Care of soft corals

[bryanking]

I am in the UK and very new to the salt water, marine, aquarium hobby. My wife and I are trying to do it the hard way, by setting up a reef aquarium complete with live rock and corals etc before adding fish. For some weeks now all the water tests have been fine. We have a large external filter, UV and a large protein skimmer.

We have started introducing "soft" corals although we do not have metal halide lighting, but hope that our new T5 tubes with reflectors will be enough.

Re the corals: What should we try to feed them on and how often. We have also got a fan or feather duster worm.

Any help greatly appreciated, possibly direct to our email bryanking999@btinternet.com

[art_of_war]

I am in the UK and very new to the salt water, marine, aquarium hobby. My wife and I are trying to do it the hard way, by setting up a reef aquarium complete with live rock and corals etc before adding fish. For some weeks now all the water tests have been fine. We have a large external filter, UV and a large protein skimmer.

We have started introducing "soft" corals although we do not have metal halide lighting, but hope that our new T5 tubes with reflectors will be enough.

Re the corals: What should we try to feed them on and how often. We have also got a fan or feather duster worm.

Any help greatly appreciated, possibly direct to our email bryanking999@btinternet.com

Well...to be honest, T5's are fine for soft and LPS corals. However, tell us what the size of the tank is, plus dimensions and T5 wattage...etc. The polyps are large enough to catch enough light. It's when you get into the realms of SPS and bivalves that you need to start looking into upgrades. There are some rules of thumb that you could follow to ensure that you'll be alright. Like wattage/gallon.

I've heard people say, "4 to 7 watts per gallon" although that IS subjective. Since understanding light is a lot more than dividing watts and water volume. You've taken the good route; rock and corals first and then fish. Most go the other way and choose fish first and then corals but that is only b/c fish are not as delicate as corals.

Aesthetically, metal halides are the way to go (especially 20K) in conjunction with Actinics. They're more pleasing to the eyes but T5 VHO's are not that bad of a start. Welcome to the hobby.