coral ID please

[cajundolphin]

Can anyone id these for me please...I think one is a shroom and one is a polyp but what kind? And how do I take care of these? What do they eat?

 

[perfectdark]

Yep.. Zoo's or Button polyups or Zooanthus, all one of the same in your first pic. The second pic they are mushrooms of some type and color. They are all filter feeders and can be supplemented by a variety of different things. Some people feed phyto or Zoo plankton, mysis, cyclop-eeze, marine snow. Some people dont feed them anything and let photosynthesis take care of it all along with their waters trace elements.

 

[cajundolphin]

Thank you...i did bye some phytoplankton and mysis. What do they require as far as temp and salinity level and lighting?

 

[cajundolphin]

and are they hard to keep alive? I was passing a fish store that was going out of business so I stopped and got these but they didnt seem to know much about caring for them.

 

[perfectdark]

Tank temp should be between 78 and 82 IMO. Flucuation is more important than the temp is but thats the area. You dont want a huge swing in temp from morning to night. Salinity 1.024 to 1.026 mine is at 1.025 you can go to 1.023 but IMO not much lower. They are low light corals but they do require photosynthesis so PC lighting at about 3 watts per gal is approximatly where you want to be. And they like some indirect flow or at least mine do.
They are condsidered the 2 eaisest corals to have and are recomended for beginners.

 

[cajundolphin]

O good!!! Thanks for the help! My salinity is kinda low then, it is at 1.020 I had it kinda high until my last water change and so I didnt add any salt when I did it and now its too low. What is the best way to add salt? I know I cant just dump it in there, lol. I have fish in it too so that wouldnt be good. I am new to this and kinda unsure about alot of things...for one being PC lighting...what is that?

 

[perfectdark]

Well.. to start.. your very lucky you didnt harm anything with the sudden drop in salinity. If you are going to increase or decrease it, then it should be done over time especially that much. Fish and inverts can get eaisily stressed out from sudden tank changes, temp, salinity etc. You want to raise your salinity again to about 1.024 a series of small water changes every couple of days should be fine. Your water should be premixed in 5 gal containers. And your water should be purchased at your LFS or anywhere where they sell RO or RO/DI water. Mix the appropriate amount of salt in to get it to the desired salinity. Areation and a heater will help get the new water to the temp of the water in your tank and balance the PH.
As far as lighting goes..you need at minimum, compact flourescent lighting over your tank in a wattage high enough to sustain photosynthesis for the corals you just got. Shrooms and zoa's are considered low light corals so power compacts will do. What size tank is it and what type of lighting is on it now?

 

[cajundolphin]

its a 55gal and i dont know much about the lighting except what it says on package it came in which is: T-8 15w actinic spectrum marine-glo 50/50

 

[cajundolphin]

is this lighting ok?

 

[perfectdark]

Prob not. How many bulbs in the fixture? with only 15 watts per bulb your gonna need 11 bulbs... their probably just std flourscent.. you will need to upgrade if you expect to keep any corals.

 

[cajundolphin]

ok can u tell me what I need?

 

[perfectdark]

Power compact lighting 10k daylight and actinics for look and appeal. In either case a minimum of 165 watts IMO should be suffuicent for soft corals. If you can swing it T-5 lighting is a bit more $$ but more efficient runs cooler and the bulbs last longer. Im not familiar with bulb length and wattage for T-5's but they are more intense than PC's and 2-65 watt bulbs may actually work altough 4 would be better.