Species Requirements

[wellnuts]

Looking for some help.
I'm in the beginning process of switching my 75G from a FOWLER to a reef aquarium. I plan to have only soft and LPS corals. In anticipation, I have already purchased (but haven't yet installed) a LiterMeter 3 dosing pump to be used with an Aquamedic 1000 Kalk stirrer. Have been running my skimmer for several weeks to clean up the water.
So my question...
I have power compact lighting (65W x 4 bulbs) giving me only
3.5 watts/gallon. I know this is not adequate for all of the potential coral choices, so I've been trying to find a source of info that will tell me the requirements (lighting, calcium levels, etc) by species. That way I can buy some appropriate corals now, and upgrade my lighting as required down the road when I want more demanding species.
Everything I seem to find is very generic like "medium light, medium flow".

Does anyone know of a good book or website?

Thanks

 

[cthegame]

the watt per gallon measure is not always correct as it also depends on the depth of your tank and how close a coral is to the light (where they are placed in the tank)

 

[ccCapt]

If you only plan on soft corals or LPS, you won't need a dosing pump and definitely not a kalk stirrer. Those items are only really necessary for heavily stocked SPS tanks that have a high calcium demand. You will not have that demand with soft and LPS corals. Regular partial water changes will keep you at acceptable levels.
Some good reading here: Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley

If you upgrade to T5HO lights, you will be able to keep any of the soft corals or LPS corals you want.

 

[Bifferwine]

The Capt is right. Your lighting is not sufficient for SPS corals, and those are the ones that will need kalk and/or calcium supplementation.

In general, your tank will be fine for all softies, zoanthids, and mushrooms, and many LPS corals. There aren't any websites that list the lighting requirements for corals by "watts per gallon" because that's just a rule of thumb and also differs depending on the type of lights, depth of tank, placement of corals, etc.

So for your lights, you should be good with all "low light" corals, and most "moderate light" corals, but be sure to place those ones in the upper half of your tank.

 

[ZOOT098]

an awesome book for corals is

"corals a quick reference guide" by julian spring

it rates lighting needs, water flow, aggressiveness, and hardiness using a 1-10 scale

also tells what each coral needs in regards to food, latin name, common name

book is seperated by hard and soft corals

 

[Bifferwine]

Also the Pocket Guide to Marine Invertebrates is a great book.