Your experience with NPS coral!

[Gumbies R Us]

Alright, I have a question for all of you who have kept NPS coral before. How did you do it? I know its a broad question, but I am curious how hard they are to keep. I've always been interested in doing an NPS tank before, but have always heard they provide a unique challenge. So any tips, which corals are the easiest to keep, and any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated! Photo Credit: Dragon Lee

 

[bubbgee]

They are hard to keep. I'd say make sure it's an established tank for a year or so before attempting. I couldn't keep mine years ago and the tank was at least six months old.

 

[Shnetts]

I have a nps gargonian in one of my tanks, the tank is very well established and I still dont get good growth from it. It would probably grow faster if i target fed it tho.

 

[Subsea]

For me, NPS is a normal progression as I emulate a Caribbean lagoon habitat with heavy emphases on diverse filter feeders. Simmerless, sumpless and no mechanical filters except sponges, dusters, apples and NPS.
YES, 75G tank is 25 years mature & 129G tank is 5 years old.

 

[CHSUB]

Have had great success, however only with the ones that seem easy to feed and capture large prey. The soft coral varieties that prey on small invisible prey, in my one attempt, was a failure and I think are nearly impossible. Sun coral pictured is easy to feed and has grown well. After getting it to feed it is beautiful and opened for a couple of days. It is imported to have the right tank mates, because my emerald crab learned that my Fat Head Dendro was a food source and ripped it apart.

 

[exnisstech]

I just started a venture down this path recently trying filter feeders and NPS coral. So far I just have a sea Apple, sea squirt and 3 little gorg frags. I have phyto on a doser adding some every hour and am hatching brine daily and adding nauplii but it's to early to tell how well it's going to work out.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I just started a venture down this path recently trying filter feeders and NPS coral. So far I just have a sea Apple, sea squirt and 3 little gorg frags. I have phyto on a doser adding some every hour and am hatching brine daily and adding nauplii but it's to early to tell how well it's going to work out.

Do you have a photo of what they look like?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

They are hard to keep. I'd say make sure it's an established tank for a year or so before attempting. I couldn't keep mine years ago and the tank was at least six months old.

Oh yeah. If I ever did decide on getting nps I wouldn’t add them until everything is set up properly on my tank, and it was well past the early stages of a tanks life. Which ones did you try to keep?

 

[exnisstech]

Do you have a photo of what they look like?

I have some pics in the thread below post #17

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ioaio-8g-nano-budget-build.1116845/#post-13742655

 

[CHSUB]

Better picture during feeding…

 

[KrisReef]

They are perfect for a sump filter feeder.
Indonesian Chili Coral (Nephthyigorgia sp.) *Expert Only* I got it from a LFS name, called it a "cactus coral."

Image net lifted from Live Aquaria's FB Post.

 

[gigshark]

T High mortality rate of NPS, to date there is nothing that makes it easier to maintain these corals, unless you intensively breed napuli of copepods artemia etc. Sun coral The only easier coral

 

[Zionas]

What concerns me is the lack of aquacultured NPS for even the “LPS” varieties among them, feeding each individual polyp and basically treating each polyp like an extra fish. I wonder if anyone’s had a “decent sized” (75g+) NPS-dominant or NPS-only tank for any length of time, what the trade-offs were in terms of fish stocking (if any), and what maintenance is like.

I love the idea of a fully deepwater / mesophotic setup but it seems very difficult at best in terms of maintenance, sourcing appropriate livestock (without bending definitions) and the care.

As for the “bending definitions”, what I mean is it’s hard without additions that might be found at deeper depths but aren’t by any means considered “deepwater.” I’ve seen diving videos of Pyramid Butterflies, Auriga, Raccoon and YLNB at mesophotic depths although no one would consider them “deepwater.” There’s this channel where the diver films C. Debelius (Blue Mauritius Angel) in its natural habitat below 200ft and in one of the videos I was seeing P. Imperator, F. Flavissimus, and a few others at ~300ft although they aren’t considered to be mesophotic fish.

Or maybe a “deepwater adjacent” theme where the focus on shyer, slower and cryptic species that lets you feed the NPS without the competition of a mixed reef.

Slightly off-topic but I wonder if our common Mushrooms, Leathers, GSPs and stuff like that are common as part of the reef below 100ft? At what depth does the landscape become mostly or entirely soft coral / NPS dominated?