Carnation coral care?

[Maddlesrain]

Hey all,
I have the opportunity to get a pretty yellow carnation coral. I am worried about keeping it alive though. Thoughts? Experiences?
Thanks!

 

[Gareth elliott]

@Dr. Dendrostein

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

You rang sir.

 

[Maddlesrain]

You rang sir.

Hit me with anything you’ve got!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hey all,
I have the opportunity to get a pretty yellow carnation coral. I am worried about keeping it alive though. Thoughts? Experiences?
Thanks!

@najer has a cube like tank, at least that's what it looks like to me and he does pretty good with that set up. I don't know your tank setup, your filtration design, foods for them I feed Reef roids, Reef nutrition one I used is phyto feast the one that does not say live by the word phyto feast. I just started adding organic whole egg and it does wonders. Here's what I've come to understand about these creatures, I've had them with nitrates up to 25 PPM for months and no issues,PO4 high no issues, if you have sea fans or gorgonians, your PO4 must be very low. tap water that is conditioned first I've used off and on and no problem. Foods, the ones I recommend or something comparable it's fine. You may want to spot feed as often as you can and watch your water parameters. They do love a lot of flow. If you can put the stream pumps or powerheads just above them which creates like a Venturi action and kind of pulls them up will work but definitely spot feed as often as you can. Because my filtration is designed for heavy feeding I broadcast..

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Now for my secrets, or tricks of the trade

What have we learned and/or discovered by accident

In relation to NPS soft corals, we know we need proper food, proper flow, proper filtration.
If we rely on having these corals in a typical reef tank, we are looking at disappointment, they need a dedicated tank

Foods
We feed liquid Reef nutrition Phyto-Feast dead version, add shrimp food,we add Reef Roids, raw egg. Blend together. Then I have a fish feeder that can feed powder Foods, and I modified to come on once every hour. Powder foods are Reef Roids, and freeze dry algae. In the last 4 days I started adding powder whole egg, to it.

Filtration
I have approximately 20 lb of Marco Rock, 2 and half gallon do-it-yourself canister filter it circulate in the sump, for biological filtration. And a homemade DE filtration system that connects on the discharge of the return pump. It is charged every two weeks.

Flow
Now flow took a while to figure out, try to describe it the best I can. First of all the tank has a divider that is approximately 6 inches away from the back of the tank. That way water circulate around it in a circular fashion and the corals are attached on to the divider. So I have a pump we'll call South pump and I have a North pump. The South Palm will stay on 8 minutes and the North pump will turn on for 20 seconds and then turn off for 30 seconds , North pump will do this within the 8 minutes that the south pump is running continuously. Then the North pump will come on for 8 minutes and the South pump will turn on for 20 seconds and then turn off for 30 seconds within the 8 minutes of the north pump being on. I use 3 micro timers to achieve this.

Rotation or spinning of corals
I was spinning the coral very slowly every time I would look at it or them, 90° or a hundred and 80 degrees. since I discovered the flow pattern I described above, I no longer need to rotate them.

The flow pattern I discovered about a little over 2 months ago, and every carnation I have since then show no atrophy, neither rapid growth, but the carnation corals that I cut to frag, the area that is cut on the coral has small polyps sprouting out after about 2 weeks.
There's more but for another time.

 

[Maddlesrain]

@Dr. Dendrostein

Thank you so much for the detailed information! I truly appreciate it. The tank I’d be putting the carnation into is a drop off that is jam packed with corals of all types—the only thing I don’t have right now is any NPS corals, but I do have a few photosynthetic gorgonians.

I will attach a photo of the tank below for an idea of the environment I am keeping. I use no mechanical filtration, only a refugium filled with chaeto, and also do no water changes. I have so many corals that the nitrates and phosphates tend to be undetectable, but I recently have added several fish so I’ll need to re-evaluate my levels. I would be attaching the coral to the underside of my rock structure which is in the path of two mp10 pumps which create flow for the entire tank (this is the highest flow area).

When you say raw egg, I’m assuming you’re referring to a chicken egg? You just blend this up and pour it into the tank? You also mentioned powdered egg. Any specific brand? I have reef roids and reef chili that I feed occasionally (but would do so more often if I added this guy). I’m thinking it would be necessary to spot feed daily?

Not the best photo, but here is one of the more recent ones of my tank.

Thank you again for the information.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Now I don't add raw egg to liquids. I use powder whole egg. You may want to use organic whole egg powder, sprinkle when possible, like a pinch of it.

 

[najer]

@Dr. Dendrostein

Thank you so much for the detailed information! I truly appreciate it. The tank I’d be putting the carnation into is a drop off that is jam packed with corals of all types—the only thing I don’t have right now is any NPS corals, but I do have a few photosynthetic gorgonians.

I will attach a photo of the tank below for an idea of the environment I am keeping. I use no mechanical filtration, only a refugium filled with chaeto, and also do no water changes. I have so many corals that the nitrates and phosphates tend to be undetectable, but I recently have added several fish so I’ll need to re-evaluate my levels. I would be attaching the coral to the underside of my rock structure which is in the path of two mp10 pumps which create flow for the entire tank (this is the highest flow area).

When you say raw egg, I’m assuming you’re referring to a chicken egg? You just blend this up and pour it into the tank? You also mentioned powdered egg. Any specific brand? I have reef roids and reef chili that I feed occasionally (but would do so more often if I added this guy). I’m thinking it would be necessary to spot feed daily?

Not the best photo, but here is one of the more recent ones of my tank.

Thank you again for the information.

That looks great and your description would make me say go for it,
No mechanical filtration here and I feed live phyto, a liquid food and Reef Pulse which is like roids.

 

[najer]

@najer has a cube like tank, at least that's what it looks like to me and he does pretty good with that set up.

It is a small aio 13.5 G peninsular but I don't clean the sides and only view it from the front!

 

[Maddlesrain]

That looks great and your description would make me say go for it,
No mechanical filtration here and I feed live phyto, a liquid food and Reef Pulse which is like roids.

Thank you, you all are boosting my confidence enough to maybe give it a shot haha
Your tank looks stellar!! How often do you feed phyto? And do you buy it or cultivate your own?

 

[najer]

Thank you, you all are boosting my confidence enough to maybe give it a shot haha
Your tank looks stellar!! How often do you feed phyto? And do you buy it or cultivate your own?

My lfs cultures it so I buy a litre a week but that is for my big tank as well.
Phyto 3 or 4 times a day, a small splash!

 

[Maddlesrain]

I’ve been doing a little searching around and was thinking of buying some bulk decapsulated brine shrimp eggs to add to the food repertoire. Would these be too big, or a good choice?

 

[Holy handgrenade]

@Maddlesrain you ever get the carnation? Your tank in amazing!!

 

[thebigfryfry]

Has anyone had long term success with these corals?