NPS Keepers, what are some of your observations?

I know for darn sure that I'm not the only person on here experimenting. What are your observations? Here's a couple of mine;

Anything in the Dendrophyliidae Family (Dendro, Tubastrea, Duncanopsis, Turbinaria, Balanophyllia, etc) can be target fed meaty foods 10 times/day if you had the time. LOL Seriously.

Nannochloropsis phytoplankton is pretty much worthless with most of the species of non-photosynthetics. (Not just corals, many feather dusters, scallops, tunicates, etc). I'll use my watermelon example here. If you had an armless, legless, and toothless man that was wasting away due to starvation but if the only food you have available to try and save his life is a watermelon, he won't have the capability to gum it down to a smaller size so he's going to die. The watermelon is just too big to eat. Look for smaller species.

Everyone says that sponges are non-photosynthetic. Some are non-photosynthetic, but some will only live with fairly intense lighting. Some species do quite well on nothing but nannochloropsis.....other species want the smaller species of phyto. Once you find a space in your tank where it's happy, DO NOT MOVE IT NOR THE FLOW PATTERN IN THE TANK. They can, and will, move their osculum for proper circulation. However, IMO, this is stressful on them. (I have no scientific proof of this, only observation).

Tunicates need a species tank. Don't put it in your reef. It will die. The next time I feed mine, I'll try to remember to take pics to show you how green I make the water (they don't like nannochloropsis) and then I will take a picture. Then I will show you the pictures a couple of hours later. The water will be clear. It is truly amazing. They eat more than a 13 year old boy.

Scallops are easy to keep with the right type of phyto. Most articles say they should be left in the ocean but I disagree....just don't feed phyto too big for them. (Remember the watermelon example. Also remember they are short-lived even in the ocean).

Some gorgonians are photosynthetic and some are non-photosynthetic. If it's really colorful, the likelihood is that it's non-photosynthetic. These puppies are VERY PICKY about flow. If they are doing well in your system, don't move them. Even Cyclopeeze is too big for them. Oyster Feast, rotifers, and other very tiny zooplankton is needed. Mine have been doing well with additional Reef Chili and Zooplanktos-S. Now that I'm out of both, I'm going to experiment with the Fauna Marin products. (Interestingly enough, at MACNA I talked with the rep of Fauna Marin and they want their products combined with Oyster Feast so I guessed correctly).

WHAT ARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS?

 

This is really interesting! Great post. I can't wait to read what other people contribute.

 

Curt you say nanochropolis is to big a few times and mention the "right" type of phyto to use for success with Scallops but you never give the name of smaller particle phyto or the right type for Scallops. I bet Reef Roids would feed them all. I got a sample of that to review and it's great stuff. I haven't fed my Tubastrae meaty for a couple weeks now and it looks better than before.

I've noticed that photosynthetic gorgs do much better when target fed micro-foods versus just receiving light.

 

While I dont have a NPS tank I do have one dendro that seems to be doing good. I initiallly bought it and a little chili coral. When the chili coral RIP'd & the dencro looked to receed it prompted me to read a little more into my impulse buy, and try to fix things.

I feed it a mix of phyto, cyclopeeze & and oyster feast 3 x daily. I know that isnt enough but I have seen some growth on it. I broadcast feed a mixed cup of those & it seems like not just it but everything across the board is improving. I shut down the flow to my skimmer, sump & ATS, and leave just the powerheads to circulate the mixture for about 30 minutes. I also try to target feed it with a couple of mysis everyday if not every other day about a hour after lights out when I see it coming out.

 

As much as possible, I'm trying to discuss species rather than brand names. With that said, I've mentioned a couple of brand names I've experimented with.

I've learned that, just because someone has had success with XYZ product, it's not the only factor involved. Feel free to mention the product you're using, for how long, and what is happening.

This is basically, a DISCOVERY THREAD. My hope is that we'll find some similarities in what is working for us. Once that's done, we can make a "Sticky" on the top of this forum titled, "If you want to do this, here's what you need to know". I'm in the experimental stage so I'm not qualified to write a sticky at this point".

 

I kind of accidentally missed this. There is one brand that is almost all nannochloropsis. I would steer you to Algagen Phycopure or Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast.

 

When you're EXHAUSTED after a long day and don't want to thaw food, target feed, etc., frozen rotifers from Hikari, a squirt of Oyster Feast, and a squirt of Phyto Feast will hold them until the next day and allow you to watch The Walking Dead and go straight to bed. I didn't even thaw the rotifers. They are very fine and thaw off the cube very quickly and fall like snow and get shot around by the powerheads. Your NPS would die if you did this every day. Their bodies were not nearly as big. However, it's nice to know you can get away with this periodically.

 

I can only speak to Gorgonians as I am very familiar with them. White polyped Gorgonians are NPS while brown polyped Gorgonians are PS.I currently have a PS Gorgonian in my tank that hitchhicked in on a piece of LR.It was only an inch tall when purchased. I have never target fed it but it does pick up food when I feed my fish every other day. This consists of Flakes,Mysis, and Formula2. Heres a picture of its growth after 1 year under 4 T5Ho's in strong to moderate flow.



I have in the past kept NPS Gorgonians but had to feed them at least once a day to keep them thriving.(Used Oysterfeast and Rods mostly) As Inwall has stated strong random flow is very important to keep them healthy.

 

What are some of the tools you are using? Are you using autodosers? I'm not yet but may head that direction at some point. A couple of tools that have been very useful to me is this Smith and Wesson LED flashlight. http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Wesson-Galaxy-Flashlight-White/dp/B000QWUQUQ Some NPS corals actually turn black under blue light and others turn black under the red light. Luckily, that one has both LEDs so I can see the corals when I target feed.

Other tools that have been useful to me would be 99 cent baby medicine droppers. (The reason there are two is because I feed certain animals just the very fine foods in my little cocktail. I will use the pink medicine dropper. Then I will add larger Brine and/or Mysis to the cocktail and target feed LPS corals in my growout tank. I reamed out the hole in the yellow medicine dropper. The larger opening doesn't get clogged like the pink one does with the shrimp). These particular Duncans have actually been already been fragged once in less than one year. You can clearly see that even the frags have quadrupled in size).







Squirting mysis shrimp on this gorgonian would just be a waste of food. However, they do like the ingredients in the smaller cocktail mix.

 

I am currently manually dosing Two part BRS along with the Magnesium. I usually use small syringe bodies to target feed corals but haven't done it with this tank. Great Pics!!!