need advice on corals

saltyguy

saltyguy

Member
I am new to this site and i have read a lot of forums and you guys really know what you are talking about. I have a 75 FOWLR and now i am wanting to start adding some corals. I don't have a sump but i have a magnum 350 canister, a penguin 330 bio wheel and a sea clone 100 skimmer. i currently only have a 2x65 power compact but plan on upgrading. I have about 70 pounds of live rock and am probably going to add another 30. I recently added an anenome to see how it would do with the light i have and it seems to be doing great. My tank is well established, it's been up and running for over a year and the only fish i have now are a false percula and a hippo tang. here's a pic and any advice on what i should start out with would be appreciated.
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
Tank looks nice. The rock has AWESOME color. I would go for more lighting. It looks like the anemone is as far away as possible from the light source.
 
who dey

who dey

Active Member
Originally Posted by SALTYGUY
I am new to this site and i have read a lot of forums and you guys really know what you are talking about. I have a 75 FOWLR and now i am wanting to start adding some corals. I don't have a sump but i have a magnum 350 canister, a penguin 330 bio wheel and a sea clone 100 skimmer. i currently only have a 2x65 power compact but plan on upgrading. I have about 70 pounds of live rock and am probably going to add another 30. I recently added an anenome to see how it would do with the light i have and it seems to be doing great. My tank is well established, it's been up and running for over a year and the only fish i have now are a false percula and a hippo tang. here's a pic and any advice on what i should start out with would be appreciated.
start by adding another 330. this comes from experience. i have two on my 55 and wish i had 3. i don't think your lighting is sufficient enough so i would get some vho's or MH. you can get away with a few softies with that lighting but whats the point. i'd get the lighting. tank looks great btw :D
 
who dey

who dey

Active Member
Originally Posted by SALTYGUY
What lighting do you suggest i go with?
everyone has their own successes with different lighting. I use 4- 110w 48" VHO's and they work fine for me. but depends on what you want as far as corals and inverts go
 
hermitkrab

hermitkrab

Member
MH if you want SPS corals, healthy anemones, and "reef" clams like maximas. Get the others lighting like VHO if you don't want what I listed above.
 
kendall

kendall

Member
Not a huge upgrade, but this is what I have...
2x96, with 2 moon lights by coralife. The unit is perfect, not too much, not too little and should cover about 90% of corals out there...I threw some green button polyps under it the other day and they seem very happy. You should get some timers also at Home Depot to make it as natural as possible...You can use the 2 96's for daylight, at dusk just run the blue atinic's, then at night the moon lights...I payed $280 at lfs but you can probably get them for $200 online...
You could always just add other units to your current setup to get the blue's and moon lights but I would just pull those lights and get the all in one package...Much easier...
The moon lights really come in handy for night observation, you want to know if anybody is picking at the corals at all times. Corals also do cool stuff at night, like the polyps closing up, but some also like to feed at night...The blue atinic's bring out different colors in the coral so you want one up there also...At dusk those green button polyps I mentioned above, look the best as the solo blue's enhance the fluro green...
 
saltyguy

saltyguy

Member
Thanks for the advice. I think i am going to order a 4x65 pc with moon lights. Don't want to put out $600 on MH's right now.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Originally Posted by kendall
2x96, with 2 moon lights by coralife. The unit is perfect, not too much, not too little and should cover about 90% of corals out there...
I don't think I agree with that "90% of corals out there" part. :D Not that lighting on a 75g, IMO. I have that on my 45g and don't think I can keep anywhere near 90% of the corals out there :nope: Its pretty low. The 4X65 is better, but maybe not quite enough IMO for keeping most anemones long term (depends on the kind). But softies, polyps, mushrooms and a few LPS which is a fair amount of stuff....should be good.
Personally I wouldn't buy ANY light fixture until you really do more research into what you want and whay you can get (and what you may be able to do y ourself). Loads of people have gone out and quickly bought lights only to learn they blew several hundred bucks and didn't get what they wanted :yes:
 
saltyguy

saltyguy

Member
I just ordered a coralife 4x65 with the lunar lights and i will probably also use the 2x65 with it. I may have to modify my canopy or just build a new one from scratch, but thats not a problem since the one I have now came from leftovers from other home improvement project. Do you think that would be sufficent light for most corals? You think I will have a problem with heat if i use the wood canopy with both lights?
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
If you added another 4 65 watt pc lights you can keep anything except the high light demanding anemones, SPS corals and The high light clams. There are 2 clams that I know of that are light lovers and filter feeders so they work in lower light situations. With thoughs lights you have alot of coral options in the SPS and Softies. You can fill that tank easily with what kinda corals are available in thoghs catagories. I went with 4x65 powercompacts just for the fact I dont plan on SPS or Clams.
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
Now mud you and I both know you can keep corals and some anemones with medium light.
 
hermitkrab

hermitkrab

Member
Well I think what Mud means is all in all if you want corals and anemones you might as well get MHs. Because they can keep about anything and are better for corals. There are only a few anemones that can be kept with anything less than MHs and one of those few are tube anemones. Which aren't really anemones but they get huge and a lot of people say they are very hostile. But they sure do look cool. Well anyway I would get MH. As most of you know they are the best for corals because of their high PAR, they are cheaper to run, and they make corals look better.
 
am3gross05

am3gross05

Member
my 2 cents is this........if always buy big you will always be able to upgrade........for example.....i started out with a 20 gallon.....went big on the filter and on the mh light. then i found a 55 gal for sale cheap.....already had a good filter and light just needed one more mh light......bought that and then i found a new 75 on sale.......my point is if your married it might just keep you out of the dog house when you want to upgrade and not need to spend so much!
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
Heh, I know Snipe, but if he is like me, he is going to really get into keeping corals and be very dissapointed if he buys something that the lfs tells him will live under low light (you know they are scandalous hehe).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top