The Puffer Forum

I would *love* to add corals but would you really consider them easier than mangroves? My understanding is that corals require far stronger lighting than any plant and are often turned into snacks by hungry puffers.

Corvus wrote:Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks..

unless that fish is a great white shark ...

This depends a lot on the corals of course. Soft corals such as various easy trees and Sinularia IME are much easier than mangroves and actually many other freshwater plants. There are not few that literally grow like weed in former freshwater setups with just two bulbs. I am not talking about lps and sps of course.

And, I rarely keep Great whites...

I have to say ditto to Corvus remarks - it was a lot of upkeep and power usage for relatively little nutrient reduction. I shut down the subject tank and disposed of it after that use. It took too much work to get the root mass out of the tank. I would not want to trust that glass box to re-use the tank - the root pressure could not have been trivial. The electricity cost was not trivial either.

By that time 24/7 lighted macroalgae refugia were becoming more common and for me offered a much more efective system for nutrient export with a far lower price tag and far less upkeep.

Well, my mangrove was idea was primarily for looks, definitely not nutrient export. I am certain magroalgae will do a far better job but it won't look nearly as nice.

To be honest with you, I much prefer corals to mangroves (and my wife also loves them) but I have read in many places that corals and GSPs do not mix. If the mentors can vouch with some certainty that most GSPs will not go after corals (excluding SPS and LPS) then I am more than willing to give it a try. I am primarily interested in zoanthid polyps and some mushroom species.

Now I will have to start researching reef tank setup ....

I would not trust them with zoanthids, but had no problems with mushrooms, trees and all kinds of Sinularia including the green branched ones.

Corvus wrote:I would not trust them with zoanthids, but had no problems with mushrooms, trees and all kinds of Sinularia including the green branched ones.

so basically nothing soft and jelly-like? After thinking a few minutes on it, I do have some reservations about jumping into a full marine setup, given the somewhat limited amount of money I'd like to spend. with LR and a decent skimmer, what kind of water change schedule can I get away with?

I don't think it's mainly about the consistency of the corals, but about the taste. Shrooms, Sinularia and trees are relatively soft, but I guess they don't taste very well.

Though, I'm limited to 2 GSPs at the moment, which makes a very small group for tests, I have various corals available to put in the GSP tank to see what happens. Pufferpunk's results seem to be much more dramatic than mine. In my tanks sps, lps and some zoanthids and gorgonians were damaged leaving a number of soft corals, which grow and have to be cut on a regular basis. Maybe others who tried corals with GSPs can chime in.

If the systems runs well (e.g. good macroalgae and coral growth and harvest, as well as skimming) one may get away with 20% p. week.