Tubastrea
 

Today as I was cleaning the reef, my suncorals sensed food for some reason and opened up several hours earlier than expected.

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/08/01/suncoral_0106.jpg[/img]

I love sun corals. Wish I had some... where did you purchase yours? Nice pic btw.

The one in the center of the image was a trade I may with a local club member. I've had it for about 3 years now. The one behind it I got later. The left is a Dendrophyllia I purchased a few months ago. And to the right out of sight is another colony I just got from another member, and I gave him a bunch of frags for his tank to get him going.

Thats a more yellow color than mine, the one I have is a deeper orange than yellow. Looks like you keep yours in the light, I have only had mine about 6 months but they stay under a cliff with no direct light at all...when they were in the light they did not like it.

Nice shot Mel, very colorful

Kurt, they are in a pico tank with no light at all, plumbed into the sump that the 280g reef uses. Getting an accurate color is tough depending on how I light the subject. I had blue LEDs over them when I took this shot, during the daytime when the tank lights flood the fish room.

melev,
Nice picture. They are on the list of corals I want to own one day. I see a few baby heads growing as well.

Looking helathy.
Can you please share what you are feeding them and the schedule for feeding?

Sure. My sun coral tank sits on top of the sump in my fishroom. A tiny pump pushes water up into the tank, and it drains back down into the sump. Another tiny pump is in the 3g tank to increase circulation.

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/11/clean_skimmer.jpg[/img]

I offer mini mysis and cyclop eeze, thawed in a small bowl of tank water. The pipettes are like those small ones that come with a refractometer, with the tiny tip cut off to create a larger opening.

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/12/suncoral_food.jpg[/img]

Once thawed, I turn off the return pump to my suncoral tank, and then squirt a small puff of food over each polyp every gently. I don't want the coral to retract, but rather catch the food. (Not unlike how we try feeding aiptasia so they'll injest the toxic meal ;) we've offered.) Three pipettes worth of food is offered each night, so it really isn't a lot of food. It is target fed to avoid waste, keeping the food where it needs to go.

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/12/suncoral_feeding2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/12/suncoral_feeding1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/12/suncoral_feeding3.jpg[/img]

After 10 minutes, I may feed them again. You can feed them two or three times in a 15 minute period. However, if you feed them daily, once seems to be enough to not only do the job, as well as to encourage growth like I showed above.

Don't forget to turn the pumps back on.

Here's a small video of how I used to feed them latenights in my 55g:
[url]http://www.melevsreef.com/video/sun.wmv[/url] (3.8 megs)

If you have to do this in a tank with thieving shrimp, cut off the top of a 2-liter bottle and use that as a feeding dome. Press it down over the coral so that it sinks into the sandbed and stays in place. Squirt food through the top of the dome where the cap used to screw on.

I would suggest you drill a few holes through the dome to allow a little circulation in the dome just in case you forget to pull it off like I did once. I discovered I'd forgotten overnight, and the coral was very pale that next day. It healed up after a few days, but rather than risk that blunder again, I drilled some holes to allow some oxygen exchange.

Here is a top down view of the tank from a couple of weeks ago.
[img]http://melevsreef.com/pics/07/12/suncoral_tank2.jpg[/img]

Thanks for the info

Very good info. I think a lot of people don't have successes with these coral because they don't spot feed them. Very helpful info.

wow, great info. Will help me when I purchase some sun coral

Glad to help. My site has a huge page about suncorals, but I'm thinking about making a page just about this little tank and its corals.