Nick James
New member
Does anyone have any experience they can share with the chili coral? It has caught my eye but I want to hear from experienced reefers. I tried to put a link to some info but it would not work..
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13987388#post13987388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr.Dee08
my buddie has 1. its a slow grower but it does well as far as polyp extention and the intense red color. he keeps it low on the sandbed and kinda under an overhang. before placing it under the overhang the polyps only came out at night to feed while the lights were off but now theyre always out and it looks great. low to medium flow if im not mistaken
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14012839#post14012839 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dendro982
Herpervet:
1. Was your open for a feeding:
a) all this time
b) nights only
c) had long periods of being contracted (months)
d) was contracted last year?
Mostly open at night although some of them will be open during the day when I feed the fish and corals.
2. Your tank setup:
a) refugium type, planted with a lot of pods
b) unskimmed DSB mixed reef
c) skimmed BB
d) add your description
At first it was unskimmed, miracle mud bare bottom, with chaeto and various macro's. This is why I got into trouble with the heavy feedings. The fuge was an oceanic 58 show tank converted using acrylic baffles. I removed the mud recently and went more conventional. I still have macro's growing in the baffle chambers but not nearly the volume I had before.
I have avoided a chiller like the plague so during the summer the tank has a reduced light cycle. I usually run 2X 250 HQI bulbs in the morning then the other 2 come on for a couple of hours before the first two turn off.
Temp reaches 83F during the summer.
I added a cheap Aquaeuro skimmer about a year ago and recently upgraded to a large Warner Marine skimmer.
3. Water flow near chili corals:
a) slow
b) medium
c) high laminar, how high
d) high turbulent?
Moderate flow, they are mounted under overhangs. One had been in the mud refugium for several months. It is the oldest one I have and still alive.
The tank has a Sedra 9000 to return water from the sump split into two outlets. One Large Tunze stream for circulation.
4. Which otohime diet and golden pearls ( microns)?
What did you do with the rest of 1 kg bag?
I bought a sampler package of something like 5 different sizes. Each came in a 30 or 60ml bottle I think. They like the smaller sizes and readily ingest it. You can see the food inside the polyps after they eat.
5. Daily food tank receives, amount x times a day.
I feed the fish once to twice daily. Usually hufa enriched brine, mysis. When I run out of frozen food I feed minced cocktail shrimp.
6. Filtration, capable to process this food.
Water quality: temperature, alkalinity, nitrates, phosphates, diatoms, red cyano, dinoflagellates, aiptasia?
When I fed the otohime and golden pearls I had some nasty derbesia (hair algae). The only thing that beat it was a very high alkalinity (16 DKH) and that killed it without any problems with the inhabitants that I could appreciate.
7. What kinds of chili do you have?
I have two types I think. One with white polyps and red stripes on them and another with more cream/yellow polyps.
P.S. I have a friend at a LFS that copper treated a fish tank. Later he found a chili under a rock alive and well! Survived the copper. Amazing.
Thanks!
I'm trying to understand chili coral requirements, still have problems with mine, when diodogorgia and dendronephthya have no such problems in the same tank.
I would like to make mine tough as nails too![]()
I've had an Alcyonium in my reef aquarium for about a year now.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14013084#post14013084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Herpervet
One more thing: I have really neglected this tank and there has been a thick layer of detritus on the bottom and coating alot of the rocks.
LOTS of particulate in suspension. Recently I did a major cleaning and re-aquascaping and a series of water changes. It will be interesting to see if they survive my "better" husbandry.
linkI feed a variety of good foods daily. Some of the "meaty" foods listed here are specifically for anemones: nori, VibraGro (Saltwater Staple) pellets, frozen HUFA enriched mysid shrimp, frozen HUFA enriched Artemia, scallops, silversides, smelt, Cyclop-eeze, frozen broccoli florets, frozen orange sections, ProGreen (by Pro Salt) and Ocean Nutrition flakes. A small "snowstorm" of food is fed daily.