Banasophia’s Biocube 16 & IM Nuvo 10 ☀️

[banasophia]

Thought I’d share this gross yet fascinating experience:

 

 

[debbeach13]

It is awesome you got it on video. I am not sure you needed more.

[Ocean_dreamer89]

That's a TON a bristle worms!! 😲

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

It is awesome you got it on video. I am not sure you needed more.

No...no I didn’t 😬

11 minutes ago, Ocean_dreamer89 said:

That's a TON a bristle worms!! 😲

Apparently thousands coming soon 😬😬😬

 

I removed the audio in which I was grossing out and telling my husband I will probably be breaking down the tank. So nasty!!! 

[TNSRFR]

Hi, I’m a returning reefer and just joined the forum.  I like your tank, especially in your success in keeping NPS corals.  I acquired a sun coral 3mos ago from LFS but no luck in getting it to open.  Been trying Tupperware method for the past month but not much progress.  Any advise would be very appreciated.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, TNSRFR said:

Hi, I’m a returning reefer and just joined the forum.  I like your tank, especially in your success in keeping NPS corals.  I acquired a sun coral 3mos ago from LFS but no luck in getting it to open.  Been trying Tupperware method for the past month but not much progress.  Any advise would be very appreciated.

Hi, welcome to the forum! That’s a gorgeous sun coral. I’ll give you some tips once I’m done working this evening. And looks like we are practically neighbors - I’m in Fair Oaks... nice to see someone local!

[MSunkin23]

12 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Hi, welcome to the forum! That’s a gorgeous sun coral. I’ll give you some tips once I’m done working this evening. And looks like we are practically neighbors - I’m in Fair Oaks... nice to see someone local!

I diddnt know you lived in the sac area. I also live in El Dorado Hills. Been finding good things at the Aquarium store in Rocklin, any other good ones?

 

Mike 

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, MSunkin23 said:

I diddnt know you lived in the sac area. I also live in El Dorado Hills. Been finding good things at the Aquarium store in Rocklin, any other good ones?

 

Mike 

No wayyyy!! All this time, can’t believe we didn’t know! Yes, Aqua Life actually had some really nice sun corals the last time I was there. Your Reef is a good store for corals, and Aquarium Depot and Splash are good too. 
 

If either of you want some forest fire digitata or some of my gorgonian that looks like a grubes, let me know. 

[MSunkin23]

Amazing, we just moved here a couple of months from the Bay, reason for the tank reset. I got my long tentacle plate coral from Your Reef, they are nice folks there. I will check out those others.

 

May take you up on the Gorgonian at some point, are they the photosynthetic ones or filter feeders? 

 

M

[banasophia]

9 hours ago, TNSRFR said:

Hi, I’m a returning reefer and just joined the forum.  I like your tank, especially in your success in keeping NPS corals.  I acquired a sun coral 3mos ago from LFS but no luck in getting it to open.  Been trying Tupperware method for the past month but not much progress.  Any advise would be very appreciated.

So I’d say the biggest trick to sun corals is finding a good “appetizer” they like to stimulate their feeding response... I find that mine really love coral frenzy the most. I squirt a little coral frenzy powder mixed with tank water over the suns and then wait about 15-30 minutes for them to open up, then once they are open I target feed each polyp thawed out meaty frozen food, usually marine cuisine and reef frenzy nano then leave them for another 15-30 minutes to digest. 

[TNSRFR]

Nicety know reefers near by.  😊. Moved to El Dorado Hills from Pleasanton in July, 2020 amidst COVID pandemic.  I’ve been getting coral frags from Your Reef and inverts from Aquarium Depot.  Didn’t know there are other LFS in the area.  Will definitely check them out.   So you think Tupperware method is too stressful?  I’ve been doing a lot of researching and that’s what was out there the most.   I keep the Tupperware in my sump for temperature stability and stir up the water every 5 mins.   The sun coral is from Your Reef and it is a nice one but VERY stubborn...

[banasophia]

8 hours ago, TNSRFR said:

Nicety know reefers near by.  😊. Moved to El Dorado Hills from Pleasanton in July, 2020 amidst COVID pandemic.  I’ve been getting coral frags from Your Reef and inverts from Aquarium Depot.  Didn’t know there are other LFS in the area.  Will definitely check them out.   So you think Tupperware method is too stressful?  I’ve been doing a lot of researching and that’s what was out there the most.   I keep the Tupperware in my sump for temperature stability and stir up the water every 5 mins.   The sun coral is from Your Reef and it is a nice one but VERY stubborn...

 

 

Yes, awesome to know some local nano-reefers! There are a couple local reefing groups too, that have Facebook groups. A couple of our LFSs have closed in the past two years... we used to have so many!
 

As for the sun coral, you could keep trying the method you are using with some different foods, but I feel like corals don’t usually open up for a while after they’ve just been picked up and moved, so I’d think it could be difficult to be successful taking the coral out of your tank to feed it. I feed mine in my tank, but of course that leads to issues of overfeeding like nutrient export needs... and I’m sure you saw the bristleworm post above. 

[TNSRFR]

Thanks for the info.  I’ll try to join the local reefing group.  Nice to connect with people with similar hobby.  I’ll keep trying my Tupperware method.  It doesn’t seem to be hurting the coral, just stubborn.  Yes, I saw your post on bristleworms.  I read that they are a good at cleaning up debris but they are nasty looking.  I had a really big one long time ago in my previous tank and they are creepy looking.  Because of that, I dip all my corals and gotten the smallest frag possible in this new tank but somehow they manage to get in your system.   I saw a good size one last night.  😖. I’m gonna get a trap or build one and try to capture it.  See how I goes.   I probably wouldn’t be able to erraticate them but as long as I can maintain it, that would be the goal.

[banasophia]

A couple pics I snapped before dinner tonight:

 

[banasophia]

And... super excited my new sun coral finally started to open up a little tonight... I got her last weekend, totally closed at the LFS but such gorgeous color and branching structure, my daughter convinced me to get her. She has been closed up tight... just saw my first glimpse of her opening up tonight... can’t wait to see her fully open. 💛💛💛

Under white lights:

 

Under beauty lights:

[banasophia]

On 3/2/2021 at 5:05 PM, MSunkin23 said:

Amazing, we just moved here a couple of months from the Bay, reason for the tank reset. I got my long tentacle plate coral from Your Reef, they are nice folks there. I will check out those others.

 

May take you up on the Gorgonian at some point, are they the photosynthetic ones or filter feeders? 

 

M

My gorgonians are photosynthetic, btw... at least most of them are... sorry I think I missed answering you on that one. 

[debbeach13]

That sun coral is beautiful.

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

That sun coral is beautiful.

Thanks, I feel so fortunate i was able to get it! It fit perfectly in that spot in my scape, its rock is just wedged in a gap but it seems pretty secure. 

[banasophia]

 

 

 

[Nano sapiens]

Aquarium is looking really good!  And that's a very nice and full sun coral addition.  Looking forward to seeing what it looks like when opened up.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said:

Aquarium is looking really good!  And that's a very nice and full sun coral addition.  Looking forward to seeing what it looks like when opened up.

Thanks, it’s taking some time for this sun coral to adjust to the tank, but I’m so excited to see it opened up too! My mandarin is hanging in there, swimming around actively though he doesn’t seem to be filling back out... still hoping he’ll pull through. 

[Nano sapiens]

7 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Thanks, it’s taking some time for this sun coral to adjust to the tank, but I’m so excited to see it opened up too! My mandarin is hanging in there, swimming around actively though he doesn’t seem to be filling back out... still hoping he’ll pull through. 

 Didn't see that the mandarin was in a bit of trouble.  Do you have any worm cultures (black worms, grindal or white worms)?  Another really good food source are newly hatched earthworms from a compost heap.

[banasophia]

7 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

 Didn't see that the mandarin was in a bit of trouble.  Do you have any worm cultures (black worms, grindal or white worms)?  Another really good food source are newly hatched earthworms from a compost heap.

Hmmm I don’t have any of those... I think my LFS does carry the black worms from time to time... and I think I may have some that are frozen. 

[Nano sapiens]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Hmmm I don’t have any of those... I think my LFS does carry the black worms from time to time... and I think I may have some that are frozen. 

Since your mandarin is not gaining girth, live food is really the best way to go for conditioning.

 

I used to culture all kinds of worms for conditioning/spawning Killifish WAY back in the day 🙂.  Black worms (Crude protein : 66.35% Crude fat : 13.87%) and baby earthworms (60-70% protein, 6-11% fat) are the go-to choices IMO for marine fish due to less fat than many of the other types of cultured worms.  Typically, marine diets are less fatty than fresh water ones and too much fat can cause fatty liver disease in marine fish.

 

For fattening the little mandarin, maybe try 2-3x/week of live worm and then back off to once a week once it's chubby-wubby again 🙂. 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

15 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

Since your mandarin is not gaining girth, live food is really the best way to go for conditioning.

 

I used to culture all kinds of worms for conditioning/spawning Killifish WAY back in the day 🙂.  Black worms (Crude protein : 66.35% Crude fat : 13.87%) and baby earthworms (60-70% protein, 6-11% fat) are the go-to choices IMO for marine fish due to less fat than many of the other types of cultured worms.  Typically, marine diets are less fatty than fresh water ones and too much fat can cause fatty liver disease in marine fish.

 

For fattening the little mandarin, maybe try 2-3x/week of live worm and then back off to once a week once it's chubby-wubby again 🙂. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much, I’ll see if I can get some and try that.