Branching Orange Sun Corals

[puppet]

I have recently acquired 2 branching orange sun corals from Pinnacle for about a month.

Have read that they are very hard to maintain. Hoping to just chronicle some information and also learn from others who might have knowledge to share with us here.

When I had first had them, the polyps were totally close.

Once I brought them home and acclimatising, I did a food bath for about an hour or so. I drop the 2 sun corals into a still tub of DT water with diluted mysis juice/ cyclopeeze/ rotifers. The response to the food was very minimal, I did see some polyps but it was really insignificant.

They were then placed in a shaded region receiving significant flow.

This was coupled with 2 continous feeding of 6 hours at an interval of 15 min each. Once at 5-6am and once when I reached home, around 6-7pm. The mixture of food inside includes algae paste, cyclo, Coral Food & Supplements, (Ultra Clam, Ultra Min F, Ultra Min D, Ultra Min S, Ultra Seafan) garlic supplements, kentmarine C, Oyster feast, tigger pods from reef nutrition, rotifeast. I got all the food from bro Fuel/ Aquafuana. Mix all of them, freeze them and then drop 2 cubes into the reactor 2 times a day.

During the initial first 2 weeks, whenever there was some response, I would take Henry's reef food and mix it with cyclo and target feed them.

Though there isn't excessive blooming of polyps, the response was encouraging at least to me.

This is my 4th week now.

Water parameters:

pH: 8.03 - 8.1

SG: 1.0253

Temp: 26 - 27.2 C

Ammonia - non detectable

Nitrates - non detectable (both using salifret testkit)

The black branching sun also shows growth, it was in a rather bad condition when I acquired it.

[yikai]

i've never seen the full open polyps for this species EVER.

your pictures are the furthest i've seen them extend their polyps.

one of theee harrrrrddddeeessstttt species of suns to keep.

i hope to see them in full bloom!

[Terryz_]

I totally gave up on them... Tried everything, flow, food(dry and live), shade or light, everything I can think of... I never got them to extend out... Only see the tentacles open a bit...

Even US Azoox reefers are having problem with them opening...

Edited November 13, 2011 by Terryz_

[puppet]

Some other NPS

[puppet]

I totally gave up on them... Tried everything, flow, food(dry and live), shade or light, everything I can think of... I never got them to extend out... Only see the tentacles open a bit...

Even US Azoox reefers are having problem with them opening...

Yeah I have been following your NPS tank thread, I have picked up a few of the things you mentioned and using them as a recipe to see if I could push the boundary a bit further.

i've never seen the full open polyps for this species EVER.

your pictures are the furthest i've seen them extend their polyps.

one of theee harrrrrddddeeessstttt species of suns to keep.

i hope to see them in full bloom!

I have been also trying to read up more about the habitat in nature, which consist of strong flows coupled with suspended food particles for a sustained period, this was to mimick tide changes.

So I timed the wavemaker targeted at them to coincide with the continuous feeding reactor for 6 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening, but like what you and Terryz shared, it was really hard. 4 weeks of hardwork only brought me thus far, I will post again on the polyps extension in 4 weeks time again.

[Terryz_]

Yeah I have been following your NPS tank thread, I have picked up a few of the things you mentioned and using them as a recipe to see if I could push the boundary a bit further.

I have been also trying to read up more about the habitat in nature, which consist of strong flows coupled with suspended food particles for a sustained period, this was to mimick tide changes.

So I timed the wavemaker targeted at them to coincide with the continuous feeding reactor for 6 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening, but like what you and Terryz shared, it was really hard. 4 weeks of hardwork only brought me thus far, I will post again on the polyps extension in 4 weeks time again.

Really hope you will get them to open up and extend, it will be quite an achievement... It really tiring to get them to open... LOL...

[CFOh]

Yup, polyps opening is essential, but long term care, feeding discipline, water quality monitor commitment for sun coral is also crucial.. Cheers..

[puppet]

Yup, polyps opening is essential, but long term care, feeding discipline, water quality monitor commitment for sun coral is also crucial.. Cheers..

Yeah, I think discpline and commitment in feeding is very important.

One of the challenges is to ensure that there is enough food suspended in the water column long enough, one way that really help me was the use of this customised continous feeding reactorwhich Joe_P build for me, it allows me to dump in 2 cubes of frozen prepared food into the reactor which mixes it and keeps it in suspension and release them into the tank for the next 6 hours at an interval of 15 min, with each interval lasting for 5 min.

I dump 2 cubes in the morning, and 2 cubes at night. This is to simulate the tide which brings in nutrients twice a day. The reactor really aided me in ensuring that there is food in the water. This allowed me to feed moderately consistently rather than dumping large amount of food one shot, consistently feeding manually is really impossible for most people as we have to work and be away from our tanks.

Of course especially during the weekend when I see them opened up, I will enticed them with Henry's food.

Of course the next challenge would be keeping water parameters acceptable.

Again I think that when you feed moderately and slowly as compared to a sudden influx of food, this actually allows your system more time and ability to breakdown uneaten food and process them. Imagine sipping a can of Sapporo slowly versus downing it in a gulp (though personally I prefer the gulp )

Also I have an excess of help in keeping water as acceptable as possible as I employ the following measures.

1) Oversize Skimmer with ozone

2) K1 media reactor

3) Biopellet Reactor (some literature also suggest that bacteria from the biopellet serves as a food source too)

4) FR reactor

5) Denitrator

6) Remote refugium with macro and chaeto

7) Bioball compartment (please don't flame me, it came with the sump )

8) cotton floss (mechanical - which I removed as Rusti aka Russel from Aquafauna suggested that I floss requires regular cleaning if not it will lead to build up of rotting compounds and also at the same time with the mechanical filtration, we would expect to see more food for the corals)

Some other NPS which shows good respond to the feeding regime

The following seafan came with only a few polyps but it has since grown over a period of around 4 months, the picture you see is after 4 months. 4 months ago, it has only 1 branch with 3/4 polyps, I got it as a hitch hiker, but now it has a few branches with multiple polys.

[Sonicsound]

seems not easy to let it boom

[qianjun]

If only sun coral glow under blue light. ..

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