My Beloved Hell-egance Coral.

[64Ivy]

It's been awhile so I thought I'd post a recent shot of the Hell-egance coral I picked up from Ali in Orange, CA about 4 years ago. The smaller Purple-Tip specimen is decent sized [and was acquired around the same time, believe it or not] but the Pink-Tip has just exploded, especially in the last year. Alone, it now takes up more than a third of its 40g breeder home. It seems to thrive under T-5 lighting, gentle flow provided by two Vortech MP-10s (Reef Crest, lowest settings), and NO DIRECT FEEDINGS! I do direct feed a few other pieces with Hakiri Mysis, Cyclopeeze, Rods Coral Food, and Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast, not a the same time, of course, but I haven't specifically fed either elegance in over two years.

Just out of the shot on the left is a softball sized Duncan colony. But that's for another time .

 

[Ticul]

Wow, that is cool! What T5's do you have going?

 

[kayl]

Awesome coral!
I love my (little) elegance

 

[Sheol]

Holy Mother of Coral! That thing is simply ENORMOUS!! And stunning in its beauty, but does it kill other corals??

Matthew

 

[SDguy]

I'd name it Cousin It.

 

[elegance coral]

Why are you calling it a "Hell-elegance"? Beautiful animal BTW.

 

[64Ivy]

'Hell-egance' is my response to the continual "What the hell is THAT?", I get when showing it off to guests. It has not killed anything as of yet but I am usually on top of moving other pieces out of its way before it can. In the photo, I have the returns shut off, causing a few tentacles to droop into the scoly below. This doesn't happen during normal flow, of course, but I'm not so sure there would be a problem if it did. Anyone with first hand knowledge of this please chime in.

As for lighting, I'm currently running:
2 x Blue Plus
1 x Aqua Blue
1 x Purple Plus

in a 6 fixture Nova Extreme Pro. I removed 2 other Blue Plus' temporarily because I felt the total amount of lighting was bleaching out the scolys. Any pro/con opinions here would also be welcomed.

 

[awestruck]

It's been awhile so I thought I'd post a recent shot of the Hell-egance coral I picked up from Ali in Orange, CA about 4 years ago. The smaller Purple-Tip specimen is decent sized [and was acquired around the same time, believe it or not] but the Pink-Tip has just exploded, especially in the last year. Alone, it now takes up more than a third of its 40g breeder home. It seems to thrive under T-5 lighting, gentle flow provided by two Vortech MP-10s (Reef Crest, lowest settings), and NO DIRECT FEEDINGS! I do direct feed a few other pieces with Hakiri Mysis, Cyclopeeze, Rods Coral Food, and Reef Nutrition's Oyster Feast, not a the same time, of course, but I haven't specifically fed either elegance in over two years.

Just out of the shot on the left is a softball sized Duncan colony. But that's for another time .

Wow--gorgeous! And, you don't do direct feedings?!

 

[eweinig]

Stunnning!

 

[ousnakebyte]

and NO DIRECT FEEDINGS! ...but I haven't specifically fed either elegance in over two years.

Why not?

 

[progman2000]

Holy Mother of Coral! That thing is simply ENORMOUS!! And stunning in its beauty, but does it kill other corals??

Matthew

Yeah I'm curious too - has it killed anything?

 

[Phishguy]

What a great looking coral!!!

 

[64Ivy]

Wow--gorgeous! And, you don't do direct feedings?!

Not for these guys.

Why not?

Well at this point, I'd be afraid for the welfare of my family!

Actually, when I first acquired them, I would give them about an inch of silversides each, twice a week. Occasionally, I would find a piece of the fish either dropped or caught in the overflow, but most of the time it seemed to work fine. Then I began reading more and more articles of people simply feeding their Catalaphyllia either mysis through a pipette or baster or just letting them glean what they could from the water column during fish feedings. I believe the claim was that their mouths were designed to take smaller fare than was originally thought and they could thrive just as well
on finer stuff. So I tried feeding that way and after seeing no decline, I simply stuck with it. Certainly not saying direct feedings don't work, just that, in this case, non direct feedings seem to work just as well.

 

[Sheol]

Well, I'm relieved for that Scoly! It did look to be reaching for it.. LOL

Matthew

 

[awestruck]

I'd name it Cousin It.

:lol2:

 

[Tracey2]

Can you share more about your tank. I see its up on a rock, most I have seen are on a sand bed. I tried one about a year ago and it died, I have alot of other lps that do well in my tank and also have T5's with moderate flow.

 

[elegance coral]

I see its up on a rock, most I have seen are on a sand bed. I tried one about a year ago and it died,

There's nothing wrong with keeping them in rock, or PVC stands. I never keep an Elegance in sand. If you buy another one, make sure it came form Australia and not Indonesia.

 

[Tracey2]

Thanks EC, I am looking at trying another. Most can only dream of such extension from their elegance, I would love to know more.

 

[64Ivy]

Can you share more about your tank. I see its up on a rock, most I have seen are on a sand bed. I tried one about a year ago and it died, I have alot of other lps that do well in my tank and also have T5's with moderate flow.

Originally set up as a refugium, this tank is now a LPS auxiliary to my main 500g SPS display tank. Both tanks are maintained as barebottoms while lighting and flow providers for the 40g have been described previously. In it current incarnation, this tank has been set up for a little over six years.

As an old school Berlin disciple, I have always had my Elegance up on rocks and they seem to do well, provided their other requirements are met, of course. Along those lines, I do want to repeat that I DO, in fact, feed them, just not directly. As I am writing this, in fact, it is 6:30 am and I am in the process of feeding all the inhabitants of the tank. I have turkey basted the scolys, the dendros, a favia, and the acans. Whatever is left over, I simply squirt into the water column and leave everything to steep in this soup for about 45 minutes. I then turn on all of the pumps and let everything circulate throughout the entire system (I have LPS in the main tank as well). This is a twice weekly routine for me and seems to work well for everything.

Just note that with this amount of feeding, I have to be just as aggressive with my nutrient export as well. Therefore, I change about 20% of the water weekly, employ efficient skimming (I hope), and manually blow up any detritus that may have fallen through the cracks every weekend. Finally, because I am barebottomed, I can really crank up the powerheads in the main tank and keep more crap in suspension. I also employ filter socks, Carbon and GAC reactors and a biodenitrator on the system.

Not sure if this is the kind of information you asked for but hope it helps anyway.

 

[Tracey2]

Yes, thank you, anything that you think contributes to your success. Just looked up biodenitrator, sounds like an interesting alternative to DSB. Do you also dose your tank with anything? Can you tell me your nitrate, alk, calcium, temp? Thanks for sharing.