Looking for some beginner advice.

I've had a saltwater tank for a bit over a year now. My current tank is a 55G with two seahorses (erectus), a Firefish, a yellow gorgorian, two tree sponges, and an assortment of snails, hermit crabs, and some other odds and end that made it in with my live rock. Thanks in large part to the months of research I put in I have had no problems with the tank and everyone is happy and healthy.

I've been lucky enough to come by a 90 gallon tank that I will be moving everything into and I thought that with the extra room I may try and get a few different corals.

Two conditions for corals for my tank are that

1) They are safe for seahorses and that seahorses grabbing onto them won't hurt the corals. I got into the salt water side of things specifically for seahorses, they're the center of my display and I will be getting more with the larger tank, keeping them alive is priority number one but I also don't want to get anything that they may hurt by grabbing onto.

2) The corals don't need extreme lighting. My current fixture is a 265w PC fixture and I will be getting a 215W T5 HO fixture for the new tank. MH will just put out to much heat and I need to keep my tank at around 74 degrees for the seahorses health. I already have a chiller and I don't want it to be running 24/7 to keep the tank cool in the summer.

With those two things in mind could some people make some suggestions? I'll be going to the NCPARS/That Fish Place Winter Frag Event next weekend and figured that might be a good place to pick a few frags up, but I need some time to do research on whatever I may try and pick up.

Thanks,

 

Zooanthads and mushrooms work well in a horsey tank. Welcome to the site.
Catherine is our resident Sea Horse expert; I'm sure she'll chime in soon.

 

Low flow isn't an issue. I've got 4 koralia nanos, my HoB skimmer, a Rena XP3, and a pump for my chiller all going in the tank. Seahorses actually like the flow, you just have to provide some low flow areas for them to hang out in if they want.

 

+1...i agree with the softies. Even some lps's can go in there...you just have to find the right ones.

 

Ricordeas! My favorite corals ever. Check out Coral Morphologic - Live Corals. Their "variety packs" are excellent and very cheap.

 

I've got ricordeas, mushrooms, zoo's, leathers, xenia and tunicates. You could do Kenya trees, gorgs, sponge trees, calimorphs anything that isn't "aggressive" or stinging which is mostly softies. They really love my macro algae the best.

Catherine