Carnation Coral & Lighting / feeding?

[sweevo]

In my over enthusiasm to get my hands on a couple of new soft corals I've ended up with a Purple Carnation (tree?) Coral.

 

After doing some research and seeing the "Expert Only" signs on the net I began to panic slightly and thought maybe i'd better take it back to the shop. The owner of the store (40 miles away) assured me it would be easy to keep if I kept it out of the light and fed Marine Snow twice a week.

 

All seems fine at the minute in that it certainly springs into life at night (and during the day) looking for food. Due to the layout of rock etc in my tank though I've also been unable to shelter it from my lighting. The rig I have is 48W T5 and the coral itself is close to the bottom of my 18" deep tank.

 

So with the above in mind, my questions are:

 

1) Will having this coral out in the open, given my lighting, have a detrimental effect on this coral?

 

2) Will Marine Snow twice a week really be all i'll need to add this coral?

 

Thanks ever so much for any input on this. I'd hate for this coral to have a slow death due to lack of care on my part.