Chili corals
(Nephthyigorgia Sp.) are notoriously hard to keep alive in a captive system. This is *almost* a rule when it comes to non-photosynthetic corals. If they aren't obtaining a large part of their energy from the sun, then they require a decent amount of food. This doesn't jive well with trying to keep a nutrient-poor system. I know of one reefkeeper that does keep them with great success, but employs a constant (albeit slow) waterchange of fresh, filtered, natural seawater.
I'm sure there's other ways.. don't get me wrong.
If you are truly interested in these types of non-photosynthetic corals, there's a dendronephthya study group either here on reefcentral or on
www.reefs.org - definately the place you want to be. Otherwise, if you're looking for corals, and you happen to have a low-light system right now, I've got some frags that I will happily donate to you.
Don't be too upset about people's opinions. Plenty of folks don't like the way I do things, but it works for me. I've been verbally accosted on more than one occasion for running a bare-bottom tank. As a matter of fact, there's not much conventional about my system at all. Lots of people will read something once and hold it close as gospel. Every year here on reefcentral, there's a brand new jonestown. Heck, it was only 2 years ago that many, many reefkeepers lost hundreds of pieces of corals because they decided to switch to a brand of salt that was praised in
one article. Come to think of it, that particular author has some desciples in other methods as well.
Use opinions as guides, and do your own reading and research. Think for yourself.
