Need a little help

[Salti]

Ok guys this is my first post as well as my first salt water tank so bear with me. I need a little help identifying the coral below. I haven't really been directly feeding it anything but it seems to be doing ok. However, I am a a little concerned with the bottom half of the coral, it doesn't like to come out as often as the part closer to the surface. I am assuming I have enough lighting, (two ho t5 and its a 75 gallon tank, not deep at all), and the water is in check with the salinity at 1.025. I also have a mated pair of perculas and a condy which don't seem to notice each other, maybe one day they will take to each other.

So my question is does this look healthy, and if not what can I do to help the coral? Is there any way to make the coral come out more, seemed to be amazing at the fish store and now its just ok.

And the condy

 

[Leighton79]

The coral looks like GSP to me, green star polyps. It's funny stuff I have some in a tank where I've recently got the water super clean, where as before it was running a little dirty. It's started to sulk on me, pretty much as yours looks to be doing. Maybe they prefer water that is slightly more nutrient rich, as Xenia seems to.

As for the condy, it will likely eat your clowns if they attempt to use it as a host, so maybe not the best of ideas.

All just my opinion though. Others may tell you different.

 

[Rutrag]

Two T5s on a 75 isn't all that much light and you will likely have trouble supporting the nem. As leighton said, its unlikely that the clowns will use a condy as a host. The gsp is pretty tolerant by comparison, but could use some more light as well to get all the polyps out. If at all possible, double or even triple your light intensity for best results with most photosynthetic inverts.

 

[Salti]

I was looking into more light, but am still trying to decide on what to go with. I really want to go metal halide, but don't so much like the price. I know it's probably frowned upon, but I have looked for fixtures on eBay and some seem to be fairly comparable. Any thoughts in that area? What would y'all recommend for lighting? 500 watts of metal halide to supplement the two t5s or a hole new fixture with say 6 t5s? Also how do y'all deal with the heat? Just my two t5s will warm the water up half a degree to a degree. Usually sits about 79.

Thanks for yalls help.

 

[Salti]

Bump bump

 

[Rutrag]

I think the 75 is too wide for a single metal halide. You might check fishneedit.com for either a four or six bulb T5 or a two 150w metal halide fixture. Their prices seem pretty reasonable.

 

[mr_X]

i would go with 2 x 250 watts of metal halide over a 75. the 150s aren't much.
a 6 lamp t5 ho fixture is also a good choice.