[cvrle1]

I will go tomorrow to couple of lfs here and get some corals. I just had a question for you about care and other little things.

I have read on other sites as well as books, magazines and boards similar to these that these corals are farily easy to keep by the beginner. Before I go out I just wanted to confirm with you if these are indeed easy to keep.

I have 4 30 watt flo tubes as light. 2 of them are rated @20,000K 1 is Actinic @ 10,000K and last one is 50/50 rated at 6,500K My aquarium is 33 gallon which comes out to app. 4 watts/gallon.
I currently have some red mashrooms that are doing great. They are fully extending and I will propagate them in couple of days (or at least try to )

This is the list of corals I was looking at. I want to get couple tomorrow so fire away at your choices:

Mushroom corals
Leather Corals
Yellow Leather Coral
Colt Coral
Polyps
Bubble Coral
Anchor / Hammer Coral
Encrusting Gorgonians
Elegance Coral

Thanks for the help

[naser]

i dont think that would be enough light? it might be for some things but others you could run into problems. just remember that the gargonian likes to eat food. if you look at the post pic of my reef you can see mine that is photosynthetic. still has to eat but doesnt have to be spot fed.

[naser]

and one more thing if you do get all the corals dont get them all at once. thats a whole lot to add in one day.

[scubadude]

I would stay away from the elegance! and probably the hammer too. The rest looks ok just go slow and easy! I wouldnt add more than 3 pieces at a time. Good Luck and Post some pics to us

[organicreefer]

scuba beat me to it,ill second his opinion

[srgtkoons]

Why avoid the hammer? I have a hammer coral that dominates one of my nanos with just 2x13 watts. I agree with the elengance though, difficult to keep.

[organicreefer]

euphyllia are most abundant in nature when light levels are 100-600uE M S(MICROEINSTIENS.)dana riddle suggests a bare minimum of 2 110 w vho's.not saying it definitely cant be done

[srgtkoons]

That is the complete opposite of all my experience. I love euphyllia corals. My most intense lighting is 2x55 watt PC 10k with a 1x30 NO actinic and my lowest is 2x13watt. I have about 9 seperate colonies of frogspawn. Originated from two, one bright green with pink tips and one brown with tan tips. I also have a branching hammer and a non branching hammer. The non branching hammer i have had for over a year and is about 4 times the original size. The branching hammer started out as 4 heads and the original colony now has 8 heads and iv broken off another 4 heads because it was outgrowing my nano. They cant handle full light from the 2x55 watt bulbs. Even after careful acclimation they just dont open up as nice, and have much slower growth rates.

[bongobrian]

I think the elegant would be fine in your tank.. I used to have one in my old tank that did great until my powerhead fell on it DOH! but my old tank had similar lighting as yours. Elegants can even thrive in dirty water. I have heard people say that elegants seem to die after a certain amount of time in captivity. Not sure if that's true or not. The other corals you mentioned should all be fine but I would avoid the hammer/anchor until you have more lighting and make sure your water quality is awesome. I also tried keeping one of those in my old tank but it didn't survive. I think the leather and the bubble coral might be your best bet right now! good luck and happy shopping.

[organicreefer]

srgtkoons,i agree ,to a point .my torch got much larger and darker after i switched from a 6500k to a 12000k bulb(less light).
bongobrian,euphylia are also found in turbid water,so awesome water quality may not be neccessary

[srgtkoons]

Just though of somthing though organic. Perhaps its cause all my euphyllias started out as captive frags. That can change the whole lighting issue dramatically.

[cvrle1]

Thanks all for the help.

I went and bought one small green star polyp for now. Problem is that it does not want to open up at all. There is only a couple of open polyps and they are not fully open as well. My parameters all check out. I even tried to place it in 2 different locations with more or less water movement and that didn't help either.

Any ideas why??

[organicreefer]

thats a good point srgtkoons.probably some (most?)would be able to adapt in either case .if under NO flourescents,i would definitely place it near the surface though.

[srgtkoons]

Green star polyps usually take a while to open up. I would place about half way up with good water current around them. Just leave em be and within a couple weeks they should all be out

[scubadude]

Originally posted by cvrle1
Thanks all for the help.

I went and bought one small green star polyp for now. Problem is that it does not want to open up at all. There is only a couple of open polyps and they are not fully open as well. My parameters all check out. I even tried to place it in 2 different locations with more or less water movement and that didn't help either.

Any ideas why??

I would put them in a fairly good current area (just not blasting directly on them) They will take some time to adapt to your tank (like most corals) so its best to leave them in the same spot and just keep a close eye on them.....could take 2+ weeks for them to adapt, so dont be surprised if they dont open up all the way. also make sure they have good lighting too ( up high close to the lights ) since you have reg. flourescent lighting. As far as the elegance and/or hammer goes they are best kept in systems bigger than yours (they are not as forgiving as the other corals you have mentioned). Both of these corals will send out sweeper tentacles and if anything gets in their way they wont like it.

cvrle1 hewk us up with sum pics when you get a chance

[cvrle1]

I gladly would but put some pictures but the thing is that I don't have a digital camera yet so I can't take a lot of closup shots of aquarium. I'll try and well see how it turns out.

Thanks for the help everyone. I appreciate it.