slt wtr stupid
Member
how many Non-Photosynthetic spieces are there? i'm new to this area and i'm not sure what is avalible to go into my tank with stock lights. Any help would be great the only ones i'm aware of are sun corals and gorgonians(sp).
How many
- Thread starter slt wtr stupid
- Start date
A
alexmir
Guest
some sponges are non-photo, carnation coral and lots of others from that family. But anything besides a sun coral is going to be alot of work. non-photosynthetic coral need almost constant food, really need a tank specially designed for them.
N
nonphotosynt
Guest
Large polyped stony corals:
Tubastrea spp.:
Deep orange, T. coccinea (all ID is "likely is" not 100% guarantee
)
Pale pinkish-orange more common, T. faulkneri
Pure yellow (lemon yellow), T. aurea, I have similarly looking branching corals, but it could be other Dendrophyllidae, not Tuabastrea.
Compact branching brownish-black T. diaphana.
Elongated brown with greenish tentacles T. micranthus (micrantha?)
T. floreana and T. tagusensis - I can't distinguish them from the others.
More on other their relatives here.
I have only low branching, small polyped Cladopsammia gracilis, but dendrophyllia is common (but expensive, comparing to tubastrea). Rhisos, with transparent tentacles - hear-say info, never seen them in trade. Cold water species, not alailable in stores, exist too.
Gorgonians:
Menella (yellow or blue polyps) seem to be most popular an resilient, don't have it.
Diodogorgia nodulifera, red or yellow finger gorgonians, are disputable in keeping. I have one for 2 yrs, some others had it declining after initial normal existence.
Swiftia excerta and S. kofoidi (yellow-red and flaming tangerine orange). Resistant to algae growth, but doesn't like to be burnt by LPS or pieces of seafood, rotting on its branches. Will have necrosis in these cases, but it's treatable.
Guaiagorgia, fine blue polyps. Prone to algae growth, I lost the significant part of mine in bryopsis outbreak.
"Stay away" species: Bliueberry gorgonian and Muricella plectana, wide multilayered fars, light blue large polyps and fine raspberry red polyps. If you find, how to keep them, post links, please.
More gorgonians are here, both non-photosynthetic and photosynthetic.
Soft corals:
High flow continuous feeding of the mouth sized food.
Dendronephthya, fragile and finest filter feeder, bacterioplankton including.
Scleronephthya, fluffy yellow, orange, rarely red or pink, darker mouth, uses larger food, including phytoplankton.
Chili coral, deep red palm with fingers shaped, nocturnal, tricky. Some have no problems with it (and most do not want to answer, how they keep them), others fight for years to meet their disputable needs, for most they die (I think,that it is just inappropriate systems).
These are main groups, but there are other corals too.
Don't forget fine filter feeders, that can live in the same tank with the same care, but are not a corals:
- filter feeding sea cucumbers
- feather stars
- sponges (I had problems with them),
- scallops (one guy had them reproducing).
But I'm not advising to keep them, just informing about their existance, don't beat me
Tubastrea spp.:
Deep orange, T. coccinea (all ID is "likely is" not 100% guarantee
)Pale pinkish-orange more common, T. faulkneri
Pure yellow (lemon yellow), T. aurea, I have similarly looking branching corals, but it could be other Dendrophyllidae, not Tuabastrea.
Compact branching brownish-black T. diaphana.
Elongated brown with greenish tentacles T. micranthus (micrantha?)
T. floreana and T. tagusensis - I can't distinguish them from the others.
More on other their relatives here.
I have only low branching, small polyped Cladopsammia gracilis, but dendrophyllia is common (but expensive, comparing to tubastrea). Rhisos, with transparent tentacles - hear-say info, never seen them in trade. Cold water species, not alailable in stores, exist too.
Gorgonians:
Menella (yellow or blue polyps) seem to be most popular an resilient, don't have it.
Diodogorgia nodulifera, red or yellow finger gorgonians, are disputable in keeping. I have one for 2 yrs, some others had it declining after initial normal existence.
Swiftia excerta and S. kofoidi (yellow-red and flaming tangerine orange). Resistant to algae growth, but doesn't like to be burnt by LPS or pieces of seafood, rotting on its branches. Will have necrosis in these cases, but it's treatable.
Guaiagorgia, fine blue polyps. Prone to algae growth, I lost the significant part of mine in bryopsis outbreak.
"Stay away" species: Bliueberry gorgonian and Muricella plectana, wide multilayered fars, light blue large polyps and fine raspberry red polyps. If you find, how to keep them, post links, please.
More gorgonians are here, both non-photosynthetic and photosynthetic.
Soft corals:
High flow continuous feeding of the mouth sized food.
Dendronephthya, fragile and finest filter feeder, bacterioplankton including.
Scleronephthya, fluffy yellow, orange, rarely red or pink, darker mouth, uses larger food, including phytoplankton.
Chili coral, deep red palm with fingers shaped, nocturnal, tricky. Some have no problems with it (and most do not want to answer, how they keep them), others fight for years to meet their disputable needs, for most they die (I think,that it is just inappropriate systems).
These are main groups, but there are other corals too.
Don't forget fine filter feeders, that can live in the same tank with the same care, but are not a corals:
- filter feeding sea cucumbers
- feather stars
- sponges (I had problems with them),
- scallops (one guy had them reproducing).
But I'm not advising to keep them, just informing about their existance, don't beat me
slt wtr stupid
Member
sounds like maybe i should just stay with sun corals thanks for all the info this kind of response is exactly why i asked before i did something i would regret
mx#28
Active Member
Originally Posted by slt wtr stupid
http:///forum/post/2718704
sounds like maybe i should just stay with sun corals thanks for all the info this kind of response is exactly why i asked before i did something i would regret
Frankly, even though they can be hardy and their needs are fairly well understood, sun corals can be very difficult in the long-term, too, just because of the time and trouble involved with feeding them.
http:///forum/post/2718704
sounds like maybe i should just stay with sun corals thanks for all the info this kind of response is exactly why i asked before i did something i would regret
Frankly, even though they can be hardy and their needs are fairly well understood, sun corals can be very difficult in the long-term, too, just because of the time and trouble involved with feeding them.
N
nonphotosynt
Guest
i asked before i did something i would regret
That is a separate question.
Getting into aquariumistics already can be the thing, that one will regret in a couple of years (I'm not asking for a troubles, folks!). Improving, new and new equipment, that (possibly!) can help to solve the problems, more and more inhabitants, that require a much bigger tank, or more tanks - you name it.
Lack of information and peculiar tank's behaviour too.
For example, keeping in the same tank a lot of sun corals and swiftia gorgonian, if the suns are fed not by whole crustaceans, but by homemade seafood. Pieces of this food will float away and hand on the swiftia branches. One night of this - and one has a case of necrosis to treat.
Or changing flow in the tank - just redirecting - to make a strong flow around declining Muricella gorgonian. This little bit leaded to the lack of flow behind the rock and around small suns, result: detritus accumulation and die-off of the small sun corals. If they were observable, it not so bad (can be stopped right after noticing) but the flow had to be returned to previous pattern. Very frustrating.
Having this ( green growth on the rock):
This (different kinds of red slime, including high flow area):
This (transparent strands of unknown origin):
This ( film on glass, when the new food was used, Shellfish diet and Rotifeast, which worked like a charm for others):
Briopsis and turf algae, acting as deep sand bed, accumulating floating particled of food and fertilizibg themselves this way:
Using probiotic, and having this instead of crystal clear water:
That is a separate question.
Getting into aquariumistics already can be the thing, that one will regret in a couple of years (I'm not asking for a troubles, folks!). Improving, new and new equipment, that (possibly!) can help to solve the problems, more and more inhabitants, that require a much bigger tank, or more tanks - you name it.
Lack of information and peculiar tank's behaviour too.
For example, keeping in the same tank a lot of sun corals and swiftia gorgonian, if the suns are fed not by whole crustaceans, but by homemade seafood. Pieces of this food will float away and hand on the swiftia branches. One night of this - and one has a case of necrosis to treat.
Or changing flow in the tank - just redirecting - to make a strong flow around declining Muricella gorgonian. This little bit leaded to the lack of flow behind the rock and around small suns, result: detritus accumulation and die-off of the small sun corals. If they were observable, it not so bad (can be stopped right after noticing) but the flow had to be returned to previous pattern. Very frustrating.
Having this ( green growth on the rock):
This (different kinds of red slime, including high flow area):
This (transparent strands of unknown origin):
This ( film on glass, when the new food was used, Shellfish diet and Rotifeast, which worked like a charm for others):
Briopsis and turf algae, acting as deep sand bed, accumulating floating particled of food and fertilizibg themselves this way:
Using probiotic, and having this instead of crystal clear water:
N
nonphotosynt
Guest
Particularly troublesome pieces (no hair algae on other scleronephthya rocks):
Bristle worms out of control:
or aiptasia, regrowing back every 3 weeks:
Treatment of such amount of aiptasia leads to the shaking tank balance and coraline dieoff, not good. There are fish and
crustaceans, that can control bristle worms and aiptasia, but no Christmas tree worms in such tanks (and I have them).
Add skimmer, that is not keeping water clean and energy efficient powerheads, giving the soft flow, but losing the bearings all the time and starting to rattle... Not a nice life for a reefkeeper, especially knowing, that this is an own doing
Seeing other people's tanks photos: crystal clear water, not a sign of troubles you are facing. Trying to do the same, what they do and discover, that there will be some obstacles, preventing this... Pretty frustrating. Wanting to reduce all of this to manageable size, but already having too much inhabitants and having headache over this.
Back to business: choices to regret.
In my humble experience, one sun coral (hardiest of all of them) with few heads is less troublesome, than several big colonies, that require 8 cubes of frozen food at each feeding (twice a week, more frequently in smaller doses is desirable). At first, this amount of ready made food is more expensive, than grated raw seafood, that pollutes water more. But both will pollute water.
And then there are tanks with even more sun corals without these problems: link, link, link, link.
Here is how and what I'm feeding to my sun corals collection.
Sorry, have to go.
This is how the gorgonians, dendros and scleros tank looks like (no many suns), one more, more, and the main article on topic.
Bristle worms out of control:
or aiptasia, regrowing back every 3 weeks:
Treatment of such amount of aiptasia leads to the shaking tank balance and coraline dieoff, not good. There are fish and
crustaceans, that can control bristle worms and aiptasia, but no Christmas tree worms in such tanks (and I have them).
Add skimmer, that is not keeping water clean and energy efficient powerheads, giving the soft flow, but losing the bearings all the time and starting to rattle... Not a nice life for a reefkeeper, especially knowing, that this is an own doing
Seeing other people's tanks photos: crystal clear water, not a sign of troubles you are facing. Trying to do the same, what they do and discover, that there will be some obstacles, preventing this... Pretty frustrating. Wanting to reduce all of this to manageable size, but already having too much inhabitants and having headache over this.
Back to business: choices to regret.
In my humble experience, one sun coral (hardiest of all of them) with few heads is less troublesome, than several big colonies, that require 8 cubes of frozen food at each feeding (twice a week, more frequently in smaller doses is desirable). At first, this amount of ready made food is more expensive, than grated raw seafood, that pollutes water more. But both will pollute water.
And then there are tanks with even more sun corals without these problems: link, link, link, link.
Here is how and what I'm feeding to my sun corals collection.
Sorry, have to go.
This is how the gorgonians, dendros and scleros tank looks like (no many suns), one more, more, and the main article on topic.
A
alexmir
Guest
wow, that rock covered in a buffet of algea and aiptasia gave me shivers........I will have nightmares about those pics tonight
N
nonphotosynt
Guest
Understandable, these are my everyday daymares. Speaking of regrets