New light - Coral Suggestions?

[rroberts]

Hello all:
I just upgraded from 32 watt PC to a Quad Compact 96 watt lighting system. Can anyone recommend some good corals to start with. Also can anyone recommend how to get rid of some of this red hair light algae that has been growing. Any critters that naturally eat the stuff? 30 Gallon tank with a lot of rock work.

 

[leigh]

Is it red hair algae or red slime algae? Some blennies (lawnmowers in particular) wil eat hair algae--as will most mexican snails. If it's slime algae though (well really any nuisance algae) it is likely caused by excess phosphates and/or lighting. Was the algae there before you upgraded your lighting? What sort of foods are you feeding?
Good starter corals include: mushrooms, zoos, and leathers. With your lighting you could probably sustain any mushroom, leather, or zoo pretty happily...perhaps even some lps corals like bubble corals, (watch where you place them though they'll sting other corals) frogspawn, hammer coral, etc... but for starters i'd get something like a hairy or umbrella mushroom...something that you can target feed pretty easily to get into the habit of doing it and that is relatively hardy. Good luck!
-leigh

 

[sandman12]

Hi I have a 30L but am just setting it up. Is a 2x96watt good for my tank? i hav enothing but lr righ tnow but soon plan to have any coral i like so i need the right lighting. what would u recomend for a 30L? isnt 4x96 watts to much?

 

[rroberts]

What I bought was a quad compact. It's really cool. It's got 4 - 18 inch bulbs. I just set it up today and it is _amazing_ the difference it made in my tank. I think my polyps said thanks a million!

 

[leigh]

2x96 is a good light for a 30...4x96 is fine too...it all depends on what you want to keep. There's rarely such thing as "too much light" unless you're specifically wanting to keep low light corals. But 2x96 should work fine. Sandman though you'll probably get best results if you stick to asking your one question on one thread. This is not meant to be a flame, but you currently have 2 threads on this one question plus what is referred to as 'hijacking' this thread to ask your own personal question. Welcome to the board, it's great to have you, and I in no way am flaming you, just trying to point out a lil board etiquette.