Flow Requirement for Sun Coral

[Aquagoblin]

I acquired a sun coral with at least 60 heads from the lps four days ago and it appears to be doing well. Not all polyps open for feeding yet but I won't start to worry for a few more days.

Anyhow, I was wondering about flow requirements for the yellow variety. Mine seems to respond to very little flow (can't really quantify that) and does not like mid to higher rates. So I was thinking; these guys typically live in caves - right and don't like or need light, so in the ocean how many caves receives this type of flow?

In most of the nature shows I've seen, there was little movement of corals or marine life in caves and dark areas. So, I can't help wondering what their requirements really are? I can see the need for flow in an aquarium to bring food in or flush it away which seems to be a good thing but how much. Slight flow to barely move the polyps around or more?

 

[snodine]

I have 6 sun corals in my 130 gallon tank. They sit in the lower quarter of the tank in front of live rock. I have 4 Koralia 4 powerheads situated high on the back wall of the tank facing toward the front. When the polyps are out they move gently in the current. There is enough movement to see but not much more.

I have read articles about sun corals saying they are often found in caves because of the nutrient rich environment. Also, because they are non-photosynthetic, caves offer an environment that has fewer competitors for space and food. My corals are not shaded much at all and they have been thriving.

Sun corals are labor intensive in that they require individual feeding to thrive. Every other day, I use a turkey baster to give them mysis and brine shrimp. This gets the polyps to extend. After about 30 minutes or so I gently drop small pieces of shrimp and/or scallops onto the polyps by hand. I do not feed all of the polyps with the shrimp/scallops, but each coral gets 5-10 pieces depending upon size.

It takes a while to get the polyps to extend in the light but with patience they will. One approach I have had success with is to sprinkle cyclops or another very small food on the corals with a turkey baster. This has worked to coax them out, then I started with the mysis and brine and eventually to the shrimp/scallop.

This has been my experience and it has resulted in happy corals.

 

[dendro982]

For yellow sun corals - IMHE - flow should be slightly higher than for the orange sun corals, medium - medium high.

 

[rytrearc]

Mines like medium flow (about a foot away from a koralia 3 pointed at them). When they were sheltered in a cave ( almost no flow) they never opened. I took them out and they all opened at night (1 pink, 1 orange, and 1 black)

 

[Aquagoblin]

Thanks for the informative replies.

I'm still trying to figure what type of flow they like best and maybe I should give this more time as it's only been in our reef for a week.

Wow, it sure takes patience working with them... every night I take him out of aquarium and feed in a container and it responds to the food but rarely do the polyps open, just the mouths. Kind of hard for me to place food in their mouths that way. I'm thinking they are well fed so that's why they won't extend the polyps? Parameters are where they need to be.

I have enough flow so there is slight movement, any more and the coral seems to shrink.

At night, they heads inflate a lot and sway in the current but maybe 8 out of 80 heads (new count) will extend the polyps.

Guess I just have to be a bit more patience in figuring this beast out.