Just starting with coral.....need some tips

[Hedrick11]

I'm just starting with some coral I have 4 frag's as of now. I don't really care about color right now I just want them bad boys to grow bigger so I would like to know what would be the best light setting for coral growth? The type of light I have is two prime HD hanging about 8"-9" from the top of the water. Yeah

 

[username in use]

What type of coral are we talking about?

 

[gone fishin]

Also, depending on the coral lighting will not be the only variable that needs to be looked at. Water movement, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, duration of light intensity are a few.

 

[Hedrick11]

I have 1 Clove frag 1 blue tip Sebae Anenome 1 Zoanthids frag 1 duncanopsammia frag and I forget the name of the other frag I got I think it's some kind of hammer but not 100%. I have a jebao pp-8 wave maker I just did a water change yesterday and here was my numbers
Ph 8.0
Ammonia <0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Kh/alk 5.4

my tank is a 75 gallon

 

[Willyboz1]

I think alk needs to be higher. Some people use baking powder.

 

[Jeff4777]

Yeah try to get your dKH up to about 9+. Get test kits for Ca and Mg if you don't have already.

 

[darmar7812]

Usually want to wait a little longer before adding an anemone. More like 6 months to a year, expecially if you are new to the hobby, as they are different and actually not corals at all

 

[Hedrick11]

Do any of you know how I should set up my prime HD lights to get the best growth out of my coral?

 

[Tanthaitrung]

Be patient. Light is important but water is more important. As reefers mention above, you should bring you KH up. But before this, you must test MAG, CAL. If the MAG is too low, you can not bring the KH up.

About setting up lights. Please post here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=212

 

[Sk8r]

THat kh is a real problem: it can do in your corals. That needs fixing asap. ^^^^ This.

On the lights, running 10,000-13,000k at that depth is good for lps stony if it's acclimated to it: start corals on bottom, move them up each week and stop and back down when they seem unhappy. Then glue down.

 

[nereefpat]

I think alk needs to be higher. Some people use baking powder.

Soda. Baking powder has some phosphate and metals you don't want to add to your reef.

 

[ClownMan727]

Do some reading here. If you get all of your knowledge from the people here you will be forever lost.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/blog