Deep and dark - Elos 120XL deepwater biotope
- Thread starter mark54321
- Start date
mark54321
Active member
Thank you
mark54321
Active member
Hi, I am sorry that you are having trouble with your sun coral. Most of the time it just takes time and patience to get them to open and feed, but sometimes, especially when coral is on the bring of starvation, it might not have any more energy to extend their tentacles and feed. I hope with yours it is not too late. When I get new sun corals , they usually don't open right away, most of them were not feed for some time, so it is very important to get them to feed as soon as possible. What I do is feed them in small container out of main tank. You take water from your DT and put your sun coral in a container with it and flood it with food, I mean a lot of different, frozen food. I use combination of mysis, brine, cyclops, etc., make sure food particles land on coral itself, even if tentacles are not out yet. Leave it in it for some time, I usually check in about 20 min. , stir the water with food a little to get movement and leave it again. I do this for 1 hour, after that I put coral back in DT. If you can, do this twice a day, it might take few days but soon it should be opening and feed. Once it opens on regular basics you can try to feed it in main tank. Make sure to feed every day for some time to get your sun coral back to health, after few weeks feedings every other day with meaty food should be fine. I feed mine every day, weekends twice a day. They grow new heads really quick this way. I hope this will help you get your sun coral back to health quickly.
Here few pictures of how it is done
Got this starved sun, did not look too bad but did not want to open in DT, so in a container it goes.
Food getting ready, mixture of frozen, different type and size
A lot of food in container and over sun coral
Close up , it starting to eat ( this picture is taken about 3 days after starting this method, it did not open at all before)
same coral few weeks later in DT
Saxman7
New member
Reefwiser,
I've literally been lazy enough to have the majority of my tubastrea colonies die off from severe neglect and actually re-grow them entirely within a few months. I was a little lazy between tank transfers (what was planed to take a week took several months) and i'm doing it all over again xD
They are very good at coming back given with this technique.
I've literally been lazy enough to have the majority of my tubastrea colonies die off from severe neglect and actually re-grow them entirely within a few months. I was a little lazy between tank transfers (what was planed to take a week took several months) and i'm doing it all over again xD
They are very good at coming back given with this technique.
Saxman7
New member
Mark, This tank is looking AMAZING, the video is great and definitely an eye opener. It looks like there is a great roll we can all pitch in to fulfil because there is simply not enough Nps tanks on youtube yet-I will soon be joining you 
I'm Sorry to hear about your troubles the fish have given you. as you know i've had a rough time with fish latley too so i've been holding off to wait for the right ones. just a thought I had was maybe consider some more "out and about" (or I believe "dither" species they call them) to make your sunbursts and chalks a little more out going? I've always noticed sunbursts to be much more active when I had multiple different small species roaming all around the tank.
I think Randall's are winning my heart over all anthias. They're more mellow/deepwater versions of Barrlett's: Hardy,eat everything, and super colorful... I think they might add a good dimension as they will occupy alot more of the open areas around the stucture, but still swim up and down the sides of the rocks like basslets which is always fun.
But you just gotta get that supermale happening if you really want to make these things shine
https://************.com/files/2015/01/P.-randalli.png
I'm Sorry to hear about your troubles the fish have given you. as you know i've had a rough time with fish latley too so i've been holding off to wait for the right ones. just a thought I had was maybe consider some more "out and about" (or I believe "dither" species they call them) to make your sunbursts and chalks a little more out going? I've always noticed sunbursts to be much more active when I had multiple different small species roaming all around the tank.
I think Randall's are winning my heart over all anthias. They're more mellow/deepwater versions of Barrlett's: Hardy,eat everything, and super colorful... I think they might add a good dimension as they will occupy alot more of the open areas around the stucture, but still swim up and down the sides of the rocks like basslets which is always fun.
But you just gotta get that supermale happening if you really want to make these things shine
https://************.com/files/2015/01/P.-randalli.png
Attachments
solitude127
Proud user of IO Salt!
Pacific Island aquatics has Ventralis in. I follow them on facebook and remembered this tank. He has a video of them eating and everything.
mark54321
Active member
Now few more pictures, tank is still going strong. I made few changes to the system, mainly removed my refugium, it was not able to keep up with nutrients and mostly grew cyano and hair algae. My NO3 were registering 40 ppm, which is not bad considering how much I feed. Now I dose vodka and nitrates dropped to 20 ppm already and everything looks better. Also re did my siporax , it is now stacked nicely in eggcrate box, 10 liters. Still only few fish in , I have 3 chalk basslets, only one Fathead anthias left of trio and beautiful Sunset anthias male. Starting to seed my sponges for QT , as I am ready to add more fish soon.
[/url]FTS2 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]FTS3 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]FTS1 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
siporax box
[/url]IMG_5557 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]IMG_5574 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
siporax box
mark54321
Active member
Thank you, actually it only took about a week to stock all this Siporax, worked about 45 min. a day
The overflow is called Xaqua in/out, there is more info online, but here is couple of pictures showing it up close. It works for me very well, and best think is ,it doesn't take any real estate in my tank.Simply stunning!
Thank you.
I may have missed a comment or two but do you have any more info on the overflow?
I am surprised as well, but just like I said it only grew cyano and hair algae. I used Siporax on my previous systems and I was always pleased how it worked. I have it in low flow , last chamber of sump, after mechanical filtration and skimmer.
Thank you, I never tried ceramic bricks, as Siporax always worked for me.
Same as before, mostly suns and dendros, and planning about 20 deepwater Anthias soon.Glad to see you back Mark. I always admired your NPS tank. Going for the same this time around?
H2OCulture
New member
Mate, this aquarium is fantastic! Plenty of good ideas in here!
mark54321
Active member
mark54321
Active member
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
Now few more pictures, tank is still going strong. I made few changes to the system, mainly removed my refugium, it was not able to keep up with nutrients and mostly grew cyano and hair algae. My NO3 were registering 40 ppm, which is not bad considering how much I feed. Now I dose vodka and nitrates dropped to 20 ppm already and everything looks better. Also re did my siporax , it is now stacked nicely in eggcrate box, 10 liters. Still only few fish in , I have 3 chalk basslets, only one Fathead anthias left of trio and beautiful Sunset anthias male. Starting to seed my sponges for QT , as I am ready to add more fish soon.
[/url]FTS2 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]FTS3 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]FTS1 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
siporax box
[/url]IMG_5557 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]IMG_5574 by Mark Mikina, on Flickr[/IMG]
I'm stealing this idea for my siporax.
ETA - The tank looks great!
