How do lps corals grow

By careful placement of your coral, you can find the lower flow areas for soft and LPS coral. By directing the flow of your pumps around the water surface then placement of coral lower in the aquarium will allow for good, indirect random flow,.

Stability in your water parameters is what will give your corals the best growth but the only way you can ensure your water parameters are stable is by regular, consistent testing. When a parameter like alkalinity is high, low, high, low your coral is going to be in a constant state of catch up.

Think of it like trying to catch the ice-cream truck when you were a kid, and every time you almost get to the window they drive off to the next stop! You spend more energy chasing than eating. Your coral is the same. To ensure stability you need to be testing correctly and regularly. This is done with the following rules:. Now you are aware of the 3 major factors that a coral needs to grow and you have ensured that your setup is meeting these, if your coral is still not growing then we need to look at other factors that can be causing your coral to seem dormant.

When aquarists come onto many of the forums seeking help and advice for their corals not growing I always ask them if it is just one coral that is not growing or is it one type of coral LPS, SPS, etc or is it that all the corals are not growing. Many people are unable to keep Zoanthids or GSP alive, yet everything else flourishes.

To fix this, research as many different sources for care requirements of the coral and see if you need to test for a different parameter. Using the coral listings mentioned above at UniqueCorals. Google your plight as there have been many before you with the same problem but could also have solutions.

Unfortunately, listing every possible problem with a solution in this article would keep you reading until the next millennia! If you are having no growth with ALL of your coral then you need to look at your aquarium setup.

The big 3 first mentioned above are your first areas to address, but after those, I suggest you start working through the list below. Old Bulbs — Metal Halide and T5 bulbs begin to lose their power and color spectrum after months. Because of this most manufacturers recommend replacement every 8 months to ensure your coral is receiving the optimum levels of light for growth. High Phosphates — Do you have high phosphate levels in your water? Are you even using the correct testing device?

The only good recommended testers are the Phosphate and Phosphorous Checkers from Hanna. Most test kits are unable to test low enough to register phosphate levels and you may think your aquarium is at zero, when in fact you could be at 0.

You need to be under 0. Phosphate inhibits Calcium intake in coral thus preventing them from growing their skeleton. Water Too Clean — As silly as it sounds, your water can be too clean! The Zooxanthellae in the coral tissue is an plant-based organism and it needs these nutrients to grow, but too much will inhibit its growth.

Usually, getting your water too clean is not a problem for most hobbyists. Having too high a nitrate or Phosphate problem is the norm. Feeding too heavy, overstocked, undersized skimmer, collecting detritus, flow dead spots, infrequent water changes all can lead to high Nitrate levels which will cause you problems. Keeping your Nitrates under 5ppm will ensure you have nice coral growth and color.

Properly sized equipment and a good regular maintenance schedule will be the best start you can ever have to good coral growth. Pour Source Water — Having good quality water to begin with is a fundamental for any aquarist. Water from the city or your well could be laced with numerous heavy metals, silicates, nitrates, phosphates and a ton of other pollutants. Lighting Period — Although very rare, I have found this one caused an entire tank full of coral to never grow because the owner split his lighting period.

He had lights on in the morning while getting ready for work, then off during the day, then turn back on for the evening when he got home. This is the best way to monitor and visualize exactly how much calcium the animals in your tank consume. You want to know this because you want to maintain an optimal level of calcium in your tank to support LPS coral growth.

For example, if you do a partial water change and test your calcium levels right afterward, you might find the calcium levels in the tank to be at ppm. If you test again every two days and find out that your calcium levels go down by 20 ppm each time, you will know that the demand for calcium in your tank is about 10 ppm per day.

Armed with this information, you can plan your water changes to keep the calcium levels high for the LPS coral and SPS coral species in your tank. You can also calculate how much and how often to add a calcium supplement, like kalkwasser, to the tank in order to keep the dissolved calcium level at about ppm , which is a decent level to shoot for. An excerpt from How to Frag Corals. LPS corals can range from difficult to frag to relatively easy, depending on how easily you can make the cut in between the large, fleshy polyps.

Many of the LPS Corals have two growth forms—difficult-to-frag wall growth forms and easy-to-frag branching growth forms. Your coral could suffer an infection and die as a result of fragging. In my opinion, this risk is highest with LPS Corals and particularly those without any good, safe place to cut them without risking a tear right through the polyps.

Many of the branching varieties of LPS Corals are the easiest corals to frag in this category because the branching growth form allows you to cut an entire branch without risking damage to the rest of the coral.

Torch Euphyllia glabrescens , Hammer Euphyllia ancora , Frogspawn Euphyllia divisa , Candy Cane Caulastrea furcata , Trumpet Caulastrea curvata , Duncans Duncanopsammia axifuga are all examples of corals that grow in a branching form and can be fragged relatively easily. Sometimes you can even find these corals in a brown or red color with white striped coloration. Most of the beginners prefer to purchase as they are low-cost available. The bubble coral Plerogyra has a soft and gentle appearance.

This coral adds a movement to the tank. It should be kept in low flow and low light. Give these corals a larger area around the coral since at night they have feeding tentacles that come out and can sting neighbor corals. Hammer coral Euphyllia is a common LPS coral. You can notice this coral by the hammer-shaped polyps. It also comes in a frog spawn form but both have the same care requirements.

Similar to bubble coral, they should be kept in low flow and low light. Microlords, Aussie Lords, Micromussa , is one of the best beginner corals. It has a bright color and needs sufficient lights. You can really find these micro lords in all colors of the rainbow.