Dendro

[code4]

Just wanted to mention this. While I have heard numerous times that a small amount of Nitrate and Phosphates are necessary for coral I am now a believer. I placed a tiny Dendro and a small colony of Sun Coral in a Quarantine tank. And they slowly started to shrink. No extension or anything. And then I thought maybe my tank is to clean for them. I then added a pitcher of water from a tank full of mollies, and subsequently nitrates and phosphates to the small tank. By evening the Dendro was puffing up and its little arms were reaching for the ceiling! The Sun Coral is also puffing up and I am hopeful it will also be better when I get home tonight.

Moral of my story. Do not be afraid to feed your fish. Your coral need some food also.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

I feel like the hobby is really evolving.

I see more and more, very respected people in the hobby report success with heavy feeding and higher nutrient levels.

When I started my tank I watched the brs160 vids thoroughly and it's amazing how their views have changed since that series.

People like Sanjay, Mike paletta, WWC, Richard Ross etc all have success without ultra low nutrients.

I think the big caveat here is that a mature tank can handle these nutrient levels much moreso than a new tank.

 

[ScottR]

Just wanted to mention this. While I have heard numerous times that a small amount of Nitrate and Phosphates are necessary for coral I am now a believer. I placed a tiny Dendro and a small colony of Sun Coral in a Quarantine tank. And they slowly started to shrink. No extension or anything. And then I thought maybe my tank is to clean for them. I then added a pitcher of water from a tank full of mollies, and subsequently nitrates and phosphates to the small tank. By evening the Dendro was puffing up and its little arms were reaching for the ceiling! The Sun Coral is also puffing up and I am hopeful it will also be better when I get home tonight.

Moral of my story. Do not be afraid to feed your fish. Your coral need some food also.

Prepare some frozen food and use a turkey baster to target feed them. They don’t photosynthesize so they need a meaty meal. I feed mine almost daily and they are puffy and sprouting lots of new heads

 

[code4]

Scott they are beautiful. I could not feed mine though at first. It was closed up tight. I am planning on adding some more of the other tanks water tonight and feed it again. Right now I was able to give it some baby brine shrimp.

I will try to feed it more often though. Right now it is really small. Do you think either Reef Chili or Reef-Roids would be a good choice?

Shelley

 

[Bayareareefer18]

One of my LFS somewhat near me has an amazing dendro colony in one of his displays. He says he feeds then a lot

 

[biophilia]

The dendros and tubastraea I've had all tend to do best with high flow and somewhat "dirty" water. They'll extend their polyps best if the water is regularly chummed with smelly liquid foods and if they're fed multiple times per day. Also good to keep in mind that some of these azoox corals are not purely carnivorous as was once believed. Sun corals do really well with a regular addition of large diatom algae like Thalassiosira weissflogii or similar to the water.

The ultra low nutrient thing doesn't make much sense to me. The scientific literature is pretty clear at this point that the photosynthate produced by algal symbionts in coral primarily supply lipids and sugars -- and only a very minute amount of nitrate in the form of amino acids to the coral host. It's enough to meet basic metabolic needs, but not for growth and is why it's sometimes referred to as "coral junk food". Growth requires nitrogen input in the form of prey capture or from ammonia and nitrate in the water column, sediment in the water, or whatever else the polyps can get their hands on. The success of ultra low nutrient systems seems to be in spite of, not because of, those suppressed numbers and is possibly coming from keeping potential growth rates artificially suppressed by keeping alk really low... or having a large fish biomass introducing a lot of ammonia

 

[code4]

The dendros and tubastraea I've had all tend to do best with high flow and somewhat "dirty" water. They'll extend their polyps best if the water is regularly chummed with smelly liquid foods and if they're fed multiple times per day. Also good to keep in mind that some of these azoox corals are not purely carnivorous as was once believed. Sun corals do really well with a regular addition of large diatom algae like Thalassiosira weissflogii or similar to the water.

The ultra low nutrient thing doesn't make much sense to me. The scientific literature is pretty clear at this point that the photosynthate produced by algal symbionts in coral primarily supply lipids and sugars -- and only a very minute amount of nitrate in the form of amino acids to the coral host. It's enough to meet basic metabolic needs, but not for growth and is why it's sometimes referred to as "coral junk food". Growth requires nitrogen input in the form of prey capture or from ammonia and nitrate in the water column, sediment in the water, or whatever else the polyps can get their hands on. The success of ultra low nutrient systems seems to be in spite of, not because of, those suppressed numbers and is possibly coming from keeping potential growth rates artificially suppressed by keeping alk really low... or having a large fish biomass introducing a lot of ammonia

I have been target feeding them daily usually at least twice when I feed my fish. It seems to keep the Dendro open almost constantly. It has been growing nicely.