Bullet proof corals

[gatorracer]

I wondered if you all might help I guy out determining some corals that take a bit to kill. I know my tank is okay for about anything now I have 0 nitrates 0 ammonia 0 phosphates 0 nitrites. I have no troubles keeping Ph, Alkalinity and Calcium stable either. But I still have a wife that remembers the early days of spending a bunch of money on stuff that died a couple of months later because of my lack of knowledge.

I have a 100 gallon reef w/
75 pounds of live rock
dual backpack skimmer
large hang on refigium
390 watts of compact florecent power
live sand bed aprox 2-3 deep
mulitple power heads for water movement

Right now I have mushrooms, about 7 ricordias, a large colt coral, a cabbage leather, one large finger leather, 2 LTA, 1 brain coral and enough chaeto to suffocate someone.

I am looking for some help maybe even a ranking of what you think the most bullet proof corals are so I can be sure to buy something I like and can be sure that it will live for a while. I am pretty confident I can keep anything now but just looking for some intersting advice from all of you. I dont mind feeding the corals but I usually dont except some brine shrimp soaked in a mixture of garlic extract and some direct feeding liquid made by kent. I want to hear stories about what you like and what you do to take care of it if you have a couple of minutes to give a reefer a hand.

Thanks in advance

(I want my wife to read this when I get some good info so pics of your corals and any info even if it is obvious would be appreciated)

 

[Anonymous]

Depends on your light level, you may be able to see if you can get tank-raised Montipora digitata or Frog Spawn to try out?

 

[Anonymous]

lets see GSP is pretty bullet proof (although I've managed to kill it )
Xenia CAN be bulletproof, it doesn't ship well though (and I'm managed to kill this too)
Mushrooms that are pretty damn bulletproof as well (yup I've killed them too )
Zoos are fairly easy (yes I've killed them too) but depending upon the color I wouldn't call them bulletproof, but some are pretty damn close.

If you can keep a long tenticle anemone happily in your tank though, then you're probably ok to keep most everything except the most difficult of SPS and death corals (gonipora/dendros).

With my tank I went too quickly to try to dominate the whole tank with a variety of corals rather than letting what i have grow, think I went too quickly though. Unless you know what you're doing I'd stay away from putting a bunch of SPS in your tank, a few are fine, especially if you can get frags (way cheaper than colonies, and good to find out if you can keep them!).

 

[Mihai]

My suggestion in order of hardiness:

- mushrooms: I'm yet to kill one of those - I failed even when I tried.
- zoanthids: indeed, some of the nicest are tough, but the "ugly" brown ones are bullet proof.
- xenia cannot be killed.
- GSP is tough depending on the species.
- Montipora capricornis, again depending on species
- Montipora digitata
- some Acropora are darn tough - hard to find them though, and not under your light unless you keep them way up.

M.

 

[Anonymous]

If you want LPS,
Try Frogspawn/hammer corals I love mine. Lots of movement to the tank

Also, try a candycane (caluastrea) Mine have been pretty hardy over the years.

I also feed them quite a bit.

B

 

[Anonymous]

I would classify Euphylia as relatively hardy, but not in the "bulleproof" range like the species mentioned above.

 

[Mihai]

I agree with Euphylia's evaluation - they are not "bullet proof". I'm yet to grow one nicely (although I have hopes) .

M.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

Green star polyps are really hard to kill. Mine grow like weeds

 

[Carlos Torano]

My suggestion in order of hardiness:

- mushrooms: I'm yet to kill one of those - I failed even when I tried.
- zoanthids: indeed, some of the nicest are tough, but the "ugly" brown ones are bullet proof.
- xenia cannot be killed.
- GSP is tough depending on the species.
- Montipora capricornis, again depending on species
- Montipora digitata
- some Acropora are darn tough - hard to find them though, and not under your light unless you keep them way up.

M.

I agree with this list. Although I had 3 species of xenia die all at once last year for no good reason while everything else in the tank was fine and all levels where ok. The same thing just happend to all my LPS while everything else is ok. These are the only two types of coral I have ever lost and both were under mysterious circumstances. I suspect some sort of infection in both cases.