Question on Protective Glass on Light and Nepthea Coral

[Hypostomus]

Question(s) 1) Should I remove the protective glass plate that lies just underneath the PC lights in my Coralife canopy? Does having that plate there negate the usefulness of an eggcrate top? What would happen if the bulbs were splashed with water? I notice that now that I've removed the glass top of the tank, I get salt creep on the light cover instead.

Question(s) 2) What requirements do Nepthea sp. have in terms of light, flow, and feeding? Are there species that are misidentified as Nepthea? Lastly, what should someone be charging for a frag of this coral?

Thanks for any help, as always.

 

[fishfreek]

Question(s) 1) Should I remove the protective glass plate that lies just underneath the PC lights in my Coralife canopy? Does having that plate there negate the usefulness of an eggcrate top? What would happen if the bulbs were splashed with water? I notice that now that I've removed the glass top of the tank, I get salt creep on the light cover instead.

If the canopy sits directly on the egg crate thenn I would leave it on. If the bulbs where on for a long time and where hot and enough cold water splashed on them your bulbs could explode. I would just wipe down the cover every other day or something like that.

Question(s) 2) What requirements do Nepthea sp. have in terms of light, flow, and feeding? Are there species that are misidentified as Nepthea ? Lastly, what should someone be charging for a frag of this coral?

Its a softy so it should do fine under moderate current (flow so it basicly sways back and forth gently) and medium light. No need for metal halide for this coral but at the same time you need something better than NO output florecents. What someone would be willing to pay obvously will be directly in compairson to how much they like the coral and its coloration. If it has unique coloration then you can get more. If the frag is larger you can get more. I would say for a frag thats 2-3" in size you could get maybe $5-10 for it.

 

[reefrunner69]

Question(s) 1) Should I remove the protective glass plate that lies just underneath the PC lights in my Coralife canopy?

How high off the water is the canopy? The humidity from the tank and SW environment will accelerate corrosion of the canopy and fixtures.

Does having that plate there negate the usefulness of an eggcrate top?

If you use it, I would only eggcrate the portions of the tank that are open to prevent fish from jumping.

I notice that now that I've removed the glass top of the tank, I get salt creep on the light cover instead.

It's not hard to take the splash guard off and wipe it with vinegar and water once a week

Question(s) 2) What requirements do Nepthea sp. have in terms of light, flow, and feeding?

Med to high light, good waterflow and will feed on phytoplankton, if added to the tank, although it is not required as they are photosynthetic.

Are there species that are misidentified as Nepthea?

IDing soft corals can be as tricky as IDing acropora, there are certainly alot of corals misidentified as nepthea and other corals as well

Lastly, what should someone be charging for a frag of this coral?

Depends on the size of the frag, the species of the frag, availability of the frag and how proud the owner is of this coral, LFS will usually charge more than a hobbyest. For an average sized frag, I would expect anywhere from 10-20 bucks.

 

[Hypostomus]

The lights are perhaps 3" or 4" above the eggcrate at this point- we use those plastic legs to hold up the canopy.

Thanks for the help.