Multiple Questions - water, lighting, coral, etc.

More on lighting for you.... as light penetrates the water, it loses energy. Lower energy frequencies (colors) such as reds, yellow, get absorbed first. Higher energy frequencies such as blues and purples go deeper in the water.

Corals are, in a very simplistic explanation, symbiotic creatures. They eat mysis shrimp and such, but they also have photosynthetic bacteria inside them. The photosynthetic part of them need the "right" light to do their job. As with all things in life, it is a balancing act. They need light over a range of frequencies. Reef aquariums use a variety of bulb combinations to provide this range of frequencies. Actinic specializes in providing a specific portion of that range of frequencies on the Blue/Purple end of the spectrum. Thus, a combination of bulbs is usually best. Some bulbs hit different colors, but the combination gets what you need.

Make sense???

M

 

Dont listen to NasaGeek.....he only works for NASA....;D J/K
Wow...imagine that...working for NASA...it cant get better than that!!

Let me get back to the thread now.
Take your time with this hobby, you will get things right, it just takes patience, time, research, and ask a lot of questions here. We're all here to help you make your tank successful.

Good job in getting the right test kits, you can find a refractometer on ebay for pretty cheap..around $35 or so and they work great.

PC lights will keep fish and certain soft corals...

There are two places to buy the when it comes to your tank(or as best you can afford) lighting and skimmers. They are key components to a successful tank.

When you get the test kit run all the tests then post the results here and we will guide you down the right path.

 

i would get the PH and alkalinity set first before adding more corals your already going really fast most people dont add corals and fish till about 5 weeks in. that being said if there doing fine then keep them in there but i wouldnt add any more corals or fish till you have everything sorted out. i would just start adding PH buffer in it will boost it up and if it is low it will bring it up so no harm there. a couple corals that you might be interested in when you get everything sorted out are zoanthids, palythoas, ricordeas, mushrooms, yellow polyps, blastomussa coral, candycanes, duncans, favia, acan

 

Thanks... listen to NASAGeek about rockets and space exploration stuff. Feel free to ignore NASAGeek on Reef Aquarium stuff. I am just learning like the rest...

M