Blue snowflakes and pink anthelia lighting questions

[nicoleah]

My local reef club's frag swap was this past weekend and I picked up some pink anthelia and blue snowflakes. I'm new to the hobby and wanted to get some advice on how best to keep these. My tank is a 29 gallon (30" long by 18" tall) with a single 65 watt PC 50/50 bulb (upgrade coming in a few months.) I drip-acclimated them both for an hour and have placed the blue snowflakes about halfway up the tank on the left side. The pink anthelia were looking very unhappy at that level, so I've moved them up higher and more directly under the lighting. The 24" bulb tends to keep the sides of the tank a bit shaded (my purple shrooms prefer the sides for sure!)

I have read conflicting articles about their lighting requirements, so about where should they be placed for my tank and the lighting I have? I realize it may take them some time, but I hate to keep jostling them around if I don't have to. The blue snowflakes were popping out more since the move, but the pink anthelia still look grumpy, a few of them have stems that are bloated-looking and some tips are turning whitish...

Thanks for your input!

[jenglish]

Both of those are fairly low light tolerant and low flow corals. I would still likely keep them fairly high in a tank with a single PC light. I had the exact same setup years ago (back when PC was 55watt not 65 watt) and kept softies successfully.

[nicoleah]

Thanks for your input. I did move them around a couple of times and have found a place they like:

[Dragonist]

Also upon looking @ you photos, I think you will need to cook your rock...it might be leaking phosphates!

[Dragonist]

also checked liveaquaria.com and this is what they have listed

Waving Hand - Blue

(Anthelia sp.)

Care Level: Difficult

Temperament: Peaceful

Lighting: Moderate to High

Waterflow: Medium to Strong

Placement: Bottom

Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025

Color Form: Blue

Supplements: Iodine, Trace Elements

Origin: Indo-Pacific

Family: Xeniidae

The Anthelia Waving Hand Coral is also referred to as a Glove Coral. It is a group of colonial animals with several individual polyps attached to a piece of solid substrate. They are blue, brown, or tan, in color, and their polyps have the distinctive eight-leaved tentacles associated with all of the members of this family.

Predatory fish, crabs, snails, or the stings of other corals may damage the colony quite easily. Therefore, provide adequate space between them and sessile animals, especially other types of soft corals. They are difficult to maintain in an aquarium. They require a medium to high light level combined with a medium to strong water movement within the aquarium. For continued good health, they will also require the addition of iodine and other trace elements to the water.
Under ideal conditions, and once acclimated, they may reproduce in the established reef aquarium, forming a creeping mat, which will quickly grow over any adjacent rock work. The symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within their bodies provide the majority of their nutritional requirements through photosynthesis. Additional weekly feedings of micro-plankton or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates are also needed

references:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...694&pcatid=694

[nicoleah]

Not to be argumentative, but I am pretty sure these are Clavularia, they are TINY and look very little like the Anthelia I have. Compare the polyps: http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expa...ode=02-1321-10

I did check into what is involved in cooking rock and have decided to let it go for now. My tank is young and all dead rock (was live once) was used, so I realize I'm going to have lots of algae. The pod population recently exploded, coralline is finally starting to spread and the green algae I have isn't taking over or smothering anything. My CUC is earning its keep. The dead rock I used was soaked (not for months just days to soften up any dead material), well-scrubbed and rinsed. It may prove in the long run to not have been enough, but I can only blame myself. I truly appreciate your suggestion and learned something new!

[Dragonist]

I mainly searched Anthelia on there

[jenglish]

In a pretty new tank algae is pretty normal. being formerly live rock it may need cooked, but you could also just be expereincing the standard algae cycles.