I'm relatively new to reefs. I have a 37 gallon so I'd like some recommendations on small slow growing softies to start adding - hopefully hardy and "beginner type". I have some green ricordia and a bubble currently.
To tell you the truth, I don't know of any slow growing photosynthetic soft coral. But the good thing about most soft corals is they are easily pruned by cutting them. Sinularia (finger leathers, cabbage, etc.), Sarcophyton (leather, umbrella), Lobophytum (finger leather, devil's finger), Cladiella (colt), and Capnella (kenyan tree, finger leather) are a few genera that are hardy and easily pruned.
All you realy have to do is want it to grow realy fast....then it will grow slow. Other then that I gree with Leonard, and ad that anything that grows fast in your tank and you can prune makes for good nutrient export.
I too can't think of one softy that grows slow. Well, the rule of thumb is the more $$ you spend on additives, the more additives you dump into the tank, the slower they grow, and as a bonus, they may even stop growing all together and die from it. There are too many junks on the market.
Actually you may want to rethink getting the slow growing softies. It's pretty nice to have faster growth ones that you can practice fragging them and remounting them on rocks to get credits from the LFS.
