Cyphastrea care: looking for general info

[cody6766]

I bought a nice meteor shower cyphastrea last week and want to make sure it's getting proper care. Right now it's sitting about 10" under a 250w MH, off to the side a bit. I'm using a reeflux 12K and a spider reflector.

It seems to be polyped out nicely, but I want to make sure I'm giving it what it really needs.

Flow is quick, but very gentle. The bird's nest next to it blows around a little bit, but the cyphastrea polyps seem pretty still.

This is an older pic of the tank, but serves well to show its location. The frag rack it's on is in the same spot as the one in this pic, but the new one is bigger. The cyphastrea is sitting just about where the front edge of the rack is.

Do you think I should put it lower in the tank or leave it where it is?

 

[Logzor]

Put it low as you can with high indirect flow. Higher up it will lose color and have poor growth. These corals do well, even in semi-shaded areas.

 

[oddballs]

They are great corals because they are also really adaptable when it comes to tank lighting and conditions.I have 5 types of Cyphastrea Sp. and I keep them in all of my coral different tanks that I have.I have them from low light with my Acans to really intense lighting with my sps and they seem to do great as long as they are acclimated to the lighting in your tank slowly.My sister has a 8 tube tek light and there meteor shower is a nice light teal/baby blue color with the polyps being a light pink from it being in a brightly illuminated area.I have other friends with deep tanks that have 4 tubesof t 5s and there m. shower is a nice deep green/teal and the polyps are dark red,my point being that this is a pretty easy family of corals to deal with.I will agree that they seem to prefer or favor not so intense lighting,but will do great if acclimated slowly to more intense lighting schemes.The end product being that the corals are usually lighter colors. Good luck.


Scott T

 

[cody6766]

good deal, I sent it to the bottom of the tank. I'll toss it under an overhang if it shows signs of lightening. I'll get pics soon.

 

[Lockhartia]

I have several cyphastrea in my tank and they are very versatile when it comes to lighting. My emerald green one is fully exposed to my lighting (7x54watt Constellation) and has done amazingly well. Excellent growth (it out-grew anthelia) and has retained it's nice green color. Two others are tucked in the rockwork, out of the light and have grown just as well and also kept their color (bright orange and a Meteor-Shower knockoff.....it's emerald green with orange polyps). My last one, which is the closest I have in color to the meteor shower, is on the sand, without any shade and also growing well and keeping it's blue/red colors.

 

[dendronepthya]

The cyphastrea we have grow very well in low light and absolutely terribly in high light.

 

[Duce]

Agree with the lighting thing....My blue and orange turned green and orange after being blasted with light.

 

[jsdancer]

I do agree with everyone here. I have a meteor shower and a green with pink polyps.
The ms took better to 250mh the gp did not like it at all and turned brown. I placed it at the bottom and it came back with all its colors. Both corals get plently of water flow
with 4 koralias in a 180 and 2 maxi jets that alternate every 25 secs.

 

[cody6766]

I moved it down to the sand. it's looking about the same. We'll see how it goes long term I guess. Thanks!

 

[Reefer07]

How fast\slow do these corals grow? In comparison to other LPS??
Kinda remind me of a montipora with larger polyps. Do they grow as fast as montis??

 

[grant778]

Faster than montiporas IMO. They are extremely fast growers. I have had my frag for about 3 months, and already it has grown off the plug (and this is a pretty big plug), and grown about half a inch onto the rock work.