dendronephthya (carnation coral) AM I WINING OR LOSING

Arego

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Tiny bit better
20211129_160219_HDR.jpg
 
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sixty_reefer

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To the OP, how is the coral doing?
Apologies for the late reply I may have missed the notification, not well the method was unreliable, I am trying something different now on a purpose build tank using nitrogen and other additives.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sixty’s-ecosystem-build.904348/
 
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sixty_reefer

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Examples:

1. Photographic evidence in your build thread is great (gives a time stamp reference):

Scleronephthya1_111221.jpg


2. A photo of the coral 'in situ' in the aquarium:

12g FTS_091921.jpg


3. The receipt/shipper from the vendor with the date (in case anyone asks for proof of purchase).

I suppose that there may be a few attention seeking charlatans out there that might attempt to fake something like this, but it'd imagine that it would be very rare.

* Before anyone asks, I'm only about 4 months in with this Scleronephthya sp., so certainly nothing to say yet about success or failure.
How’s yours doing mate? The resin I believe that failed previously was because I was trying to decompose phosphates to increase bacteria availability to feed the coral, I miss understood the method and didn’t account for the release of Carbon by the demineralisation process
 

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How’s yours doing mate? The resin I believe that failed previously was because I was trying to decompose phosphates to increase bacteria availability to feed the coral, I miss understood the method and didn’t account for the release of Carbon by the demineralisation process

Stopped regular feedings for a while to see if it could sustain it's current size on just the nutrition available in the system, but it's clear that it needs regular feeding to avoid shrinking. Otherwise, it looks healthy enough.

So, putting it back on a regular feeding regime.
 
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sixty_reefer

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Stopped regular feedings for a while to see if it could sustain it's current size on just the nutrition available in the system, but it's clear that it needs regular feeding to avoid shrinking. Otherwise, it looks healthy enough.

So, putting it back on a regular feeding regime.
Have you ever noticed a increase in nitrite in that system wile on regular feeding?
 

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Have you ever noticed a increase in nitrite in that system wile on regular feeding?

I have never tested for nitrite, but nitrate does go up if I feed the coral excessively. Always the possibility that some of the higher nitrate reading may be caused by increased nitrite,

Feeding a small amount of dry food (~1/4 of a tiny Salifert test kit spoon) once a day keeps the coral at size. Additional BBS a few times a week makes it slowly grow.
 
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sixty_reefer

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I have never tested for nitrite, but nitrate does go up if I feed the coral excessively. Always the possibility that some of the higher nitrate reading may be caused by increased nitrite,

Feeding a small amount of dry food (~1/4 of a tiny Salifert test kit spoon) once a day keeps the coral at size. Additional BBS a few times a week makes it slowly grow.
BBS? Not familiar with that abbreviation, the reason I ask is that I am now in suspicion that nitrite could be in relation to keeping some of this corals. On my new build I have being able to keep the nitrite level present at all times with the addition of a artificial source of Nitrogen without raising nitrates.
 

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BBS? Not familiar with that abbreviation, the reason I ask is that I am now in suspicion that nitrite could be in relation to keeping some of this corals. On my new build I have being able to keep the nitrite level present at all times with the addition of a artificial source of Nitrogen without raising nitrates.
BBS = Baby Brine Shrimp
 

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There’sa thread on feeding them eggs. Chicken eggs. I think it’s the egg whites dry powder form.
mine is at a month right now. Hard to tell how it’s doing. I have three clams so I feed phytochrom every day. Plus a heavy feeding of frozen stuff once a day for the rest of the fish and coral.
he was $30 and about 7” when I got him attached to a nice rock. He is in some heavy current.
 
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sixty_reefer

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There’sa thread on feeding them eggs. Chicken eggs. I think it’s the egg whites dry powder form.
mine is at a month right now. Hard to tell how it’s doing. I have three clams so I feed phytochrom every day. Plus a heavy feeding of frozen stuff once a day for the rest of the fish and coral.
he was $30 and about 7” when I got him attached to a nice rock. He is in some heavy current.
Unfortunately like this thread there is suspicions on what they may eat, I believe that it’s not known what they eat yet.
 
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sixty_reefer

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yesterday I saw this coral in my local LFS it’s a return Carnation Coral that has been starved by a very long time as you can see by the picture

06209D04-6160-44CC-BD79-6DA0B7414C73.jpeg


i tough this would be a really good specimen to test the new feeding method faster, the goal here is to test if the bacteria culture I have been working on since last year will benefit the coral in any way.
The first 12 hours since it has been added to the system seems interesting the coral is starting to show some signs of response to feeding, it’s fairly early for anything conclusive nevertheless I thought it was beneficial to the thread.

first time the coral was added
06209D04-6160-44CC-BD79-6DA0B7414C73.jpeg

12h later
F8D72983-69BF-46D1-97F8-3B2FB172CEFF.jpeg


some pictures of the culture

7CE3C483-0111-40D0-A405-64AE48553618.jpeg
44866405-350C-4DB6-A0FD-2282E9F35BEC.jpeg
D99063F8-459A-41E6-8171-54D58C2F65DF.jpeg
52738588-76FD-4550-A7B4-D2AA3FE9790E.jpeg

I start with a clean tank water 1000ml jug and I collect every morning a fair amount of brown bacteria, rotifers and copepod in addition there is a dozer supplying the tank with nutrients I believe they may be important, I’m at 24ml a day, spread on 12 individual doses.
 
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yesterday I saw this coral in my local LFS it’s a return Carnation Coral that has been starved by a very long time as you can see by the picture

06209D04-6160-44CC-BD79-6DA0B7414C73.jpeg


i tough this would be a really good specimen to test the new feeding method faster, the goal here is to test if the bacteria culture I have been working on since last year will benefit the coral in any way.
The first 12 hours since it has been added to the system seems interesting the coral is starting to show some signs of response to feeding, it’s fairly early for anything conclusive nevertheless I thought it was beneficial to the thread.

first time the coral was added
06209D04-6160-44CC-BD79-6DA0B7414C73.jpeg

12h later
F8D72983-69BF-46D1-97F8-3B2FB172CEFF.jpeg


some pictures of the culture

7CE3C483-0111-40D0-A405-64AE48553618.jpeg
44866405-350C-4DB6-A0FD-2282E9F35BEC.jpeg
D99063F8-459A-41E6-8171-54D58C2F65DF.jpeg
52738588-76FD-4550-A7B4-D2AA3FE9790E.jpeg

I start with a clean tank water 1000ml jug and I collect every morning a fair amount of brown bacteria, rotifers and copepod in addition there is a dozer supplying the tank with nutrients I believe they may be important, I’m at 24ml a day, spread on 12 individual doses.
Where is the bacteria from initially, Is it just because it’s and old roti culture, or did you deliberately put some in there?
What nutrients are you putting in?
I think you may be on the right track with this, excellent.
 
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sixty_reefer

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Where is the bacteria from initially, Is it just because it’s and old roti culture, or did you deliberately put some in there?
What nutrients are you putting in?
I think you may be on the right track with this, excellent.
The bacteria was deliberately added, I’ve started the culture with probiotics and feed yeast and glucose to induce a bloom, i now only feed them a source of organic carbon and occasionally yeast.
The culture creates a perfect environment for rotifers to also bloom, if you zoom in on the jug picture you can observe millions of them along with the bacteria colonies that are visible to the naked eye, in addition the filtration of the ecosystem build allows for all this food to stay in suspense without being filtered out of the tank, 24 hours later in samples of water I can still see the bacteria colonies and rotifers present in the suspense in the water column.
The downside is that the conditions necessarily to cultivate them would cause a reef to crash meaning that I will never going to be able to automate the food system in addition this is only a preliminary observation. research points in this direction and it’s worth exploring.
 
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sixty_reefer

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I wasn’t hoping on a quick recovery pic from today just confirming that the coral is actually in a bad condition

AE9CC4CC-30E3-4775-A53C-C857E5D036B6.jpeg
 

damsels are not mean

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I wasn’t hoping on a quick recovery pic from today just confirming that the coral is actually in a bad condition

AE9CC4CC-30E3-4775-A53C-C857E5D036B6.jpeg
Sometimes algae/cyano grows on the base of soft corals. Sometimes they shed it. I have never seen this cause issues for them and even thriving growing specimens get this sometimes. I wouldn't lose hope.
 

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