Ready for corals!

[shovelhead91701]

Well, my new tank is ready for corals finally and I am putting it out to you guys to suggest your 1 absolute favorite specimen so that I can plan out the additions. The last time around I kind of went about it willy nilly and ended up with a very odd assortment! lol I want to plan it better this time since i have been working on this setup for about 3 years now! The tank is built by glass cages and the dimensions are 5' x3' x 32" deep, i am running 4 400watt mh lights on timers to change spectrum all throughout the day. I am pushing 1800 gph flow back into the tank with mag pumps. 1 pump is going to the (2) 1" top returns I plumbed to the top front corners of the tank and the the other is going to a spraybar with ( 3/8" return jets i placed at the back of the tank. so hopefully i have enough flow w/o using any additional powerheads.(trying to keep extra "junk" out of the display). when I get home tonight I will post some pics to give everyone an idea of the tank rockwork etc.

REMEMBER! I WANT YOUR ONE ABSOLUTE FAVORITE CORAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance guys for the help!

[demonclownfish]

well i have 2 that are tied for #1

1) meteor shower cyphastrea-


2) dendrophyllia-

[XSiVE]

Since Im currently rebuilding I don't really have a favorite coral at the moment =( Most are frags. I would like to say that you will probably need more flow, though.. 1800gph into a ~200gal is not that much.

[shovelhead91701]

lol that's why i need your mag 12 for my spraybar setup!

[bigbill]

my fav are nightmare zoas but there not cheap

[XSiVE]

lol that's why i need your mag 12 for my spraybar setup!

haha.. I revise my previous statement, I seem to absolutely love most varieties of Acropora Tortousa.

[EMUreef]

i have a lot of favs. i guess i dont have just one.

-Duncan
-Find an awesome frog spawn, i like mine, green with purple tips. or a torch coral
-ELEGANCE!!!!

i dont have but a dendro is going to be something i add next.

[MyNemesis]

Pick the corals you absolutely love and go with those. How can you pick just one? I love my Scoli:



and my favorite growing out frag is my Baby's bottom favia:

[rmalone]

1800g of return flow is more than enough for a 200g. You will still need more flow in the display, so you WILL need extra flow in the display otherwise you will need to make a closed loop, but you have plenty of return flow. The amount of flow you have in your return would be fine for shrooms, zoas and softies, but you are way over on light for such critters.

What kind of corals do you gravitate to. Are you trying to create an sps tank, or do you like lps/shrooms/polyps. Given your lighting, which is huge, you are setup for sps, big time. Except you need more in-display flow.

[XSiVE]

1800g of return flow is more than enough for a 200g.

Oh I definitely agree on the more than enough return flow.. it may even be too much depending on sump size, overflow plumbing.. iy will probably create a lot of bubbles. I was getting at what you said about needing more display flow, I guess I just didn't express it well ;-)