Coral questions

[dr.ben]

Hey I am new to reefing and I have just added a bunch of corals to my 2-3 month old tank. Originally I was planning on going mixed reef, but I'm favoring LPS, so it may end up being an LPS dominant scape. Also my SO, who is a nature educator, thought the Duncan coral was an anemone and I had to explain that while they are Cnidarians they are different lol!

I have a ton of random questions if anyone has comments on any of them:

1. What is normal coral behavior as far as opening during the day, closing at night, etc.?
2. Is it common for Acro to not really extend any polyps?
3. How fast do corals grow without feeding?
4. Are frogspawn tentacles really that harsh to other corals?
5. Is bleaching in SPS usually a lighting intensity issue or is it common to have issues from water parameters that cause bleaching?
6. What do you wish you'd known about keeping coral? (Other than keep it stable!)

TIA for any info you can share!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Hey I am new to reefing and I have just added a bunch of corals to my 2-3 month old tank. Originally I was planning on going mixed reef, but I'm favoring LPS, so it may end up being an LPS dominant scape. Also my SO, who is a nature educator, thought the Duncan coral was an anemone and I had to explain that while they are Cnidarians they are different lol! More explanations will be to come.

I have a ton of random questions if anyone has comments on any of them:

1. What is normal coral behavior as far as opening during the day, closing at night, etc.? Depends a lot on the type of coral. Many lps are puffy during the day and close slightly at night unless they are feeding. Then they puff up with feeders and swallow up food.
2. Is it common for Acro to not really extend any polyps? Again, depends on the type of acro. Some really extend many polyps and are fuzzy, others hardly any. Also, depends on the light, flow and food around.
3. How fast do corals grow without feeding? Many corals need the food. Corals that we call photosynthetic are still only getting all the way down to 60% of food from the algae inside them. They need food. Especially the lps. Long term survival means feeding them properly.
4. Are frogspawn tentacles really that harsh to other corals? Can be yes! They can have what we call sweepers that are long and sting other corals in the area. Defense mechanisms.
5. Is bleaching in SPS usually a lighting intensity issue or is it common to have issues from water parameters that cause bleaching? In the aquaria, browning is usually a light issue. Bleaching is a sign of other issues. The corals are loosing their algae for some reason. Parameters, poor acclimation (stress) etc.
6. What do you wish you'd known about keeping coral? (Other than keep it stable!) How difficult it can be to get the mix of corals just right to keep from all the fighting. It is worse then kids. Keep hands to self, do not look at each other, go to your separate rooms, AHHHGGGG!

TIA for any info you can share!

 

[cristata.reef]

I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability but there's not always an easy answer...

1. MOST corals will open during the day and close at dark. These are your zooxanthellate corals which utilize symbiotic dinoflagellates (not the bad kind) to photozynthesize and produce energy. Other corals often referred to as NPS or Non-photosynthetic usually open at night and close during the day. HOWEVER, there are some corals (mainly soft corals) that will open again at night to feed like NPS corals (they're weird)

2. Don't know too much about acros in the husbandry sense but usually polyp extension = happy coral. I would assume that it's normal when they are adjusting but most reefers strive to have great polyp extension in all of their corals.

3. Coral growth varies by species. GSP and Xenia (and relatives of both) are extremely invasive and in the right conditions, can cover an entire tank in several months. Other corals like acros will grow very slowly unless given perfect conditions. Other corals are in between so it really depends on your definition of "fast growth".

4. Sweeper tentacles found on all members of LPS corals and extremely pronounced in Euphyllias like the frogspawn are specially designed appendages created to seek out (yes they can hone in on corals) and kill encroaching corals. These specialized nematocysts will wreak havoc on pretty much any coral except other Euphyllias. So keep distance between them.

5. Lots of things can cause bleaching. Temperature, water chemistry, lighting, parasites, disease, etc.

6. And info I wished I'd known...Read about dosing and find the best brands and use em (I use Red Sea). I find that having a biological background with cnidarians helped me a lot with my corals so understanding coral biology will help you unravel a lot of your tank's mysteries. And finally just research everything.

Hope that helps!