# Sun Coral



## kmwlww (Jul 4, 2009)

Bought a new addition to the tank, an Orange Sun Coral. Been a couple days since we put it in the tank. Curious to find out how long until it should open up.

Any idea?


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## smoothie (Aug 6, 2009)

Got it in the shade or light? Needs to be shaded.
No light to grow really. Just feedings often every week. 
Check it out at night and see if it is opened


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

Not much feed back huh...?

Its a nice coral with bright colors that can do well in a tank with some modest care. Your biggest challenge in my opinion will be keeping the water quality up with the feedings that you will need to provide it. Some people will often put a cup over it and with a turkey baster inject something like Baby Brine under the edge of the cup to feed this corla without having to "feed the whole tank" in the process. This is entirely too much work for me hence the reason mine is in the tank described below. in Lui of this many will just trun off the filter and power heads and squirt some food from the baster just above the coral and create a cloud of food that will slowly engulf the coral allowing it to feed. It will do well if fed a couple of times a week. It doesnt need light so it can be in a dark tank or a very modestly lit tank. Many do put it under a ledge as they often have lots of other corals and intense lighting as such to support them. This is a good idea in that situation. It requires modest water flow so keep this in mind when positioning it in your tank, you dont want it pounded by the flow from a powerhead.

I keep my colony in a 10 gallon tank with a lot of macro algae, about 2 inches of fine sand. The filter is the smallest AC filter model with all of the media and sponge removed. Most of this tanks filtration is via the Macro Algae. The sand bed and the fauna in it make for the rest of it. When I feed my corals I usually twice a week drop one frozen cube into the AC filter and this ususally slowly provides a steady stream for food items for the coral to capture from the surrounding water as it flows by the coral. The coral I got was a resuce thats was almost completely wasted away that the LFS gave me for free. Its now several weeks later looking pretty respectable again. This tank has a 15 watt NO 10K day bulb on it and runds about 10 hours a day. This is also when I feed it...with the lights on. As such its acustom itself to be open with polyps extended most of the light cycle which is the complete oppisite of what this coral will normally do. Its fairly easy to get this coral to behave like this with a little patience and effort at it. This has the benefit of being able to be enjoyed in all its glory most of the day. This makes it especially interesting to veiw it and watch it while it feeds. For clean up crew, I think I only have a single Nassarious Snail, one Astrea and a lone Hermit. There are a gazillion Pods and Gama Shrimp in the tank and lots of small Bristle Worms in the tank as well. The three sides of the glass is heavily covered with tiny little fan worms that are common to SW tanks and although there is only a couple of golf ball sized pieces of Live Rock (_Heresy I know and I am sure I will hear about that...as we all know a reef tank needs at least 1 pound of live rock per a gallon and *thats a good rule of thumb to be sure!*_), but there is also coralline algae making a noticable appearence on the 3 sides of the glass as well. This tank originally started out as my answer to a "SW Planted Tank" and something you might see in a shallow Florida Marsh flat, but has worked out well housing this particular coral. Such a set up may or may not work out as well for you as it has me depending on your skill level. Just mentioning one of several possible examples of a good set up for housing this coral.

Here is a pick of mine a few weeks after the "great rescue"...


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## ladyonyx (Apr 20, 2009)

Great advice from Imaexpat2. My sun coral is also kept in a shaded spot with relatively high water flow. Mine didn't open up for almost two weeks after I got it, unless it opened up during the night when I didn't see it. Mine still doesn't open up during the day, but starts to come out about an hour before the day lights go off. I feed it 3 times a week meaty food like brine, mysis, small krill, and occassionally clam. I turn my filter and powerhead off for a bit to feed it. They're gorgeous corals; you'll enjoy having it.


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## drhank (Aug 3, 2009)

+2. Right on the money. I'm too lazy to have this type of coral plus I run too much light to support it. Good luck with it. They are beautiful when well maintained.


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## phil_pl (Apr 10, 2009)

i cant wait to get one they are beautiful, how are yours doing


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## smoothie (Aug 6, 2009)

Great. Have mine in a planted tank that I am letting the macro grow out in for my fuge setup. Funny thing I finally figured out. They were all jumping ship. Stil healthy and feeding but not attached together on the rock anymore. Well I fed them and watched. 
Bristle worms would crawl out while I was feeding them at night as I have always done, crawl inside them and take the food. CRAZY.
All polyps are still doing great just now individuals in the rubble bed.


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## KingRicky (May 29, 2009)

I just got a frag from a buddy, mine hasn't really opend up yet but it has only been in the tank for a couple of days. I have it sitting on hte sand bed under a overhang so it is shaded and has good flow. Hopefully it will start to open soon.

I have read that if you use a turkey baster to place food and drizzle the liquiod from the food container over it every night for the first few days, it will speed up the opening process.


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

As soon as the frozen cube I add into my empty filter starts to disolve (chumming the water so to speak) before the baby brine starts to actually thaw free and flow into the tank, my Sun Polyps open up as if a light switch was flipped on! You can see this in the pic I added to my previous response when I edited it.

If your pre thawing your food, pouring a few drops of the liquid only several minutes before actually feeding them, should stimulate the polyps and get a feeding response that will get the polyps to really open up well and start trying to capture food before you actually start feeding them.


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## drhank (Aug 3, 2009)

If you choose to target feed (and your coral isn't too big to cover) the top half of a 2 liter bottle placed over the coral will allow you to concentrate the food over the coral you wish to feed.


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## KingRicky (May 29, 2009)

My new Sun Coral finally started to open up tonight. The picture is not very good, just using a point and shoot, but here are a couple.


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