Looking for sea fans

[Midknight]

As stated Working on setting up a 55 with a 33 sump/refugium for my mom and a 75 with a 40 sump for myself and thought that a nice seafan would make a great center peice.
So any frages out there? or anybody have info on them? Flow, light, feeding and such.

Dan

[G1GY]

Most will tell you that they're not very hardy at all, but I've never kept them.

[Snappy]

You need a reasonable flow for gorgonians. They do well in a lower light area such as on the sand bed. The problem with them is they need to be fed often and are a little fussy on the food particle size. Another draw back is that they are an algae magnet, if you have any hair algae or the likes in your system it will spread to them quite quickly and they don't do well at fighting it off. They also act as a filter for any "floaty's" that get caught in the flow and stick to their branches and with a build up create dead spots. In my experience they are a little difficult to keep because you need on the one hand fairly pristene conditions and on the other hand a fairly high nutrient level. In a captive reef it is hard to create that kind of enviroment for long lengths of time without spiking your nitrates and creating problems for your sps if you have any.
Other people may disagree but that has been my experience.

[TheReefGeek]

They are non-photosynthetic, they are filter feeders so you need to feed phytoplankton.

I think they would do better in a higher nutrient softy tank than in a SPS tank.

When my hair algae is 100% gone I might attempt one, because they remind me of a real reef so much.

*edit* apparantly there are some photosynthetic ones, here is some links:

http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/hangar/6279/RaiseGrowingGorgonians.html

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=0&cat=1968&articleid=2791

[Sebae]

I have a purple gorgonian. I patiently waited for a month while it sat in a local shops tank .I figured if it survived ,I would have to wait and if someone else bought it ,I had lost nothing. I bought it and placed it in the center of my tank where it closed up and did nothing for several weeks. It turned brown and started to grow /collect algae. What a nice center piece! Should I throw it out? There was no tissue loss ,so I left it another week .Now the brown tissue sheds ,polyps fully extend ,yeah ! we got purple. Now it stays open most of the time,but still does it's shedding routine. I've had it for 8 months now and it seems to be getting bigger and stronger all the time,even handles temp . spikes. I have softies and LPS under t5s and feed phytoplankton and Selecon mixed in with fish food every second day.

[Midknight]

Hey Sebae,

Were are you located?
How big has it grown and do you have pic's?:biggrin:

Dan

[Sebae]

I live in Chilliwack.I don't currently have any pics. I'm in need of a new camera. It has grown about 2'' and a new branch, currently stands about 7'' tall.