Tag: coral

  • Galaxea Coral Care Guide: Galaxea fascicularis

    Galaxea Coral Care Guide: Galaxea fascicularis

    The galaxea coral (Galaxea fascicularis) attracts hobbyists with its stunning arrangement of tentacles. Regardless of your color choice, you’ll end up with a beautiful display of waving white tips. And in no time, your saltwater aquarium will have a thriving colony. But galaxea corals aren’t the easiest species to manage. Those gorgeous tentacles? They pack…

  • Blastomussa Coral Care: Blastomussa spp.

    Blastomussa Coral Care: Blastomussa spp.

    The blastomussa coral (Blastomussa spp.) group produces as much confusion as it does popularity. The impressive polyps these large polyp stony (LPS) corals extend into the water disguise the underlying calcium skeleton. And they give it a similar appearance to mushroom, brain, and even candy cane corals. It isn’t until those polyps retract that you…

  • Buying Saltwater Fish Online: Top Resources for Your Tank

    Buying Saltwater Fish Online: Top Resources for Your Tank

    The advice and support you get from your local fish store are worth their weight in gold. But not everyone in the hobby is located in an area with suitable options, Or maybe you’re looking for a broader selection of saltwater fish and corals. That means buying saltwater fish online. But with SO MANY potential…

  • 5 Saltwater Aquarium Books Every Hobbyist Should Read

    5 Saltwater Aquarium Books Every Hobbyist Should Read

    Every hobbyist begins by seeking information. And while internet searches work well (thank you for visiting), it also helps to have saltwater aquarium books around that you can grab and reference whenever you find yourself with a problem. (For instance, in case a power outage happens and you CAN’T reach a certain helpful blog) Table…

  • Zoanthid Coral Care Guide

    Zoanthid Coral Care Guide

    Zoanthid corals, affectionately called zoas by aquarium hobbyists in online forums (I guess because “zoanthid corals” is too long to type), are a trendy type of coral kept in reef tanks. Why? Because they are relatively easy to grow, maintain, frag,  AND they are available in amazing, brilliant, fluorescent colors. They are hardy and will grow…

  • Sweeper Tentacle Epiphany

    Sweeper Tentacle Epiphany

    Introduction I’m not sure how you feel about it, but whenever I imagine the ‘ideal’ reef aquarium, I conjure a vision in my mind of a bountiful, reef tank chock full of corals. The hypothetical aquarium is an aquatic cornucopia with SPS, LPS, leather coral, mushrooms, and more all living together, filling nearly every square…

  • Success Fragging Corals

    Success Fragging Corals

    [pullquote type=”left”]This is article # 3, in a three-article series, taking a deep-dive into the world of coral fragging.[/pullquote] In article # 1, we talked about our shared dreams to have a thriving reef aquarium, filled with corals and set the stage that fragging corals is a great way to increase the number of rapidly growing…

  • Introduction to Fragging Corals

    Introduction to Fragging Corals

    When I ask friends to describe their ideal coral aquarium, there are two major themes that come up. Many people want to have a large tank filled with Acropora (Acros), Montipora Plate corals and other  Small Polyp Stony (SPS) Corals. Others hope for a mixed reef tank, buzzing with color and energy as fish and…

  • Small Polyp Stony Corals (SPS)

    Small Polyp Stony Corals (SPS)

    Small Polyp Stony Corals Small polyp stony corals (SPS) are what many people think of as the conventional reef-building corals.  As a group, they are some of the most beautiful and some of the most difficult to keep, often requiring high flow rates, provided by powerheads, intense lighting, and optimal, stable water chemistry. Probably the…