Success Tips for Euphyllia Corals

[mess7777]

Hi folks,

My wife, and to a lesser extent, myself, really love the euphyllia corals.

We have torch, frogspawn, anchor, and hammer in our 90g.

However, I have lost one, almost losing another, and the rest aside from the hammer are looking less than stellar.

I see a lot of extremely nice rounded full euphyllias on here and wanted to know what are the keys to success.

1)Water Flow - it seems to really need moderate 'wavy' flow. I have trouble getting this wave motion and can't afford a wave maker. Maybe the big problem I have is that the current is too unidirectional? At first I thought too strong but I have seen some fantastic ones in high flow so long as it was a back and forth motion and allowed it to stay "balled up"

2)Water Quality - my nitrates and Phosphates are there. about 20ppm N and .25 P. Maybe this is the deciding factor that is causing bleaching and recession?

3)Lighting - Too high/too low, how tolerant are they of various lighting levels. Is the lighting a culprit in the bleaching, or would water quality be higher on the scale of importance?

4)Other - unknown contaminents. How often is it just that 'x' tank doesn't like this type of coral and one cannot have success?

Thanks for any input!

 

[y0ung0ne]

Well I am no expert but have a few pieces flow is one thing alot of them like low to moderate flow. Lighting as long as it is acclimated correctly to it should be fine but they like light. nitrates and phosphates need to be lower that is one issue and water changes help out to, I know besides that I am at a loss for words hope it helps and hope others chime in and help that are more experienced.

 

[3Watt]

You want the flow to move the tentacles without thrashing them about violently. That can cause damage to the tissue by pounding against the skeleton and surrounding rocks. Any tears or open wounds can lead to bacterial infections, most commonly brown jelly disease.

Off all the Euphyllia I've kept the species that have been the "happiest" have been in highly lit systems but placed in an area of in-direct lighting.

They will do best in parameters associated with those of normal reef aquariums.

I shot you a link to an article I wrote just yesterday.

 

[lps keeper]

I know that my hammer coral likes to be in indirect flow and opened up much more when i placed him in it. Mines is placed mid level of an 18 inch tall tank under 6x24watt t5ho's. I also have a torch with 20 heads on the bottom of my tank and seems to like moderate flow.hth

 

[Old Gregg]

Mine enjoy low to medium waterflow and they thrive on lower light in my tank. My frogspawns can't stand intense light so they never get placed anywhere in the upperhalf. My hammers on the other hand do very well in higher light. And torches aren't too picky light-wise comparatively but with the torches long polyps, an alternating current is a must to keep it thriving.

I had a continuous current on my torch and after a month of being battered by medium flow, it appeared distressed and the polyps retracted more and more. I alternated the current and in the span of a week the polyps thickened up, extended, and it's never looked better!

The froggies and hammers, they don't seem to mind a continuous current if it's not a strong one

 

[mess7777]

eek.

well i tried to adjust my flow again. i have 2 koralia 4s + a weak return and no wavemaker.

no matter what i tried i couldn't get my frogspawn out of a blasting current. finally decided to move it and broke it.....and then there were 2. of course with moving things around sand got kicked up, not to mention moving around power heads. I might come home tomorrow to things being much worse.

my wife is gonna kill me when she sees i "divided" that frog spawn just to see it die anyway!

old gregg....do you have some kind of wave maker?

 

[y0ung0ne]

I dont have a wavemaker it more has to do with finding a calm place the whole left side of my tank is calm and low flow where my right side has a bit more current it is a matter of playing with it to work out. my 90 has a whole side of nothing but frogspawn and hammers and a torch I run two 1300 gph powerheads and to returns with a skimmer to boot which pushes 700 gph probaly around 5 after everything but still play with it and see even aquascaping helps in the process of creating low and high flow areas keep at it and if the frogspawn broke in two just means you have two colonies when it takes off.

 

[fishmanfabiano]

first id like to point out to you that a hammer coral and an anchor coral are actually the same species, the correct latin on this particular piece is anchora which is where anchor coral is derived from. also youi may see frogspawn also listed as octopus coral but again these are common names, the latin name on this species is divisi. these corals like a more gentle flow so keeping them in an area of high flow may cause them to close up and stay closed, you dont really explain whats in your aquarium as far as equipment goes. a 90 gallon reef should have a sump pump that turns over the aquarium water at least 10 times per hour that means at least 900 gph. and for extra water movement instead of using 2 large power heads id reccomend a few small ones, try korallias as these expell water in a column instead of a stream whicvh gives gentle but full water flow. a vortec power head will give you this same result with less bulk in the tank but prepare for a pricey piece of machinery......you dont mention what type of lighting you have over this tank, these corals prefer moderate reef lighting and should be kept lower in the reef where there is less flow ive seen many people stick them right in the sand but id rather see them pressed into a rock crevece as you dont want sand kicking up onto the tissue membrane. also are you feeding this piece? eupyhillia species like food and alot of it. they have a 1 mouth per head if its a branching species, if its a wall species they will contain a few mouths every few inches. i feed my branching divisi a jumbo shrimp every other day, i thaw it under warm water and then shred it into about half inch peices and slowly drop it into the coral. the coral has little barbs that shoot out and grab the coral. you wont be able to see these barbs but they work very much in the same sense as an anenomes stinging barbs. as far as water quality goes, well for this size reef id reccomend a 20-30 gallon water change every 2 weeks, but while doing a sand vaccuming. a dirty sand bed vcan cause many problems in a reef and can easily be avoided with regular maintenance. also if your salinity is low raise it so your tank contains higher nutrient levels. uses a good reef salt my favorite is tropic marin but ive also had great success with reef crystals. natural reefs have a higher salinity then what most people do in their home aquariums, i keep my salinity at 1.026. doing these water changes will also reduce nitrate and phosphate levels. also try adding chemi pure elite to the sump, this has a great phosphate absorber in it. if you have any more question please ask, i hope this helkped. -matt

 

[mess7777]

my return is simply a maxi jet 1200 at approx 4 feet, so i am no where near that kind of turnover through my sump.

I do have koralias, 2 koralia 4. I have trouble keeping the flow down at the bottom low. It seems i always have whipping torrents at the bottom level of the tank. I just looked at my pictures of the deterioration over the past few months and it's really a shame.

So many mistakes.

My lights are 6 heads of 14 3 watt LEDs with no optics. I don't think they are extremely strong, when tested with a PAR meter they were only about 200 at the water level....although some have told me PAR meters can be wildly inaccurate with LEDs if not set properly.

i always wonder how to "vacuum" a sand bed without picking up the sand. i tried it once and took a layer of sand with me.

 

[mess7777]

my return is simply a maxi jet 1200 at approx 4 feet, so i am no where near that kind of turnover through my sump.

I do have koralias, 2 koralia 4. I have trouble keeping the flow down at the bottom low. It seems i always have whipping torrents at the bottom level of the tank. I just looked at my pictures of the deterioration over the past few months and it's really a shame.

So many mistakes.

My lights are 6 heads of 14 3 watt LEDs with no optics. I don't think they are extremely strong, when tested with a PAR meter they were only about 200 at the water level....although some have told me PAR meters can be wildly inaccurate with LEDs if not set properly.

i always wonder how to "vacuum" a sand bed without picking up the sand. i tried it once and took a layer of sand with me.

 

[Old Gregg]

I don't have a wavemaker. But I have an equipment malfunction that's working in my favor lol

-I have a Hydor Flo Rotating Powerhead. It keeps the currents fluctuating in my tank.

- I have 2 425 nano koralias. One of them is old and was given to me by a friend. Every 15 seconds or so, the flow nearly stops. Then a burst of high velocity water shoots out from it! I have some replacements pumps ready when it kicks the dust. But it's been operating this way for 6 months since I got it lol

When the Koralia decides to kick the bucket I'm going to buy a JBJ wavemaker. They run about 55$ online

 

[GPB]

Get a gravel vac. Big tube that attached to a a pvc hose. When operated right will suck out detritus leaving heavier gravel in large tube. I use my thumb to restrict flow to get it to operate at just the right flow rate. Does a nice job.

 

[sqwat]

in my opinion its the phos not the water flow they can adapt to that just not direct flow.they love high lighting also but not directly under mh or t5 to burn it.euphelia are hardy if they have clean water with no phos they like evry other coral hate it.the current unless its tearing the polyp has nothing to do with its decline they are adaptable to it they have to be cause the ocean currents are allways changing.try a refugium packed with algea this will eat all that phos and nitrate up.and till u do start a water change once a week or twice a week till u get to zero and cut down on the feedings.i dont feed mine directly they only filter feed nover got one to eat mysis they do love fresh lobster eggs though.try pointing to powerheads at each other that works for me and i have a well stocked huge fuge.1/3 the size of my tank gl.

 

[mess7777]

in my opinion its the phos not the water flow they can adapt to that just not direct flow.they love high lighting also but not directly under mh or t5 to burn it.euphelia are hardy if they have clean water with no phos they like evry other coral hate it.the current unless its tearing the polyp has nothing to do with its decline they are adaptable to it they have to be cause the ocean currents are allways changing.try a refugium packed with algea this will eat all that phos and nitrate up.and till u do start a water change once a week or twice a week till u get to zero and cut down on the feedings.i dont feed mine directly they only filter feed nover got one to eat mysis they do love fresh lobster eggs though.try pointing to powerheads at each other that works for me and i have a well stocked huge fuge.1/3 the size of my tank gl.

thank you that is great info. I do have a big ball of cheato already and am considering an ATS as supplemental nutrient reduction. I have pretty much always had a steady .25ppm Phosphate for the last year. Sometimes higher, rarely lower. Time to address that i guess, for some reason I thought it wasn't too bad of a level.

 

[mess7777]

Did some more water tests tonight. A couple of surprises, Ca was back down to 400 already, from 440 5 days ago. This is also after a 5 gallon (approx 5%) water change yesterday. Finally got around to testing Mg and found it only to be 1100. Since it is involved in the process of coral growth, I believe I will have to bring it up if I want recovery. I am going to do several 5% changes over the next couple weeks, and am thinking this will bring it up to normal levels.

 

[mess7777]

I have started another post, but i had a local LFS test and my numbers were much different. .03 phosphates, 485 Ca, and 1470 MG. These were all Salifert tests, mine are API(phos) and red sea (Ca and Mg). What a huge difference.

I added some carbon in a sac tonight, but my frogspawn is still super unhappy with life. I wish I knew how to tell if it's too light, not enough, etc. As a newcomer to the hobby it's hard to tell

 

[Motish]

Good luck mess.
Keep us posted...

 

[mess7777]

Funny thing, after a google search this morning I found my own thread!!

Since the last update, all my euphyllias but one died off in the same slow, sad way.

A few changes I have made since :

-Added an ATS, this has brought Nitrates to 0, my phosphates are still around .15 and even with a media bag with PhosBan it doesn't seem to be going down very much.
-Removed a Koralia 4 and replaced with a Nano 425, this just creates some flow on the back
-Upgraded return pump and now have about 250 gallons per hour turnover through my return, or a bit over 2 times water volume of the tank...maybe a bit less.

The 1 surviving euphyllia always did well through thick and thin, but now died off like the others. It's almost like it was so used to bad parameters that it decided it doesn't like when things are better. Moving it around has changed nothing.

I have added 2 other frogspawns which I thought were doing well. My clownfish decided to take up residence in 1, which I find pretty cool. Now I noticed this week that when it's rully receded at night I can see some skeleton.....not impressed.

I do have an issue with detrius accumulation at the bottom sandbed since reducing flow. I clean this at least once a week with a 5% water change. I need to add something to increase flow without making it insane. Maybe I will need to bite the bullet and finally get a tunze wavemaker of Mp40.

It's so strange that my SPS, favite, favia, and even zoas are doing well, growing and looking nice....but these things just can't seem to make it!!

They are my favorites, I just would love to grow a huge basketball sized wall of frogspawn, instead of adding frags to watch them slowly die off over 6 months - 1 year.

Other parmaters which are pretty steady
Ca - 420
Alk - 8
Mg - 1200

 

[tektite]

Euphyllias need good levels of magnesium, its more important to them than most other corals, 1200 is on the low side for them. Also, they like having some nutrients - nitrate and phosphate - in the water. For a euphyllia tank, I wouldn't try to have zero nitrate and phosphate, not good for them. I've kept very happy euphyllia in a tank with 50 nitrate and 1.5 phosphate (yes the period is in the right place there...), hardly ideal and wouldn't recommend it but they still did great! I have lots of them in my reef tank with medium flow, med-high light, 450 cal, 9 alk, 1350 mg, 25 nitrate, 0.25 phosphate - they love it, super puffy and grow quite fast.

The clownfish can be too rough on frogspawn and kill it, its flesh is very delicate and easily torn on its sharp skeleton.

Did you ever try weekly/biweekly direct feedings for the euphyllia?

 

[mess7777]

The clownfish can be too rough on frogspawn and kill it, its flesh is very delicate and easily torn on its sharp skeleton.

Did you ever try weekly/biweekly direct feedings for the euphyllia?

The clowns don't seem too rough on it, but that's possible. I do feed them at least twice a week with mysis and/or cyclopeze. They tend to lose a lot of what I feed them though, even when the flow is turned off it's kind of like they spit it out...especially the frozen cyclopeze. I also try the pellets on occasion, hard to say if they catch them or if they fall to the bottom below the tentacles.