button polyps

[sir_dudeguy]

these guys dont require anything special do they? just good lighting, and of course water parameters right? anyways, i just got a huge rock of it, prolly close to 200 polyps on it, and it was a clearance item so it woulda been gone soon if i didnt get it! lol.
anyways, the guy says its just the same requirements as moon polyps which i have and they're now starting to spread...so those must be doing good.
my tank is a 55, and i've got nearly 400 watts over it...i think in the 384's if my quick, non-calculating, calculations are right (lol if that makes any sense?)
i just added them today and about half of them have opened up so far...and under the actinics they have a VERY cool bright neon green center....so far.

 

[Sk8r]

They're tough. Acroporas won't like them, but softies get along together quite well. Buttons and discosoma mushrooms can survive nuclear attack.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

lol nuclear attack...dont think i'll be dropping any a-bombs over the tank soon lol.
and by tough, you mean hardy, right? not tough as in they're tough to keep..right?
thanks

and i wont really be keeping any hard corals, just mostly softies is what i plan on.

 

[Sk8r]

Hardy. Buttons are usually one of the survivors of a cycle or crash, right along with discosoma mushrooms.

Pick your softies well and you can have a very impressive tank: they excell at motion in water, and do nice feathery shapes and have more reds and yellows than sps.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

Ok thanks!
And ya thats why i like the softies so much..they're wavy..i like to see the stuff move. Nothing against all the people who have stoney corals, i just dont really care for them...they're prolly one of those things that will grow on me if i get one, which is exactly how i was w/my red mushroom lol. But ya, i like seeing everything move....not blowin around like a hurricane, just a nice wavy deal...

Any other suggested corals? i've got 384 watts of pc light..its a 4x96, so i should have adiquate lighting for most corals..right? Would hammers do good under that? I love the looks of those things...
also, not planning on adding it anytime soon since they require a well established tank..but would any anemone do good under that? I'm really undecided on these things so i dont even know if i'll be getting one, most likely not for a long time because i wanna get it right if i do...i really hate to see how petco just throws them away the way they do, and i'm not gonna do that.

so ya, just tell me some cool lookin, colorful corals that you've had experience w/.

thanks!
mike

 

[Sk8r]

Hammers would do all right---but they are an lps. You have to keep them out of the way of softies like leathers and buttons. If you want to do all leathers/shrooms/buttons, you might go to Foster/Smith and walk barefoot through their catalog. Kenya Trees, Sinularia, toadstool leather. Nice thing about the wavy leathers is that they do in the daytime what a lot of sps do after dark---extend their feeding tentacles.
Now you could, if you wanted to go the lps route, do plate coral, bubble coral [on the bottom] and frogspawn, hammer, torch on the upper. Not to mention some of the acans and brains that are texturally interesting midway up. Both routes are open to you, but you do have to choose one or the other, because the corals aren't that friendly to each other, softies vs lps.
I like going to sites with good catalogs [and honest pix] to see what the pieces look like at their best. But if you buy from those places, look carefully at the size they're offering. 30.00 isn't a bargain if the coral is 1" of something fairly ordinary.

 

[davocean]

Disco soma mushrooms....I think I had those when I was in college!

 

[Sk8r]

They're your greenstripe, purple, sometimes red ones; also the really gnarly ones [discosoma neglecta] that look like old bronze with patina. They grow like aiptasia, about that fast, and they survive come what may.