Is There Anything Stopping Me Having Corals

[superman1]

Hello

as some of you may know i recently changed over from tropicals to marine

currently i have a 4ft 220 litre tank with about 30kg of Live rock
i have 2 koralia 1s (which i will be upgrading maybe in a month to more powerful ones)
i have a protein skimmer

i have 2 T8 48watts lights

i have 2 clown fishes, a chalk bass, a flame back angel and 2 gobies, 4 cleaner shrimps, about 14 turbos, about 11 hermits and 1 mithrax crab,

i wanted to know if i could have corals and what kind that would be suitable to my setup.

thanks and also what i would need to keep corals.

thanks again

 

[ben1987]

we could do with a full list of your water parameters aswel.

One thing, your lighting isnt very strong so this would greatly limit your choces. If i were you i would try a zoa frag, xenia frag or leather frag first. These are cheap and easy to care for.

Your flame angel may nip at LPS corals but it think you would need a lighting upgrade before these anyway.

Also like you say you have not enough flow. Aim for 20-30X

 

[superman1]

we could do with a full list of your water parameters aswel.

One thing, your lighting isnt very strong so this would greatly limit your choces. If i were you i would try a zoa frag, xenia frag or leather frag first. These are cheap and easy to care for.

Your flame angel may nip at LPS corals but it think you would need a lighting upgrade before these anyway.

Also like you say you have not enough flow. Aim for 20-30X

thanks ben

yeh i had an external on there which aided will flow but the koralia 1s are no where near powerful enough. i want to upgrade them to at least koralia 3s soon.

water parametres are

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate between 0-10. cant tell due to colours
salt 1.025
p.h 8.3

havent got a test kit for the rest of the stuff.

i preferably want something that could live with my current lighting..

i will look into your suggestions

thanks

 

[ben1987]

you could do with getting the other test kits aswel, before you get into the coral side too much. But with decent salt then your should be ok for now. Softies dont use too much from the water.

what salt brand are you using out of interest?

 

[kj23502]

I'd try softies. Some can spread like weeds though.

 

[superman1]

you could do with getting the other test kits aswel, before you get into the coral side too much. But with decent salt then your should be ok for now. Softies dont use too much from the water.

what salt brand are you using out of interest?

i am using tropic marin

according to where i brought it from this is what it says

Manufactured from pure, pharmaceutical grade salts, Tropic Marin contains all 70 trace elements found in natural seawater, in the exact proportions found in nature. It is also free from nitrates, phosphates and other unwanted chemicals.
Used for many years in zoos, public aquariums and scientific institutions around the world, Tropic Marin Sea Salt provides the ideal environment for the care of all marine organisms in the aquarium, including the most sensitive species.

what do i need to test for?

thanks

 

[kj23502]

it'd be a good idea to have an alk test kit. Even coraline growth can deplete alk/calc. If you test for alk then your calcium usually falls in line with that and PH too. That's all I'd test for right now.

ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alk for the test kits Always keep an eye on your sg/temp. If you have an ato then unplug it when you're acclimatizing. I didn't and as I was taking out saltwater it was being replenished by ro water dropped the sg to 1.020 or 1.021.

 

[ben1987]

i use TMC salt too, the pro reef stuff. Bob on i think

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, coral choices are going to be limited with that low-powered lighting. In addition to what's been mentioned so far, consider Rhodactis mushrooms as well, they can come in some great colors and tolerate low light.