Elegance Owners

I'm in the research phase of acquiring an elegance coral right now. I just wanted to get some input from elegance owners. I don't have any specific questions; I'm just looking for any tips that stand out to you.

Thank you.

 

Very interested as well. I'm absolutely infatuated with this coral and would love to add it. I wonder if it's requirements are similar to that of a Duncan

 

I have had mine since Jun 2009
when I got it , it was bleached , but it was expanded to fill the whole skeleton
my feelings where I would be able to put the colour back into the flesh (zooxanthellia
) but not the flesh back on the bone - so I would have ignored one with any part of the internal serrated plate skeleton showing

care experience of mine
it was on flat rock on sand bed , rock was ledge rock and I prefer this to direct placement on sand bed
it was 20 inches below my T5 bank of 6 tubes
I fed it chopped bits of shrimp and occasional mysis ( and had to waft of my cleaner shrimp and fish with the tongs as I did this)
I fed it once every other week
it regained its colour within 4 or 5 weeks

its still with me in the relative calm of my 60
this coral showed its lack of appreciation to flow, by failing to inflate to its maximum potential after 2 or 3 days of introducing a new higher turnover wave maker

bearing in mind when closed all the polyps , flesh etc dissapear almost into a 2 inch cross section or less and when expanded it was 6 - 8 inches across
high flow caused it to reduce this expansion to about half

its almost back to full expansion now in the 60

so moderate flow, moderate to high light and occasional feedings with prawns or bits of fish

they expell waste much like any other LPS coral , in brown mucus strings

avoid any that you see receding when looking for 1
full colouration is best, but loss of symbiotic algae can be remedied under the correct water conditions and lighting IMSE

Steve

 

How clean is your water Steve. I read that they prefer dirtier water than I could provide.

 

I have heard the same,also the ausi ones do better???

 

IMO my water was very clean
I have been running GFO, carbon and Purigen for at least 6 months on this set up
and prior to that I was running GFO and carbon alone

maintaining a test kit reading of zero nitrates , and with minimal algae issues which IMO mean that although my test kit results may not be 100% accurate they where closer to 0 then they where to 10ppm IMHO

now the 60 it has gone in is also run using the same trio of media and again, Im registering zero nitrates

lighting - on the 70 I had 6 x 80 watt
on the 60 I am running 6 x 54 watt so to all intense and purposes the tanks are very much alike- except for flow ( I got up to 66 x tank volume per hour in the 5ft whereas in the 4ft im just a little over 40 x)

Steve

 

Mine would notify me when my water parameters were out of wack. I would know exactly when to change my carbon by how well it inflated. Only time I could count on it get stressed was when I harvested out of the fuge. I got to the point where I would change carbon then harvest the next day and didn't seem to bother it as bad.

As for food, I only fed it fresh shrimp, never frozen. Usually about a dime size piece about every other week. I never heard of the dirty water thing. I always kept my water clean. Mine also liked the chaotic flow in the tank. I never blasted it or anything but the OM valve usually keeps a chaotic flow in the tank.

They are a nice center piece to a tank, you will enjoy it.

 

This is starting to sound more promising than most opinions online were. I think I'll pick one up today. I've been eye balling it for a couple weeks now. It's skeleton is fully covered, it's not bleached, and it's been looking happy at the LFS for awhile now.

Thank you for the re-assurance.

 

Only buy one from australia, the indonesia ones do much poorer in the home aquarium. They just seem to slowly decline and then just melt away.

 

My elegance quickly turned to brown jelly under 2x250 MHs. Water quality was good, 0 Nitrates/Phosphates. Salinity at 1.028, that may have been a problem, I am not 100% sure. The peppermint shrimp and hermits never left it alone from the introduction, perhaps it was damaged in shipping.

I thought these were supposed to have a substantial sting, but I don't think it bothered any of the crustaceans that picked at it.

Beautiful when I had it though, I plan on trying another.