How To Grow Huge Sarcophyton Leathers?

[happyclam]

I will be setting up soft/LPS dominated 135 gallon reef soon. I was curious what was needed to grow those huge leathers you see. Right now I'm in the equipment planning stage, and just wanted to make sure I started off on the right foot. From what I can tell, lighting seems to be the biggest factor and I'm thinking about putting 175w or 250w MH's over the tank.
Thanks for the help!
PS: Any pics of your leathers, large or small, would be welcome as well.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

A 135 is how tall?

I would think 175's would be perfect for a softy dominated tank, with most lps as well.

The key to big leathers is time. A local here just tore down a 210 that he had setup for years, he had lethers that were 1-2 ft in diameter, and pretty big toadstools as well. His tank suffered just about every kind of catastrophe you could imagine, and yet the leathers kept growing.

FYI, he used a 16 bulb T5 setup (2 8 bulb units).

 

[jhildebrand]

Lots of light and flow seems to make them take off. Then just wait...

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Sarco Slideshow in link:

Sarco Slideshow in link:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/reefslides/index.php

 

[Urchinhead]

I have had several over the last few years including toadstools, yellow fiji's, devil's palm etc. My yellow fiji went from about 5" to 18" in about a year or so and ended up dominating my tank at the time. Sadly I lost it due to a (thanks for nothing!) So Cal Edison caused tank crash.

What I have found is that they do well under good diverse lighting that does not blast them, running a fairly clean tank via aggressive skimming and the like, feeding regularly (nothing like seeing a toadstool feed itself) as in a couple times a week, decent turbulent flow, and most importantly *LOTS* of active carbon to take up any shedding or chemical warfare it might decide they engage in.

 

[lancer99]

most importantly *LOTS* of active carbon to take up any shedding or chemical warfare it might decide they engage in.

Carbon is completely unnecessary in softy tanks IME.

-R

 

[rkb]

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Carbon is completely unnecessary in softy tanks IME.

-R

It is my understanding that in general you may be correct on the unnecessary need of carbon for most softies as they come from often sheltered, turbid water. However, many public aquariums employ the use of carbon in tanks with very large sarcs to reduce the amount of toxins that the coral produces. Have a look that the American Reef- Advanced Aquarist podcast "Behind the Scenes at the Pittsburg Aquarium. I am one hundred percent certain that the curator of that system specifically mentions the use of carbon to mitigate the toxins produced by their large sarcophyton.

 

[rkb]

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Carbon is completely unnecessary in softy tanks IME.

-R

It is my understanding that in general you may be correct on the unnecessary need of carbon for most softies as they come from often sheltered, turbid water. However, many public aquariums employ the use of carbon in tanks with very large sarcs to reduce the amount of toxins that the coral produces. Have a look that the American Reef- Advanced Aquarist podcast "Behind the Scenes at the Pittsburg Aquarium. I am one hundred percent certain that the curator of that system specifically mentions the use of carbon to mitigate the toxins produced by their large sarcophyton.

 

[rkb]

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Bold sweeping statement- but....

Carbon is completely unnecessary in softy tanks IME.

-R

It is my understanding that in general you may be correct on the unnecessary need of carbon for most softies as they come from often sheltered, turbid water. However, many public aquariums employ the use of carbon in tanks with very large sarcs to reduce the amount of toxins that the coral produces. Have a look that the American Reef- Advanced Aquarist podcast "Behind the Scenes at the Pittsburg Aquarium. I am one hundred percent certain that the curator of that system specifically mentions the use of carbon to mitigate the toxins produced by their large sarcophyton.

 

[rkb]

Holy triple post Batman!

 

[happyclam]

Thanks for the replies everyone, sorry I didn't post back earlier. My 135g tank 72" long x 18" wide x 24" tall. I was planning on running 3x 175w MH + some sort of florescent actinic supplementation (have PC's, but won't fit in canopy with MH's, so probably T5 or VHO). Filtration will be an EcoSystem Pro 3612 sump (Miracle Mud fuge + ASM G1x skimmer) with carbon used as necessary. Circulation will be accomplished with either Koralia or Tunze stream pumps (most likely 2 at opposite ends of aquarium facing each other).
Thank you for your help!

 

[joesfiddy]

ive got a lot of big softies give them time to grow and a good amount of light and lots of flow ive got 2 vortech on full blast on reef mode on a 75 gallon and they are growing huge

 

[zachfishman]

Out of curiosity, does skimming remove toxins released by softies and/or shrooms? Or is the removal process dependent upon water changes and chemical media?

 

[Nannook]

What am I doing wrong with my leathers. I have a relatively new tank (3 months) 29g biocube. I have 144w of light, 2 10000k daylights, 2 actinic Com fluorescents, I have a protein skimmer, feed a plankton blend (DT's) moderately twice per week. I had a Kenya tree, supposed to be very hardy, and now I have a ? something leather and he looks poor. My numbers are okay, PH 8.3 zero Amonia, Nitrites, with a bit of a Nitrate problem I am working through with Algae growth. Temp 78, lights on 12 - 12 with one in 10 days off.
They just lose color and slowly stop opening. Took Kenya 3 weeks to die, my present leather is appox 2 weeks and rather than nice red he is pale and poor. I have one Koralia near but not blasting. Use only RO water salinity 1.24-1/25
Help me Obi Wan your the only one who can.

 

[smp]

What am I doing wrong with my leathers. I have a relatively new tank (3 months) 29g biocube. I have 144w of light, 2 10000k daylights, 2 actinic Com fluorescents, I have a protein skimmer, feed a plankton blend (DT's) moderately twice per week. I had a Kenya tree, supposed to be very hardy, and now I have a ? something leather and he looks poor. My numbers are okay, PH 8.3 zero Amonia, Nitrites, with a bit of a Nitrate problem I am working through with Algae growth. Temp 78, lights on 12 - 12 with one in 10 days off.
They just lose color and slowly stop opening. Took Kenya 3 weeks to die, my present leather is appox 2 weeks and rather than nice red he is pale and poor. I have one Koralia near but not blasting. Use only RO water salinity 1.24-1/25
Help me Obi Wan your the only one who can.

What size koralia? You may not have enough flow. Do you have any fish? Fish poo, good for corals


To the OP, my experience is that leathers like a lot of flow and a lot of light. In fact, I keep mine in an SPS tank and they thrive. I think the more light the better, I would run 250s over the 175s. More bulb choices and more light for anything you might put on the bottom, that includes zoos, LPS if you go that route or whatever you might have along the bottom. Better colours throughout. If you run a cooler bulb like an XM 20k you won't need to supplement with actinics.

 

[BradMugs]

Three month old tank - could be too young. My Sarcophyton started looking like it was dying about 3 months ago and just kept getting worse. About a month ago it looked dead. My lawnmower blennie would take bites out of it but it didn't smell so I left it in the tank. Now it is beautiful (in the last 2 days). Make sure it's dead before you flush it.

 

[Wolfmann81]

Not a very old tank, especially so small for some soft leathers.

Can be tough to have some softies thrive in a 29G system with teh fluctuations that a small system can have. Keep the flow up and hopefully the color will come back.

 

[DidYouSayReefer]

Why are you feeding the tank DT plankton? You don't need to feed softies. The fish poo, fish feedings, light, and DOC will give them what you need. The plankton is most likely just poluting your tank. My leathers go into a funk that can last a week or more but always come around. They are very hardy.

 

[lazyreefguy]

ive got a lot of big softies give them time to grow and a good amount of light and lots of flow ive got 2 vortech on full blast on reef mode on a 75 gallon and they are growing huge

that sure seems like a lot of flow for a 75, seems like way to much imo, infact i dont think its possible to have that much flow in a 75, although you didnt state if it was mp 20 or 40 but in either case wide open would cause such a sand storm in a 75 and the 40 would overflow your tank. just throwing that out there.

 

[joesfiddy]

that sure seems like a lot of flow for a 75, seems like way to much imo, infact i dont think its possible to have that much flow in a 75, although you didnt state if it was mp 20 or 40 but in either case wide open would cause such a sand storm in a 75 and the 40 would overflow your tank. just throwing that out there.

ive got a mp20 on full blast on lagoon mode purple setting on vortech and an mp40 full blast on reef crest mode yellow setting on vortech and no sandstorm on a 75 gallon i can take pics if ya want :spin1: