Help please! Coral question...

[Riptide10]

I had my LFS put a purple Lemnalia on hold for me.

But now I'm reading conflicting information on these things and I don't know what to believe!

For instance:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/nephtheidfaqs.htm

Lemnalia are only weakly symbiotic at best. They require an extraordinary amount of food that is difficult to provide (nanoplankton, phyto, bacteria and the like). If there are corallimorphs (mushrooms) or LPS corals (hammer, octopus, torch, bubble, elegant, etc) in the tank... these soft corals will likely fail in well under 2 years from the unnatural aggression (allelopathy). You will also need a fishless refugium with plant or algae matter to produce natural plankton to feed them. Bottled foods will not work (particle size is too large). Best regards, Anthony

And then here:
http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=648&N=0

The symbiotic algae zooxanthellae are hosted within Paralemnia Tree Corals and provide the majority of their nutritional requirements from the light driven process of photosynthesis.

I have yellow polyps, a leather coral (finger), and mushroom corals in my tank already.

Is getting this Lemnalia a mistake or not? HELP please! Thanks in advance.

 

[Len]

Lemnalia is one of the harder soft corals to keep IME, but it's not nearly as difficult as Mr. Calfo suggests but not as easy as liveaquaria says. (they are, after all, trying to sell something ). That said, I feed my cyclopeeze about twice a week. It seems to grow slower then other soft corals (not really a bad thing, mind you), probably because it's nutritional requirements aren't as easily met as the more photosynthetic species.

 

[Len]

Oh yeah .....
:welcome:

 

[Riptide10]

OK sounds like it might be worth a try.

So does this purple Lemnalia get any of it's sustenance from light or is feeding it phyto a requirement?

I'm in MT and I don't think any LFS has phyto. I hear DT's is good but it's expensive.

I'm going to have to think on this a bit because I'm not sure I want something so high maintenance. The corals I already have (yellow polyps, mushrooms, leather) don't require phyto and it's nice not to have to dose that stuff.

 

[Len]

Perhaps you should pass on it if you can still do so. It does require more maintanence then almost all other softies and most LPS. I don't think the coral would do well strictly on light energy. I think supplementation of phyto and small zooplankton is in order. FWIW, you can mail order a lot of these items from places like www.reefnutrition.com .

 

[Riptide10]

What do you think about DT's? And if I decided to try some cyclopeeze how long would say $25 worth of it get me? This is a 50g tank. I don't want to end up spending $150 year just to keep one coral alive...

Lighting is 220W of power compact 10,000k.

Thanks for the help btw.

 

[Meloco14]

In my opinion you might want to make a choice before buying that coral. The choice would be, keep your tank low maintenance, or take the step into a more demanding reef tank. I don't think it will be worth it to you to dose phyto for just one coral, unless you really love that coral. Since you are dosing anyway, you might as well get other soft or LPS corals that would benefit from it. AFAIK mushrooms and leather corals wont gain much benefit from the dosing. And I agree that this particular coral will not survive well solely on photosynthesis, so dosing is a must. HTH

 

[Rob Top]

I would lean towards the site just giving info, and not the one selling the coral. JMO

 

[Riptide10]

Hmm... Well I'm probably going to give it a try and use DT's. Unless anyone feels DT's won't be enough.

I don't want to get rid of the corals I have. But I could still add one more after this one. Any ideas/suggestions on what I could add to go along with this Lemnalia? Something nice that would utilize the DT's along with this one?

Thanks

 

[FragMaster]

WOOPS never mind !!!! Stupid response.

 

[Riptide10]

lol that's OK.

I want to add some zoanthid polyps (supercolor) but that is also another species that won't use the DT's. So I'm just wondering what else I might put in there along with this lemnalia that will use/eat the DT's.

Right now I have:
mushrooms
yellow polyps
leather

 

[FragMaster]

The leather will, the yellow polyps will, zoanthids will too in small part.
Feather dusters, gorgonians, clams, anthelia, xenia, sps, lps, a whole slew of coral will take atvantage of the dt's actualy.

 

[Riptide10]

My lighting is power compact, twin 36" fixtures over the tank (50g tank). 55x4.

What would you recommend then? Would bird's nest do OK? Acropora? Galaxia?

Not sure about my lighting for some of these corals.

 

[Meloco14]

Certain sps like the bird's nest (I assume you mean Pocillopora) and maybe a montipora will do okay under that light if they are high up. But they will not get good coloration, and they probably will not grow quickly. I have a staghorn montipora in my nanocube that only has 56 watts of PC light but it is growing like crazy. It is an ugly brown, however, and it is only a couple inches from the light. I also have 2 more SPS corals popping up as hitchhikers under that lighting. So, it can be done, it is just not ideal. I would stick to LPS corals and soft corals. Check out anything in the Euphyllia genus, and open or closed brain corals. If you don't have a good book on corals yet you might want to pick one up, or at least go to a bookstore and read through one. Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman give some good info on keeping them in our tanks, and a lot of pictures. There are a couple other good coral books out there too. HTH

 

[Riptide10]

Wow quite a few to choose from here:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scat ... pCatId=321

After I get one of these and some zoos I'm finished. Then I'll just add my gramma and my flame - and the tank will be complete.

 

[Meloco14]

Most of those will be okay in your tank and will benefit from feeding. However as with any purchase make sure you research the specific specimen before buying. Some of those corals are very difficult to keep in captivity. But the majority will be fine, and they are all very colorful and will make a great addition to your tank. Good luck!

 

[FragMaster]

Well said.

 

[FragMaster]

Well said.