Elegant Coral Question

[beckzilla]

I just got an Elegant Coral and was wondering since this site for some reason does not list the acclimation time or anything at all, what is the acclimation time and what is the best location for it. In sandbed or on rock? Close or far away from MH? High flow or low? ThanksI know that this coral is very difficult to keep and any info on proper care would be appreciated.

 

[nas19320]

Good luck with the Elegance coral, what once was an easy to keep coral has recently shown not to live long.

 

[cincyreefer]

Sandbed, low to medium flow. IME, lighting is not real important as long as you are using pc's, vho's, or halides. They do best in tanks with more of a lagoonal setting. No protein skimmer and high pod populations.

 

[beckzilla]

Thanks cincy, i was leaning towards on the DSB and low flow but wanted to make sure. What problems will a skimmer cause to the coral?

 

[ivanfj]

I first thought they require high lighting and on the sandbed with medium flow. Now since cincy brought this skimmerless environment, I would like to hear about this as well, so I guess I should just tag along.

 

[nas19320]

There's actually a study going on about Elegance corals by Eric Borneman as to why there seems to be such a problem keeping them alive lately. There are a lot of theories but I don't think any conclusion yet as to what causes them to die.

 

[irenicus]

Where did you read about Borneman's project? Sounds really interesting. :thinking:

 

[nm reef]

It is available on another site...but reference to that site here is a violation of forum policy. If you are truely interested than a search will provide results that will lead you to the study.
Elegance corals have been on the difficult to keep list for a few years that I know of...folks say that previously they were much hardier and that may have been due to less filtration...skimmers etc.
Nobody really knows exactly why they seldom survive long...but spectulation is that the starve due to lack of proper diet requirements in typical reef systems.:thinking:

 

[spline9]

I remember reading somewhere about this theory about once hardy creatures that become difficult to keep...
It was said that the critters were gathered from areas that are much like the reefs we try to simulate in our tanks. Due to overharvesting the critters needed to be harvested from other areas (ie: deeper waters) which do not match our tanks conditions. This leads to specimens that we see as "difficult to keep". As mentioned above, running skimmerless might be a sign of that. I'm not exactly sure but this theory seems to make sense to me. Just thought I'd throw this out there for people to ponder...