Coral Questions

[GNEEDHAM]

I posted this in the meet and greet, and thought I should actually post in here. So here it goes:
Hi all, new here and new to the hobby. My husband and I purchased our first 55g SW tank a little over a year ago. It's mostly been FOWLR tank until recently, when he decided that he wanted corals. So, we dropped a few more dollars into the tank and have purchased our first corals. They should be here this week. I joined here to get as much information as possible. Very nice site with a lot of knowledgeable people. I look forward to reading a lot more and trying to learn as much as I possibly can about the world of reef keeping.
Our tank right now houses:
approximately 100 lbs live rock
3" live sand
Two clown fish
Four damsels
Lawnmower blenny
Foxface Lo
Bluegreen chromis
cleaner crew
LT Anemone

We originally started with just one clown and two damsels, the Lo and blenny but a friend at work was taking his brother's tank down and wanted to know if I wanted his two damsels, chromis, clown, starfish and anemone, otherwise they were just going to let them die with the tank . So much to my dismay (as I don't believe our tank is big enough for all these fish), we took the fish. They seem to be doing fine. I'll try to post pictures of my tank (which is so not impressive at all) and see if you guys have suggestions for me.
Alright, so we got the new corals today ----yay! (I'm off work tomorrow, I'll get pictures posted then.) My husband ordered a Candy Cane coral (caulastrea furcata) and a Blastomussa merletti. So, after getting off work at 4 am and sleeping for a few hours, the package arrived and I got to work right away on acclimation. Then I had to get ready to come back to work. So I put the new babies in the tank on the bottom, because I really don't know where they go. We have a 260w CF light with 2 65 w actinics and 2 10,000K bulbs. Is that enough lighting? I'm not really prepared to buy more lighting right now, but could if we had to. If that's enough lighting, where should I place the corals?
That was a lot to post -
thanks for any and all help
Ginger

 

[dobejazz]

I don't think you have enough lighting for the anenome the blastos I'm not sure but the candy cane should do OK with moderate light.

 

[GNEEDHAM]

The anemone was set up in a 75 gallon with a lot less light for about a year, so I wasn't too concerned about him (although I'll be sure to watch him better now). I think I'll try to put the blasto up pretty high in the tank. Does anyone make a metal halide target light? Something I could just put on the stuff that needs more light. I checked on the internet, but the only thing I could find was the Viper and that looks too big for my tank. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction if something like that is out there.

 

[michael_cb_125]

The candy cane will do ok under that light. Blastos are a very tricky coral, some will do fine under moderate lighting, others will just wither away. The more lighting you have the better the health and color of your corals will be. That nem NEEDS alot of light. Even though it may have done well under low lighting that does not mean it is healthy. Anemones have VERY slow metabolisms. They can be dying for months and you may never notice a thing. Personally I am a fan of very bright lighting, it allows for a more wide variety of livestock. For now I would put the blastos at mid level, then over the course of a few weeks move them to the top.
Congrats on the new corals.
BTW, It may take a few days for the blastos to open.

 

[sebastian]

hmmm ... kinda unusuall coral for the "first time".... you should try mashrooms, zoo's or star polyps, some hammer head or something like that....but now....it's done....so... make sure your proteun skimmer is working on the top notch....you have pretty heavy load over there.... more fish & corals means more food in tank >>>>>> more waist>>>>> bad water....
do you have sump????