PDA

View Full Version : Switching from FOWLR to corals and fish


Nizzmo
07-31-2012, 11:08 PM
Just got my 4 34 watt t5h0 coralife fixture with moonlighting this week in the mail, and I'd like to slowly start adding some corals to my tank...
My question is:

What timing should I do with my light cycle? I work 10am - 6pm so ideally I would like to view it from 6pm-12 am... Right now I have the whole setup running from 5-11pm... But I'd like to upgrade to a better timer so I can use my moonlights in the evening and my blue bulbs an hour before and after my 10000k's kick in...

What corals are best to start with? I'm looking for colour and a variety... They must also work well with my current lighting setup until I upgrade.

Should I go for frags or ones already attached to LR?

What are some common steps to keep corals? IE dosing or specific water requirements? At the moment I change 15 % of my water on a weekly basis.... Lately I've been doing a poor job with my salinity readings but I calibrated my refractometer and we should be back on track... (I lost a fish because of this I think)

Any advice would be very helpful!

Specs :

45-55 gal bowfront
coralife t5ho 4 light strip
Lots of LR and LS
Hydro powerhead
Fluval 4 running just biomax

Stocklist:

3 spotted cardinals
1 cleaner shrimps
Small snails and crabs
Blue tux urchin
Sand sifting star


Thanks in advance.

lpsreefer
07-31-2012, 11:28 PM
If you start out with softies/zoas/mushrooms you should be fine.
Don't rush into lps/sps just yet.
Leather corals
Toadstools
Gsp
Cabbage coral
To list a few softies that are easy to look after.

Nizzmo
07-31-2012, 11:54 PM
Yea I'm trying to find members that have frags for sale... I'm going to go cheap for the first bit and see if I can keep them alive :)

Lonster
08-01-2012, 12:10 AM
One of my first corals was a candy cane. Got one with nice vibrant color and the girlfriend really liked how they changed size when the lights came on.