Is it worth the troubles? It depends, IMHE:
Not, if feed the big colony in the tank without skimmer, that is unable to process what was left from the feeding (mostly liquid, the big piceces can be removed). It's really irritating to fight for keeping water from fouling by water changes. In a 3 months even my patience came to the end.
Yes, in the tank with a big skimmer and micron sock, with massive feedings of the other inhabitants, one more feeding twice a week changes nothing.
On the bright side:
- this coral is very bright and quite large sized (at least mine is), the impact of such splash of the sunny color is significant, especially in low lit tanks, like for the deep water fish.
- it will grow in the areas, where
photosynthetic corals will have troubles.
- the brighest corals, I could find - neon green candycane,
red mushrooms and tangerine swiftia - are incomparable in the brightness and the size of the colorful spot.
- it requires significantly less care, than the soft non-photosynthetic corals, that have to be fed several times a day, with a fine food, that can't be bought in a local food supermarket.
- it's very hard to kill, unless it's burned by other corals. It's babies were lost in the unfed tanks for a months, after being found and moved into the fed tank - started to grow, if nothing happened.
This link (pdf) should led to the photos of the tank, filled by tubastreas:
Daniela Torsten's tank.
Would I buy it again, after what I already encountered? Yes.
After more than year, I'm in peace with it.
also i keep forgetting to ask you, how long have you had all your filter-feeding corals ?
"we're going to need a bigger tank..."
