Quote:
Originally Posted by elegance coral  I have been working on the Elegance coral problem for about a year and a half. I feel very strongly that I know why we are haveing such a hard time with these corals. ... |
I believe you may be on to something here. It may not be the entire reason behind elegance corals being tough to keep, but I do believe it's a step in the correct direction.
About 20 years ago, elegance corals that were available were obviously from shallower water, in other words easy to collect. These would be able to deal with brighter light, and would be subject to more red and yellow light. They were not considered especially difficult to keep. I did know several people that kept them for extended periods of time. (Over several years)
In addition, 20 years ago, it was a rare person that used MH, or even VHO lighting. Many of us got by with normal output fluorescent lighting, typically using something like 4 bulbs over a 55 gal tank. This is only about 3w per gal, a very low amount by todays standards.
Also, even the normal output bulbs were limited. Full spectrum bulbs used with actinic bulbs was preferred. The full spectrum bulbs had a color temp of only about 5000K to 6500K. While this was a low color temp, not very much light was being used. (See above) The actinic bulbs would have provided a lot of blue light.
Reef systems 20 years ago used much less powerful filtration systems, especially in the area of skimmers. So the water would tend to have more nutrients. Elegance corals will feed on small bits of shrimp and other similar food, so I'm not sure if this could be a problem or not.
Good luck with your project. Elegance coral is one I'd sure like to see available in large amounts, through propagation. When they are in good shape that are a fantastic coral.
Another factor may be that we use a lot more circulation in our systems today. A lot of other corals love this flow. I'm not sure about elegance corals.