Big Bubble

[sunfish11]

Contrary to popular belief my octo-bubble seems to like plenty of light and flow that really moves it around. I also have a Fox that grew huge under the same conditions. I constantly read (in this forum) that they like low light and low flow, but I don't find that to be true. I do feed a lot and I think that is key. A varied diet and frequent feeding coupled with good light and flow seem to work for me. I just wanted to put forth another viewpoint on bubbles. I read a lot of people having trouble with them. Hope this helps. I would be interested in seeing any other big bubble coral and the conditions that it thrived in.

Here is the bubble in Dec 05 in my 24 gallon nano-cube. He was very small.

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Now here is a very recent picture of the same coral. It is at least a foot across and very tall as well, 9-10 inches I would guess. It is in my 210 gallon now. It is hard to show just how big it is because it is tilted at an angle but the fish helps you to get a good idea.

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Thanks,

Lisa

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Wow, very impressive bubble coral you've got there!!!

 

[Hogfish77]

Yes very nice! Biggest bubble I've seen.

 

[sunfish11]

Thank you! The main discussion point I wanted to make was that this is in a higher flow area and placed mid depth in the 210 under XM 10K 250 watt MH. Tank has 40X turn-over (for flow). It has thrived in that condition. While I know it is only one bubble coral, I have to question the low-flow low-light recomendations on these sometimes. I have another LPS (FOX) that is generally given the same recomendation and it is also humungous.

Lisa

 

[Aquarist007]

now I am totally confused--I lost a bubble coral three months ago assuming the flow and light level were too much.

I just lost another one and it was placed on the substrated--low flow and low light.

there must be some other factors contributing to your success?

 

[sunfish11]

now I am totally confused--I lost a bubble coral three months ago assuming the flow and light level were too much.

The other main factor would be feeding. I never target feed, but I feed the tank a varied diet every day. I guess I am questioning the standard advice given to move bubbles to the lowest light and low flow areas of our aquariums. Reefs (or other areas where bubbles live) have a much higher par that any of our systems and we assume low lighting in the reef would be low lighting in our tanks. Our best lighting in most of our tanks is probably a low light area in the reef. Same goes for flow. I want to see a very low light, low flow bubble that is thriving and growing. As you can see from my photos the growth rate for this coral has been very good in it's current conditions. It has done all that growing in the last 18 Months. It didn't grow at all in my nano-cube (low light-low flow) Please, post your low light-low flow giants if you got them.

Lisa

 

[Aquarist007]

what are you feeding--cyclopeeze and mysis?

as for successfull bubble--nada--no more till I get a handle on what is/or what needs I am not meeting. The rest of the LPS are doing great:

 

[Aquarist007]

notice the placement of the greeen bubble--it is the most recent one that died. the other one was placed higher on the left where the zoos are growing between the toadstool and Kenya tree.

 

[sunfish11]

I feed Rod's food a couple of times a week -- INGREDIENTS: Shrimp, scallop, oyster, clam, Squid, octopus, enriched brine, krill, mysis, grouper, Frozen Red Plankton, broccoli, carrots, colliflower, Red Nori, green nori, selco, garlic, Golden pearls (all sizes), DTs oyster eggs, nutra rose powder, fresh hatched brine, fresh harvested rotifers

In addition I feed frozen mysis, krill, squid, Emerald Entree, Marine Cuisine, Angel and Butterfly food, Reef Plankton, Ocean Plankton, Prime Reef, Formula I, Formula II, Lifeline Herbivore, rotifers, cyclopeeze. I soak these in Selcon, garlic, or Vita-chem.

Dry food would include Formula I, II flakes, Spirulina flakes, ORA pellets, Nori, Red/Green/brown seaweed selects, other dried algea.

The only item that is fed every day is the Mysis. Otherwise I mix it up daily.

Lisa

 

[Aquarist007]

here's the previously deceased bubble coral--too high up?

 

[sunfish11]

What is your lighting and flow in the tank?

Do you move things around a lot? What do you feed your tank and how often?

 

[Aquarist007]

lighting is 2*150 MH, 2* 96 w attinics
flow zone created from top down---hydor korolina's #1 left corner above toadstool, #2 centre, #3 right corner
~2200 gph turn over
coral feed twice a week: cyclopeeze, mysis and brine shrimp---pump off for 45 min but not ph's--at dusk after halides shut down and attinics are on for 1 hour.
note--have well stock refugium that is feeding the water column.

I don't move things around on purpose---once in a while an urchin pushes a coral of the reef rock.

 

[Lance M.]

Wow awesome bubble sunfish. Ever thought of fragging it?

 

[sunfish11]

lighting is 2*150 MH, 2* 96 w attinics

For some reason the whole quote wont paste in....

So you only feed your tank twice a week? Not enough IMO.

Lisa

 

[sunfish11]

Wow awesome bubble sunfish. Ever thought of fragging it?

No. That scares me. Maybe someday...


Lisa

 

[Lance M.]

Lol. I just started using ReefCentral. I've been on AquariumAdvice for about 4 years. Several months ago there was a thread from one of the moderators who successfully fragged her bubble coral. It's very detailed and has pictures.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10911711#post10911711 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sunfish11
For some reason the whole quote wont paste in....

So you only feed your tank twice a week? Not enough IMO.

Lisa

LIsa----How many times should I be feeding lps's in your opinion.

Is there any danger of cyclopeeze creating an algae problem.

I rinse any of the other frozen foods --mysis, brine etc really well with r/o water because they are known to pick up phosphates from the prep tanks.

 

[sunfish11]

LIsa----How many times should I be feeding lps's in your opinion.

Well, I think more variety and sizes of food would be good to use in general. I never target feed my coral, but I feed the tank a pretty decent amount of food each day. I don't wash it either. Hopefully the Phosban picks up the excess phosphates that would be introduced from the food.

Lisa

 

[elegance coral]

This Elegance is about 8 to 10 inches under a 250W 5500K MH, two actinic 110W VHO's, and two 40 actinics. While this coral did very well under these lights, I would never suggest someone buy an Elegance and place it under lights like this. Most corals when newly introduced to captivity are far from strong and healthy. With corals like Bubble corals it is important to reduce their stress as much as possible in the beginning. This would mean lower flow and lower lighting. This is what Lisa did. Her coral was placed in a nano tank with low flow and lighting where it recovered from the stress of shipping and gained its strength. Healthy corals can adapt to a much wider range of environments than sick or stressed corals. Bubble corals can be found growing upside down under ledges where they receive no direct sun light and are protected from strong wave action. To remove a coral from this environment and place it directly into a high light/high flow environment would be very stressful if not deadly. They may be able to adapt to an environment like this in time, but that does not mean that this environment is the best for bubble corals in general. Just my opinion.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10915131#post10915131 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by elegance coral

This Elegance is about 8 to 10 inches under a 250W 5500K MH, two actinic 110W VHO's, and two 40 actinics. While this coral did very well under these lights, I would never suggest someone buy an Elegance and place it under lights like this. Most corals when newly introduced to captivity are far from strong and healthy. With corals like Bubble corals it is important to reduce their stress as much as possible in the beginning. This would mean lower flow and lower lighting. This is what Lisa did. Her coral was placed in a nano tank with low flow and lighting where it recovered from the stress of shipping and gained its strength. Healthy corals can adapt to a much wider range of environments than sick or stressed corals. Bubble corals can be found growing upside down under ledges where they receive no direct sun light and are protected from strong wave action. To remove a coral from this environment and place it directly into a high light/high flow environment would be very stressful if not deadly. They may be able to adapt to an environment like this in time, but that does not mean that this environment is the best for bubble corals in general. Just my opinion.

would this coral work** under twin 150, 10k halides and twin 96w attinics
** keep its colouring and growth