polyp care ?

[Rich-n-poor]

ok i got a real nice piece of rock at the LFS which had both brown zoo(fill in rest) polyps and yellow polyps on it about 12 yelllow and 20 brown with green centers all small new polyps

give me some info on their care please they are in my 37 gallon with 2x55 watts power compact lighting one blue one white bulb

also tell me how rapid they will grow and spread and what can be done to encourage this ?

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Honda S500

 

[esmithiii]

With that kind of lighting, they should be in the upper 1/4 of the tank. I would also suggest going to 65W bulbs as they are the same length as the 55W and will run on most ballasts for 55W. I feed mine using brine shrimp plus soaked in selecon and a turkey baster. I occasionally cut up shrimp or scallops into very small pieces (the size of grain of rice) and hand feed each polyp using chopsticks. They LOVE that and will grow quickly is fed (they will double in size every couple of months provided with food, good lighting and good water quality.) They are surprisingly hearty and may close if disturbed or in poor conditions for months or more without harm.

The yellow polyps are not zooanthids, and will be eaten by peppermint shrimp. I have had less luck w/ them.

Ernie

 

[Rich-n-poor]

thx for the advice

on the subject of lighting i am considering adding another 2x55 watt power compact to this system but i have the following concerns:

my purple and green shrooms do better in the bottom substrate level of my tank i had them higher and they tended to close up on me will the additional lights be too much for my shrooms ?

110 watts on 37 gallons is about 3 watts per gallon while i know 4 is recommended i only want to keep softies isnt this enough for polyps shrooms and softies ?

i have no desire to keep hard corals at this point and prefer to stay away from metal halides

thx

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Satanism, The Church of Satan Forum

 

[Rich-n-poor]

oh yeah in case iwasnt clear thats 2x55watts=110 watts total on tank right now the second fixture would make 220 watts total
thx
heres a pic of the lighting but i have since built a custom reflector

37 gallon reef in progress
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30 Rock Forum

 

[esmithiii]

Rich-N-Poor

You should be able to keep alot of stuff w/ 4x55W. I have kept many different softies and one LPS in my 55G w/ 2x55W PC. You should see if the 65W bulbs will work w/ your ballast as they add more light for little additional cost. I assume that will be 4 bulbs parallel to each other, which will be alot of light! Don't listen to the watts per gallon mumbo-jumbo. It is not a matter of wattage and volume, but more intensity (which varies greatly per watt between PC, VHO, and MH not to mention color temp of the bulb) and distance from the light source to the organisms in your tank.

Your mushrooms should adapt to higher light in time. In my 180 I have built several small caves using a PVC frame. These "caves" allow me to partially shade lower light corals from my 400W metal halides and 96W PC actinics.

Ernie