Lot of questions!

[Treed]

Im usally on the SPS forum but have some how ended up here(Which is exciting) I have a 75 gallon seahorse tank that Ive been adding some different corals to. Anything from soft corals to now my new favorite gorgonias.(Just a little background of the tank. It has 2 overflow boxs and a good skimmer on it, with a 30 gallon sump. Along with a carbon reactor and phosphate reactor. As well as 2 MP10's for good water movement.) Ive got some that are claimed to be photosynthetic but Im not sure. So Im hoping you guys can help me figure that out. Ill post some pics at the end of the post. Some other questions are does to much light hurt non-photo gorgonias? Also what all should I feed to keep them alive and healthy?(I feed phyto every day) I do run my water at 72 deg. for the horses and all them seem to do great so far. I was thinking about adding a bio-pellet reactor to keep levels down since the horses have to get fed 3 times a day. I was only wanting to add other non-photo gorgonias no other NPS things. Any thoughts? These are the two I picked up that I was told was photo. but I think are NPS.

 

[username in use]

They're going to need some bigger food than phyto. From the looks of it, you can probably go with cyclopeeze and smaller, like daphnia, rotifers, artemia nauplii maybe, things like that. Variety is always better than one food all the time, but see what gets a feeding response and go from there. You will be able to see all the polyps close up around food when they are digging it.

As far as light, as long as there isn't algae growing on them they are fine, but if they get algae on them you may want to shade them somehow.

 

[Treed]

Thanks for the info! Keep it coming I have a few more pics to share of my tank! Some FTS. Should I target feed or just put it in the water?

And some more gorgonias

 

[CuttleKid]

To keep nps gorgonians alive and healthy you will need to feed at least 12 times day, but a continuos feeding system would be ideal. I would advise you not to keep any nps gorgonians you don't want to see die with seahorses. I tried the same thing as you with hippocampus erectus and multiple nps gorgonians. The horses just hitched onto one or two particular favorite gorgs and rubbed the flesh off with their tales. However you have a much larger tank and keeping photosynthetic gorgonians to lessen the stress of the ponies hitching onto the the gorgs it might work out. I would also advise not feefing phtoplankton to them because they are more inclined/adapted to feeding on zooplankton. I would strongly recommend using Fauna Marin food such as Ultra Sea Fan Ultra Min F and Ultra Clam for a little phytoplankton. I would also recommend getting some Reef Nutrition food such as Oyster Feast and Rotifeast etc...

Good Luck with your tank and continue to sake as many questions as you can.

 

[Harald Waltrop]

Hello, there are nps gorgonians

Photo 1 probably Menella
Photo 2 probably Guaiagorgia anas

To the food has James already all written.

 

[vsiege]

I love what you are doing with your tank. I've been thinking about NPS in my seahorse tank as well. I would be upset if they ended up rubbing off the flesh of the gorgonian. I'm interested to know what else you have in mind for hitching posts??

 

[Treed]

Well there are 7 gorgonias, colt leather, another leather, some red macro algae and nice BRS tonga rock. They are alway on something different and the gorgonias dont mind anymore. They keep there polyps out being use to it now. I plan to continue adding more rusty gorgonias and more photo.ones like the big ones that looks like the cactus. Not sure what its called. I was target feeding the gorgonias today. Its really cool to watch them eat.

 

[Treed]

Okay few more questions. What do you think of the Brightwell Products? They have a Zooplanktos-S,M,L. Im a fan of there products so thats why I was wondering. Also with my photo. gorgonias this feeding is only going to make them grow faster and be healthier correct? Also I know this is a NPS forum but do you guys know what kind of lighting photo ones like? I have 2 actinic + and 2 10k bulbs. Im thinking about changing the 10k bulbs out for a pure actinic and an aqua blue.

 

[vsiege]

Would you mind listing all of your equipment when you have a minute?

 

[Treed]

Its a 75 gallon with 2 overflows, a 30 gallon sump, reefdynamics skimmer rated for a 125 gallon tank, carbon reacotor, phosphate reactor, and a return pump that does I think 1600 gph. Also have a chiller thats set at 72 and 2 vortech MP10's. The lighting is a Tek light from BRS with 4 T5 bulbs.

 

[vsiege]

Are those reactors completely required for the gorgonians {carbon reacotor, phosphate reactor}? Beautiful pony as well/