coral qustions

[dulk]

i am fairly new to saltwater. i have a few corals that are doing well so far- a tree leather, mushroom, and frogspawn. while shopping online i ran into these beautiful things-

Acan Sub

sun coral

i cant find much info, of course the seller says they are easy but i wanted a second opinion. what type of lighing do they need? i have 260 watt compact flourecents. are these a bad idea for a newb?

 

[BigJay]

not sure on the acan but the sun coral is a shade coral. It has to be fed.

 

[dulk]

i dont feel the others but i can certainly get some food for the sun if thats what it needs. are they hardy?

 

[BigJay]

Orange Sun Coral (Tubastrea faulkneri)

read that. I wouldn't think it a novice coral.

 

[BigAl07]

Jay is mostly right. While they grow in "Shadey" areas in the wild it's not because they NEED the shade but they don't need the light so why compete with other corals for something you don't need? They live in areas with low light usually but have a good amount of flow. They get 100% of their food from the water column. Particles of food (could be anything really) floating in the current sticks to them and it becomes ENERGY!

Also yes they have to be fed.. each and every head is it's own animal and each one needs to be fed.

Good luck and KUDOS for researching before hand

 

[dulk]

what about the acan?

 

[reefer4200]

Id agree with both, they are IMO not a novice coral. Because you have to feed each head individually it takes time and patience as well as pretty much anything in the hobby. And depending on tank size feeding can cause outburst of nitrates which happened to me because of them in my smaller tank. I havent had them since as they really are not easy to take care of. The acan however are generally pretty easy to take care of.

 

[dulk]

i have a 100 gal tank but maybe i'll just stick with the acan if its fairly easy. will my lighting support it?

 

[reefer4200]

i dont believe you need super intense lighting for them so your should be fine...and you 100gallon is a good size. Mines a 125 and i have never had a nitrate issue and i feed generously. What kidna set-up do you have?

 

[BigJay]

. While they grow in "Shadey" areas in the wild it's not because they NEED the shade but they don't need the light so why compete with other corals for something you don't need?

thx for the correction AL. I 've seen them in really brite tanks though and they just seem to stay closed up all the time.

 

[dulk]

you guys are awesome. thank you so much for the info. i dont know much about our set-up. my husband set it up and i get to stock it

 

[BigAl07]

This is true Jay. It's because (and I'm just guessing here) they are used to feeding in the darkness and tend to open up in dimmer conditions after the lights go out. Mine (when I first got it) would only really open fully after the mains went out (11pm-ish). I started feeding every time around 6:30pm and in a couple of weeks they started being OPEN before I would get home from work around 5:30 or so. Unfortunately I didn't have the dedication and devotion to feeding EVERY head and they started "fading" and I lost the colony. Bad Allen.. VERY Bad Allen

 

[BigJay]

theres no doubt they are one of the more specatular corals but thats why I 've stayed away from them. I just can't dedicate myself enough to feed every single polyp every single day... thats a lot of work.

 

[dulk]

is it a matter of it being time consuming to feed them? or is it hard to get them to eat? one thing ive got it time lol.

 

[lcstorc]

Mostly time consuming but also hard to feed each coral without leavine a lot of excess food to rot. Frankie has some incredible ones or at least did. I'll see if I can find him to give advice. The thing I have been told is the easiest is to cut a bottle (like a soda bottle) in half and put the top half over the coral like a dome. Then slowly (very slowly) squirt a small amount of mysis or another food in the dome. Then make sure it stays suspended in the water. Gradually add more food and do your best to see that each head gets food. I believe you want to do this a couple of times a week.

 

[BigAl07]

:bluenod:

Lynn's right on the money here

 

[Frankie]

Flow and pod population is what made me so successful with sun corals. At night I would observe them closing on the pods as they ran over them. Also mine would fully open in the day time during feeding time. They love the mysis shrimp and would get plenty in the flow of my tank. Flow is key top there survival imo. I never fed mine individually but know a lot of successful keepers that do. I found that keeping the temperature at a stead 76f made a difference also. When I was at 79-80 they did not fare as well in my system.

 

[BigJay]

nice info Frankie. So if you have a PH giving them steady flow with a very healthy pod population and you could keep them without at least having to feed them every single day. If thats the case I might reconsider them at some point. I have a really nice overhang that could keep them somewhat shaded maybe convincing them to stay open during daylight hours... hmmm.