Merulina ampliata

[Aquattro]

Does/has anyone kept a merulina sp. coral? I bought a large plating specimen (impulse purchase) and notice a lot of conflicting opinions on it's ease of care. Some places say real easy, Eric Borneman says not so easy....comments? Thanks!

[Acro]

Brad,

I have kept one for about 3 years. It got to big for my tank so I sold it. Unfortinately it died at it's new home. I do still have a small piece of it. I found it to like a more nutrient rich system then most of my sps's I had it high in the tank, prior to selling, but it had been in most every area of the tank with out any issues. Small tenticles will come out after feeding. It is a slower grower then most sps's. When I sold mine it barely fit in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I wish I had more room. Then I would have kept it. It sometimes drop off daughter colonies. Most of what I've read state they are harder to keep but I never had any issues with it. I also know chris had a frag of it that also did well. Not sure if he still has it though.

Jamie

[Aquattro]

Thanks Jamie. Mine is about 8" in diameter and I found it a bit difficult to place in the tank. I ended up putting it right below the water surface in a mild flow area. It appears to be doing fine so far; about a billion feeding tentacles out last night. It didn't have any shipping damage to speak of and seemed healthy. Hopefully it does well. How easy was it to frag yours? Did you just snap pieces off?

[Acro]

Brad,

Yes I just busted off peices. But the problem is it takes forever to get them to grow a base. Not the best fraggers. Perhaps in a higher nutreint rich tank they might grow faster but thats just speculation. Thinking some more about them, I would say they get better color a little lower in the tank.FME

Jamie

[ 08 April 2002, 11:51: Message edited by: Jamie Cross ]

[Aquattro]

Also, I'm going to call it M. scabricula rather than ampliata.

[Acro]

Brad,

Yes, I'm sure your corals are looking better with a bit richer of a nutrient content. I have experience this as well. I think you can only do this for a short period though. I wonder if cycling a system from a higher nutrient content to a lower level on some kind of weekly or monthly schedule would have some kind of benifit. Even on a nightly scedule but you would need the equipment to totally polish the water by lights on time. If I remember correctly some German aquirist are addding soduim nitrate to there tanks to feed the animals. I could be wrong on the sodium nitrate though.I don't think there's to much info out on this as of date though.

Jamie

[Aquattro]

Jamie, do you think cycling an efficient skimmer would accomplish this? Say running two days on, two off? Or some other schedule, say shut it off one week a month?
One thing I notice with this higher load is a lower pH (down to 7.6 in AM). I'm thinking of dripping kalk to compensate until the water cleans up a bit. This could be used the week the skimmer was down. Thoughts?

[Acro]

Brad,

If thats the case I have no experience with that one. By the pics I've seen of the M. scabricula I would still say they are very simialar animals.

Jamie

[Aquattro]

Jamie, mine is primarily a plate with "nodules" growing off the top. I'll get a pic up when I can.
Since moving, I'd say I have a very high nutrient tank, however, I hope to rectify that smile.gif .
I read that these are similar to hydnophora in their requirements although Eric states that definitive requirements are not known. I lowered my hydnophora in the tank and although I get much better polyp extension, it is losing a bit of it's intense green color.
Funny thing...almost all of my corals, Acro, monti, euphylia sp, etc...are showing greater extension since moving. Seems they like the higher nutrient content of the water. Hope they don't get too used to it.

[Aquattro]

Here is a link to a web pic similar to mine.

http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/images/ruffled_coral.jpg

[Acro]

Brad,

Makes sence that the ph would drop some as your orp would change with the higher nutrient load. I like running the skimmer full time just for the oxygen factor so if you did want to say shut down the skimmer. I think it would be best to keep it running and just put the waste line back in the tank.I also like to keep the water as clean as possible so light penetrates better. That was why I though if one could feed heavy at night and some how totally clean it up by morning. You can get better growth with some nutrients in the water but you get better color from lower nutrients(thinking because of the clearer water). Who know's

Jamie

[Aquattro]

Agreed. The thought of feeding the skimmer back into the tank is scarey though...too concentratd I would think.
Also, since I get good growth and color now, there probably isn't a reason to fix what ain't broke!
Maybe when I have some spare room I'll set up a test tank and play around with that.

[Acro]

Brad,

What would be the difference between shutting off the skimmer and leaving it run but putting waste line back to sump? Your right though some times we need to just leave things along. I think my tank looks ok. But I can't help but ask myself "Could it look better?"


Jamie

[ 09 April 2002, 11:48: Message edited by: Jamie Cross ]

[Aquattro]

Jamie, I read something years ago about skimmate re-entering the system. Once it had been concentrated by the skimmer, it would be toxic if it went back in, ie; spilling the cup into the sump. Not sure if this is fact or fiction, but better safe than sorry applies. :D

[Silverfish]

Interesting thread guys! I wonder about the skimmate being re-introduced back into the system?

It is true some corals like a higher nutrient system, and it would be cool to run it part time with the higher nutrients like you say.

If it was safe to run the skimmer line back into the system water, then it would be an easy way to do it for a short while.

Hopefully someone else will join in with some experience or info on this.

[Jack]

Maybe you could just use a smaller skimmer and not skim as much...

[Silverfish]

Smaller skimmer??!!

You crazy??!! :D :D

[Acro]

Bruce,

I personally don't think that is a ruite I would take. My orginal thoughts were on feeding heavy at night and totally cleaned up by morning. Which probably isn't possible even with the powerful skimmers we use today. The question came up on shutting down the skimmer for a period of time. My thoughts on that were just to put the waste feed back into the sump as there are more benifits to running a skimmer then nutreint export alone. If one did decide to try something in this manner. I don't think there is a problem with adding skimmate back to a tank. I'm sure there could be if one dump a large collection cup back into the system. I beleive that in order to pull the best colors from stoney corals you need a nutreint poor system which does sacrfice some growth. That was why it would be nice to feed the tank the nutreints at a controled rate but also haveing the ability to clean it up after the feeding fast.

Jamie