chubby gorgonia

A guy who broke down his tank gave me a purple "chubby gorgonia". Least that was what he called it. He couldn't find a home for it and was desperate to get it out of his tank so he could move. I currently have 2 96w pc's, 10000k/460nm over my 210g tank. Will this thing survive that type of lighting? If so, where should I place it?

 

Right off the bat the color, many times, is the determining factor in the lighting that the particular coral etc. requires. Being purple, IMO, it is non photosynthetic, therefore requires target feeding, not light to survive. They don't contain photosynthetic zooxanthellae for their survival!
So due to this, lighting shouldn't be an issue!!!!
Nice Gorgonian...does it have white or yellow polyps???

 

If the gorg has white polyps, you will have to feed it. If it has tan/brownish polyps, it can photosynthisize(sp).

 

I put it in the tank yesterday afternoon. The few that are opening are kind of brownish but I don't think they are fully extending. Would cyclopeeze be the best food ? I also have marine snow, ChromaPlex and PhytoPlex that I rotate in my other reef tank. This is the only coral in the 210 right now.

 

Try varying the food to it and your best bet is to target feed to reduce excess food/nutrients in your water column!

 

As long as you don't overfeed, you should be fine with all of those foods. I'm not too sure what ChromaPlex is though?

 

Am....if it is photo**** (sp also) where would be the best placement? Right now it is on the bottom as it wasn't attached to anything. I read that gluing them is not good as it can irritate? I have super glue gel that I use to glue frags I buy to rock in my other tank.

 

Being non-photosynthetic, placement really isn't an issue unless you have aggressive corals with sweeper tentacles that could sting the Gorgonian. Good water flow will help out as well to bring nutrients and remove detritus and offer good gas exchange!

 

ChromaPlex is a filter feeder food. To me it looks like watery ketchup. I feed 3 times a week in my 75g reef and I figure twice a week in the 210 as all the I have in there is the gorgonia and some polyps. I change up on my foods and everything seems to be thriving well. I do the same feeding my fish. Varying their diet if possible. My eel and grouper won't eat anything but krill which is frustrating.

 

With your lighting, the higher in the tank the better but make sure you put it in a med/high flow area. I use epoxy to secure gorgs. I shape the epoxy into a smallish ball, take a pen or pencil and poke a hole in the epoxy then stick the gorg's "stem" into the hole. Then smush the epoxy around the gorg's stem to secure it and stick the gorg onto your rock.