Wilsoni Coral Care (avoiding lighting overexposure)

[gotmesalty77]

Today will be day two ill do my best to post at least every other day. I currently have him in a bridge I made but it was heavy traffic and I'm sure fish aren't happy I took that from them. Most lps love my tank and my "dirty water" so I'll post my parameters as well. No. Idea why those pictures came out so poor. I'll shoot more later. Fingers crossed

 

[living_tribunal]

I am a firm believer in reef roids for wilsonis. Flow off, target feed the slurry and give it 5 to 10 minutes before turning the flow back on. I do this 1/2 hour before the lights start to come up twice a week. three times a week would be better. Let us know how you make out. Good luck with it. It should start to regain color in a few weeks with better inflation and growth should start as the color comes back. It is already stressed so be careful with parameter swings moving from your LFS to your quarantine tank.

I’ve personally found reef roids too small for wilsonis. They need a TON of nutrition so I scatter about 20 pellets on mine every two days, he consumes all of them.

From what I’ve learned so far for cold water wilsonis:
1.) Maintain healthy phosphates (keep N/P no higher than 15 and base phosphate at .03 minimum)
2.) Dosing aminos and carbs daily is a must.
3.) If yours is bleaching this is actually not a phosphate deficiency, they are that sensitive to light. Adding it to shade is a surefire way to keep it happy.
4.) If the cold water wilsoni you purchased has not been acclimated to warmer temps (76-79), you will have to spend a solid month getting him to 76.
5.) You should have a solid feeding regiment aside from aminos. I feed pellets twice a week, direct feed oyster feast twice a week, and feed phytoplankton every day.

 

[living_tribunal]

Hopefully he will acclimate over time, seems like the constant feeding is a really important aspect and you definitely have that down!

He eats more than anything in my tank (which says something). He can easily consume 30 1mm pellets a day.

the key is aminos and shade, I think I need to build something over him because even the shade I’ve provided isn’t enough. I can’t reduce par too much more.

rhey also really love blue spectrum.

 

[living_tribunal]

Today will be day two ill do my best to post at least every other day. I currently have him in a bridge I made but it was heavy traffic and I'm sure fish aren't happy I took that from them. Most lps love my tank and my "dirty water" so I'll post my parameters as well. No. Idea why those pictures came out so poor. I'll shoot more later. Fingers crossed

If the bridge is giving him good shade then that’s a very good start, aminos and consistent feeding will continue to help him color up.

Good luck, cold water wilsos are not easy. You’re ahead of the game if he’s happy in your care.

 

[gotmesalty77]

I’ve personally found reef roids too small for wilsonis. They need a TON of nutrition so I scatter about 20 pellets on mine every two days, he consumes all of them.

From what I’ve learned so far for cold water wilsonis:
1.) Maintain healthy phosphates (keep N/P no higher than 15 and base phosphate at .03 minimum)
2.) Dosing aminos and carbs daily is a must.
3.) If yours is bleaching this is actually not a phosphate deficiency, they are that sensitive to light. Adding it to shade is a surefire way to keep it happy.
4.) If the cold water wilsoni you purchased has not been acclimated to warmer temps (76-79), you will have to spend a solid month getting him to 76.
5.) You should have a solid feeding regiment aside from aminos. I feed pellets twice a week, direct feed oyster feast twice a week, and feed phytoplankton every day.

Looks like I'm going shopping he had been at the shop for a few weeks so I assume he is somewhat acclimated. Can you suggest brands of food specially I've only ever fed pemysis roids and chili. Never pellets to any corals.

 

[living_tribunal]

Looks like I'm going shopping he had been at the shop for a few weeks so I assume he is somewhat acclimated. Can you suggest brands of food specially I've only ever fed pemysis roids and chili. Never pellets to any corals.

I’ve recently switched to feeding pellets to any corals that consume them. They cause less algae and provide substantially more nutrition.

Most use fauna marine or coral frenzy. I use coral frenzy as they are lower priced. Once I made the switch over to pellets, my corals grew much faster than anything I’ve ever seen.

It’s kind of hard to feed pellets and easy to drop too many but man it’s so funny watching a little three head favia/acan devour 10-20 pellets. They get so fat.

 

[Magellan]

He eats more than anything in my tank (which says something). He can easily consume 30 1mm pellets a day.

the key is aminos and shade, I think I need to build something over him because even the shade I’ve provided isn’t enough. I can’t reduce par too much more.

rhey also really love blue spectrum.

It’s so much fun to overcome a challenge like that though! What if you got him his own LED, and aimed it at him from the side so the par was even more reduced, but shaded him from your main lighting? That way you could turn the par wayy down for the Wilsoni and he would only receive indirect light? Even without his own LED he might be fine, I’m thinking about how light bounces off the walls of my tank and gets up under the shaded parts and stuff grows just fine in those conditions (like my ricordeas).

 

[living_tribunal]

It’s so much fun to overcome a challenge like that though! What if you got him his own LED, and aimed it at him from the side so the par was even more reduced, but shaded him from your main lighting? That way you could turn the par wayy down for the Wilsoni and he would only receive indirect light? Even without his own LED he might be fine, I’m thinking about how light bounces off the walls of my tank and gets up under the shaded parts and stuff grows just fine in those conditions (like my ricordeas).

The issue is I can’t get him fully shaded, about half of his tissue is still receiving direct light so the additional lighting would only make matters worse. I’m hoping he can acclimate considering my light intensity is now cut by 50%. If he can’t then I might have to add him back to the frag tank or figure out something I could somehow secure above him.

 

[Magellan]

The issue is I can’t get him fully shaded, about half of his tissue is still receiving direct light so the additional lighting would only make matters worse. I’m hoping he can acclimate considering my light intensity is now cut by 50%. If he can’t then I might have to add him back to the frag tank or figure out something I could somehow secure above him.

I would try to get him some shade, so you can turn your light back up and keep the rest of the DT happy?

 

[living_tribunal]

I would try to get him some shade, so you can turn your light back up and keep the rest of the DT happy?

half of him is in great shade, he’s just so big that there is nowhere I can put him that has full shade. He takes up about 1/5th the width of mu tank. I don’t know what I could safely attach to the rock above him to cover everything.

 

[Magellan]

half of him is in great shade, he’s just so big that there is nowhere I can put him that has full shade. He takes up about 1/5th the width of mu tank. I don’t know what I could safely attach to the rock above him to cover everything.

He needs an umbrella! Something like this lol

 

[crusso1993]

@Magellan - Glad you tagged @living_tribunal in this thread. As you may, or may not know, I posted a link to this thread in the "other thread" a few days ago because I recalled someone asking about Wilsoni corals. I just couldn't remember who it was specifically. And now I know... thanks!

 

[Magellan]

@Magellan - Glad you tagged @living_tribunal in this thread. As you may, or may not know, I posted a link to this thread in the "other thread" a few days ago because I recalled someone asking about Wilsoni corals. I just couldn't remember who it was specifically. And now I know... thanks!

I actually meant to thank you for the link, I immediately went and tagged him! (Thank you for the link!!)

 

[living_tribunal]

I actually meant to thank you for the link, I immediately went and tagged him! (Thank you for the link!!)

The op, and several others, have been doing good follow ups in here. I think it’s a great place for us to follow up on our experiences with cold water wilsonis. There’s quite literally nothing out there on preferred care so hopefully some anecdotal reports will help others some day.

@Magellan I’ve brought down my wwc preset to 85% intensity reduction. He almost went the full day yesterday without tensing up.

He’s puffing up very large after pellet and amino feeding though which is a good sign.

There has been moderate color gains on his shaded side which is a very good start, means he’s liking something back there.

 

[Magellan]

The op, and several others, have been doing good follow ups in here. I think it’s a great place for us to follow up on our experiences with cold water wilsonis. There’s quite literally nothing out there on preferred care so hopefully some anecdotal reports will help others some day.

@Magellan I’ve brought down my wwc preset to 85% intensity reduction. He almost went the full day yesterday without tensing up.

He’s puffing up very large after pellet and amino feeding though which is a good sign.

There has been moderate color gains on his shaded side which is a very good start, means he’s liking something back there.

How are your other corals doing with the lower lights? Sounds like he loves the cold dark places lol, such a goth

 

[living_tribunal]

How are your other corals doing with the lower lights? Sounds like he loves the cold dark places lol, such a goth

They're doing fine, everyone seems to be doing great except one of my goniastreas. It has recessed a lot since being added to the new display, that's a whole separate issue though.

 

[Magellan]

They're doing fine, everyone seems to be doing great except one of my goniastreas. It has recessed a lot since being added to the new display, that's a whole separate issue though.

I’ve been wanting one of those for so long, seems like it’s not that uncommon to have issues with them though :/

 

[living_tribunal]

I’ve been wanting one of those for so long, seems like it’s not that uncommon to have issues with them though :/

I believe it was from too high of par when I was testing various presets. Since my phosphate levels were on point, he didn't bleach but was still sensitive to the light so recessed. I don't know enough of the science to confirm this though.

He has stabilized in a full shade area which is odd since he was in similar par in the frag tank.

Let's dm, I don't want to spam this thread. It's going to be an important one.

 

[living_tribunal]

After a week of testing various presets and intensities, I finally found the one which keeps him happy the full day.

I decided to stick with the wwc hydra preset given the higher blues and slightly less par.

I am running the preset on acclimation with an 85% intensity reduction. At this intensity, he’s receiving about 75 par there at the bottom with the shaded portions receiving less.

He hasn’t stressed once today. It appears they really dislike uv more so than they do whites. They really like blue spectrum however.

Will keep y’all updated as the i density increases via acclimation.

 

[gotmesalty77]

I’ve recently switched to feeding pellets to any corals that consume them. They cause less algae and provide substantially more nutrition.

Most use fauna marine or coral frenzy. I use coral frenzy as they are lower priced. Once I made the switch over to pellets, my corals grew much faster than anything I’ve ever seen.

It’s kind of hard to feed pellets and easy to drop too many but man it’s so funny watching a little three head favia/acan devour 10-20 pellets. They get so fat.

How do you distribute the pellets? A tube similar to roids but without the small tip?