Corals. (various)

Question
Hey Jennifer,
(again!)
I have upgraded my lighting to a metal halide unit (250watt) with 4 or 6 lunar lights (I don't remember off hand and I am way too lazy to get up and look at the moment haha), I used to only have mushrooms in the tank (which I still have, and have added to), but I just added some "daisy polyps" or "star polyps" or "8-tenticle polyps" whichever you prefer to call them.
It's just a SMALL frag, maybe 15 heads/polyp thingies on it (which I am happy with), and I had acclimated it VERY slowly as any coral/invertebrate should be. Its about mid level in my tank (the tank is maybe 2 feet deep, so I'd say the polyps are about a foot, maybe 10 inches underwater). The light sits about 3 inches above the top of the tank, and maybe 5 inches above waterlevel.
NOW for the question part!
I was told they enjoy a mid to high level of current, and I have a Koralia power head around that area I had been running (never seemed to bother the mushrooms). However, I noticed that while it was on the polyps stayed hidden in their little... fleshy part, and did not extend their tentacle thingies. I have since had the powerhead off for about a week, and they come out on a daily basis (i have cut back the lighting hours on my tank as to try and not shock them, even tho the store I got them from supplied metal halide lighting it was on a track and moved around the tanks). I was cautioned that if not in a mid to high level current area they may form unwanted algae or something of that matter within them and would cause an issue.
Huffhuff. Do you think it's the current really bothering them, or were they still adjusting to the lighting? When do you think it will be safe to up the hours on my lighting again? (at the moment I believe I have it set for about 7 hours on, the lunar lights stay on all the time).
Also: I had some mushrooms that were not attached to rockwork, I put them in a small plastic container, and put coral prop discs on the bottom (they didn't cover the entire bottom) and VERY CAREFULLY placed each shroom on each disc... They have since wandered off into a crevice between discs and are sitting on the plastic container part :/
Should I let them attach to the plastic and then cut around the base, or do you think if I moved them back up onto the discs they might stay?
Thanks for all the help, and sorry my question was/is so darn long. Ha Ha.

AlsoAlso, I changed my filtration from intank whispers, or an eheim ecco canister filter, followed up with a sqwd (wave-maker?) Do you recommend keeping the intank heater or would it be worth investing into an "inline" heater?

Answer
Hi Alisha. What a mouthful! Sounds like your tank is doing good! Now to answer your many questions(just teasing)! The star polyps do like some water flow around them to keep any detritus from building up on them which in turn will cause them to not open and eventually die. However they do not like a strong current but more of a gentle movement in the water. If you look at them when they are open and they only slightly sway in the current then you are doing good by them. They should not look as if they were in a hurricane and be all swaying erratically around. A small current is best. They also may have not opened up simply due to the new environment although I typically see these polyps opened up the day after we get them in to our store so if they were closed up for longer you may have had too high of a flow of water on them. As for the lighting, simply leave the halides on a little longer each day increasing the time by fifteen minutes each day until you are up to your normal day/night schedule.
Mushrooms will attach where the mushrooms want to attach! Your best bet would be to simply glue them on the frag discs with a coral glue. I have even heard people who use superglue for this although I am not sure which brand is safe and which is not so you may want to stick to the coral glue. They sell this glue just about everywhere you can buy your corals and fish from. I would not recommend cutting the plastic and letting them attach to that surface permanently. Some plastics can leach out harmful chemicals into a saltwater tank if left in the water for an extended period of time. get yourself some coral glue. This is way easier!
As far as the heater goes I honestly do not have any experience with in line heaters. Sorry! I like to be able to see that my heater is working and am very comforted by the little orange light coming on and off as it is heating my water. If I can't see it working I do not like it! I have had too many problems in the past with malfunctioning heaters. This is just my opinion and my O.C.D. talking. You may feel perfectly at ease with an inline heater and I would have to say that the heater sitting on the wall of any tank is not a pretty sight to look at!