1st new soft corals

[dogman]

Just bought 4 soft corals, yellow polyps, greenish what looks like grass with white dots around, a light pinkish tree, and green polyps. Sorry about not knowing the names off hand. Is Phytoplankton neccessary and if so how often? I've heard conflicting thoughts.
Also is 4-96w, and one 160w vho enough for this and other corals? Just running the blue actinic, the corals mentioed look there best.
THANKS to all.

[Fat Surgeon]

Dogman,

Congratulations on your corals! We need to see some pictures if you can post some. This would help in Identifying the corals you have mentioned. Without them or the exact names of what you have, it is hard to tell if they need to be fed phytoplankton, host zooxanthellae, or both.

Also, nearly all corals will look best under just Actinic lighting. However, this does not supply the much needed light for corals and should be used alone only as a Dusk/Dawn effect. For overall health of everything in the tank, they should be used in conjunction with the 10k's you have. Hope to see some pics soon!

[dogman]

Thanks for the reply, I don't have a way to send pics. but will try and get there acurate names. Thanks again.

[reefnewbie54321]

From your description I would say you have

Green/Yellow Palythoa





Green Star Polyps



Kenya Tree Coral



Lets see how close I am .... These corals will survive without any feeding but can/should be fed pythoplankton. And no you cannot run just blue actinic. Actinic is used to bring out colors in the corals but will not provide light for it to grow or live. Most people use a 2 to 1 combo of 10k lights w/ Actinics.

[dogman]

Unbelievable, you are exactly right on all four. Thank You.
When the lights are off, these 4 more or less lose color and or shrivel up. The green star polyps are brown when the white lights are on but when the blue lights are on they appear green. I assume this is normal?
The Kenya tree is not as vibrant and large as it was at the lfs, is there anything I can do to help other than light? I'ts doing ok but since Sat. when I bought these, the Kenya one time really shriveled up but bounced back. I'm not positive but I think it was after adding some liquid calcium it shriveled. Could that of been the problem?
How often to give phytoplankton at what amount?
Please answer my long winded ?'s as I do have some idea what to do, but I would appreciate verification from more experienced reefers.
Again thanks to all and great calls newbie I'm amazed.

[reefnewbie54321]

Its normal for corals to close up when the lights go off and they don't actually loose color your just seeing what they look like with no lighting.

Its only been 3 days since you bought the Kenya so it could still be acclimating. Other then light you could check all your water parameters. I don't see adding liquid calcium as being a problem ... how did you add it?

The most common plankton product is DT's Live Pythoplankton, this is what I used on my 55g. I would dose 4 1/2 capfulls every other day. This tank also had clams. On my 120 I plan to setup a culture to grow my own and feed it every 30 seconds through a surge device. I would start out using DT's recommended dosage (not sure what it is) and depending how your tank reacts add more or less. Adding to much can cause algae blooms so just keep an eye on your tank during the first few weeks. For your tank you could add less then considering you only have 4 corals right now and no clams (I assume).

[dogman]

THANK YOU, Cal. was added by cap fulls, and the 4 corals is all I have.
THANKS again.