Corals/How to maintain/look after

[160mgzr]

advice required on looking after/maintaining corals, what should be done to keep them Looking there best and to encourage growth?

Cheers guys

 

[ste2k3]

I depends on which types of corals you are after? some are more difficult to keep than others?

ste

 

[Navarre]

Well on the finer points you would need to give more info on what type of corals you wish to keep.

But on basics i would advise the following.

Good water quality:
This really goes without saying. We should maintain good water quality regardless of fish/corals etc.

Water flow:
Research your corals and find out what type of water flow they require. Som ewill require slower movemnt and others more vigorous. Try to create areas in the tank where you have a constant flow of water, some fast, some slower so that all types of conditions can be met for your corals.

Food:
This again really depends on what type of coral you wish to keep. SunCorals for example need heavy fdeeding whereas Mushrooms tend to take care of themselves. I usually feed with Live Phyto and Cyclopeze. This usually takes care of most corals. I sometimes target feed my Bubble coral with forzen Krill shrimp twice per week.

Lighting:
Now this is a really big subject!
Basically get the best lights you can afford and as much light as possible. halides are by far the best lights on the market but they are expensive. These lights will be capable of supplying all corals with their needs. Hoever if you dont want halides then T5s/T8s are good too. They can give a good supply of light especially if the tank isnt too deep.
Colour temperature is vital for growth so i will touch on it briefly here. 6.5K is natural sunlight and this gives great growth but looks very yellow in colour. 10K is very popular and gives a good growth whilst if we move further up the spectrum to 20k it looks very crisp and blue, lots of colour from the corals but the corals dont grow as fast as its not really the right light for growth.

Hope this helps