SPS question

[marinelover]

How hard ar these corals?? WHat do they need??

Here they are:

Hot pink pocillopora
Aquacultured Montipora
Purple Montipora
Orange Disk coral
Torch coral
Pagoda coral
Green galaxea

Please help me!!

Thanks shawn

[JasonL]

I have a torch coral and great water quality is a must, I feed it on Cyclopeeze and small pieces of shrimp once every 3 days. Again water quality has to be amazing. Mine spreads out its best with temperatures around 84 but some people will tell you not to let your tank get that high. What works for some does not work for all. Good Luck

[mps9506]

Originally Posted by marinelover

How hard ar these corals?? WHat do they need??

Here they are:

Hot pink pocillopora
Aquacultured Montipora
Purple Montipora
Orange Disk coral
Torch coral
Pagoda coral
Green galaxea

Please help me!!

Thanks shawn

The poci, and montis are what I would call med/high light corals. I would suggest halides to get the best color out of them. The rest are medium light corals doing fine under anything from halides to vho's or power compacts. I wouldn't place these directly under halides however.
All require top notch water quality. The monit's and poci's will appreciate low nutrients and high water flow. The other guys need more moderate water flow and will do fine under higher nutrient water conditions, but regardless will still need "clean" water. IE no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.

[Travis]

I've found torch corals to be pretty accepting of water conditions as long as alkalinity/ca are somewhere near balanced.

[SoliSteve]

Shawn - check out the Eric Borneman or Julian Sprung books for keeping these corals. Here's a brief answer to your question:

1 - Hot pink pocillopora - HIGH Lighting Requirements; gentle flow required
2 - Aquacultured Montipora - depends on the type but generally easy, especially if it is a Digitata; ensure it is out of reach of the Torch's sweeper tentacles. Aquacultured Montiporas usually do well.
3 - Purple Montipora - same as above
4 - Orange Disk coral - depends on whether it's a Scolymia or Cynarina but these will generally do well with PC's or MH's at lower levels of the tank - they don't like a lot of turbulence and do appreciate a meal a week (perhaps a silverside or crab)
5 - Torch coral - requires some lighting - will eat particulate matter in the water column - watch the sweeper nematocysts and give it plenty of room to grow - if this is a branching torch, new branches will grow in a healthy environment. Make sure that all branches are clean of any possible infection of Brown Jelly Disease. If a branch is affected, break off the branch - this should not affect the remainder of the coral.
6 - Pagoda coral - requires light and flow but is pretty tolerant - I've had a green one for six years and it requires very little maintenance though it does like to be out in pure daylight (10k bulbs) though it is located on the sand bed with good water flow.
7 - Green galaxea - can be somewhat tempermental - watch out for 6" plus Sweeper Nematocysts. This guy loves to terminate anything within its reach and needs plenty of room. After the lights are off at night, check out how it extends these to make sure it has no competition. It is not a difficult coral to keep but requires lots of room to feel comfortable and to not decimate other corals in a battle for space.

Hope that helps a little!

[Dragon Wrasse]

Nice info SoliSteve....Thanks!!