Cali Kid Corals

Felicia's 30 Gallon Seahorse Tank - Seahorses have arrived!!!

You have a ton of gorgeous gorgonians. Last month at Vivid Aquariums I saw, and fell in love with one of the prettiest corals I've ever seen. For only $65, I almost couldn't stop myself from snatching it up. But the sales people recommended I not get it because, "gorgonians are not good beginner corals". :( I know you're not a beginner, but how tough is it to keep them?

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I have to show it to you.

 
DeeAnnMG said:
You have a ton of gorgeous gorgonians. Last month at Vivid Aquariums I saw, and fell in love with one of the prettiest corals I've ever seen. For only $65, I almost couldn't stop myself from snatching it up. But the sales people recommended I not get it because, "gorgonians are not good beginner corals". :( I know you're not a beginner, but how tough is it to keep them?

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I have to show it to you.

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No worries about thread hijacking! Asking questions is why we have threads :)

Ok, this is the problem with LFS's sometimes. Gorgonians can be anywhere from beginner corals to super advanced corals, depending on the species of gorgonian. There are a lot of different gorgonians out there. The specific gorgonian in your photo is a blueberry gorgonian and it is VERY difficult to keep and very few people have long term success with them. Blueberry gorgonians are non-photosynthetic and just do not seem to do very well in most reef tanks. However, there are other very nice looking gorgonians that are photosynthetic and are super easy to keep! I have a lot of gorgonians in my seahorse tank, and almost all of them are photosynthetic and I would highly recommend them to beginners. I just got my first two non-photosynthetic gorgonians and hopefully I can manage to feed them enough and provide them with the right conditions. However the non-photosynthetic ones I got are still supposed to be easier than blueberry gorgonians. I wouldn't risk trying a blueberry gorgonian personally.

If you want some gorgonians, I'd recommend getting some nice photosynthetic ones. They're pretty and super easy to care for. If you want to look locally, Jess at Diablo Corals and then Neptunes tend to stock EcoGorgs, which are a line of photosynthetic gorgonians that are aquacultured and do very well in aquariums. I have a couple of those from Jess and they are very affordable and come in pretty shades of purple and gold/yellow. If you want even more variety, a bunch of my other gorgonians cam from KP Aquatics (sealifeinc.net), which is an online retailer in Florida. They sell sustainably collected specimens from the Florida Keys. They're also the same family that started the Coral Restoration Foundation in the Florida Keys. They've got a great selection of photosynthetic gorgonians. They have very reasonable prices and send you nice big colonies, not tiny frags. I've ordered from them like 6 or 7 times and have had a great experience every time.

Sorry for the long response! Anyways, the photosynthetic gorgonians are super easy. They just need good lighting like other corals and they do not need to be fed. However, you can feed them and they will just grow faster. They're very hardy and I think they're great for beginners! They grow fast and are easy to frag too!
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, all gorgonians (whether photosynthetic or not) need good flow. The shed their skin every so often and they need to be in enough flow to blow off the pieces as they shed or they have issues. Also, if they are in too low of flow, they can have problems with algae growing on them.
 
Thanks for the information. Okay, if I'm going to do gorgs, I will do photosynthetic ones. It makes a lot of sense. The sales person did tell me that these corals needed to be fed frequently, and he may have even told me that they were non-photosynthetic. But I don't think he told me that there were photosynthetic gorgs out there.
 
DeeAnnMG said:
Thanks for the information. Okay, if I'm going to do gorgs, I will do photosynthetic ones. It makes a lot of sense. The sales person did tell me that these corals needed to be fed frequently, and he may have even told me that they were non-photosynthetic. But I don't think he told me that there were photosynthetic gorgs out there.
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It seems like people usually think of the non-photosynthetic ones when they think of gorgonians. There are plenty of photosynthetic ones and honestly, I love how they add vertical height to a reef tank and they are so hardy and inexpensive. I highly recommend them :) I was holding some of the gorgonians I have now in my main tank while I was waiting for the seahorse tank to cycle, and I kind of miss having them in the main tank. I may have to get some more for the main tank at some point. I think they're a very underrated coral.
 
My new Maxspect Razor Nano fixture arrived today! Its a Christmas present from my parents, but it came early because we ordered it on black friday to get the 10% off. I got the 10K version and I really love the color balance for the seahorse tank. Most of the corals in this tank look better under whiter light, and this light makes everything pop! I'm also excited that its fully programmable so I can do sunrise and sunset and moonlighting on this tank. Here are a few quick photos:



One of my NPS gorgonians under the new light.


Of course Lily has to investigate anything new.
 
New FTS 1/5/14
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And with the new light fixture.
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View from the right side of the tank.
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Valencia (aka Val)
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Misty (please ignore the fact that she has flatworms on her...ugh)
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Pixie
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Trixie
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Thank you everyone! I figured it was overdue for an update. One of my grad school friends and then Erin (kensington reefer) did a great job taking care of my tanks and feeding the seahorses while I was out of town for the holidays. It was definitely nice to come back to healthy seahorses since that was the first time I'd left this tank for more than a weekend.

sfsuphysics said:
Man those brittle stars went crazy when you fed the tank. Also is that blue hermit stuck in the curly gorgonian? Looks like the shell got wedged in there.
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Yeah, the serpent stars are great. They move so much faster than you'd think they could. They're an awesome addition to the clean up crew to help prevent any of the excess mysis that the seahorses miss from decaying in the tank. And yes, that blue hermit was stuck. He actually sits there a lot, but I noticed he was stuck once I started feeding and he started flailing about, haha! I got him unstuck after I finished filming the video :)
 
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