New lights, time for coral?

[w glint]

Hey guys, i have a question!
I recently got some new lights for my tank, and im thinking its time to jump into reef keeping! I recently got (3) spotlight LED's, i believe they are 40 watts a piece, and i have one over each 50 gallon section of my tank (72'' 150g). These suckers are bright! When i plugged them in for the first time to make sure they worked, note to self: dont look right at them- i was seeing spots for a good hour! Anywho, the guy i got them from said they would sustain pretty much any type of coral in a reef tank and that they have amazing par levels, but im a little leery about that claim, so im thinking i should stay on the safe side and start with some low light-needing corals and work my way up. Any suggestions?
Theres' also a possibility that i may be getting (2) 48'' quad bulb T5HO fixtures on the cheep that i would add on each end of the tank, and then overlapping by 2 feet in the middle.
I guess the real question is: what would be some good corals for me to start out with to...um....'test' my lighting and tank!
I should also note that the only place near me that carries and decent coral is a guy who is super unorginized so nothing is really labeled in his holding tanks (beautiful fish and corals, but the guy has no sense of making it easy on his customers), so most of the stuff i get, i get offline.
Tank Details:
150g Oceanic glass tank
150-170lbs live rock, 50-60 lbs live sand (additional 40lbs of rubble in the fuge)
20g sump with filtersocks changed every week
20g remote refugium with cheato
MRC MR2 skimmer in sump
Mag 12 return pump
(3) 40 watt LED Spotlight (supposed to be equal to 150 W MH )
(2) 1200gph powerheads (grand total flow, around 3000gph)
Tank inhabitants:
(1) 5'' yellow tang
(1) 7'' Blue Throat Trigger (model citizen)
(3) Green Cromis
(3) 2 striped damsels
(1) Devil damsel
(1) scissor tail Goby
(1) Firefish Goby
assorted snails, hermits
(1) Serpant Sea Star
(1) Emerald Crab
Param's:
Nitrate: 10-20 (depending on how recent the bi weekly water change is )
Ammo/nitrite: 0
Temp: usually right at 80, fluctuates up or down a degree if the plasma screen is on (Tank is in the movie room)
Salinity: .026, give or take .001. ( i dont have a refractometer as i most certainly should)
Apologies for being so long winded, any help is greatly welcome

 

[wcbush22]

The world of reef-keeping is an exciting one and when done right very rewarding... I think the addition of T5's would be a great idea. For corals to start, I would go with softies. Mushrooms, polyps of any sort etc... However I would watch that model citizen trigger seeing as though they have a tendency to nip at such things. With the addition of the T5's you could definitely start looking into some LPS and POSSIBLY some lower demanding SPS near the top of the tank!

 

[flower]

Hi,
Congratulations on the new lights and the plan for coral...
Some advice.
Make some caves and overhangs...not all corals want or need bright lights, and that way you can expand on the diversity of coral you can keep. 10-20 nitrates are way too high for SPS and you will have problems with LPS as well. So that means your tank is prime for Xenia, leathers, kenya tree, and mushrooms...AKA Softies. Colt coral is very iffy with those readings as well. Xenia should flourish.
Now for some basics. Corals have needs, and putting a low light coral under a spot light is as certain death for the coral. Some corals like the strong water flow (right in front of the power head) and some corals need low water flow. A wood stick with a plastic ribbon will be a good way to test and see what flow is where...just hold the stick in that spot for a moment or two, and the ribbon will let you know how strong the current is in that area and the direction of the current.
Some corals are aggressive (send darts of chemicals, or feelers that sting) these need to be set so that they can't reach the coral down stream, running carbon will help prevent chemical warfare.
Some corals require strong light, such as xenia, and others lower light such as mushroom corals. Placing the low lights at the bottom of the tank is all you really need to do, and the corals that need greater light up higher. You have to kind of determine where a coral "should" be happy and then wait for it to bloom and see if it's happy there. Once you know the coral is happy (open for a week or so) then glue it into place with super glue GEL. I always make sure my corals were happy before affixing it to the rock permanently.
True low light (non-photosynthetic) corals such as sea pens, and gorgonias need shade or the algae will clog it up and kill it. Such corals actually just need fish lights to survive because the coral lighting is just too powerful for them....even at the bottom of the tank.