Red & Green Open Brain - Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi

[Spyderturbo007]

I'm heading to the LFS this weekend so I decided to browse their coral inventory and found this Red & Green Open Brain.

Would this be a good coral for me?

Current Setup:

• 55g with ~15g sump
• 4 x 54w T5 HO
• BM Skimmer
• BRS Deluxe Reactor running GFO + Carbon

Current tank Inhabitants:

• Purple Firefish
• Cleaner Shrimp
• Assorted Hermit crabs and Snails
• Purple Tip Hammer Coral
• Galaxy Coral
• Assorted Polyps

Water Parameters (Last Tested 10/11/12):

• Temp = 80.5
• Nitrates = 0ppm (Red Sea Pro)
• pH = 8.3 (API)
• Alkalinity = 8.01 dKH (Hanna Checker)
• Salinity = 1.024 (Refractometer)
• Calcium = 345ppm (Red Sea Pro)
• Magnesium = 1,440ppm (Red Sea Pro)

Their website says to place it on the bottom of the tank, but it requires medium / high lighting. I'm not sure if my T5's are enough? My hammer sits on the bottom of the tank and seems to be doing great if that means anything.

Also, would a hermit crab or the cleaner shrimp walking across the coral do any damage?

 

[wheelman76]

I have a rainbow trachy with very similar colors but with yellow and purple as well. It's hard to tell how big the one in the picture is , but mine is around 4" in diameter and I picked it up at my LFS for $60 so the price they're asking seems a little high to me. They should stay on the sand bed as they inflate a lot and can damage their flesh if they're mounted on the rockwork.

 

[wheelman76]

I think your lighting should be fine , I have mine under a 6 bulb T5 and when I first got it I put it on the sand under an overhang in the shade a little to acclimate it to the tank. It moved out from the shade into a brighter spot on its own in a couple weeks. I have hermit crabs and snails and I never see them bothering my trachy.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Unless I want to go to Pet Smart, the are pretty much the only game in town. Their prices are always high, I'm assuming for that exact reason.

I honestly don't even know if Pet Smart sells corals at the store down the street. I typically just get Cat food there.

 

[Super Bad]

No offense to the store, but that seems like an extremely high price for that piece. If it where me I would order from online stores before purchasing something that expensive. You could get a much nicer piece for that amount of money... Again I mean no disrespect JMO.

 

[GPB]

I'd move Alk and Cal up some. Cal should be at 400.

I have a trach like that. It is on the bottom in some shade. I use 6 x 24w T5's. It's been doing well. I've had it almost a year.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Thanks for the help, but when I was there, I couldn't find the darn thing to save my butt. Maybe it had been sold before I got there or their website was never updated.

I ended up buying a pair of Snowflake clowns and a Stylophora frag. I also picked up some CaCl2 from BRS that I'm going to use to bring up the Calcium. My Alkalinity us up from 7.34dKh (9/24/12) to 9.57dKh (10/30/12) just from Kalk. The Calcium hasn't moved, but I'm not using much Kalk at all. I'm at 1/4 tsp per gallon right now.

I'm thinking I might have to back that down if the Alkalinity keeps rising.