The Next Step!

MarineSniper

MarineSniper

Member
I've only been doing NPS corals for about 6 months and, having started with the easier sun corals, have been moving to more difficult ones. Having done very well with several terrazoanthus colonies, I decided to pick up my first gorgonian; a blueberry that our local SW LFS has had for a while.. As the feeding requirements are very similar to those of the terras, I'm hopeful I can do as well with these. The colors of some of the fans are truly incredible so I'll see how I do with this, to start!








She's open and feeding well already. The brilliant blue on these are a great addition to that tank!
 
You keep terrazoanthus? Do tell...

I'm interested in them. I've been doing suns, balanos, and easy gorgs for about 6 months too.

L
 
They're not exceptionally hard to keep, or as hard as some make it sound. The gorgonian is a bit more challenging due to inability to easily tell how well it has been fed.

The terras seem to do exceptionally well with very fine powdered foods, like Fauna Marin Sea Fan and "F", soaked well in Selcon, Zoe, or the like. I also add frozen Cyclopeeze or ground mysis and/or a homemade blend, close to pureed. Definitely recommend using a Sea Squirt over a baster. The tip of a baster is too large to control feeding. Shut all the pumps off and SLOWLY squirt it over the terras. They close, making it simple to identify any missed heads. The "hardest" aspect is finding the sweet spot in feeding just the right amount to keep them fed while still maintaining NO3 under 10. Higher than that and they stress. With the gorg, I overfed and it spiked to 40. I knew immediately when it did, as the terras would not open. It took a 150% water change, over a week to bring it back down. Have since adjusted the feeding of all of them to compensate and am adding 2, 100g stock tanks (overkill but I will be adding the 135g dt to them as well). I generally feed them twice a night and they're thriving well, having spit off two new colonies in 6 months. The key is getting the squirt very close, rather than broadcast feeding them

They will want a large amount of flow. If they're not open during the day, they probably don't have enough. My Apex is on my other tank so I use an American DJ for the pumps. I can tell by looking at the terras, that I've forgotten to turn them back on!
 
Also picked up a 93 head (that I can count, probably another 10 or so where I can't see them) dendro on Friday and 2 free spirals the dendro seller had that are exceptionally stressed. I have them near the gorgonian to minimize waste in feeding them and can, hopefully, pull them back from the brink. They have a few polyps remaining so we'll see
 
Here are a couple pics of my Terras. Only the one colony is fully open today, the other has been angry sincethe nitrate spike a month ago and doesn't open up as much during the day, although it's beginning to again. Temperamental things!

 
Just starting to open well but all the heads are alive. I would estimate there are probably 105 to 115, total. The 93 are the ones I can physically see, where it's placed now. Not one of those who will stick my hand in the tank, let alone disturb my corals, just to satisfy my curiosity.

I do move my larger sun colonies monthly so that I'm able to feed them evenly. One of them is over 100 heads and it's always hard to get to the ones on the bottom. I turn it around monthly and it seems to work as the head sizes are pretty consistent, throughout, with the exception of the young ones, of course





Day shot. Gives a little size relevance: the orange suns to the left is about 130 heads

 
Definitely will be happy, when they all open, every day. Right now, 10 or so seem to open at a time. Luckily, it's a different 10 most of the time so the majority have been fed already. I'm not helping the cause, in that I'll feed them, regardless of the time, when I see some stay open for a while. I know this won't encourage them to all open at the same time but, given that they were likely fed sparsely at the retailer and even less so, in transit to him; I'm more concerned with their health and recovery than their doing what I want them to do. I can wait a while!
 
I disagree with that sentiment. I think the more times that they get food the more likely that they will all start to open all the time. It may mean each section has a couple more each time, but at some point they will converge and be expecting food all the time.

I think feeding them whenever the polyps are open encourages them to open more as they get to know "open polyp means food"

You're right though they are basically starved from collection until our tanks so it can be a struggle initially.
 
We're on the same page and I agree that they will open together, soon enough. I just feed them any time I see a few heads open. They then go back to resting, and the feeding prompts more to open. Someone had told me, early on in this segment of the hobby, to feed them at the same time every day, regardless. I'm more concerned with their well being than I am with them opening together. I'm sure they've come a long distance with minimal care and food so they'll be fed whenever they want, for the time being.

I'm in the process of setting up an "NPS System sump" that will make it far easier to feed them however much I want. Two 100g stock tank drains that feed into a recirculating Geo skimmer that drains into a 150g return stock tank. Add about 150g in 'fuges and that will give the system about 450 gallons, outside of the DT. Excited to see what I can grow out with that! Should be in place by this time next month
 
I will likely be linking my 135 to it, eventually, as well but as lightly as it is stocked, it will add more than it will take. I am also considering something in the 300g range, as a display tank, and consolidating both my reef and nps tanks. When I do that, I will definitely need the large water volume of this setup to maintain the two together, especially at the rate many of these are growing. I have about 60 heads of suns that pop up throughout the tank and though most people have told me they won't take hold and grow....about half are now at a pretty good size. One has taken root in the midst of a terrazoa colony and I may have to kalk him. I assumed the terras would come out on top, in that battle but so far, the sun is winning

The main downside I see to the large sump volume is that I'm going to need a 100 gallon top off reservoir!
 
Its great to see more Ohio NPS keepers! As far as i know i am the only one in Cincinnati, but there have been several in Columbus.
 
There are a lot of hobbyists here that have one or two nps and a few that I know of, that keep a small collection. We're very fortunate to have a very good saltwater store here which is of huge benefit in this arm of the hobby. A lot of work, as I've mentioned before but that just makes any success that much sweeter. I believe the ones who regularly succeed in keeping these are the ones who actually enjoy doing all the "work" they require. I look forward to feeding them every night and even doing 15g water changes every 5 days. I may be the oddity, in those regards but everyone I've known who has complained about the amount of attention they require has been unsuccessful in keeping them, long term
 
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