Help my sun coral!

[Ikan83]

Hi,

any 1 knows wat's the problem?

But coral will still fully open.

[Ikan83]

Another 1 also...

[Alvin Tan]

maybe u wld wan to change its position.....sun corals require low lights with minimal flow IMO..

check ur water parameters oso..

jus my 2 cents...

[Ikan83]

Hi,

i put at low area but with strong flow.

Btw how much magnesium is require?

just measure today is 910mg mag/L, cal 390, dkh 8 deg enuff?

[Alvin Tan]

Hi,

i put at low area but with strong flow.

Btw how much magnesium is require?

just measure today is 910mg mag/L, cal 390, dkh 8 deg enuff?

magnesium n calcium reading is quite low.....increase the calcium to 420 and teh magnesium to 1200-1300... ....

bro...try 2 place it at a low flow area..not heavy flow..

happy reefing..

[Marineman]

maybe u wld wan to change its position.....sun corals require low lights with minimal flow IMO..

check ur water parameters oso..

jus my 2 cents...

In fact, they require moderate flow so that they can "catch" the food passing by. Also lighting is not important to this coral as they do not depend on light for food, in fact they are indifferent to lighting. Hobbyists suggest placing them in low light area becos it gives you the "extra" space to place other light loving corals in it's place.

It may be dying from starvation as these corals need to be target fed. The trouble is that if this coral does not die overnight, takes a while, unlike other corals.

[ciaolong]

best to give it a good flow even in the wild they are in strong flows sometimes the best time to see them open will be nite time or a sent of brineshrimp (diped in glaric) use to make my sun coral open up then i just feed a few brine shrimp per polyp

[zehuan]

I put mine in a high flow position. Lighting is not so critical.

[iantoh]

Hi bro ikan83,

just my two cents ya.

the tissue of your sun corals are receding, but not so much due to ca or alk issues, or even flow or light, for they can adapt to a wide range of flow and lighting conditions as ive kept them in full light besides my sps to no detriment, and algaes wont grow over living sun coral tissue. bright lights dont inhibit tentacle extension either. sun corals, unlike true calcifying corals like LPS and SPS, have no EPF layer in their tissues whereupon calcium and bicarbonate molecules are absorbed- they get their ca from the foods they ingest, the same way for example, we humans do. the crucial thing about keeping sun corals healthy is feeding. you need to feed them as their entire carbon budget is fulfilled through direct feeding.

as sun corals have a solid calcerite skeleton, when they starve, they dont shrink in size over time the way soft corals do. what happens instead is that their tissue cover slowly recedes. your sun corals still look plump in other regions so if youve kept them for a while, you mustve been feeding them, so just increase feedings. i find cyclopeeze rather messy as alot of it gets blown into corners where it doesnt get consumed, only to decompose to add to water column nutrient levels. try getting a 5ml syringe (30cents at a pharmacy), attach it to hard airline tubing (clementi sells this), and target feed each polyp with one or two mysid shrimps daily or alternate-daily. dissolve each mysid cube in freshwater first, then dump off the water leaving you the shrimps, mix this with some tank water, then suck some of this tank water mixed with the food and squirt it towards the sun coral colonies- this will cause the extension of the polyps' tentacles, then feed away. youll see the benefit in about a fortnights time with discernable growth, and hopefully, new baby polyps.

well, thats how i tend to mine anyways. hope that helps ya.

cheers,

ian

[Tigger]

Ian, that's a very good write up. Thanks.

[Ikan83]

Actually i already targeting the sun coral with brine shrimp and market

prawn already, but not so often.. didn't know sun coral consume their nutrients

from food. my sun coral with me for abt 6 mnth liao, only turning white recently.

Thanks for the info, will feed them more...

[ciaolong]

u want them to grow super fast just feed them every day they sure grow fast and become like a pest lol

[Tanga]

Bros bought a super sun coral from lck during the last shipment about 2 weeks ago and have target feeding it religiously everyday. Up till now does'nt open, but funny thing is when it feeds the tentacles stays in the mouth unlike my other normal sun coral which have been with me for quite sometime now.

[Nic a Jon]

totally agree with bri Ian.....tho its v troublesome, u have to feed them regularly.

i have 1 super sun and 3 normal sun coral all place under bright light also and in moderate flow. they used to open up everyday when i fed them regularly.

but last few weeks too lazy to target feed..last nite noticed that my black sun tissue receding after a period of time.

ian,

will regular target feeding help the tissue to recover?

[iantoh]

hi nic_a_jon, and fellow bros,

yeah, regular feedings should help the colony regain its health, and it'll grow back over areas that are exposed but which have not been overtaken by algae yet. by this i mean that i dont think tissue regenration will be able to reclaim areas where algae has taken over. if some polyps in the colony have totally receded, you can try fragging the colony.

if you have a healthy sun coral, you can frag it by just breaking it in your hands. the separate pieces will heal and grow with regular feedings. i like sun corals because, for me, theyre reliable and responsive. if you take the effort to feed, they grow and extend their tentacles beautifully. if you dont, then they decline. direct correlation to the attention you pay them, as opposed to some other coral species, where you can never be quite sure whether your actions are harming or benefitting them.

cheers

ian

[Alvin Tan]

hi nic_a_jon, and fellow bros,

yeah, regular feedings should help the colony regain its health, and it'll grow back over areas that are exposed but which have not been overtaken by algae yet. by this i mean that i dont think tissue regenration will be able to reclaim areas where algae has taken over. if some polyps in the colony have totally receded, you can try fragging the colony.

if you have a healthy sun coral, you can frag it by just breaking it in your hands. the separate pieces will heal and grow with regular feedings. i like sun corals because, for me, theyre reliable and responsive. if you take the effort to feed, they grow and extend their tentacles beautifully. if you dont, then they decline. direct correlation to the attention you pay them, as opposed to some other coral species, where you can never be quite sure whether your actions are harming or benefitting them.

cheers

ian

i see....very gd n comprehensive info......

[Ikan83]

can frag sun coral just by hand? They look so hard...

hmm..learn something new..

[Tigger]

so wat are the calcium rich food? my understanding are dairy products. but we do feed dairy products to sc right. haha

[iantoh]

hi everyone,

thanks for all the compliments.

with regards to fragging:

sun corals may look hard, but theyre actually quite easy to break apart into frags. just take one colony and try to snap it and it usually breaks off quite easily. the three separate small colonies I have, of which there are pics in my old tank thread, were all fragged from a single colony. and they have all grown. i havent gotten round to starting a tank thread for my new system, but when i do, shall take some pics of my suns to compare with the older pictures ya.

a good calcium rich food source, in my opinion, is frozen mysid shrimps. try target feeding some to your sun corals, and youll notice that they hardly expel anything thereafter as waste, and definitely no shell matter is expelled, so they probably fulfill their calcium requirements from such food sources. i mean, in the wild, they feed totally on zooplankton, all of which have some form of exoskeleton.

cheers all,

ian

[cdckjn]

hi everyone,

thanks for all the compliments.

with regards to fragging:

sun corals may look hard, but theyre actually quite easy to break apart into frags. just take one colony and try to snap it and it usually breaks off quite easily. the three separate small colonies I have, of which there are pics in my old tank thread, were all fragged from a single colony. and they have all grown. i havent gotten round to starting a tank thread for my new system, but when i do, shall take some pics of my suns to compare with the older pictures ya.

a good calcium rich food source, in my opinion, is frozen mysid shrimps. try target feeding some to your sun corals, and youll notice that they hardly expel anything thereafter as waste, and definitely no shell matter is expelled, so they probably fulfill their calcium requirements from such food sources. i mean, in the wild, they feed totally on zooplankton, all of which have some form of exoskeleton.

cheers all,

ian

Sorry for hijacking,

iantoh,

if you have frag suncorals so easily, can I have a small frag from you please

I am intending to sart a small 1 ft Pico tank for my daughter - going to fill it with many small frags of zoos, etc etc - so can I have one small frag of sun from you??

many Thanks in advance.

[iantoh]

hi cdckjn,

wah! youre fast ah! ok. one small frag shouldnt be a problem. note: i may have fragged suns with success, but it doesnt mean i have wholesale stocks of them. hope you wont grumble that its too small a frag too as some other reefers to whom i've given sun coral frags have in the past. i will have at least five polyps for you, but theyll be new grown baby polyps from the sides of the mother colony. i will demonstrate feeding when you come.

you can call me at 9-028-4368, and come by to pick it up when your pico is set up ya. i live at blk 5, toh yi drive.

cheers,

ian

[itchyhand]

Hi,

any 1 knows wat's the problem?

But coral will still fully open.

I think it's not chaging color, it's showing signs of dying.... that's my view.....cos mine was the same.... the whites start to get bigger & bigger till the polyps are dead.... put the corals too direct to the flow.... i think.

[alien07]

Bro. you got read ML's reef nugget? maybe understanding the Sun coral's requirements would be good.

[thecoralscove]

yah, reed the reef nugget by henry