Water parameters: Nitrate 5-20 mg/l, Phosphate 0,05-0,15 mg/l
Feeding: No feeding required, but may be fed plankton (e.g. Goldpods) if desired
Care level: Easy/Moderated
Location
Euphyllia like Hammer corals are found all over the tropical waters of the Pacific. In particular, they are regularly harvested from the islands of the Indopacific including Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Lighting
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank.
Water Flow
Moderate to strong water movement is recommended. One of the main draws to this type of LPS coral is how it sways in the current. Water flow is both healthy for the Hammer and is pleasing aesthetically.
Water Chemistry
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank. Agonizing over these levels might be mental overkill for this coral, but it is good to periodically test just to make sure everything is in the ballpark of natural sea water levels. A couple parameters worth paying closer attention to is nitrate and phosphate. LPS corals are sensitive to declining water quality and elevated levels of nitrate and phosphate are an indicator of declining water quality. Low nitrate levels around 5-10ppm are actually welcome for large polyp stony corals, but around 30-40ppm of nitrate you might start running into some issues such as tissue recession. In extreme cases, you might see a torch coral go through full-fledged polyp bailout which we will cover in a little bit.
Coral Aggression
Corals developed all kinds of adaptations to gain a competitive advantage in the battle for real estate on the reef. In our home aquariums we have to be conscious of these in order to create the best environment for them long term. Euphyllia are one of the corals that extends long sweeper tentacles. Sweeper tentacles are often used as a means of defence against other encroaching coral colonies. Their white tips contain a concentration of nematocysts that can damage more delicate tank mates. Most of the time, this is not a major problem but to be safe, we recommend placing it in a location far from other corals initially. Like most coral, Euphyllia rely to a large extent on the products of their zooxanthellae, however, in our experience, they also benefit from direct feeding. Hammers, torches, and frogspawn do not seem to aggressively feed like other LPS, so finding the right food can be a challenge.
Water parameters: Nitrate 5-20 mg/l, Phosphate 0,05-0,15 mg/l
Feeding: No feeding required, but may be fed plankton (e.g. Goldpods) if desired
Care level: Easy/Moderated
Location
Euphyllia like Hammer corals are found all over the tropical waters of the Pacific. In particular, they are regularly harvested from the islands of the Indopacific including Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Lighting
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank.
Water Flow
Moderate to strong water movement is recommended. One of the main draws to this type of LPS coral is how it sways in the current. Water flow is both healthy for the Hammer and is pleasing aesthetically.
Water Chemistry
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank. Agonizing over these levels might be mental overkill for this coral, but it is good to periodically test just to make sure everything is in the ballpark of natural sea water levels. A couple parameters worth paying closer attention to is nitrate and phosphate. LPS corals are sensitive to declining water quality and elevated levels of nitrate and phosphate are an indicator of declining water quality. Low nitrate levels around 5-10ppm are actually welcome for large polyp stony corals, but around 30-40ppm of nitrate you might start running into some issues such as tissue recession. In extreme cases, you might see a torch coral go through full-fledged polyp bailout which we will cover in a little bit.
Coral Aggression
Corals developed all kinds of adaptations to gain a competitive advantage in the battle for real estate on the reef. In our home aquariums we have to be conscious of these in order to create the best environment for them long term. Euphyllia are one of the corals that extends long sweeper tentacles. Sweeper tentacles are often used as a means of defence against other encroaching coral colonies. Their white tips contain a concentration of nematocysts that can damage more delicate tank mates. Most of the time, this is not a major problem but to be safe, we recommend placing it in a location far from other corals initially. Like most coral, Euphyllia rely to a large extent on the products of their zooxanthellae, however, in our experience, they also benefit from direct feeding. Hammers, torches, and frogspawn do not seem to aggressively feed like other LPS, so finding the right food can be a challenge.
Water parameters: Nitrate 5-20 mg/l, Phosphate 0,05-0,15 mg/l
Feeding: No feeding required, but may be fed plankton (e.g. Goldpods) if desired
Care level: Easy/Moderated
Location
Euphyllia like Hammer corals are found all over the tropical waters of the Pacific. In particular, they are regularly harvested from the islands of the Indopacific including Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.
Lighting
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank.
Water Flow
Moderate to strong water movement is recommended. One of the main draws to this type of LPS coral is how it sways in the current. Water flow is both healthy for the Hammer and is pleasing aesthetically.
Water Chemistry
Torch corals are LPS meaning as stony corals, they require consistent levels of calcium, alkalinity, and to a lesser degree magnesium in order to grow their calcium carbonate skeleton. The amount of supplementation needed to maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium depends a lot on the size and growth rate of the stony corals in your tank. Agonizing over these levels might be mental overkill for this coral, but it is good to periodically test just to make sure everything is in the ballpark of natural sea water levels. A couple parameters worth paying closer attention to is nitrate and phosphate. LPS corals are sensitive to declining water quality and elevated levels of nitrate and phosphate are an indicator of declining water quality. Low nitrate levels around 5-10ppm are actually welcome for large polyp stony corals, but around 30-40ppm of nitrate you might start running into some issues such as tissue recession. In extreme cases, you might see a torch coral go through full-fledged polyp bailout which we will cover in a little bit.
Coral Aggression
Corals developed all kinds of adaptations to gain a competitive advantage in the battle for real estate on the reef. In our home aquariums we have to be conscious of these in order to create the best environment for them long term. Euphyllia are one of the corals that extends long sweeper tentacles. Sweeper tentacles are often used as a means of defence against other encroaching coral colonies. Their white tips contain a concentration of nematocysts that can damage more delicate tank mates. Most of the time, this is not a major problem but to be safe, we recommend placing it in a location far from other corals initially. Like most coral, Euphyllia rely to a large extent on the products of their zooxanthellae, however, in our experience, they also benefit from direct feeding. Hammers, torches, and frogspawn do not seem to aggressively feed like other LPS, so finding the right food can be a challenge.
Name: Trachyphyllia Temperature: 24-26C Flow: low-mid PAR: 50-150 Water parameters: Nitrate 5-10 mg/l, Phosphate 0,05-0,08 mg/l Feeding: They are adept feeders that can grab and consume a wide variety of foods ranging from coral-formulated sinking pellets to frozen food such as brine shrimp, mysis, and krill. Care level: Easy
Lighting
Open Brains are photosynthetic corals, meaning they get nutrients from the products of photosynthesis carried out by symbiotic dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae living in their flesh. Zooxanthellae utilize chlorophyll to absorb light and produce simple sugars that the coral can consume for energy.
While some corals are more light loving than others, Trachyphyllia tend to be less demanding. In fact, they probably fare better in less intense lighting conditions. We primarily keep Trachyphyllia in low to medium light intensity here at Tidal Gardens which is around 50 to 100 PAR. If your tank is higher in light, it will take some time for this coral to adjust to its new surroundings. When in doubt, try lower lighting intensities until it is clear that the coral is stable before ramping it up.
Water Flow
Trachyphyllia appreciate low to medium flow. There are two things that I am looking to accomplish with flow for this coral. The first is to give it enough flow to keep it clean. Detritus build-up can cause the coral to die back where it collects. Providing elevated flow around the coral can prevent this accumulation. Even moderate flow can serve to keep the coral clean as the coral does a good job of slugging off debris that settle on it.
You will know if you are overdoing it if the flow is slamming one side of the coral and it is drawn tight to the skeleton all the time. If this sort of flow isn’t adjusted it can cause the coral to die as the tissue will rub against the skeleton causing damage.
Providing periodic low flow or even zero flow is beneficial for this coral for the purposes of feeding.
Feeding
In addition to photosynthesis, these corals are adept feeders that can grab and consume a wide variety of foods ranging from coral-formulated sinking pellets to frozen food such as brine shrimp, mysis, and krill.
Trachyphyllia are up there with Scolymia for putting on dramatic feeding displays. By day they are a fluffy pillow of smooth multicolored tissue. But as soon as they detect the faintest hint of food in the water their feeding response is activated turning them into an explosion of hungry tentacles. I have noticed that the more regularly the Trachy is fed, the easier it is to feed it in the future. A well-fed Trachy’s tentacles are out more and the coral as a whole is more responsive to food in the water.
It is tempting to dump lots of food on them but it is possible to overfeed. Most of the nutrition Trachyphyllia needs will come from the lighting and they will be absorbing other nutrients from the water. The risk of overfeeding is that it can pollute the water that can be hard to remedy. Aim to feed multiple times a week to allow the coral to expel the waste produced.
Target feeding LPS can always be tricky with an aquarium full of hungry fish as they will often steal it directly from the coral once you have fed it. The bigger concern with feeding is that certain fish and inverts such as shrimps and crabs can cause major damage to a coral when they go after the food. I’ve literally lost entire heads of corals the day after a big feeding and it is pretty clear one of my cleanup crew tore the polyp apart. Fish stealing food out of the coral’s grasp is one thing but if you have tank mates that rip a coral apart to get at the food, something more drastic has to be done.
There are a few different ways to try and combat this. Firstly – distraction! When it is time to feed your corals try adding a fresh strip of Nori to the other end of the tank. If you keep the fish occupied the coral should have time to digest its meal. If that isn’t successful another option is to create a DIY feeding barrier. A good way to do this is to save an old candy or pretzel container and use it to go over the top of the coral at feeding time (don’t forget to weigh it down though!). You could even go as far as drilling a hole in the top and installing a feeding tube that you can squirt the food directly into. There are a few options and plenty of DIY ideas online to solve this problem. If you want to get even fancier I am sure there are plans on the internet for 3D printed coral cages that would allow for feeding corals.
Water parameters: Nitrate 5-20 mg/l, Phosphate 0,05-0,15 mg/l
Feeding: Ideally to Feed
Care level: Easy/Moderated
Location
Part of the reason for the recent success is sourcing the coral. There are around 20 different species of Goniopora and some are more hardy than others. We have had the best success with Goniopora that originated in Australia. They tend to have better coloration and smaller polyps than the ones I’ve seen come from other geographies like Indonesia.
Lighting
Goniopora are a photosynthetic coral so they derive some of their nutritional requirements from light. This is done through a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae that live in the flesh of the coral. The dinoflagellates are actually the photosynthetic organism and the Goniopora colony derives nutrients off of the byproducts of the dinoflagellates’ photosynthetic process. Zooxanthellae is usually brown in color and the coral tightly regulates the population living in its flesh. Too little light will cause the coral to turn brown in color. As it seeks more nutrition, the coral allows more zooxanthellae to build up in its flesh. Usually a coral will prefer a specific range of lighting intensity but that is less of the case with Goniopora.
Goniopora can thrive in a wide range of lighting. We have kept Goniopora in different lighting intensities here at Tidal Gardens ranging from very dimly lit 50 PAR tanks all the way to bright aquariums receiving over 200 PAR. I would recommend placing them under moderate lighting intensities, between 75-125 PAR. Goniopora are consistent in their appearance under different lighting. That is to say that a red colored Goniopora won’t suddenly turn green when moved to another aquarium with slightly different lights above it. Sounds strange, but there are plenty of corals out there that can shift their color palate like that.
Having said that, the type of lighting system chosen will have a dramatic effect on how they are displayed. There are some incredibly fluorescent varieties of Goniopora that glow like safety cones under the right blend of actinic lights which would not be apparent at all under daylight lighting.
Water Flow
One of my favorite things about Goniopora is how the tentacles sway in the current. It is one of the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing large polyp stony corals as far as motion is concerned. It’s movement is almost hypnotic and is one of the things that makes Goniopora such a great focal point in the aquarium.
One mistake I think some reef keepers make is providing them too much flow. If you have a powerhead blowing right at Goniopora from short range, it may kill off some of the tissue at that point of contact and cause a chain reaction to the rest of the colony.
Goniopora appreciate low to medium flow, but preferably with some randomness to it. That way you will get that gentle waving motion which helps keep the coral clean and brings food past the colony. If you see the tentacles violently thrashing about, that is probably too much flow and it would benefit from being relocated to a more calm section of the tank.
Feeding
Perhaps the biggest difference between the time when aquarists struggled keeping Goniopora to now is the change in mentality regarding coral feeding. For decades the majority of hobbyists believed that feeding was not necessary. Fast forward to today and well… the majority probably still don’t BUT at least now there are more resources available demonstrating the positive benefits of feeding as well as a variety of coral foods in both powder and liquid form on the market.
I am absolutely convinced that Goniopora have to be fed and fed a lot. I’ve kept a lot of different types of Goniopora and just a personal anecdote, the times I’ve struggled with them had to do with neglect and lack of feeding. When I diligently provided them with a high quality food source, they almost always thrived.
What to feed Goniopora is a good question. Goniopora do not put on dramatic feeding displays like some large polyp stony corals. In fact, they seem to shy away from contact rather than aggressively trying to capture food. They have this “pogo hopper” motion to their polyps when food is introduced. Some believe that the coral takes in a lot of their nutrients through their skin more so than consuming it with their mouth, so even if you don’t see it actively feeding trust that something positive is still happening.
There are two types of food that I like to provide Goniopora. The first is liquid amino acids. In short, they are simple organic compounds that play a major role in building proteins as well as other biological functions at the cellular level.
The second type of food I like are dry powdered plankton. There are several different types on the market and I take the three or four I have on hand at any given time, mix them all up and when it is feeding time, make a cloudy solution with them to broadcast feed over the Goniopora colonies.
The best technique I have found is to completely turn off the pumps so that nothing blows away in the current and then spray a cloud of food over each colony with a turkey baster. The particles should be fine enough that the fish won’t come and harass the coral, but even if they do, you can apply another dusting after a few minutes. After about 15-20 min I then start the pumps back up. Some hobbyists leave the pumps off for longer than that, so you may want to experiment a little bit to see what works best in your tank.
Although coral nutrition is important, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. If you are going to experiment with broadcast feeding or target feeding, start slowly with it and don’t expect explosive changes overnight. Having some phosphate and nitrate in the water is beneficial but overfeeding can cause these parameters to rise to dangerous levels that can be hard to remedy.
