Looking for some help

[Treed]

Hello. Ive been out of the coral keeping part of the hobby for a couple of years(Only have a 75 gallon Seahorse tank, the old 180 use to be an all SPS tank). I have a 180 gallon tank that is cycled and ready for fish and what not. I would really like to make this tank an non-photo tank. But I first have few questions.

-What temp is required for non-photo tanks? I assume is depeneds on the corals but I really like the gorgonias and sun polyps.

-I was also thinking as far as fish to put in the aquarium along the lines of a large group of anthais since they do well with lots of food. Would anthais be a good choice?

-Filter socks or non for a non-photo tank? And what media is recommended. Carbon?GFO?

-Best place to find good quaility non-photo corals?

-And my understanding is they need perfect water parameters.

Thanks for any answers! Would really like to be able to get all the info needed and be able to make this tank happen!

 

[Treed]

Some background on the tank. 180 gallon, dual overflow, filter sock holders if needed, reef dynamics skimmer, GFO and carbon reactor(not running right now), two MP60 Vortechs, two 300W heaters on controllers and a 1/3 HP chiller. Current tank temp is 78 deg.

 

[noy]

I actually keep sun corals and gorgonians (only 2 red non photo and purple photo)

As for temp there is no special req 76-82. I keep mine @ 77-78.

There really isn't any compatiblilty issues with fish. My big tangs and flame angel like to pull food from my sun corals so I have to feed at night.

Filter socks are a matter of pref. I use them because they catch uneaten foods and I change them every 2 days. Gfo is a must because of the phos input from feeding live/frozen foods. I run carbon because I have some soft corals - I recommend it but its not a must have. You also need a very good skimmer.

Can't help you with where to buy but for sun corals I would want to see them in person to make sure there isn't major tissue recession. If you are starting out it may be tough to bring back one of these corals that's on the downturn esp gorgs

Gorgs need very good water params the sun corals less so.

Both require feeding so make sure you are up to the extra commitment.

 

[Treed]

Awesome thanks for the reply. Yea my skimmer is really good and is over sized for the tank so that will help with all the food going in.

 

[nvictor]

In my limited experience sun corals are much easier than gorgonians. they are nocturnal.
Dendros are similar but open with the light. both need spot feeding.

Even a tiny bit of algae growth can slowly kill a gorgonian - need perfect water, need feeding and high flow and low light - but they are beautiful. Make sure you try the common varieties first!

 

[SantaMonica]

Your skimmer does not remove any ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or inorganic phosphate, at all. So you'll need to have export for these in large amounts. Much more so that photo tanks.

Also, thinking about the fish, they are consuming the food particles that the NPS would have eaten. The fish are converting these food particles to urine (ammonia, which skimmers to not touch). So I would imagine that more fish would give less NPS success.