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#11
06-25-2012, 11:51 PM
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I just stumbled across this thread while doing a random search for phytoplankton but I wonder if there's any hope for this coral if it was removed from the display tank, how often I'm not sure, and maybe floated upside down or placed in a phytoplankton culture for a period of time? I've seen this coral respond to nutrients very well whenever food is added to a tank so I wonder how it would respond in this environment. I've heard of sun corals responding well to this method too but they're not as easily removed from the tank as a gorgonian would be. Again, not sure it would make a lot of sense if you had to do it daily but maybe a concentrated culture would be enought to keep it healthy if it responded once or twice a week. Any open minded opinions on this?
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#12
06-26-2012, 12:08 AM
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Mine is still alive it takes cyclopeeze but is fed mostly fauna Marin sea fan and ultra clam.it hasn't grown any and didn't like acclimating to my tank had thought I was gonna lose it but its alive Ans well
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#13
06-26-2012, 02:49 AM
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I kept mine for around a year and it was perfectly healthy and growing. I finally lost it in the move to TO.
Right up to the day of the move, mine always had 100% polyps extention and the nice thick, healthy orange flesh across all of the woody base. That being said, these are impossible to keep unless they are on a dedicated azoox system. We even did a test and brought in 6 new blueberrys that I purchased directly from the divers in Indo and shipped back to Can right away, so that they did not sit for long in holding tanks there (once nps gorgs stop eating they often will not start eating again). We put 3 blueberry in our dedicated azoox tank and 3 into one of our corals beds. The azoox system had a fridge below it and was fed hourly with a Fauna Marin dosing pump. This tank overflowed into my sps tank. The other three were placed in the sps tank. So technically all the food that overflowed from the azoox tank went to the sps tank. But the sps tank had a low food density and the azoox system had a high food density. Within 6 weeks the 3 blueberry in the sps tank were receedind, the three in the azoox system were doing just fine. There are definately a few details that are absolutely essential for success with this sp. Believe me when I say that we did not have instant success with the blueberry gorgs.... 1) water quality in order to keep 99% of all azoox corals you need absolutely prestine water quality. I have heard people say "you need dirty water for those" but nothing could be further from the truth. You need low doc's, high redox and zero tannins in the water. 2) feeding frequency Different azoox have different feeding requirements in terms frequency. Some do ok with 3 times a day. The blueberry gorg is not one of these pieces. It should be fed hourly via a dosing pump. All other attempts are destined to fail eventually IMO. 3) Foods I fed mine Reef Nutrition Oyster eggs, Fauna Marin clam, minF, seafan and MinD. I have details blogs on here and other forums for my setup and i dont mind sharing the info if people are interested. Other combos may work for other people but this is all I fed and it worked amazing for me. The trickiest thing here is the continual feeding and prestine water quality. Those two things are basically polar opposites... IMO its MUCH easier to tie a smaller, dedicated azoox system into and sps system with an decent sized skimmer. If you have nicely colored sps they you are probably already aware of how to keep tannins down (carbon, ozone, zeolite media, wc's etc), po4 is probably already at zero, and you have no algae issues. As long as your skimmer is slightly oversized, an azoox system will also serve to feed your sps. This is a major key to success. I have kept a stand alone azoox system and even with my level of enthusiasm for the hobby, its just too much work for me to keep the water quality high enough.... I will shortly be setting up another azoox system, this time it will be a 144g half cylinder though
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#14
06-26-2012, 02:53 AM
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everyone loves pictures so here is one for you....
This was the bar fridge I modified and installed under my azoox tank: Originally i used an inverted pop bottle for the coral foods with a small bubbler to keep the foods mixing but this didnt work too well. I purchased a magnetic stirer later which worked much better. This tank was setup before the MP10Wes were released to give you an idea of time frames for when I first setup the tank.
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#15
06-26-2012, 02:55 AM
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Quote:
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#16
06-26-2012, 05:35 AM
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i believe so here is a pic i dont have it anymore this was a few years ago pretty easy gorg to keep, i bought it as a "purple frilly" there are still frags alive i cut going around. phosphates were doing me a bad battle at the time with a skimmerless tank....this is also when i first started gfo for the first time....now i use it for every set-up 
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#17
06-26-2012, 05:38 AM
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Quote:
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#18
06-26-2012, 06:12 AM
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Much appreciated.
I wish I was a bit better at updating my build/progress threads but Maybe I will be better at this next one Phosban and cardon are a must for gorgs thats for sure but its good that you are using them now. I really do think a dosing pump is necessary to keep the blueberry gorgs. You only really need a single pumps unit. I put the three pump on there as originally I had intended to use live phyto, FM and oyster eggs each on their own pump. But I rarely dosed the live phyto and the Faurna and oyster eggs could be combined in the same mixture.
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