Aquarium Coral

Aquarium Coral

Live aquarium coral can be difficult to maintain, but by using aquarium coral you can create astonishingly beautiful and fascinating underwater landscapes in your aquarium. If you have no previous saltwater experience, you should ideally begin by keeping a fish-only saltwater aquarium or a fish-only with live rock aquarium before you set up a reef aquarium with delicate live aquarium corals.

Aquarium coral have very particular requirements and keeping healthy aquarium coral differs a lot from keeping fish and mobile invertebrates. The ocean is filled with an abundance of different soft and hard coral species and only a fraction of them have been successfully kept in hobby aquariums. Always research each species thoroughly before you purchase them for your aquarium in order to find out more about the specific requirements for each species.

Aquarium coral is not only beautiful to look at; they will affect the entire environment in your saltwater aquarium and many dedicated aquarists have managed to create intricate reef ecosystems in their tanks. Aquarium coral is usually attached to a substrate in the aquarium, such as a cliff or coral skeletons. Corals can also grow on artificial objects, such as aquarium decorations. In the wild, sunken ships and airplanes can quite rapidly become covered in corals.

Reef building aquarium coral can only be kept in tropical saltwater aquarium since they need a water temperature of 20-28 degrees C (68-82 degrees F). Just like humans, corals need calcium to form their skeleton. Corals will absorb sufficient amounts of calcium from the water, but only as long as the water has the correct temperature and salinity. High levels of carbon dioxide in the aquarium can also interfere with this process.

Aquarium coral will typically be very picky when it comes to such factors as currents, water quality and lighting. Since corals are more or less immobile, they usually rely on currents to bring them food and oxygen, and remove waste products. For many species, a one way current will not be enough. These demanding corals are typically found in regions affected by intricate underwater currents, waves or surfs. If you want to keep this type of aquarium coral, you must create irregular water patterns in the aquarium.

Providing your aquarium coral with proper nutrition is naturally also imperative. A lot of coral fatalities in aquariums are actually caused by malnutrition or over feeding. Feed your corals small servings each day, or at least several times a week, instead of dumping a lot of food in the aquarium once in a while. Larger polyps can usually be fed zooplankton, while smaller polyps need liquid coral food.

Many beautiful coral species are found in shallow debts. As mentioned above, reef building corals are only found in tropical regions, and a shallow debt combined with the amount of strong sun that corals receive in these areas of the world have made it possible for very demanding coral species to evolve. If you want to keep such aquarium coral, you must provide it with very potent lighting. Corals form a symbiotic relationship with photosynthesizing algae and will die if this photosynthesis can not be carried out. It is therefore uncommon to find corals growing further down than 46 meters (150 feet). Coral species have however been found as far down as 6,000 meters (19,700 feet) and such species can of course survive without strong light.

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