Long tentacle plate coral (green)

[ChazYork]

So the LFS has a long tentacle plate coral for sale, and it looks very interesting. Just inquiring some advice from everyone before i make a binary-buy LOL sorry, just had to.

Would they be able to kill small fish with their sting? If placed high enough in a tank with PC bulbs would they survive? I've read a couple threads on them but im lookin for anyone with experience keeping them. TIA

 

[mykpoz]

typically you want to keep plates on the substrate, not saying that you cant keep it higher, but most people keep it on the sand, to prevent its tissue from being torn.

 

[ChazYork]

ok, but in a 55g with power compacts, i would think the substrate would be too far away?

 

[Fluff]

I think it would do fine on the sand bed with your lights Chaz. They don't require high amounts of light.

 

[mykpoz]

also, they dont need to be in an area with a ton of flow, you just need to get the tentacles to waver a little bit, and a periodic spot feed with cyclop-eeze or something once or twice a month wouldn't hurt.

 

[ChazYork]

ok well i bought the long tentacle plate yesterday afternoon and after acclimation it was doing well, swaying and outstretched. However, i tested my water today and found my pH at 8.0 so i added some buffer and the tentacles have been closed up ever since and that was around 4 PM EST.

 

[AMANIQU77]

Oh, I want to get a plate coral. I have a PC lighting to, 260W total. Now I am excited. I should get one too.

 

[Hara]

So the LFS before i make a binary-buy LOL sorry, just had to.

no you didn't... don't use other peoples errors as catch phrases.

so i added some buffer and the tentacles have been closed up ever since

How did you add the buffer?

 

[ChazYork]

just spooned it into the front corner as i do every other time...

 

[Hara]

unless you have some weird kind of buffer that actually says add it directly to your tank like that, you should NOT add it in that manner. It should be diluted in other water before adding it to your tank. If it is a powder, make sure it is dissolved well. If it is a liquid, it needs to be diluted so that strong concentrations do not land among the corals, that is also the reason you premix powders out of the tank.

 

[mykpoz]

yep, concentrated anything could be terribly harmful to anything it decides to move into.

hope it gets happy today