well as I am a newbie I was thinking of some brown and green start polups, mushrooms, and some um what is it called again...well I can't recal it is brown in color and everyone frags it. I really don't have the budget to get MH so if I need MH to keep it I will not purchase it!

If your on a budget, i would go with overdriven NO's on a workhorse. The only problem being your tank is 6' long. You could use 4 x 4' bulbs on 2 workhorse 7's and stagger them. That would give you 440 watts, you should be able to keep pretty much any soft coral you want.

Clinton

Sorry I know this may sound dumb but I really have no clue as to what you just said. I know what a 4' bulb is but I don't have a clue as to what over driving is or what a workhorse 7 is? If you could please give a little more detail there.


Thanks

Sorry aout that, i just start rambling sometimes. :biggrin: Overdriving is when you drive the lights at 2-3 times there normal rated power. Your standard 4' tube is rated for 40watts, if you drive them with a workhorse 7 (electronic ballast rated for 220 watts) you can double the light output. The workhorse 7 is around $55-$60 and will drive two 4' tubes. Get 2 workhorse ballasts and 4 regular output tubes and you can effectively have 440 watts over your tank. :cool: Clear like mud? :mrgreen:

Clinton

White sponge things
 

Hello. I bought some tonga rock at J&L once and had the exact same white sponge looking things. I also was very excited. But alas they as Christy mentioned never amounted to anything. Dead on arrival. But some very cool looking ascidians little tuble like creatures eventually grew on the tonga rock. They are now scattered all over my tank here and there. there little bulbous things with an intake and an outtake tube on them. Hope you get some.

Looking forward to seeing your tanks progression. I've seen some very nice large tanks with just soft corals using no or vho lighting.

Happy reefin George

Don't worry about the dead sponge they are excellent food for pods, yes it is a bummer that they died but take advantage of it.

Trevor, its looking excellent. Keep up the good work. Looks to be a very healthy reef starting. I like how u've positioned all the rock. More of a natural tumbled look, alot of places for fish to hide ect. I hope to have a similar look.

Thanks for all the positive remarks.

Just wanted to update you all, my tank no has life to it, I got a small clean up crew going and 2 green Chromis (SP).

They look like they are doing really well.