Sun coral and bio load

[tgrove]

I have been looking for an answer for this and can't seem to find one.

Sun Corals need to be feed manually for their survival. But when the process the food, do they give off and waste like a fish would?. If they do, how much? Is there some kind of formula for a medium to large colony equals one or two fish?

thanks for any help in advance

 

[lvreefer]

All living organism's produce waste. Corals and inverts produce far less waste than fish, but none the less produce waste. Now since these corals are none photosynthetic they might produce more according to how much they are feed. Unfortunately there is no simple formula to calculate the bio-load.

 

[Myka]

Can you not "calcualte" your bioload by watching your Nitrite level when adding new stock?

 

[Gordonious]

You probably could come close if you had no rock, no sand, used no kind of bio filtration, didn't do water changes, and had no other live stock in the tank at all. (Probably not)

 

[Myka]

Would there not be a "blip in the radar" on addition of livestock? Or would the Nitrite be eaten up so quick you'd never be able to see it?

 

[Gordonious]

Depends. If you put a 3 foot nurse shark in a 50 gallon tank, you'll notice. However if it is something that you can reasonably keep and something that your tanks bio load will be able to handle then you should not notice a difference.

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Since they are azooxanthellate they do not retain N and P in the way that zooxanthellate corals do. Thus, much (most) of the N and P they recieve in food is excreted, just as with a fish, crab, worm, sponge, or most other animals. Tubastrea need to be fed well. To give you a ball-park of the amount of food they need and they waste they produce, an assumption that a sun coral will require an amount of food and produce an amount of waste similar to a similarly sized fish is probably not too far off.

Chris

 

[dragonforce]

These corals are PITA IMO. They don't produce or use or make waste or anything like that any different than any other coral but whats required to feed them sometimes can cause nitrate and algae problems. You can reduce these problems by using a cut off 2 litre soda bottle and then placing it over to coral and feeding through the nozzle.

 

[dendro982]

I never seen such formula, but from less than year of sun soral keeping would say that 1 medium colony equals 1 puffer.

Tried to keep tubastrea in a small tank with frequent water changes - too much work. Eventually left it in a well equippled tank, capable to handle large bioload, plus water changes, of course (large skimmer, frequently changed filter media, bare bottom, a lot of LR, refugium, phosphate remover).

It would be much better if tank was shallow, sun coral was on the flat surface - easier to remove excess of the food. BTW, mandarin or scooter can't do this job - they have smaller mouthes, than Ocean Plankton I'm feeding to the coral. Smaller mysis just flows everywhere from turkey baster.

It's dual colony on the same rock, medium and large. Require 3 cubes x 2 times weekly. Small part is lost, floating away, part is regurgitated.

Again, it would be better to have a separate tank for non-photosynthetic corals (BTW, looking for detailed help for such setup, the nano, not big). Mine so far is in 90g tank with large and messy fish.

 

["Umm fish?"]

I think the key to keeping these guys is keeping them in a relatively small display tank with enormous sump/'fuge/etc. Basically, the same sort of idea that large aquariums use in order to overload their tanks with fish.

I keep three kinds of tubastrea and a couple of their non-photosynthetic cousins in a 120 reef tank, but I have a total water volume of ~400 gals. I use a lot of water flow in the 120 to keep food suspended and I feed a lot of tiny food particles so that the other corals can use what the tubastrea doesn't catch. Deep sand beds in three tanks (including the display), live rock in the sumps/'fuges, and I grow lots of macroalgae. The deep sand beds have a lot of life from all of the food they get. And a big ol' skimmer.

It seems to be working so far. I've had growth and reproduction in the tubastrea and their larvae have settled and are growing. In addition, other LPS in the tank are doing very well and I may possibly have just gotten an acan larva to settle (the jury's still out). The acros aren't doing half bad either, although I've recently found some red bugs and need to start treatment. Oddly enough, my acros don't seem to be having much trouble with the red bugs unless there are other stressors. I did lose one colony quickly, but not until I had been stung pretty badly by another coral. I think all the food helps the acros replace tissue lost to the predation.

 

[dendro982]

Thanks for the input! And sorry for hitchhiking the thread.

 

[seansod]

I would be more concerned with the excess food then the actual waste. I have sun polyps in my reef tank and target feed cytoplezee every 3 days. In order for them to get enough (2-3 polyp retraction and extension) there is alot of excess food floating in the tank.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Gordonious]

If you ever have any of your reds show up on another rock and you would sell or trade PLEASE let me know.

Jon

 

[tgrove]

Well when I started this thread, I had a wet/dry running as a sump(no bioball, but with rumble) When i was feeding, i noticed i had a lot of excess nutritians in the water.

But now that i have added a large sump(30g on a 55g) I have noticed better water quaility.

 

[Gordonious]

The solution to pollution is dilution.

 

[dendro982]

Side note: Just noticed, that the low light blue algae Ochtodes, that I put into another non-photosynthetic tank with sun coral babies/spawns with the goal of reducing nitrates and phosphates, acts as a food catcher, preventing it going into filtration.
So, easily cleanable space is an issue too.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Which is right where your cleanup crew will hang out to get it, right?

 

[dendro982]

Which is right where your cleanup crew will hang out to get it, right?

Well, this is the my weak point. IMHE, the cleanup crew is a mythical entity; at least creatures, listed as such, are not cleaning tank from everything and conflict with each other.

- Hermits are killing snails, and pick only relatively big pieces, even the small hermits. The smallest pieces are accumulating.
- snails are not interested to go into the woods, when a plenty of food is available elsewhere.
- no bristleworms in these tanks somehow (small and big one, babies tubastrea in one and big tubastrea and babies/spawns too - in the other).
- no visible pods to pick the smallest pieces too - the cleaner wrasse and dragonets took care of this. New additions is eaten pretty soon too.
- no feather dusters on these tanks too, may be for the same reason. Sponges and foraminiferas (-i?) only.
:mad2:

 

[Gordonious]

Missing clean up crew = missing half the fun.

I love my clean up crew.

 

[dendro982]

Missing clean up crew = missing half the fun.
I love my clean up crew.

I can only wish my love will solve their problems...
Seriously, it could depend on kind of tank you have.