Sea Fans & Gorgonians

[ChilisREasy]

I dont have any gorgs right at the moment,but i will get some pics of the chili eating & document successs & failure of different foods & try to get some videos too, i got my 1st digital camera last month & im still figuring it out so give me some time to get the detailed pics.ill post them in the ''Chili Corals'' Thread

[Reefyone]

OK. It will take time.
What camera, BTW? I tried 3 of them, before stopped at the current one. Just curious.
And, you probably already know, the free hosting images is at photobucket.com (allows to insert full-size images into the thread) and webshots.com (thumbnails). Small, but efficient freeware graphic editing program - IrfanView. Just in case.

[ReefChris]

YLChik,

The "macro" as you call it is a seaweed called Deadmans Finger:

http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_spe...ab=4&inhab=154

[Fly Guy]

Beautiful macroshots Reefyone

[YLChik]

Originally Posted by ReefChris

YLChik,

The "macro" as you call it is a seaweed called Deadmans Finger:

http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_spe...ab=4&inhab=154

thanks Chris

[ScruffyRubicon]

Beautiful pics!

[osprey77]

while on the subject i have a red gorg, here is the pic, i was told to feed phytoplankton? but he has been receeding. I moved it to the top of the thank right in front of the jet. Is that too much, or not enough. I figure this is the feeding kind not the photo kind.

[tims]

in the face of the flow maybe a bit too much

[Reefyone]

What a beauty! And it's very different kind from mine, sold under the same name...

Is it possible to place in the flow, reflected from the glass. The force of flow - just enought to spring the the coral a little.

Food - you may try a small zooplankton, whatever is possible to obtain, other than bottled kind. For such small polyps, amy be, something like frozen baby brine shrimp, ZoPlan (the only available to me ), Golden pearls, oyster eggs - had heard the good things about them.

And - no offence, just in case - your picture looks too big on my screen. Would be better to keep pictures smaller, up to 700 pixels in size. Or, when show particular detail - crop the part of the big photo. There is freeware, allowing to do that fast and easy, that I'm using - IrfanView.

[XeniaGirl]

some of these pics are just stunning - makes me jealous that you guys have a better camera than I do! But one day............

[Reefyone]

Originally Posted by XeniaGirl

some of these pics are just stunning - makes me jealous that you guys have a better camera than I do! But one day............

You can try to make your camera to do it's best - search the Photography subforums at Reef forums for the camera name, and ask the people, who was able to get decent shots, about settings for this camera, step-by-step. I now have the more advanced camera, have problems with making it work better, than that, that made all my pictures, and one guy actually answered. His model was different, but the logic definitely helped.

Good light (could be additional side desktop lamp), not breathing heavily when pressing button, smooothly pressing button without immediate release it back - like at competitive shooting - helps too. If the coral is not 18" back in the tank, it will looks better.


Sunday bought similarly looking gorgonian on sale, only the branches are not fused, as for gorgonian in the first post. Didn't open yet, but it came unattached and, until I figure out how to attach it without cutting, it drops down time from time.

Please, keep us posted about how is doing the fan-looking gorgonian - there are not much info on the web.

[ChilisREasy]

any updates on your gorgonains Reefyone ? im currently waiting some aquaculterd frags from a long-time reefer freind, bright yellow ones & im going to add a skimmer to my system to cut down on cyano but still feed alot, hopefully this wont bother chili coral, & new sponges (check it out in my gallery ) we'll have to wait & see !

[Reefyone]

Hi there!
More or less current state of affairs (not aesthetical, but so far my tasks are to keep them alive, easy bottom cleaning, keeping bristle worms population under control and keeping LR after filtration, it's visibly cleaner then):


6g NC with 2 red Diodogorgia (vertical shapes at left), 1 frag of yellow Diodogorgia (practically the same, touched each other for hours without ill effects, so far), and the wide shapes on the right are likely Siphonogorgia
Another link for them. You can use Google language tools for translation.
Same care, same fragging. These gorgonians differ one from another - left has light red skin and very dark "knots" and more opaque white polyps, the second is usual - dark red with slightly darker knots with transparent polyps, siphonogorgia #1 the same - dark red with slightly darker knots, smaller and more denser polyps, thinner branches, siphonogorgia #2, rightest, has very high density of polyps, independent from feeding (unlike the first diodogorgia, more food - more "flowers"), and polyps have very long curved tentacles - looks really nice. Yellow diodogorgia (not on this photo) is plain, yellow with inaccurate blood-red knots and white polyps, got it just for comparison and it is small.

The system for a last months:

Main tank is dark - for a chili corals, for gorgonians 18W combo PC was good. The LR if after 100 micron or less filter sock, changed daily or twice daily - clean for night. LR is much cleaner now and you can grow photosynthetic corals there. The sump can be smaller, half of the main tank, bit it's the only vessel I have of the same height, that main tank has. The sump has a small power filter with filter floss pad and phosphate removing media.
Interesting thing - even after micron sock, LR sheds a lot of detritus even months

[Reefyone]

It seems, that I reached the limit of the post lengths, sorry. Continue:

even after micron sock, LR sheds a lot of detritus even months later, have to be siphoned out weekly or twice a week, and the water parameters were twice better, than usual, when the sump held LR 2/3-3/4 of the volume. After I removed LR in another tank, and LR amount was only 1/4 of the sump - the corals, all, stopped to open next day. Added established biomedia from another tank (Seachem Matrix) - opened again. And I thought, that such amount of LR was excessive! You never know.

Feeding - several times daily - pinch of cyclop easy with filtration off. Now trying the grocery food blend, will see how it affects water quality.

Sorry, out of time, but other non-photosynthetic gorgonians I have now, in another tank, together with Christmas tree worms, are Swiftia kofoidi (sp?)

tangerine colored, blueberry gongonian and the one with fine blue polyps. All of them are more sensitive, than finger gorgonians, thinner skin, easily going necrotic. Require placement in well observed places, removing or treating necrotic parts, and gentle surroundings, beating by food or a detritus is not acceptable. Swiftia is more durable, than blueberry.
All, of course, were bought half dead on sale, blueberry is likely to become dead, unless I'll find the way of gentle keeping the food suspended and gentle cleaning the tank.

People, don't be shy, post you system and maintenance descriptions - everyone is entitled to have own way of making the work done, may there are the easier way. Will really appreciate this.

[ChilisREasy]

how old are they now ? how long you had them ?