sun coral has spawned

[jennyf78]

i wish i could have seen it spawn. i have about 20 or so new babies everywhere.

[Twitterbait]

sweet. can you get us some pictures? usually the skimmer would get any babies first. Cool.

[jennyf78]

my digital camera sucks, i cant even get a verry good picture of my corals they come out blurry. sorry i wish i could.

[Sprayin70]

How are your sun babies doing?

[jennyf78]

they are doin great! getting big, i will try to get some pics soon.

[Reefyone]

What are you feeding them (or tank)?

I also have sun coral babies for a few months, these that are in lower flow and are fed by dried Cyclop-eeze grow slower, than these, who are in the high flow (shielded by the small piece of rock) and the tank is fed by frozen cubes (mysis, marine diet/cusine, ocean plankton, enriched brine) are growing faster.

[Loverotties]

Congrads! Like to see pics also!

[jennyf78]

i dont feed the babies at all and are thriving well.

[jennmac415]

any pics of these babies yet?? I would love to see them.

[Reefyone]

Originally Posted by jennmac415

any pics of these babies yet?? I would love to see them.

Here is link to my thread with their photos, or one photo is at this foum.

[ReefChris]

Here's a QT movie of my Sun Coral caught in the act...

Tomato clown ate well!

The tank was full of little orange balls at one point...

http://homepage.mac.com/cwserver/iMovieTheater20.html

[JY13131]

That is SO cool!

[ReefChris]

Glad you like ... Joanne!

Seven weeks into the Marine tank thing and I'm hooked. I've already ordered a 110 gallon rig for the office at my business! Planning to have a FOWLR with
the big boys ( puffer, Lionfish etc) Everyone at the office is excited!

Back to the nano ... I have to report that the (branching) Sun Coral isn't doing so well.
It's not opening enough for me to feed even when the lights are off.
Now it's shedding tissue, especially when I try to suction off the redbrown algae that has a habbit of coating it. I knew this was a "difficult" coral to keep ... but I dont know what else I can do. My water specs are good and I add calcium and essential elements to keep the Corals happy.

If anyone can advise (moderator SOS?) please do ...

BTW ... spawning definitely had a negative impact on the older polyps. The smaller polyps that were too young to spawn seem to be OK.
i figure that in the moonlight phase they are catching smaller water borne food that floats by since they are way to small to swallow whole Mysis ...and in some cases even too small to eat the copepods.

Since I do add rotifers too there should be enough food size range for everyone...

All the best

Chris

[Twitterbait]

Sorry to hear about the problems. can you please give me the stats on the tank parameters and also when you did the last water change? normally you shouldn't need to add the elements so you may actually have too much of something in the tank.

[ReefChris]

Hi Twitterbait,

Last water change 29th Jan (20%)

Tank params via API test kit & Mardel test strips:

Calcium 380 ppm (will push this to 450 or so)
Nitrate 10 ppm (oops getting a bit high)
Nitrite < .5 ppm
Phosphate 0 ppm
12 kH
pH approx 8.0
SG 1.0235 (will be pushing this closer to 1.025)
Ammonia 0

I have added two 1/2 tsp doses of Kent essential elems in two weeks. That's all.
Plus some Kent calcium because even after water change it was only 350 ppm


On a happier note ... last night I removed a film of red/brown algae off my yellow gorgonian (by squirting water at it inside the tank).

This morning it is covered with open white feeding polyps! More than were open at the LFS when I bought it.