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5 Corals Beginners Should Avoid
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
What is Important for Beginner Corals?
When it comes to beginner corals, I went through a variety of others' opinions, as well as pulling on personal experience to put together a list of what I believe to be the worst corals for beginners to the reef aquarium hobby. The top things taken into consideration when making this list where general difficulty, flow, lighting, and hardiness. The ideal beginner coral should be able to survive in low light conditions as well as handle higher intensity upgrades. It should also be able to live in a variety of flow strengths and not require complications such as dosing. This list is comprised of common corals that beginners are often attracted to, and often don't know the difficulty of keeping.
5. Acropora - Acros
Acropora, better known as Acros, are a small polyp stony (SPS) coral that are usually very colorful and quite
attractive to
all reef hobbyists. Though being an SPS coral should hint that this is not for beginners, acros can be especially
touchy. Acropora
require high quality, high intensity lights as well as high flow in order to thrive. Additionally, like most SPS
coral, acros
tend to prefer stable alkalinity and calcium, among other parameters, to remain stable. This means you will need
to keep to a
regular water change and dosing schedule. If you are a beginner reef keeper, avoid all SPS in general to start,
but be especially
careful with acropora.
4. Non-Photosynthetic Gorgonians / Sea Fans
Non-photosynthetic corals rely on filter feeding from the water column and do not produce their food from lights
like most
other corals. It seems like a simple concept, just feed the coral and it will grow, right? NO! It will NOT work,
trust me. I've
tried keeping these beautiful coral but not only do they simply not eat at points, they have very confusing flow
demands. I have
found them to like both low and high flow, but at different times. I've also found that red slime algae loves to
grow on this
coral whenever possible. With all the added food for trying to filter feed this coral, trust me when I say that
you'll have the
phosphates for the red slime to grow. Save yourself the trouble, just don't even try.
3. Sun Corals
Though ironic to their name, Sun corals are another example of non-photosynthetic corals. I won't get as deep
about these as
I did with the gorgonians. I will note, however, that as a beginner, and even many that have been in the hobby for
a
while, you should avoid all non-photosynthetic corals as the added bioload of their food can provide a variety of
struggles
that you may not know how handle yet. Non-photosynthetic corals are considered expert-only for a reason, let's
keep it that way.
2. Xenia
Though xenia corals are fairly attractive to watch, they grow very quickly and are difficult to control. If left
to themselves, xenia
will likely take over the aquarium very quickly, and due to their invasive nature, very few reef keepers will want
frags of this
coral. This means you will be stuck with it and it will be EVERYWHERE! If you are really attracted to this weed of
the aquarium
hobby, isolate it to an "island" surrounded by sand. This will minimize the growth and help prevent the xenia
coral from taking over
the entire aquarium.
1. Green Star Polyps - GSP
Green star polyps, or GSP, are another highly invasive coral that often find themselves in the beginner's reef
because of the bright
colors and fast growth. Though my recommendation is the same as the xenia coral, I would really like to stress
that this coral
WILL GROW EVERYWHERE! It is harder to remove than xenia too. If you really must have green star polyps in your
aquarium, isolate
it to an "island" surrounded by sand to minimize the spread before it is too late. Overall though, I recommend
just not even
trying and save yourself the struggle.
Conclusion
This list contains all of the corals I would encourage beginners to avoid. Whether it is because they are invasive or difficult to keep. I hope this list was helpful! If it was, please share it to help others!
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About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!
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