trachiphylia- open brains question

[reefermike1]

been looking at the red open brain corals for a while now. i know they are a lps coral typically on the sandbed and require moderate lighting. do they NEED to be on the sandbed? the reason i ask is 1 i dont have a sandbed i have cc, and 2 im not sure the lighting at the bottom of my tank is sufficient for anything other than shrooms. i would try it on the ground first, but if it doesnt do that good, id like to move it up on the rock. i do have a zoa frag that fell and has been living happily on the bottom ever since, if that could be used to somewhat guage what kind of lighting i have down there.

[110galreef]

They will usually be fine on CC or in the rock work. I always kept mine on the rock and they did fine. They recomend and prefer sand so their flesh doesn't rip. Just be sure they are happy and not in a lot of flow and you'll be fine!

[Fly Guy]

They actually also prefer sand becasue they can position themselves how they like. Putting them in the rockwork can stress them out if they dont like how you situate them, as they cant fix it themselves

[reefermike1]

now im trying to think of a way to put a sandbed up on a rock somewhere. without having it look ghetto, any ideas?

[110galreef]

Just find a somewhat flat area in the rock work. If he doens't appear happy put him on the bottom of the tank.

Really should replace you CC w/ sand/ aragonite anyway and just keep him on the sand!

I always kept my open brains on the rocks!

[wharyat]

You can always center them on a piece of PVC or a rock. Be very careful to avoid damaging the tissue around the edges -- this is where the problems arise.

[reefermike1]

yea ill eventually switch to sand, i figured id wait till the cc goes bad though. when i do switch it theres all kinds of stuff im gonna do. cls with spraybar, lr stands, paint the back.... ill do it all at once so i only have to tear the tank down once. my concern with putting it on the bottom was just the distance from my lights. would the light requirement be similar to the light needed by a zoa colony? i dont have a lux meter(prolly never will have one) so im just kinda guessing at what kind of lighting im actually getting down there (24" from lights to tank bottom)

[110galreef]

Originally Posted by reefermike1

yea ill eventually switch to sand, i figured id wait till the cc goes bad though.

You will be waiting forever. It doesn't go bad.

All you need is about $15 and scoop of some sort. Just remove what you can get to for now and replace w/ sand.

Whenever you tear it down the redo all the substrate!

[110galreef]

Originally Posted by reefermike1

. my concern with putting it on the bottom was just the distance from my lights. would the light requirement be similar to the light needed by a zoa colony? i dont have a lux meter(prolly never will have one) so im just kinda guessing at what kind of lighting im actually getting down there (24" from lights to tank bottom)

Brains need quit a bit more light than a Zoa! But if you have 260w PC you should be OK...barely!

[Twitterbait]

the funny thing about LPS is they actually do best when you follow the 5w per gallon rule in standard depth tanks.

[reefermike1]

glad to hear i should be able to do it, yea ill prolly get a bag of sand and replace what i can. what do i look for when looking for sand other than the lfs sand. cheap alternative that would eventually be livesand??? what about just dumping sand over the cc?? would that be a bad thing?

[110galreef]

carib sea aragonite special grade is all i use and love it! Priced good to!