Sun coral HELP..:'(

i have just bought a colony of sun coral.my tank has been up for 3 months or so and his water parameters are
NH3/NH4=0
No2=0
NO=0
PO4=between 0.5 & 1 ppm.
sg=1.023
temp=26C
pH=8.5
Ca=340 ppm
The tank currently has no fish,and was cycled on the basis of fishless cycle.Its a 125 gal,with a DSB of 4" and approx 65 Kg of LR.The flow is 12000L/hr pump and one 3000L/hr return pump(4000 GPH total flow).
The colony i bought is closed(was open in the tank of the guy he bought from) and its not opening even after 1 and a half day.
Here are some pictures(I cleared them a bit by adobe).IMO my corals are losing tissue.
What do you guys say ?
He hadn't feed them yet.
If the coral is lossing tissue so what should i do...please help!!!!!

 

I am no expert on sun coral

but I can see some dead heads on that one
and stuff on some of the other heads ( did it fall over and hit the sand bed face down?)

Sun corals often feed at night - as in they dont extend their polyps until after lights out
they can change and extend during daylight
but almost all new corals require a period of adjustment to a new enviroment
and this may mean they stay closed for a day or 2

they dont enjoy bright lighting - so a shaded area, under an overhang or in a cave is often a good location for these types of corals

Steve

 

your phosphate and ph are a little high, and your calcium is a little low.

was the tissue like that in the guys tank?

 

These corals are non photosynthetic. In the wild they are found in caves. You have to feed them. They can't get by without feedings in a reef tank IMO. Other than required feedings and not being placed in a lot of light they supposedly aren't too difficult. That's what I've read anyway. Mine died so you might want advice from someone who keeps them successfully. I didn't know all this with mine.;D

 

Melevsreef.com - Suncoral


This may be helpful and useful to you buxi08

Steve

 

@steve:after day 3..its not opened yet..i placed it under L.R arch to prevent direct sunlight..and yes it fall on the sand bed withthe face down..and thanks for that link..but i have read it already...!

@sostoudt: i asked him today..he said yes there were some dead tissue when it was in his tank...!

 

I love this coral but have found them to be extremely sensitive to swings such as temperature, specific gravity and PH. You have a beautiful colony !

These prefer low to medium water flow and low lights – if not in the shadows of the reef. It appears from the pics you have it on the bottom of your reef, how is the water flow there? Can you get it into a darker crevice?

I don’t advocate adding anything to your system that you can not test for – with that said, my sun coral did better with the addition of strontium (but I was also testing).

 

That's actually a very healthy speciment that is just hungry. I would call the guy and find out what he had been feeding it and at what time of day. (He might have had so many fish that merely feeding his fish caused the coral to open).

Since you don't have fish to eat excess foods missed by the coral, I would aremove it for feeding. Put it in a small tub filled with tank water. Turkey baste meaty foods in there. (You might have to do this after your lights are out). When I get them in from suppliers, it might take a week or two of feeding them before they open well and they have a lot less tissue than that.

On the link above, Marcus was using mysis shrimp. If you're feeding in a separate container (which is what I had to do with the ones I got into a store), I would give a mix of freeze dried ZoPlan from Two Little Fishies, Freeze Dried Cyclopeeze, Cyclopeeze Freezer Bar, Golden Pearls by Brine Shrimp Direct, frozen Brine Shrimp by Hikari, Roti-Feast or Oyster-Feast by Reef Nutrition. I didn't necessarily use all of these per day...these are just some of the products that I know work well.....I would use what was right there that day. Squirt a little in with a turkey baster....wait 15 minutes and the polyps should be open (or in the process of opening). If they are still opening, squirt a little more in and wait 15 minutes again. By the time a half hour has gone by they should be ready to feed. Gently squirt the remainder on the polyps. After a couple of weeks, it should stay open in the tank. However, since you don't have any fish in your tank, you're going to have to feed daily until your fish load is big enough that they can just capture uneaten fish food.

 

Curt,
That's really good info. Makes me wanna to try another one You think they can get enough food without target feeding if you have fish you feed? I also like the idea of moving the coral into a feeding tank, except the hassle ;D

 

There's a lot of variables here so one size definitely does fit all in terms of this advice. If you have a good sized tank that is fully stocked with fish AND you have good flow AND the Tubastrea is in a place where flow is hitting it, then you might be able to get away from target feeding it except for every couple of weeks. Even if you can do this, you'll likely have to day train it which means target feeding-it at the same time every day so it comes to expect food at that time.