Scleronephthya

[Mikeeee]

Who has one? any experience with these and any long term success? I bought this 2 days ago for $30.. i knew they were filter feeders and very hard to keep..that they love high flow but not direct light. Those that have one what do you feed it? rotifers etc etc..? how often?

This is pic of mine..

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

hi

Currently I have one colony of those and think that they are rather easy to care for given enough food is being provided. In the reef I've seen them quite often, always in a vertical position or upside down. When I got my colony I could not fix it appropriately right away, so it was left horizontally almost in the center of the tank.....and it loves it! Since then it has stayed there. My tank has rather high flow, alternating every 6 hours, plus a wavebox.
In my previous tank I had them mounted upside down and much darker, which was a pain to do in the first place. Still they did not look any better than the colony I have now.
I feed a mix of Fauna Marin stuff through an automatic feeder 12 times per day. They seen to take up a rather wide range of particles, at least they respond to size ranges from phytoplancton to Cyclop Eeze.

Good luck with this beatiful coral

Jens

 

[muzzler]

hello!!!

You've wrote about automatic feeder system with Fauna Marine food system...

Please tell me the recipe of food mix you use in tank with dendroneftia.
Tell me more about automatic feeder system..

with best regards...

 

[Mikeeee]

Thank you Jens for the reply! I appreciate it. I have it in a high flow area right now and it seems to love it. Mine is also currently horizontal in the tank. Id also like to know more about this automatic feeder thanks again.

 

[muzzler]

I try to explain, there are one line of product in Fauna Marine it's called Dendro-system

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Hi there

Here are two pictures of the automatic feeder

The outlet of the feeder goes right into the intake of hte return pump.
It consists of an Aquamedic peristaltic pump and a timer that can be set in 1 second intervals.
The food reservoir is the barrel of a 50 ml syringe with the plunger removed.
I am using a mix that is similar to the Dendro system. It consists of 1 small spoon each of UltraSeafan, UltraMinF, UltraClam and Ultralife, these powders are mixed with a few spoons of Ultramin S Amino Acid mix and one spoon of a multi vitamin Solution that is very common here in Germany (Multisanostol) plus 1 ml of UltraBooster. This food mix is sufficient for about 10 days. Let the mix sit in the fridge overnight to soak up the liquid and to form a stiff paste. Parallel to the food I prepare a jar with UltraPac, about 1 tablespoon of the powder to 1 cup of water, shake well and put in the fridge overnight. Next day both mixes are relatively stiff. Take about 1/3 of the food mix and add the desired amount of UltraPac, mix very (!) well and fill it into the syringe. The pure UltraPac slime is stable for a long time, the food mix should be used up whithin a week or two max.
While I was living in the US I could not get Multisanostol, so used that Children's vitamin Stuff from CVS instead, it's basically the same. The vitamin juice contains a lot of Vitamin C which is a very good antioxidant. This way I keep the food fresh for a few days while it sits in the syringe in the cabinet. One syringe lasts for about 3 to 4 days.

I hope that this explanation is sufficient, if not just ask for clarification

Jens

 

[Mikeeee]

Thank you! that helps a lot. Makes me kind of want to setup a similar system with only filter feeders. I am curious is you also keep seahorse or pipefish in your DT? or is the flow too much?

 

[muzzler]

Thank you for answer.
I have a question again:
1) You've wrote dosage of food 50 ml of food each 4 day.
For what tank volume this dosage need?

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

@Mikeee, I don't keep any pipefish or seahorses, the flow would be much too strong, except for the Bluestripe pipefish perhaps, but I haven't tried that myself. I know of one case where somebody keeps bluestripes successfully in a NPS tank with super high flow.
@muzzler, the tank has about 500 L (130 gal)

 

[muzzler]

hello!!

You're using all kind product of Dendro-system for feeding coral exept Ultra-Bio, why?

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

I could not see any positive effect of that stuff in my tank. It does work wonders in other tanks, but not in mine, perhaps too much Ozone, I don't know.

 

[muzzler]

hello!!

Now I try to keep Scleronephthya in SPS tank, and I think Ultra-bio can help me to support a good water quality for SPS.
Food for Scleronephthya will also containe Utra-bio and all path of surpluses of food could be eated by bacteria without impact on water quality.

 

[muzzler]

Hello!!!

How estimate the enough food for corals in tank?

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

There is no definitive rule because there are too many factors which can influence the dose. Just watch your corals, if they don't look happy add more

 

[AB-Bug]

pretty coral

 

[AB-Bug]

too much feeding for my taste