coral placement

[clown jr]

I had a question about placing a few corals...
We have a 90gal. almost reef tank...
Lighting: 2 x (??? gotta check wattage) PCs
Where would be best for:
Button Polyps?
Cabbage Leather Coral?
Ricordia Mushroom?
Colt Coral?
We want to rearrange the rocks and do some maintenance around Christmas and eventually add other corals as time goes on... We like the carnation corals, but are too weary to try them yet... What have you guys found to be the best lighting and current situation for these?? Thanks!

 

[lrswls]

I am no expert but befor you try any corals I would make sure the wattage of your lights. Need to know the depth of tank in relation to the wattage. Without this information it is impossible to guess location of corals. I have a tank that has been up since april and even without many corals and fish I see new stuff every day...Do not be in a rush it will only complicate things...like the death of many expensive "cool" stuff.

 

[mlm]

A 90 gallon tank is usually 24 inches deep. The PCs you have at the most are 96 watts a piece. This lighting is really not sufficent for much.

 

[clown jr]

for the lighting: we have 4 PCs and two 50/50 flourescents with the actinic blue that are the sunrise/sunset and remain on all day.

 

[mlm]

what is the wattage of the different lights that you have?

 

[komet]

I also have a 90 gallon reef. I have 8 soft corals. Ill list them.
leather coral
pipe organ
capnella
clove polyp
green button polyps
yellow polyps
star polyps
pulsing xenia
3 types of mushrooms
My lighting consists of 1 96 watt PC and 4 40 watt normal(2 actinic and 2 50/50
All my corals are doing great. My capnella and leather are growing like weeds. As are my star polyps and cloves.
My tank is 24 inches deep. You shoulnt have any trouble keeping the corals you mentioned with 2 96 watt pcs. IMO alot of people are over doing it when it comes to lighting.

 

[mlm]

where do you keep most of your corals.

 

[komet]

My mushrooms are on the bottom. my stars , botton, and yellow polyps are about a third of the way up. Pipe organ and xenia are two thirds of the way up. I have the capnella and clove polyps at the top. I lft out the leather, its on the bottom.

 

[clown jr]

komet- how long has your tank been set up and do you have any pics? we'd love to see your tank, it sounds really nice and somewhat like we want to do. what additives do you add and how often? thanks for responding, hopefully we can get all of our stuff set up real nice and expand into a reef! thanks

 

[komet]

Ill try to post a [pic, but I dont currently have any of the necessary equipment to do so.
As far as supplements, I use kent liquid calcium and liquid pro buffer. Calcium every day to maintain around 400 ppm and buffer as needed to maintain around alk around 2.7-3.0. I also add kent tech I(iodine) as directed. And, most importantly I do a 15% water change every 2 weeks. I use DI water using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water filter. I forgot, I also use DT,s phytoplankton.

 

[komet]

By the way , my tank has been running now for a little over a year.

 

[celticsun]

Hey All,
I will say 1 thing Buy this book:
CORALS
A Quick Reference Guide
By Julian Sprung
The book tells your where to place the corals you have, from the top of your tank to the bottom. Placement is "KEY" if you place the wrong ones to close to the lights you can kill the corals and visa versa....it also tells you about Lighting needs, Water Flow, Aggressiveness and the hardiness of each coral. I paid around $14.00 for the book...Get the book!!!!!
It has extremely nice pics and a lot of info for each coral spieces.
Good Luck on the moving of your corals,
celticsun