Branching Flower Pot Question (Picture incl)

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by tjay
what quantity, how much of the cyclopeeze is a feeding?
I have a 90 gallon with very few corals.

A chunk smaller than your little fingernail will do.....using a target feeding device. Is it frozen cyclopeeze or freeze dried? mix a little of your zooplankton in with it too.

[water`bug]

posted earlier
Looks like an Alveopora to me (12 tentacles per polyp). Both Goniopora and Alveopora are commonly called Flowerpot corals.

OMG! I come home and find all these positive and informative posts! Thank yall sooo much!!

As Sir TJay was doing our weekly water change, he counted the tentacles and there are indeed 12 per polyp! So, this means we have an Alveopora, right?

On that note, I will do my research tonight with the info yall provided.

donna, Excited in New Orleans!

[tjay]

it is freeze dried

[tjay]

JenNKerry

I was just at your site. Nice job.
One thing I read was that there was some concern about the bigger skimmer in your 120.
I run a remorapro with mag 3 on my 90 and I do very aggressive water changes. Along the lines of 15 gallons weekly.

Could it be the water is too clean????? I could cut back on changes and move the cup up in the skimmer. I just moved it down a little hoping it would help me battle the red slime.
What makes no sense to me is that all my parameters suggest that I should not be fighting algae at this stage. Now folks are telling me it is not the lights so I am lost on that battle.

But if cutting back on the water changes would help the flower pot then I can do that.

[JENnKerry]

Your water could be too clean. We run a Remora Pro with a Mag 5 and do about one ten gallon change in our 125 a month. But all our parameters are in check.

[icu2]

Oddly enough, my goni's polyps will not extend unless the MH lights are on. It does not like the VHO a whole lot and is about 8 in below the water.

[tjay]

Mine are out more with the MH too. Strange because they are not supposed to like it.
I have just about decided to use chemiclean to fight the red slime and go ahead and turn the MH back on. I have the flpwer pot in the shade so we will see if that helps
I am going to try and lay my hands on some liquid life tomorrow since the pro man has had such good luck with it. I guess if I can keep a flower pot and a copperband alive I will have a pretty good track record.
Having read the info on water quality, I am going to suspend 15 gallon a week changes and just monitor my parameters. Heck that will save me a lot of cash on salt. lol

[Large Polyp Dave]

that thing is definitely an alveopora.

MUCH easier to keep than goniopora. if you find liquid life too pricey, try to target feed cylopeeze and phyto directly when the polyps are still open. from what i've read, liquid life is essentially a combination of those 2

[water`bug]

Moved it to a different location yesterday and this is how it looks one day later. (With T5 lighting)

[tjay]

yup two hours after that pic and wow it is now fully extended.
Looks like flow was the culprit.
Now I just have to find some of that liquid life stuff and feed this little bugger right before bed.

[water`bug]

Okay, this is the best it has looked since we brought it home as we have never seen it "extending" this much!

This picture was just taken under the MH's and in it's new location, away from heavy flow.

What do yall think??

[stevedola]

I think you found its 'happy place'. Nice piece too. Good luck with it. I think that is an alveopora too.

[JENnKerry]

Yes it is an alveopora and it looks very good.

[tjay]

Yeah it is improving by the hour, every time I think it has extended all that it can I come back and it is out further.
It is Alveopora btw, good call.
We went back to the shop today and checked the color and extension on the ones they had left and ours is right where theres is.
Donna just took the latest pic and I am sure she will post it.
I have cyclopeeze and zooplankton going in when the moonlights come on. Just going to try a little spot feeding. I did it with the pearl bubble that we have growing back on a dead skeleton and it went nuts. I had no idea that bubble coral would act out in that manner. Snatched up several pieces and I assume at it cause it was gone shortly after.
Thanks to all that have helped. Donna has a few years experience on me with fish tanks. Things changed while she was out of it and the whole live rock / skimmer thing happened so with the reef thing we are very new but not stupid ( or irresponsible ) as suggested earlier. Love the help we get here.

[stevedola]

You do know that the jerk that reply first is kinda right ? you should always know what you are buying before you purchase it. Its just the right thing to do. For the creature and youre wallet also. Sometimes you cant care for the organism or it requires specific needs that you cant provide. Just be sure to research in the future.

[tjay]

Honestly, we did have some idea and we asked the questions that needed to be asked. There were goni there and we knew we did not want to attempt that. In retrospect the LFS was dead on on their advice and this shop usually is fairly responsible and have recommended things we should not try as yet.
So we were not flying blind.
It sort of looks like we just did not have it in the correct place. So while I appreciate and accept that we should always know these things I don't feel that we just bought completely ignorant of what we were getting in to.
We are at the stage of adding things to see what we can and can not keep. I do not imagine we wont make mistakes. My guess is no one on this forum has ever set up a tank and did not make one or two.
I guess the main thing is the happy ending.

[jdieck]

Originally posted by dascharisma
I just typed in 'flower pot coral' on rc and google and found tons of info. Anyways. Your coral is going to die and you never should have purchased it. Be more responsible next time.

That is not true. Your Flower pot is an Alveopora (12 petals per polyp) and they are easy to keep. I have kept mine for two and a half years with no special feeding.
Give it medium to bright light but flow has to be low, just enough to make it wave slowly in the current. Higher flow is the main reason why they do not fully open.

[tjay]

Bingo Flow was the issue

[JENnKerry]

Here is a video clip taken from our website of our green goni. This is what Jen and I believe to be optimal water flow for both goniopora and alveopora.

Goni Video


Oh, you need Quicktime to view it.

[tjay]

click here to see the flow that worked
excuse the fish, they thought food was coming.
http://www.cyprex.biz/flow.MOV

[JENnKerry]

Originally posted by tjay
click here to see the flow that worked
excuse the fish, they thought food was coming.
http://www.cyprex.biz/flow.MOV

Lookin good. That's what I'm talking about. You dont want the tentacles to get pummelled by a powerhead, just a nice swaying back and forth motion. Good job

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by tjay
click here to see the flow that worked
excuse the fish, they thought food was coming.
http://www.cyprex.biz/flow.MOV

Very cool video and great looking coral! Glad you found a sweet spot for it.

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by Large Polyp Dave
If you find liquid life too pricey, try to target feed cylopeeze and phyto directly when the polyps are still open. from what i've read, liquid life is essentially a combination of those 2

Since nobody wanted to address this post (or didn't know enough to), Liquid Life Marine Plankton is THE SAME THING as diluted Cyclopeeze.
It does not contain phytoplankton. It does not contain any other magical properties that Cyclopeeze by itself doesn't already have; unless you also consider the diluting oil that is used to keep it from freezing hard in the freezer. From the smell of it, the greasy feel of it rubbing between fingers, the difficulty of trying to rinse it off under tap water, and the inability of it to completely freeze, the oil is most likely some type of fatty fish oil (shark liver oil, cod liver oil, or possibly cyclopeeze extract oil).

[tjay]

Thanks that helps a ton. I could not find liquid life anywhere local
So tonight I am going to mix up a paste of zooplankton and cyclopeeze and spot feed the flower pot and other filter feeders to see if that helps.
How often would you recomend doing this?

[JENnKerry]

We target feed all our gonis once a week, unless we brought in a sick one, at which time it would get target fed everynight til it shows improvment.