acro doesn't seem to put out it's polyps too much unless it's got some good water movement, plus it seems to like to flap around in the wind during the nights more than the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGon Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 It's pretty much right under one of the return sides from the hob filter. So it's getting pretty good flow. I'm gonna get another circulation pump though so I have more flow throughout the tank. Now that I'm doing sps I'm not really satisfied with the current flow. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12_egg_omelette Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Rainbow Phoenix monti and beach bum monti defy the "montipora are cheap" law. Those are usually $250-300 for a frag of less than 1". They're about as beautifully colored as you could expect any coral to be though. Otherwise yeah most standard solid color montipora are dirt cheap/free depending on where you're at. For locals here I typically will do a $20 4 pack of large monti frags. Like 2-4" per frag Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I hope we're still going halfies on both of those frags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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