Sea Fan/Gorgonian options?
 

So if I was to add a sea fan/gorgonian to my 70 gallon... what is a good specimen with the best chance of survival.

I am running a 48" six bulb tek light.

I love sea fans but know some are just not suited for aquarium life.

The gorgonians that are photosynthesis are more easy to deal with. (At least those I have are still survive after 2 years). Try to avoid those non-photosynthesis, particurlarly the sea fans which require high water quality, heavy and frequent target feeding a day = more nitrate. I used to have a few pcs. of the non-photosynthesis species only survived for 5 to 7 months. At first, I thought they were doing great after a few months and actually they were suffering. As a conclusion to me, no more sea fans unless I'll start with a new system particularly designed to house them. HTH

Any photosynthetic species will do fine. Any non-photosynthetic species won't. Might be a gross oversimplification but for the most part that's the basic reality.

When you look at a gorgonian/seafan/seawhip, look at the polyps. Zooxanthellae is brown. So if the polyps are brown, it's a photosynthetic species. Flesh colour can be (and is usually) different, most often seems to be purple.

If the polyps are white, red, pink, blue, or purple, or any colour really, then it's non photosynthetic and requires specific feedings to survive. Each species is after a plantkton of a certain size and while it's certainly possible nowadays to simulate most appropriate particle sizes, usually the feedings required will put a huge heavy dent into the bioload of the system.

Most species collected in the Carribean are photosynthetic whereas most species collected in the Pacific are not.

My suggestions for a first gorgonian would be purple ribbon, or purple brush, or purple plume gorgonian. These tend to do really well and are nicely coloured and are photosynthetic. Another good one to look for would be corky finger, it's a much stouter gorgonian and is usually a plain brown overall, but the shape overall that the grow into is really cool.

TheReefShoppe.ca is usually a fairly reliable source of photosynthetic gorgonians. Maybe drop Kelly a line and see what he has or when the next shipment will be.

Pat big ALS has purple frilly gorgoinians I believe they are 50$ they are photosynthetic snd it's the same as mine and mine has done well for close to a year and it's very pretty but slow grower:):)

If you want to try a very small frag for free to test the water i'd gladly cut you one, I find my gorgonians are the first to tell me I need a water change.

I tried the NON Photosynthetic and it was hard to keep it happy while not having nutrients sky high. You need to feed too often, I think.

I have a photosynthetic Gorg now that I simply feed when I feed the other corals Reef Roids and it's very happy and healthy.

http://www.mattdean.com/build/gorgonian.jpg

The Reef Shoppee has a very good selection of photosynthetic gorgonian, even a purple one if I remember well.

I have 2 that are photosynthetic and having a good growth rate. One has creamy color for the polyp and yellow for the skin and the other has yellow polyp on creamy skin.

One is under 4 x 24 watts T5HO and doing very well, and the other is still acclimating and has not beeing growing much but it is also doing well under 250 watt MH.

Although they are photosynthetic, they do have polyp to catch food so occasional coral food would probably help them grow faster.

All these are photosynthetic and you can probably try a few:

http://www.thereefshoppe.ca/index.ph...ex&cPath=66_95

do you know the name of that one? is it
Sea Plume Gorgonia (Pseudoterogorgia bippinnata)

i believe its the same as mine and its a purple frilly gorgonian,brown polyps and occasionally it will "wax" over but it comes back even brighter than before.they are def one of the easier ones to care for and ive fragged mine several times. for the longest time ive never seen any around as i didnt buy mine from an lfs and now lately ive seen them at ai and big als.they can get pretty big to in height mine got to about 16" than i had to cut it into two 8" pieces.every now and then i cut a small limb off and scrape off the outer coating and then shove the root in a small hole and ive got little ones growing everywhere:):)

i bought mine as a purple frilly gorg and when i google it its what also comes up, very beautiful gorg:):)

Hey Denny, if and when you frag some of these please give me a call I'd sure like to buy some of you to try. Thanks, Lenny.