Taking the next step...maybe

I would like a little advice, I have had my FOWLR tank going about 2 years now. I am now wanting to move up to have some live corals. So I would like to get some suggestions on lighting and some specimens to start with. The current inhabitants are a powder blue tang, fox face 2 yellow tail blue and two domino damsels in a 65 gal tanks with a 5 gal sump. For lighting I have a 48" fluorescent with two 65 watt Actinic blue and two 65 watt daylight bulbs.

You have enough light to begin keeping zoas, polyps and mushrooms. Maybe some LPS down the road a bit.

The fox face is questionable. They have been known to eat corals, but each fish is different. If you keep him fed, he may not eat the corals. It's always a risk though.

Tell us about your filtration. Wet/dry? Canister?
Do you test for nitrates? What are the readings?
Are you using RO/DI water? If not - I HIGHLY recommend you buy an RO unit and start using it.
Do you have a skimmer?
Sump?
Refugium?
Macro algae?

Well right now you can start out with some softies(mushrooms,leathers,zoas,buttons) with the lighting you have...if you want lps's or even some lower light sps's then you should probably go with some T-5's HO.

Rcpilot said:

You have enough light to begin keeping zoas, polyps and mushrooms. Maybe some LPS down the road a bit.

The fox face is questionable. They have been known to eat corals, but each fish is different. If you keep him fed, he may not eat the corals. It's always a risk though.

Tell us about your filtration. Wet/dry? Canister?
Do you test for nitrates? What are the readings?
Are you using RO/DI water? If not - I HIGHLY recommend you buy an RO unit and start using it.
Do you have a skimmer?
Sump?
Refugium?
Macro algae?

Click to expand...

My filter is a wet dry with pre filter media, a HOB octopus skimmer, Premixed RO water from LFS. My nitrates or consistnly 5 or less, I am setting up a fuge, to host macro to hopefully pull nitrates down to 0

Rcpilot said:

The fox face is questionable. They have been known to eat corals, but each fish is different. If you keep him fed, he may not eat the corals. It's always a risk though.

Click to expand...

Keeping a foxface well fed is tough! I know mine doesn't ever get full. He'll destroy a handful of chaeto in an instant and still be looking for more.

That being said, mine never touches corals nor does he show any interest in it. You'll probably be fine.

ffm said:

My filter is a wet dry with pre filter media, a HOB octopus skimmer, Premixed RO water from LFS. My nitrates or consistnly 5 or less, I am setting up a fuge, to host macro to hopefully pull nitrates down to 0

Click to expand...

You're ready for corals.

Consider modding the wet dry into a fuge instead of buying/building a new one.

I made these drawings for another member. Typical wet/dry unit. Easy to mod into a working fuge if you can get some plexiglass cut and glue in a few baffles.

+1 Above
Go a head and start with softies like zoanthids,leathers and stuff like that.
Then if you want to get into more intensive corals,look into a good set of either T-5s or maybe even a T5/HQI combo.

Good luck! I'd suggest starting with some "easy" corals like the ones mentioned already, and when you get comfortable with them, start looking into upgrading your lights so you can try some of the more challenging species.