Sun Coral

Hi 3 reefers,
I was able to get a sun coral. I did lots of reading after reading the coral of the month in July about SC. I have had it for a week. I am spot feeding it a phytoplanktin and mysis shrimp to encourage the polyps to come out. My sc has 9 stalks and about half are partially coming out on their own during the day, the rest come partially out during feeding. My tank is happy except for increased nitrates which I am presuming are from the extra feedings. Nitrates are anywhere between 5-20. My question is: I am so new to this hobby and I do not want to harm this coral. I was reading online at marine depot.com and this species is restricted and should not be sold to people like me who are just begining. Should I take this coral to my LFS. I do not know anyone else near here to give it to. It is such a pretty coral and I am excited to have it. It is in a cave kinda under my LR. The SC came with one yellow poylp the rest are orange.
Thank you in advance for your input
Mical

 

As long as you continue feeding the coral the way you do, you should be able to keep it long term. I would make it a point to address the nitrate issue though.

 

NItrites

Thanks for your reply. I am doing 10 % water changes every other day. I had some hermits kill each other in a battle so I removed their dead carcasses. I am afriad to do more frequent water changes because my nano is a 12g and I feel it is a delicate balance act. Do you have suggestions?
Thanks
mical
ps I do not have fish

 

Hey what are the signs of this suncoral's death?

 

I would stop adding phytoplanktin and target feed mysis shrimp to keep your nitrates low. Try putting a few mysis shrimp in a cup and cover you SC with the cup so they could get used to coming out and feed whenever food is in the tank. Keep the rest of the cube in the refrigerator and use it when you need it.

I keep my sun coral at the bottom of the tank, it's not in a cave. It took me 3 months to get the coral to fully come out and eat. I started with 7 polyps and now I have 5 with a new one growing 6. Now as soon as I feed the tank the sun corals open up all the way in a few minutes, and it catches the food on its own. No more target feeding. One less mouth to feed.

 

I should have said one less mouths to feed.

 

You would see the skeleton

 

I many times a day do you feed your coral/corals and what are you feeding?
Your nitrites are high for not having any fish, cut back on the feedings, and don't use a whole cube of shrimp to feed.

 

Feeding

I feed all my corals marine snow which is a "plankton like food" (nannochloropsis, tetraselmis, isochrysis, spirulina, and schzochitrium seaweed meal, zooplankton and citric acid) for filter feeding invertebrates once daily with my skimmer off for two hours. Once a week a exchange this for direct feedings of frozen mysis shrimp (1/2 cube) and once a week red calanus plankton ( also 1/2 cube). Somewhere I read that you should provide a variety of foods but not overfeed.
What thought I have had is to had more LR to increase my biofilter. The problem is my 12 gal nano. With the displacement from my current 6lbs LR I really only have approx. 9gals.
I will do the cup thing. I had read this on another thread but had forgotten it

 

Thanks

thanks for the imput. Hey reef lover I have a couple other corals and a lettuce nudibranch. So I do the marine snow for them. Should I still stop it?Thankyou so much
mical