PDA

View Full Version : First NPS Gorg! Wild Ride!


nuvuku
03/15/2016, 09:51 PM
Hey all! I am very excited, I have had this Red Diodogorgia nodulifera for about 2.5 weeks now. It's been interesting to say the least....

I got it in a coral trade along with some lps, sps and a photosynthetic gorg. I asked the guy if "the red one" was photosynthetic or not, says yes a few times and reassures me. I get it home and put the little guy, dubbed Mr. Gorg, into a nice bright spot.

http://i68.*******.com/2cd77rs.jpg

Over the next few days the polyps come out at night and a few during the day and I geek out about having a real live gorgonian in my tank! Till the cyano and algae covered it. So I scrub Mr. Gorg down with my handy dandy toothbrush and lo' and behold that night polyps are out again! Huzahhh! Nope... The end of the next day yielded a gorg covered in red and green. I scrub it a few more times and realize I am doing something wrong because this probably does not occur this much.

I hop on google and after a short period my red stick is actually NOT photo :debi:... Luckily I was planning on getting NPS corals sometime soon so I grabbed my personal wine fridge drank some beer in it and went to town. I moved Mr. Gorg into a dark spot that does not get light to fix the algae problem, seems happier now. Long story short the wine cooler is a peltier powered unit so it is basically a foam block covered in metal. I jammed a screwdriver through the foam and ran a hose for my aqualifter, set up the wine cooler and pureed some fish food I had and beat some pellets with a hammer to dust. I took my concoction (100% concentration) and make a 15% concentration bottle and 25% concentration for testing, put it all on a timer to feed 5 times a day and let it rip. That was yesterday.

http://i67.*******.com/2i9qvte.jpg

This morning I was expecting to see all the polyps out this morning and that was not the case. I have been worried all day till now because only one or two polyps have been out even though i fed 5 times for 45 minutes (via automated dosing) each. I thought Mr. Gorg would be expecting food all day long but didn't seem to be taking to it.

Until the daytime lights shut off!! This is what he looks like now:

http://i66.*******.com/25koepl.jpg

Needless to say I am very happy with how things have went and have started more research on NPS and hopefully will get more gorgs.

I plan to up my water changes to once a week and 20 gallons each time. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 30ish gallon sump and normally do 10-15 gallons each month. I have a bashsea twisted 6-24 and LOVE this thing. Best skimmer I have ever had and conquers all that there is to skim! (I know that skimmers only remove 30% of all waste hence the increased water changes)

victorcan
03/15/2016, 10:24 PM
Hey all! I am very excited, I have had this Red Diodogorgia nodulifera for about 2.5 weeks now. It's been interesting to say the least....

I got it in a coral trade along with some lps, sps and a photosynthetic gorg. I asked the guy if "the red one" was photosynthetic or not, says yes a few times and reassures me. I get it home and put the little guy, dubbed Mr. Gorg, into a nice bright spot.

http://i68.*******.com/2cd77rs.jpg

Over the next few days the polyps come out at night and a few during the day and I geek out about having a real live gorgonian in my tank! Till the cyano and algae covered it. So I scrub Mr. Gorg down with my handy dandy toothbrush and lo' and behold that night polyps are out again! Huzahhh! Nope... The end of the next day yielded a gorg covered in red and green. I scrub it a few more times and realize I am doing something wrong because this probably does not occur this much.

I hop on google and after a short period my red stick is actually NOT photo :debi:... Luckily I was planning on getting NPS corals sometime soon so I grabbed my personal wine fridge drank some beer in it and went to town. I moved Mr. Gorg into a dark spot that does not get light to fix the algae problem, seems happier now. Long story short the wine cooler is a peltier powered unit so it is basically a foam block covered in metal. I jammed a screwdriver through the foam and ran a hose for my aqualifter, set up the wine cooler and pureed some fish food I had and beat some pellets with a hammer to dust. I took my concoction (100% concentration) and make a 15% concentration bottle and 25% concentration for testing, put it all on a timer to feed 5 times a day and let it rip. That was yesterday.

http://i67.*******.com/2i9qvte.jpg

This morning I was expecting to see all the polyps out this morning and that was not the case. I have been worried all day till now because only one or two polyps have been out even though i fed 5 times for 45 minutes (via automated dosing) each. I thought Mr. Gorg would be expecting food all day long but didn't seem to be taking to it.

Until the daytime lights shut off!! This is what he looks like now:

http://i66.*******.com/25koepl.jpg

Needless to say I am very happy with how things have went and have started more research on NPS and hopefully will get more gorgs.

I plan to up my water changes to once a week and 20 gallons each time. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 30ish gallon sump and normally do 10-15 gallons each month. I have a bashsea twisted 6-24 and LOVE this thing. Best skimmer I have ever had and conquers all that there is to skim! (I know that skimmers only remove 30% of all waste hence the increased water changes)

Wish the pics came up