Chili Coral (Alcyonium sp.)
- Thread starter Nick James
- Start date
jwilliams229
New member
So my question to anyone who can help me... I've had my chili for probably 4 or 5 months. The first month it did great with full expansion every evening and through the night. Then it went dormant until just recently when I finely moved it to a place it loves. BUT, during the hibernation it accumulated some algae on a couple of its limbs... How in the heck to i get it off Since I moved it, the polyps are coming out now, not too much limb extension - the limbs with the algae do not show any polyps and no extension, but it is still red. Should I cut these algae limbs off? Leave them be? I'm not sure what to do, my cleaning critters don't seem to touch it.
J
J
C. Schuhmacher
New member
Hi Dendro
When in started with the Azoo stuff this was one of the first corals which was availble and which worked.
The reason why they not opened after a few days or weeks are to search in the water chemistry of the tanks
I make 10 years ago a test to find out how much and which food they need.
I had in this time a small tank system with different 40 Liter tanks
each of them small skimmer a few Live rock / no light and a Powerhead for making watermove
I feed every day a little bit more at the beginning i was the meaning that Phytoplancton was an good idea so i feed them different
some with Phyto , some with Artemia Nauplies and copepods
at the beginning all seemed to be worked, i feed every day a little bit more and one day the first corals stop the have PE
i take this coral to another tank where the corals have PE but no reaction.
Even not if the other corals in the same tank showed one.
Later when i make some studies in the university with sponge breeding i find out that there is a big missunderstanding about that what scientist meaned with Phytoplancton and that what we can get from the Aquaculture or that what reefers can buy.
The first reason why they stop open the Polyps are to much
nutrition in the water and what we called color bodies ( yellow water) which comes automatically from Phytoplancton feeding.
After removing that with Ozone , Watechange and heavy filtration over UltraPhos the Polyps just open again.
Then i start to feed bigger particles and that was then later the success.
Only if the tank has really low nutrition and enough waterflow the coral can be hold for a longer time
Greets clude
When in started with the Azoo stuff this was one of the first corals which was availble and which worked.
The reason why they not opened after a few days or weeks are to search in the water chemistry of the tanks
I make 10 years ago a test to find out how much and which food they need.
I had in this time a small tank system with different 40 Liter tanks
each of them small skimmer a few Live rock / no light and a Powerhead for making watermove
I feed every day a little bit more at the beginning i was the meaning that Phytoplancton was an good idea so i feed them different
some with Phyto , some with Artemia Nauplies and copepods
at the beginning all seemed to be worked, i feed every day a little bit more and one day the first corals stop the have PE
i take this coral to another tank where the corals have PE but no reaction.
Even not if the other corals in the same tank showed one.
Later when i make some studies in the university with sponge breeding i find out that there is a big missunderstanding about that what scientist meaned with Phytoplancton and that what we can get from the Aquaculture or that what reefers can buy.
The first reason why they stop open the Polyps are to much
nutrition in the water and what we called color bodies ( yellow water) which comes automatically from Phytoplancton feeding.
After removing that with Ozone , Watechange and heavy filtration over UltraPhos the Polyps just open again.
Then i start to feed bigger particles and that was then later the success.
Only if the tank has really low nutrition and enough waterflow the coral can be hold for a longer time
Greets clude
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
perhaps why this coral does so well in my SPS type reef aquarium with no special attention paid to it
jastak
New member
J,
I would suggest some Emerald Green crabs. They do wonders for green hairy algae. Unfortunately, they tend to die off after the algae is reduced significantly. I picked the algae off of my chili by hand. That seemed to work fine. Even rubbing your finger along it will not harm it.
Clue,
Great explanation. Some of us tend to overfeed our tanks at one time or another (myself included).
AL
I would suggest some Emerald Green crabs. They do wonders for green hairy algae. Unfortunately, they tend to die off after the algae is reduced significantly. I picked the algae off of my chili by hand. That seemed to work fine. Even rubbing your finger along it will not harm it.
Clue,
Great explanation. Some of us tend to overfeed our tanks at one time or another (myself included).
AL
Thank you, Claude!
Were Artemia nauplii and copepods live, bottled or dried, what size of copepods?
What amount of food for a day (approximately)? Fed once a day or more frequently?
What filtration 40L tanks had, that was efficient enough to keep nutrients low and water - without yellow shade?
Small skimmer - which one?
You see, I tried 5 different skimmers, including Tunze Nano DOC and Turboflotor 1000, and they didn't clean water enough.
I have one tank with clean water and can move one of the chili corals there, but after starting feeding it the water quality will drop within.
Also, this tank has relatively low flow, 15x tank volume per hour. I'm afraid this will be not enough.
What amount of flow was sufficient in your experiments?
How was set pattern of flow in these 40L tanks?
Did you try to keep chili coral in tanks without ozone?
Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm trying to get the whole picture of the factors involved.
I already ordered one more small skimmer, and as soon as I'll receive it I may set a personal pico tank for chili corals.
Were Artemia nauplii and copepods live, bottled or dried, what size of copepods?
What amount of food for a day (approximately)? Fed once a day or more frequently?
What filtration 40L tanks had, that was efficient enough to keep nutrients low and water - without yellow shade?
Small skimmer - which one?
You see, I tried 5 different skimmers, including Tunze Nano DOC and Turboflotor 1000, and they didn't clean water enough.
I have one tank with clean water and can move one of the chili corals there, but after starting feeding it the water quality will drop within.
Also, this tank has relatively low flow, 15x tank volume per hour. I'm afraid this will be not enough.
What amount of flow was sufficient in your experiments?
How was set pattern of flow in these 40L tanks?
Did you try to keep chili coral in tanks without ozone?
Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm trying to get the whole picture of the factors involved.
I already ordered one more small skimmer, and as soon as I'll receive it I may set a personal pico tank for chili corals.
Finsky
New member
Since I moved my Chili to an upside down position in the shadows of a cave, in a matter of days I saw a full extension of the branches and white polyps as well. This was about a month ago and I just looked up near the base and it looks like the chili is growing around the base and has the branches half extended. The base was originally on a thin fifty cent piece of of live rock.
I do have good water quality as I have since added a green goniopora flower pot coral whose polyps become fully extended all day long and closed at night.
I am keeping an eye on the chili to see whether it is just getting used to its new position because the cave I specifically built for it is where it is going to stay.
As a foot note, I am going to place a Hydor Koralia 8 Magnum water circulation pump in the tank to increase overall circulation.
I do have good water quality as I have since added a green goniopora flower pot coral whose polyps become fully extended all day long and closed at night.
I am keeping an eye on the chili to see whether it is just getting used to its new position because the cave I specifically built for it is where it is going to stay.
As a foot note, I am going to place a Hydor Koralia 8 Magnum water circulation pump in the tank to increase overall circulation.
Nick James
New member
Wonder if anyone has pics of their chillis?
Nick James
New member
Nice! Have you noticed much growth since you purchased it?
laga77
New member
Taken last night. Four months since first photo. I would say it is growing.
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Nick James
New member
Nice pics guys and girls. Since the chilli coral does well upside down in caves, it would be a good candidate to place below a Montipora Capricornus perhaps? Since they seem to grow quickly and block the light below them.
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