Corals are amazing creatures that bring elegant style and look to your reef tank aquariums. There are so many different varieties of corals available. People were constantly talking about the different types of coral, but they dint get to know what they really meant. Clickcorals is one of the leading industries in selling corals and clams for your aquarium. Also, they are having different varieties of corals for sale and each of them are having unique features and specialties.
Types of Corals for your Reef Tank:
There are three different types of corals are available. They are soft, LPS, and SPS coral. These three types of corals are having different care requirements and characteristics. Corals are invertebrates and animals which are usually present as colonies but in some cases that can also exist independently. In this article, we are going to discuss it in detail.
Soft Corals:
Soft corals are the types of corals that are soft and bendable as per their name. This type of coral resembles plants and trees, and they don’t have the hard exoskeletons that are usually associated with corals. Soft corals have skeletal structures known as sclerites, but they are not as rigid. These types of corals form colonies that can be bushy, membranous, digitate, lobate, massive, etc.
Since these type of corals doesn’t have enough structural strength to use force, they can employ chemical warfare to protect themselves. Also, they have stingers in order to inject toxic compounds into anything they might perceive as a threat to themselves. Soft corals are the most beginner friendly and they require moderate lighting and moderate levels of water flow. Some of the popular soft corals include alcyonium, zoanthus corals, discosoma corals, palythoa corals, and pachyclavularia corals.
Small Polyp Stony Corals:
SPS corals feature more or less the same set of requirements as the other two types of corals. They need a stable environment where all the parameters stay consistent. SPS corals are easier to keep than the other types. This type of coral requires strong lighting and moderate to strong water flow.
A strong water flow helps these corals to capture the micro foods they need from the water column and helps in respiration as well. You should keep a strict monitoring and maintenance schedule for this type of coral. Acorpora corals, horn corals, pavona corals, porite corals, and montipora corals are some of the popular small polyp stony corals.
Large Polyp Stony Corals:
This type of coral is the same as the SPS corals, but they are having larger polyps. They are quite hardy and require both moderate water flow and lighting as their growing requirements. This is because LPS corals naturally occur in deeper waters. LPS are more difficult to keep than soft corals, but they are easier than SPS corals.
Brain corals, acans, plate corals, euphylia, Duncan corals, and chalice corals are some of the popular types of LPS corals.
Conclusion:
Keeping the corals in a healthy manner is not something that you can be learned in a single day. From the above, you can get to know about the different types of corals for your reef tanks.
Read More Posts Here:
How to Create a Coral Reef Tank
How to Take Care of Corals in a Home Aquarium
Why Water Flow is More Important for Corals
What are the Most Important Water Parameters for a Reef Tank