Gorgonian or sea fans??

[GR808]

You know I've always enjoyed the beauty of gorgonians and sea fans but have never had any.. Are they difficult to keep? :squigglemouth: What type of care instructions are needed and are they easily kept in a mixed reef?
If anyone got pics, I'd love to see them..
Thanks

 

[Blake-]

My purple gorgs have been extremely easy to keep; I got a large one, snipped it up into some smaller pieces and mounted them around.

Even the bits and pieces that I tore off are laying around the base of rocks, encrusting and opening polyps. Pretty bulletproof ime.

 

[GR808]

Thanks Blake. Do u have to hand feed them?

 

[shred5]

Thanks Blake. Do u have to hand feed them?

Really depends on which gorgonian.. Some will wither away with out food and others require no feeding at all... Of coarse all azoox gorgonia will require multiple daily feedings.
Some gorgonians are very easy while some are close to impossible to keep.

Dave Polzin

Here are a few pics of some of mine over the years:

 

[GR808]

those are some real beauties.. live phyto is the choice of foods everyday?

 

[Zoafreek]

The nicer the gorgonian, the harder they seem to be. Always a battle of feeding vs water quality. I currently have about 12 different types, along with some other NPS coral.

My red finger gorg looks in perfect health. I read this one was pretty hard but seems to be easy so far.
Diodogorgia nodulifera

While this rainbow gorg is slowly withering away
Echinogorgia species

Other gorgs
Red one is Astrogorgia species Orange one is Anthogorgia species

 

[shred5]

those are some real beauties.. live phyto is the choice of foods everyday?

Phyto is useless. Phyto is algae.



Zoafreek

The first one is a nonphotosynthetic which is why they are harder. The second could be too but hard to tell what kind it is from the pic. They require lots of food and constant feeding.

Dave Polzin

 

[Zoafreek]

The second one is a Echinogorgia species

 

[BigJohnWoody]

Aren't there a few that can survive with photosynthesis? I think it would be hard to keep nps healthy in a mixed reef system IMO. Especially if you're trying to keep PO4 and nitrates low for sps.

 

[Zoafreek]

It hasn't been too bad, i had a bit of a nitrate spike a couple days ago, but did a water change and everything looks healthy. Also getting some nice colors on some new sps I picked up recently. Its all a matter of how much you feed and how well you filter the water. My sump is basically 30 gallons of macro and the macro is always growing out of control so it does most of the work. Currently looking into a NPS only tank with a turf/algae scrubber so the tank can be fed constantly.