beginner corals

almost all leathers are good for beginners. a big toadstool looks great in a reeftank imo.

A good salt mix will supply those yes, but there is often some additional dosing needed when it comes to stony corals. You'll want to test before dosing anything though.

:iagree:

If you start keeping any LPS, SPS or clams, you most likely would need to dose calcium, alkalinity and possible even magnesium at some point. You would need to test the levels before any dosing took place.

With just soft coral, water changes alone would be the way to go.


Also you will be keeping a stony coral whether you choose to or not. Coralline requires ca and alk and to maintain ca alk levels, proper mg level is needed.
If you want the coralline to thrive, you will need to maintain good levels of ca, alk and mag.

Another aspect. Some "beginner" soft corals may turn out later being a problem if you want to add LPS and SPS as some of these "beginner" soft corals are quite good at chemical warfare against other corals.

So, you could make a plan what do you want to keep in the end and look at compatibility, now, or start with the other corals, too, as long as light, calcium, magnesium, alkalinity levels are ok and the tank is mature enough to be sure you don't get caught by algae outbreaks or other surprises. Those are the main problems with LPS/SPS and the so-called "water quality".