I asked the reef board and got no help

[janicebembry]

Please help me with several questions. My tank is mostly greens and browns with the exception of my deep sea yellow gorgonian/ I've got dual satellite PC with 260 volts total. Everything is pretty, but I'd like maybe something redish or pinkish. I don't know what my lights will support. I have to buy everything from this site because our "LFS" is over 100 miles away and very expensive. I have a well-established 55 gallon.I've been going real slow. I've got some feather dusters. clay zoo, gree-eyed zoo, green star polyp, green ricordea, leather toadstool. yellow polyps, and a few fish. I'd just like more color. Also I've been afraid to let my corals get too close but in some people's pics they seem to be practically right on top of 1 another. How can you be sure they won't kill 1 another? Last question- Most of the corals on this site will say something like medium light medium flow or strong light medium flow. Are my 260 watts considered medium lights? Please someone help me out!

 

[indyws6]

Greetings

Disclaimer: I am no expert - new to this myself...
Having said that, I think I can offer some (very) general information on the lights. Typically, metal halide lights are considered to be the best in terms of shear light output per watt and their ability to support nearly any coral. There are, however, many factors that affect this and strong opinions on which is the "right" type of lighting. Suffice it to say that many different types and combinations of lighting will work and are preferred by people for different reasons (heat generated, electrical consumption, ease of installation. bulb life, etc.). Consequently, you can use lighting other than metal halide (e.g. "flourescent", T5, PC, etc.) and by combining a number of tubes, equal the total number of watts produced by a metal-halide system. Keep in mind, though, that watts-per-gallon is really not that useful as a measurement of suitability and matching the output wattage between two systems isn't necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison. There is no one right answer...
For a standard, 4-foot, 55-gallon tank, I think that most people would consider a total of 260 watts of PC lighting to be in the "medium" category, but given the right type of light, it should be enough to support many different coral species (recommending which corals is one area I will leave to the experts...). In short, it's not just about the number of watts. You need to also consider the depth of the tank and/or the placement of specimens within (bottom, middle, top), the color temperature and the photo period used, among other things.
For example, although my tank is also 4-feet long, it is a 90 gallon which means that it is taller and has more depth (front to back) than a 55 gallon tank. Consequently, a perfectly adequate lighting system for a 55 may not be sufficient for the 90 because specimens close to the bottom are farther away from the lights. It's surprising how much light is "filtered" by water. Even though you might not think so, the light intensity 12" below the surface is measurably more than the intensity 18" below the surface, given the same source light. This is one of many factors that affect coral health.
Again, I am not an expert, but I hope that these generalities help.
Take Care...

 

[puffer32]

This was my 75 gal with the same lighting as you have. And you can see it has alot of color to it. As far as how close to put corals, mainly depends if they have long tenticles that can come out and sting corals to close to them. most softies are ok and you can adjust your flow to control where the tenticles go.Click on link to see first pic, wouldn't come up for some reason.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a23...ovfulltank.jpg

 

[essop3]

1. try a pink tipped frogspawn. Red mushrooms are easy. I have a few different pink leathers that are nice. If you have pretty good success with corals look into blastos.
2. It depends on the type of coral. You have to research each animal. Most can be pretty close though.
3. I'd call that medium light.

 

[coraljunky]

Blastos!!!

 

[coraljunky]

pics of mine

 

[reefer545]

Hey Janicebembry, you should look online for a few books that will answer many many questions when these forums do not. They are:
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner
Natural Reef Aquariums by John H. Tullock
Aquarium Corals by Eric H. Bornemann
There are quite a few others that are just as good, but these three have a plethora of info on our addiction. There are also some out there that have specialized info on certain areas of and species of this hobby.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by REEFER545
Hey Janicebembry, you should look online for a few books that will answer many many questions when these forums do not. They are:
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner
Natural Reef Aquariums by John H. Tullock
Aquarium Corals by Eric H. Bornemann
There are quite a few others that are just as good, but these three have a plethora of info on our addiction. There are also some out there that have specialized info on certain areas of and species of this hobby.
I agree, as well as I must say it is summer, a lot of people ar not as frequent as in the winter months life is busy. I try to be as active as possible to keep the ball rolling. but this isnt a chat room if you get an answer within a week thats a timley answer. I put at least 3 hours EVERY day into monitering and trying to answer questions on this site. I dont get paid, neither does anyone else here (that I know of). I am NOT a moderator, I am just a member. if you arent getting an answer its probably because the question has been asked a bunch of times this week. read through old posts and threads, try the search function.
I understand the frustration of needing an answer and not finding it. try asking many different forms of the question to yourself and searching for the answer, while the solutions for keeping marine anything arent always prevalant the questions have been asked many times and answered many times by tons of people not always agreeing on the same answr but there are tons of answers.