sps, lps, soft corals.. etc

[doox00]

my tank has been up for about 7 months now, I have not really added much of anything to it, just a couple weeks ago added 3 firefish, before that was just 2 true perc clowns a couple months after I set it up.. have some zoathids someone gave me which was 2 or 3 polyps to start, now its 8 or so.. so its doing well, have green star something or other one that grows like a weed that was a hitchhiker on the rock.. now I want to start adding nice corals to the tank.. but now sure exactly what kinds i can keep with my lighting.

could someone give me a break down of what types I can keep with my pc 4x65 lighting? tank in sig.

thanks!

 

[sammy33]

I would think that you could keep most low to medium light demand corals with that setup. For softies I would stick with mushrooms, ricordea, zoanthid and xenia. For LPS I would try Candy Cane (Caulastrea), Pineapple (Blastomussa) and Acan Lords (Acanthastrea).

I would consider staying away from SPS such as Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora etc. as well as anemones and clams. These require more intense lighting.

Also keep in mind that most of the LPS and softies I mentioned will benefit from feeding various foods such as phytoplankton or zooplankton. Feeding is especially important in tanks that have low to medium light as the corals will need some supplemental energy.

Do you have a good reference book? Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman and Marine Invertebrates by Ronald Shimek are good books to have around. These willl give you a much better idea about the requirements of your aquarium animals (beyond just lighting).

 

[Phyto]

I totaly agree with sammy.