Non-conforming coral: Have you kept NPS corals?

[Peace River]

Non-conforming coral: Have you kept NPS corals?

Non-photosynthetic (NPS) corals don’t follow the same rules as many other corals and they do not require lighting for energy. Many NPS corals seem fuzzy and require regular feedings and attention. Have you kept NPS corals? Do you have tips or recommendations to share? Please tell us about your experience keeping NPS corals in the discussion thread.

Photo by @M&M

For more inspiration, please see this NPS tank by @Dragon Lee which was selected as a recent tank of the month:

 

[RichWise73]

I never have and probably never will. NPS just aren't something I'm interested in at this time.

 

[docforestal]

I had limited success with tubastrea and some non-phot. gorgonians when i had seahorses, had growth, but since they did not succeed long term would say not successful and would not do again as i dont have the time/desire to do;

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Probably won't ever keep NPS coral, just not something I'm interested in keeping at this current time

 

[i cant think]

I love keeping NPS!
My current Chilli coral has survived through ammonia spiking and only my Yumas and 2 leathers survived through that with my Chilli being the most healthy. I’d love to see NPS on the markets again as they are truly beautiful.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Dendro and gorgonia is currently what I keep for NPS

 

[sp1187]

hi flow.
feed often.

 

[feresadas]

I think the level of care required for NPS is outside the scope of what I am interested in taking on in reef keeping.

 

[Dburr1014]

When I was a newbie I had a yellow garg, didn't end well.
I can't feed as much as they need.

 

[ManWithAClam]

i currently keep NPS corals and plan to keep more when my tiny manilensis puffer outgrows his nano, it will become a dedicated NPS tank, at the moment they live in the reefer 250 and are doing well.

 

[sharkyahd]

Between trying to keep my nano stable now and balancing the rest of my more boring, non reef keeping life, I cant imagine having to worry about keeping something else that seems super needy alive LOL

 

[World Citizen]

I am trying. I'll write out my game.

I have set up a tank which has these NPS species in mind and I want to try and use some intelligence to plot the coral behaviour

I have 0 circulation pumps. All the flow in the tank is provided by the returnpump. This i a linear flow 24/7. It turns over the tank 15x per hour, and I am aiming for 20x. My current Vectra L2 pump makes to much noise at that level, so I need a different pump.

The Coral setup in the tank is in the middel. The flow in turning around the middle in circles.

I am going to try and detect the corals opening and closing.
-Maybe- I am able to plot the length a polyp is, but that's a Nice to have. With optical sensors and smart software I want to monitor visual information and plot this against others graphs of the tank.

I am now at the point I can manage the nutrients by flow. All the water from the returnpump (15x tank per hour) is going in a Rollerfilter. I can bypass this with a valve. If I lower the amount of water going in the Rollerfilter, the nutrients rise.

After that, 2x the tank per hour is going in the UV and FluidizedBed filter. I can also bypass this with a valve. If I lower the amount of water going in the UV and FluidizedBed, the nutrients rise.
If I feed a crazy amount of food, I still don't relatively rise in nutrients.

From this point I hope the get a grip on results. I am not a testcentrum, so I am not going to let coral die for results. But still, correlation is to bind found out.

Thats my try, any tips are always appreciated.

 

[bushdoc]

I kept Aiptasia in my sump
It thrived there without light for long time.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Our latest ROTM is an NPS reef by @Dragon Lee! It's awesome!!

REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2023: Dragon Lee's NPS Paradise

 

[shakacuz]

currently don’t have any (i think), but would love some NPS corals to fill in the shades areas of my tank

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Currently almost at 1 month with my Fully NPS Setup (you can click on my profile and find it if you'd like to check it out). I've got Tubastrea, Dendro, and Swiftia growing right now and doing really well. Hopefully after the one month mark, I'm set on getting a Red & Gold Menella and a few others to add to the collection

 

[Will_WhatIsThis]

Love my nps corals. I have multiple types of dendros, a couple sun corals, and hidden cup coral. Haven’t had as much success with the sun coral, but the others are pretty easy to keep as long as you feed them often

 

[flagg37]

I kept Aiptasia in my sump
It thrived there without light for long time.

That totally counts. Any tips?

 

[PeterEde]

Feeding fish and other inverts is hard enough.
I've had 2 NPS. Both died

 

[twentyleagues]

I've kept sun corals both orange and black, dendros, rhizos, and wire corals I'd guess you'd say lps nps. These all did wonderfully for me. It's basically like feeding your fish. I'd feed them heavily 3 days a week. They also got what ever food washed down the overflow from the tanks upstairs. Both tanks upstairs drained to the 90 that these were in. Only actinic lighting on this tank 1 48" t5. One of the rhizos was half dead when I got it and I nursed it back to health. I had them around 3 years before I sold the system. I fragged the dendros quite a few times in that time sold a lot and kept a lot to spread around the tank. The dendros did the best for me. The wire coral was a bit of a challenge at first. I didn't know it was nps. So for the first year I had it it was in one of the main tanks. The base grew some algae, which killed some of the flesh. I think it was Todd from cherry that set me straight. I fragged it in to 3 2.5 to 3" pieces. Once in the 90 nps it grew slow but well, they were 8-9" when I sold it all.