Kat, Martini, Peef, Dark, a lil help please

[sigmachris]

You guys seem to be the royalty of BioCubes so I have a coral question for you...I have a 14G BioCube with stock lighting and I am debating on some stuff that I may buy from another SWF member next week during my business trip.
Mini Carpet Anemone - can these be kept? Lauren it was your post in the trading section that got me going on this. The seller is currently keeping them in a 20L with 100W of PC light so I think they would be OK.
Green Favia - would this do well with the stock lighting?
Thanks in advance for your help. After one year with this tank my corals have been limited to mushrooms, yellow polyps, and frogspawn so I am a little nervous about throwing down money on some more advanced stuff.
Thanks again,
Chris

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by SigmaChris
You guys seem to be the royalty of BioCubes so I have a coral question for you...I have a 14G BioCube with stock lighting and I am debating on some stuff that I may buy from another SWF member next week during my business trip.
Mini Carpet Anemone - can these be kept? Lauren it was your post in the trading section that got me going on this. The seller is currently keeping them in a 20L with 100W of PC light so I think they would be OK.
Green Favia - would this do well with the stock lighting?
Thanks in advance for your help. After one year with this tank my corals have been limited to mushrooms, yellow polyps, and frogspawn so I am a little nervous about throwing down money on some more advanced stuff.
Thanks again,
Chris
I would say no to the mini carpet. Although they are kept in a 20gal tank its a long tank and its shallow, much more than a cube tank is. A 20gal long is only 12" high, a 14 gal cube is about 15 or 16" tall that 3 to 4 inches makes an enourmous difference. You also have 50watts less light than the tank it came from too. So with certainty I would say no to the mini carpet.
IMO your ok with the Favia they can survive under moderate lighting.
You can look into a purple brush gorgoinan, they are photosynthetic but lower light demanding, bubble coral, plate coral, and a miriad of colored zoa's to help spice up the colors in your tank.

 

[sigmachris]

Thanks for the quick reply...just a follow up question though, what if the mini carpet was spot feed once or twice a week?
I'm NOT trying to drag this thread out until I get the answer I want to hear, but just trying to inform myself.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by SigmaChris
Thanks for the quick reply...just a follow up question though, what if the mini carpet was spot feed once or twice a week?
I'm NOT trying to drag this thread out until I get the answer I want to hear, but just trying to inform myself.
Thanks in advance,
Chris
You would keep it alive longer than if you didnt feed at all but long term it would still suffer.

 

[kat74]

I don't really know anything about the mini carpets to be able to give you a proper answer.

What PerfectDark said makes sense, and I know that Lauren has MH lighting, so she should be fine with the mini carpets.
The green favia shouldn't be a problem at all.

As for other things that you can try to add color and variety to your tank with the stock lighting, you can get some ricordeas, toadstool leather, green star polyps, zoanthids and a plate coral to start... The ricordeas and zoanthids come in thousands of color combinations, so you can't go wrong there! Plus, they're pretty easy to care for.

I have a 4" custom zoa rock being made for me right now with different colors (I requested "girly" colors

) and I can't wait to get that! Zoanthids can really add a lot of color to your tank, so you should definately try some of those!
I don't currently have any green star polyps, but I had some flourescent green ones in my 14 gallon Biocube and I loved it. Currently looking for some of that now...
I don't have any plans right now to upgrade my lighting because the corals that I seem to like do well with the stock lighting.

 

[sigmachris]

I didn't mention, but also part of the pick up will be some red / purple Zoas that I am pretty excited for. All the zoo's I see her in my stores are brownish in color.
Thanks for the input Kat,
Chris

 

[kat74]

Originally Posted by SigmaChris
I didn't mention, but also part of the pick up will be some red / purple Zoas that I am pretty excited for. All the zoo's I see her in my stores are brownish in color.
Thanks for the input Kat,
Chris
Same here... I always see the brownish colors at my LFS too. For the colorful ones, I had to go the popular a u c t i o n route and other online vendors.
You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck with your choices and keep us updated!

 

[peef]

I agree with what everyone said they beat me to it! Zoos are fantastic and you could keep a variety and REALLY color up your tank. The Mini carpet nem has roughly the same lighting needs as a regular nem and would need more than you could provide it. Demartini has a 70w MH on her 14g cube so she does have plenty of lighting. The favia will be great in your tank. I had one as one of my first corals and I LOOOVED it. When I upgraded my lighting it didn't take too well so I gave it to a friend with the same tank but stock lighting. You should definetly post us some pics though of the new stuff you get!