Sun Coral in Nano

[BCreefmaker]

Well i pretty much picked my favorite coral and decided to try it in a 5 gallon nano untill i get enough money saved up for my larger tank hopefully it will be 36"x6"x6" with a single 39watt 10k T5 i just want to know if it will be ok under that light and in this small of a tank, and will it be ok if hermit crabs crawling on it to eat the left overs from spot feeding, because i wont be able to have much of a bio load in a 5 gallon and if anyone who could suggest small fish that would eat the left overs from spot feeding would be great too.

[sufunk]

In my opinion, it will be fine under that light. Mine and many others i know have sun's under direct light.
My hermits crawl all over mine after each feeding and i have never seen any ill effects from it.
Instead of fish, if you are worried about bioload, maybe some shrimp to clean up the leftovers? My cleaner and fire shrimp do a great job of cleaning after feedings.
Good luck!

[lovelylinda]

My cleaner shrimp steal every morsel of food from the sun coral- I'm trying to rig up a cap now, because they are so quick, I cn't keep them away with the turkey baster.

[milhouse74]

A sun coral is a non photosynthetic coral. In fact less light is probably best. Also you may just want to grab it out and bowl feed it some of the times that way the excess isn't in the tank.

Heay water changes where you cyphon the sand will be key. Also you may want less hermits and more nassarius snails. Anything that doesnt get eatin will likely drop to the sand anyway.

[milhouse74]

Also this is a decent short read:

http://www.nanoreef.co.uk/index.php/sun-coral

[Don Lino]

Thats a real good and helpful link milhouse. Ive been caring and having great sucess with my suncoral for about 4 or 5 months now, but that's one of the best links I've seen yet. Thanks so much...by the way mine are eating piece's of silversides... :D

Joey