First corals for my tank!

[Brebearz]

Added my first corals to the tank. A Duncan, Ricordea mushroom and a branching gsp. They are doing wonderful and I can’t wait to add more corals and even some designer corals in the future. Wanted to start off with some small stuff that was cheap first before I dumped a lot of money into more expensive corals. Waiting for my glue and coral cutters to arrive to cut the plugs and glue these guys in on my rock.

 

[jccaclimber]

You already have a designer coral, that's branching GSP! I kid, but those are actually all really great starter corals. I think my first LPS was a duncan (might have been the second, I'd have to check). Years later it's gone from a single head to a softball, and yielded many frags over that time. I particularly enjoy tweezering (or a turkey baster) mysis into duncans and watching them eat.
To me your middle picture looks like a hairy mushroom, not a ricordea. Easier to keep and grow, just don't put it too close to another coral you care about. Much like GSP (and xenia, kenya tree, and blue clove polyps), hairy mushrooms can be....very successful, which is perfect for a blank canvas.

 

[Vincerama2]

Congratulations!

 

[Brebearz]

You already have a designer coral, that's branching GSP! I kid, but those are actually all really great starter corals. I think my first LPS was a duncan (might have been the second, I'd have to check). Years later it's gone from a single head to a softball, and yielded many frags over that time. I particularly enjoy tweezering (or a turkey baster) mysis into duncans and watching them eat.
To me your middle picture looks like a hairy mushroom, not a ricordea. Easier to keep and grow, just don't put it too close to another coral you care about. Much like GSP (and xenia, kenya tree, and blue clove polyps), hairy mushrooms can be....very successful, which is perfect for a blank canvas.

Thanks! Looks like the guy at the LFS was wrong to call it a Ricordea. I will have to look up hairy mushrooms. Thanks

 

[Vincerama2]

Thanks! Looks like the guy at the LFS was wrong to call it a Ricordea. I will have to look up hairy mushrooms. Thanks

In my opinion, Ricordias are just hairy mushrooms.

V

 

[jccaclimber]

Both are in are Corallimorpharia, but Ricordea are in Ricordeidae>Ricordea>Florida and Yuma, whereas hairy mushrooms are Discosomidae>Rhodactis>species.
Hairy mushrooms also spread at a much greater rate and have a greater capacity to overrun other corals. IME hairy mushrooms also tend to detach and appear far from their original location when spreading more often than ricordea. That can actually be quite handy, but is still worth being aware of.

 

[Brebearz]

Someone told me to start continuing on my journal thread as when I make new entries it doesn’t put it all together which is kinda lame. Update tanks doing good. The brown diatoms have gone down a ton. I do have some green algae but it may be because it’s a new tank and the tds at all my LFS runs high. 17-35 eeek. I recently bought a starry bleeny and cleaner shrimp. They have been in the tank a week now. I just ordered some Australian branching hammers which will be shipping out on Monday and here Tuesday. Cost a pretty penny all together but my area has no hammers that are nice and they are all over $70 for a small frag for something basic. I ordered a pink hammer and light blue gold one. I attached the pictures of them the shop showed me. Hoping for great success with them and terrified of killing them since I spent a decent amount for them plus overnight shipping. pink branching hammer on the right I ordered ordered the light blue branching hammer on the right with hints of gold. Might get the one on the left as well better picture of my pain in the butt hermit crab

 

[Brebearz]

A picture of my son snuck in the uploads and I can’t figure out how to delete it!

 

[Wlachnit]

A picture of my son snuck in the uploads and I can’t figure out how to delete it!

That's humorous. You should just be able to edit the post.

 

[Brebearz]

That's humorous. You should just be able to edit the post.

Just fixed it haha