Fish Think Pink
5000 Club Member
I have created a 'Sun Hut' for my sun coral!
My need = ongoing light protection as well as tank water flow for my sun coral. I find it ironic that I need no/less light for my sun coral.
Summary:
Algae took hold thru my pink sun coral's tissue and down onto sun coral skeleton. In addition to protecting still feeding sun coral at end of food bath, I want sun coral to have shade. In summary, my needs were 1) cheap 2) light limiting 3) flow 4) sufficient space
Everyone in this thread is SO very accomplished. Some day I will become as good as you (or just buy your wares online). For those that are like me, I am here to give you hope. If you have a need, then you can meet that need. I have kindergarten level crafting skills. I love this quote "start where you are, use what you have, do what you can" by Arthur Ashe, tennis player
Background:
I have a sun coral. It was one of the first corals my BF ever bought me. If he/we had known what we were buying at the time, we would not have bought it. I have no pictures of its original state. It was empty skeleton, but we did not know that. We just knew it was PINK - BRIGHT PINK!! We brought it home, put it in tank... nada ... Researched, found out it was likely long dead BEFORE purchase. It was the only bright pink anything in our tank, and I declared it staying in tank even if super glued onto something somewhere as it had such a gorgeous PINK skeleton.
More research and learned about 'food bath' ...Food bath is where you put sun coral in container, add food to container, swirl food around coral, swirl again, swirl again, swirl again... Since I work from home, I thought why not... worst case I waste some food... Though I thought it was futile somehow I kept at it daily for 7 or 10 days and then VOILA! Tiny sign of life. Took a long time to grow out. Bare skeleton for so long that when tissue formed over skeleton, puffy pink translucent tissue just seemed weird and wrong.
This is a recent food bath photo, but any container and probably any food will work. Shown is with LRS Reef Frenzy and San Francisco Brand Fish Eggs (usually just LRS):
In above photo, you can see my sun coral has been suffering from algae as well as not as frequent feedings. It still has its extra heads, the sharp angles of its skeleton rounded, but its tissue is not as fluffy as it once grew out.
Hut early versions were just cut up water bottles. Here is my sun coral about 20 months ago, in DIY Hut for Sun Coral, version 1, shown post food bath (bottle protector #1 - still lived in cave out of light). There is another bottle Hut version that had extra holes, but that version likely never had a photo and long ago was returned to recycle bin (where "hut" bottle originated). After below version, there were also shorter and longer versions (trim bottle more... get new bottle and cut it... hole punch water flow holes):
Fast forward about 8 months ago, my growing blue tang decided it did not like sun coral in sun coral's cave. It took a while for me to finally give up keeping sun coral in sun coral cave. Not sure if this was sparked by sun coral's growth or blue tang's growth (or both). I even tried pushing sun coral way deep to very very back of cave where no fish could push it out. When blue tang repeatedly grabbed/bit sun coral skin, pulled/dragged out swimming backwards and threw sun coral down onto other corals and/or sand, sun coral mostly has been living along sandbed (no shade).
I don't remember when algae on sun coral first appeared. It has been long enough that I now have a dedicated tiny human tweezers just for sun coral maintenance. Algae is getting annoying enough that I want sun coral shaded from light. My planted refugium is 24 hours in sump, so moving sun coral to sump is not option.
This has led me to create Hut ver 2 also known as Sun Hut for Sun Coral. Rock on top provides most of shade, though cut up plastic takeout container is translucent.
This took 1) scissors 2) takeout container from recycle bin 3) rock left over from some project 4) couple minutes (like, literally 2 minutes lol) Okay, all you amazing 3D printing and other engineering types, I know you can do better. I know it can look better. Most importantly, my version should work, as only smaller fish can get into new Sun Hut for Sun Coral. It has taken me far longer to write this post documenting my Hut to Sun Hut journey, creating Sun Hut for Sun Coral to help my pink sun coral.
I'll come back and update this thread later once coral is done feeding, to document how cute it has become. Sun coral does have yellow tips, but they just accentuate it's pink.
I also plan to upgrade this Sun Hut for Sun Coral design as soon as an opaque similar sized container lands in my family's recycle bin.
Signed,
Fish Think Pink
Pink Sun Coral Mommy, creator of Sun Hut for Sun Coral (lol)
My need = ongoing light protection as well as tank water flow for my sun coral. I find it ironic that I need no/less light for my sun coral.
Summary:
Algae took hold thru my pink sun coral's tissue and down onto sun coral skeleton. In addition to protecting still feeding sun coral at end of food bath, I want sun coral to have shade. In summary, my needs were 1) cheap 2) light limiting 3) flow 4) sufficient space
Everyone in this thread is SO very accomplished. Some day I will become as good as you (or just buy your wares online). For those that are like me, I am here to give you hope. If you have a need, then you can meet that need. I have kindergarten level crafting skills. I love this quote "start where you are, use what you have, do what you can" by Arthur Ashe, tennis player
Background:
I have a sun coral. It was one of the first corals my BF ever bought me. If he/we had known what we were buying at the time, we would not have bought it. I have no pictures of its original state. It was empty skeleton, but we did not know that. We just knew it was PINK - BRIGHT PINK!! We brought it home, put it in tank... nada ... Researched, found out it was likely long dead BEFORE purchase. It was the only bright pink anything in our tank, and I declared it staying in tank even if super glued onto something somewhere as it had such a gorgeous PINK skeleton.
More research and learned about 'food bath' ...Food bath is where you put sun coral in container, add food to container, swirl food around coral, swirl again, swirl again, swirl again... Since I work from home, I thought why not... worst case I waste some food... Though I thought it was futile somehow I kept at it daily for 7 or 10 days and then VOILA! Tiny sign of life. Took a long time to grow out. Bare skeleton for so long that when tissue formed over skeleton, puffy pink translucent tissue just seemed weird and wrong.
This is a recent food bath photo, but any container and probably any food will work. Shown is with LRS Reef Frenzy and San Francisco Brand Fish Eggs (usually just LRS):
In above photo, you can see my sun coral has been suffering from algae as well as not as frequent feedings. It still has its extra heads, the sharp angles of its skeleton rounded, but its tissue is not as fluffy as it once grew out.
Hut early versions were just cut up water bottles. Here is my sun coral about 20 months ago, in DIY Hut for Sun Coral, version 1, shown post food bath (bottle protector #1 - still lived in cave out of light). There is another bottle Hut version that had extra holes, but that version likely never had a photo and long ago was returned to recycle bin (where "hut" bottle originated). After below version, there were also shorter and longer versions (trim bottle more... get new bottle and cut it... hole punch water flow holes):
Fast forward about 8 months ago, my growing blue tang decided it did not like sun coral in sun coral's cave. It took a while for me to finally give up keeping sun coral in sun coral cave. Not sure if this was sparked by sun coral's growth or blue tang's growth (or both). I even tried pushing sun coral way deep to very very back of cave where no fish could push it out. When blue tang repeatedly grabbed/bit sun coral skin, pulled/dragged out swimming backwards and threw sun coral down onto other corals and/or sand, sun coral mostly has been living along sandbed (no shade).
I don't remember when algae on sun coral first appeared. It has been long enough that I now have a dedicated tiny human tweezers just for sun coral maintenance. Algae is getting annoying enough that I want sun coral shaded from light. My planted refugium is 24 hours in sump, so moving sun coral to sump is not option.
This has led me to create Hut ver 2 also known as Sun Hut for Sun Coral. Rock on top provides most of shade, though cut up plastic takeout container is translucent.
This took 1) scissors 2) takeout container from recycle bin 3) rock left over from some project 4) couple minutes (like, literally 2 minutes lol) Okay, all you amazing 3D printing and other engineering types, I know you can do better. I know it can look better. Most importantly, my version should work, as only smaller fish can get into new Sun Hut for Sun Coral. It has taken me far longer to write this post documenting my Hut to Sun Hut journey, creating Sun Hut for Sun Coral to help my pink sun coral.
I'll come back and update this thread later once coral is done feeding, to document how cute it has become. Sun coral does have yellow tips, but they just accentuate it's pink.
I also plan to upgrade this Sun Hut for Sun Coral design as soon as an opaque similar sized container lands in my family's recycle bin.
Signed,
Fish Think Pink
Pink Sun Coral Mommy, creator of Sun Hut for Sun Coral (lol)
