Favia coral question.

[cato]

Does anyone know where the best placement for a favia is?? On the sand? On the rock? Does it grow by producing it's own skeleton or does it encrust rock? Been tryin to find these answers in my coral texts but they don't really say. I've seen pics of the corals both on rocks and on sand but I would like to know where they naturally occur. Thanks.

 

[cato]

Are you serious? Nobody knows???

 

[Faviaphile]

Favias definetly grow there own skeletons- they are generally a mass or dome shape. They are not considered an encrusting coral.
They like moderately bright- to bright light. I keep mine on the rock work, I bet you could try them in the sand too- but I haven't personally. Mine doesn't like a lot of flow.
They are one of my favorite corals- so easy to keep. I feed mine mysis and finely chopped silversides at night, once a week.

 

[redFishblue]

I've had different reactions to lighting levels from different favias.
Some colored up better with lots of direct mh lighting while others turned drab or bleached
till they were placed in the shade or even a cave.
If the ligthing is too much, it will be evident pretty quickly imo.

 

[cato]

Awesome, thanks very much guys. Mine is currently under overdriven T5's and lost alot of it's glowing green color pop. Prior to it was under MH and was still drab IMO. Will try the shade for a bit and see how things go with color. Thanks again. Much appreciated.

 

[Rovert]

Chirocato, I agree with your observation, at least where the 'moon' type favias that I've owned are concerned. They have all preferred the lower light areas of my tank, around the sides and in the corners. I'm running 2x250 XM10K's on a PFO HQI ballast and 2x96PC Actinics, but will possibly be changing to T5 before long. It's probable that the MH lights are just too much for these fellas.

 

[Faviaphile]

I keep mine under 2 250, 20k MH and a T5 unit- probably 14inches below light. The green colors are amazing- 20ks show green off so nicely! All of mine do very well in this system- colors are very nice, never had any bleaching- at least not yet! I do have one new one so I hope it isn't MH sensitive.
How quickly did yours display a "strong light phobia" redFishblue?