Coral Question

jbiggs19 · 09-08-2003, 10:21 PM

Hey everybody, im new to reef tanks and just bought my first two corals and have a couple of questions.

I got a devils hand coral and some sort of mushroom coral (i think). I was just wondering about the lighting for these. I read in the archives that both these corals like moderate light. But Im not sure what "moderate" light is.

Right now I have a 37 gallon with JBJ PC's (2x65) and I have the corals under direct light. Is this ok or should they be under some cover.

TIA
Jeff

PS Im new here and havent posted much but the forums and archives have helped me out alot!

CAT · 09-08-2003, 10:40 PM

I know alot of people who keep some pretty high-light corals under those lights, so maybe your lights are med-high?

Watch the corals to see if they open up well, their reactions will depend on what light they are used to (what kind of lighting they were in before you bought them).

Mushrooms and leathers should do quite well in the mid to lower areas of your tank -that way, you can save some space higher up for more light- loving corals.

Check out the "Books" tab next to the 'search' tab at the top of this page - some great suggestions for buying books to help you figure out the best corals and fish for your tank.

Oh yeah, and WELCOME to TRT

tdwyatt · 09-09-2003, 01:08 AM

you have plenty of light for those two specimens.

Just curious, how long has your tank been set up, and how do you replace your evaporative losses?

jbiggs19 · 09-09-2003, 03:27 AM

It has been up for almost 5 months now. I just top the tank off with tap water that has been conditioned.

tdwyatt · 09-09-2003, 03:48 AM

before you add a lot of specimens, you may want to revise your top off procedure, check the source water in your area at this site Everything in the water you top off with stays in the tank while water evaps off. Although for many specimens consistant salinity is not that big a deal, omany do require very steady salinities, which would be maintained with some type of auto top-off device. Using RO/DI would be in order as well.

HTH, too late to expand on this.

ReefDave · 09-09-2003, 04:51 AM

I agree with Tom. I don't know if anything in this hobby (besides loss of fish/corals) runs people off faster than algae they can't control. The one thing people seem to try to skimp on is the water itself. I'm guilty of this myself, on my first tank I used a TWP, and after the cartridge ran out, i would say "well I can't get to the store to buy a new one till Thursday, but I have to top off with tap water for now". Then on my 2nd tank I broke down and bought a RO unit, of course I had sold the TWP with the 1st tank, so now I was running RO with no DI. My water was actually worse than with the TWP. This time I broke down and got the RO/DI unit, and already I have less algae than in either of the first two tanks cycles.

All im saying is this, if you don't go out and by and RO/DI, you will most likely have some type of water quality related problem down the road, with all the money we spend on this hobby, and our specimens, its really not that great of a price to pay.

So I guess, I just spent two pages says , "yeah Toms right"

Dave

ReefDave · 09-09-2003, 04:53 AM

How Rude of me.....I should have first posted a...

WELCOME!!!!!!!

then I should have posted a....

Great job on asking questions, and getting as much information about your tank as possible.

BEFORE I started in on telling you what you are doing wrong. Your lights will probably be ok for both those corals, I would just save my money for a bit, and get an RO/DI unit before adding another coral, you will probably be glad you did down the road. And in a 37 gallon your membrane and cartridges will probably last quiet a while.

Dave

jbiggs19 · 09-09-2003, 07:47 PM

Can the bottom of the devils hand be put in the sand? Right now he is attached to a little rock and every time I put him standing up his "fingers" swell and he droops down. Seems like it would be better if he was resting on the ground. Not sure if this makes any sense....

Thanks for all your help

jbiggs19 · 09-09-2003, 07:58 PM

Forgot to ask one more question. I heard that you have to be careful with ro/di water because it gets stripped of many trace elements. Is this something I should be concerned about?

I have been adding Reef Solution by Ecosystem, which supposedly adds all the trace elements you need. But is there anything else I should be aware about when using ro/di water?

foobuddha · 09-09-2003, 08:29 PM

Your water change water will contain all the trace elements in the salt mix. You don't need to add anything you aren't testing for. You will find the majority of people only replenish calcium via kalkwasser or a 2 part alk/ca buffer.

CAT · 09-09-2003, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jbiggs19
Forgot to ask one more question. I heard that you have to be careful with ro/di water because it gets stripped of many trace elements. Is this something I should be concerned about?

Yeah, the salt mix will replace any elements needed. As for top-off, you don't want anything but hydrogen and oxygen (pure water) added because only pure water evaporates... everything other compound in the tank water just keeps building up until you dilute some of it with a water change.