Questions about adding coral and lighting requirements

I currently have a 90 gal FOWLR with a 10 gal fuge and 10 gal sump that has been set up for about 8 months. I am looking to start getting into corals soon but had a couple questions about where to start and what additional items I will need to begin.

1) Lighting - I am currently running power compaqs w/ 2 10,000K and 2 Blue Actinic's. I forget the total watt's but I know the lights are Coralife. Would this be sufficient enough for any corals? I think I am leaning more towards adding soft corals mostly.

2) Salt - I remember when I started my tank there where 2 different kinds of salt there, I went with the cheaper of the two because the guy at the LFS said that the more expensive one wasn't necessary at the early stages. How important is it to switch to the, I'm assuming, higher quality salt before adding any coral?

3) Is a Lawnmower Blenny reef safe? I thought when I bought the little guy the LFS said it was but after watching him tear into the LR trying to rip the algae off I'm not so sure anymore.

I cannot think of anymore questions at the moment, but if anyone has any additional information/suggestions on converting a FOWLR to a Reef I would love hear it.

 

You should be able to keep most soft corals with those lights.

As for the salt, it would help to know what the brand you are talking about to give an opinion on that.

Also I do believe the Blenny is reef safe. I would think it would be no problem with soft coral. I have had issues with a lwanmower blenny and my clams before though.

 

Thanks for the info.

The salt I am currently using is Instant Ocean (the Purple Box) and the "higher quality" salt I was referring to is the same brand but in an orange box.

 

Also, do you have any suggestions on a hardy soft coral that would be good for beginners?

 

For softies you would be fine using instant ocean. Reef crystals is probably the other. I would recommend using that but it would be more of a need for LPS or SPS corals due to the better levels of Mg, Ca, and Alk in the salt.

I would recommend mushrooms, zoanthids, xenia, kenya tree, leather corals. Most of all of these are relatively hardy.

 

Xina and Kenya are very hardy but also very invasive. They grow rapidly and spread. You would also be fine keeping some of the easier low light LPS corals such as, Candy Cane, Favia, Fungia, and Hammer just to name a few.
I believe your talking about Reef Crystals as the other salt. It is higher in ca/alk/mag but also higher in iodine and strontium.
Just do what your doing and research everything before you put it into your tank

 

Yes, Reef Crystals was the other. I still have a half a box of the Instant Ocean left so when I get done with that I will switch to Reef Crystals.

Thanks for the info on the corals, I am really new to this hobby and am trying to soak up as much information as possible. I also wasn't expecting there to be so many coral options with my current light setup...so I am very encouraged by this.

 

mushrooms, zoanthids, leathers, palys, GSP, zenia(xenia?), there are millions of them. lawnmower is fine, the are great algae munchers. personally, for a 90g with fish I'm assuming, and now corals, I would really suggest a bigger sump. but its not 100% necessary. for reef crystals, I use instant ocean and havent had any problems, but its up to you what you get, you want something with a good calcium level in it among some other things, to promote healthy growth.

 

I had originally planned on a 30 gal sump but didn't think far enough in advance to realize I couldn't get a tank that big through the doors and I wasn't willing to empty the DT in order to drop a sump through the top. That's why I ended up with 2 - 10 gallon tanks instead, so it, unfortunately, will have to suffice.

I am beyond happy that there are so many different corals I can add with the power compaqs, I thought for sure that I was going to have to change out my lights before adding any corals. I will eventually switch to something better anyway at some point, but it's nice to know I can get my feet wet with corals first.