First coral tommorow!!!

[PeeJ]

Lights are coming today!! 2x250 xm 10ks for my 100 gallon. What are my limits as far as what I can get? The tank is 21 inches deep.

 

[taikonaut]

I assume you are new to coral? :? Get some easy coral first. As you get more confident, you can get some more demanding SPS as frags to try.

For beginners, most Montipora, birdnest, Hynophora are good to try.

 

[Unarce]

Are you getting single or double end 250's? What will you have for actinic supplement?

If you're getting single-ends without actinics, you're probably limited to soft corals. With actinics, you can get clams as well.

Different story with double-ends. Without actinics, brown or orange M. Digitata and M. Capricornis are great SPS starters. With actinics, pretty much most SPS that's readily available at your average LFS as long as its not brightly colored.

If you go DE 20K's with actinics for your 100g, than skies the limit.

 

[Unarce]

Get your feet wet first, like taikonaut suggested. Also, stick with propagated corals and frags to ensure a higher success rate.

Enjoy!!!

 

[teevee]

Reefnutz I can't get onto RK Mag right now, but wasn't there an article a few months ago establishing that actinics have absolutely nothing to do with coral growth/health? The key as far as I know is PAR. I have a wide assortment of colourful SPS under dual 400w Ushios with no supplementation and coupled with my CA reactor, I am getting explosive growth rates (birdnest growth per day is measurable with my bare eyes).

 

[Unarce]

I've heard that several years ago too that actinics were useless, but some of my research suggests otherwise. Although I'm no longer using actinic supplementation myself, I wouldn't agree that it's useless. IME and the experience of others, even bright, wild-caught SPS seem to do better under dominantly bluish lighting. I agree that PAR is very important, but there's absolutely no proof that PAR is more important than spectrum. I've never been one to put too much weight into what I read out of a hobby mag. Actinics couldn't possibly be useless if they put out the peak nanometer for photosynthesis.

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/s_ ... 02/pas.jpg
http://www.science.uts.edu.au/des/Staff ... hesis.html

Sorry if you've seen these before. I never get tired of listing them.

 

[Unarce]

PeeJ,

Didn't mean to steal your thread in getting your first coral tomorrow. I know how exciting that can be. I remember my first coral painfully well. A fire coral.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know, I've kept lots of brightly colored SPS under 10000K and 6500K w/o any sort of actinic supplement and had them do fine.

In any case, I'd stick with soft corals at first to get your feet wet.

 

[Unarce]

I'm just keeping in mind that PeeJ is a newbie to corals.

Wouldn't argue with keeping corals under 6500K or 10K. It's just that what I thought were already brightly colored SPS under 10K, were just scratches on the surface of their potential. Their coloring took on a whole new meaning under 20K's.

 

[PeeJ]

Actinics comig soon...440 watts worth

 

[Anonymous]

Don't buy any mushrooms if you want to keep SPS later.

Shrooms are da debbil!

Louey

 

[teevee]

Reefnutz check out http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/eb/index.htm, myths 5 and 6.

 

[PeeJ]

Well they really didn't have anything I wanted. They had a great purple colt, but it was solt already