beginning soft coral chart

[themartins]

We have begun a chart of soft corals as an easy to read and reference for aquascaping our aquariums. Do you have any suggestions? Any helpful suggestions or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated as this is an ongoing work in progress as we’d like to follow through with charts for SPS and LPS corals as well.

Lighting Requirements

Temperament

Current Requirement

Typical Placement

Feeding Requirements

Mushroom corals (Discosoma)
Indirect
Peaceful
Low Flow
Bottom and Sides
None
Leather corals (Sarcophyton)
Direct
Semi aggressive, will release chemicals
Low Flow
Bottom
None
Zoanthids or button polyps (Zoanthus)
Direct High
Peaceful but can grow fast
Moderate to Strong Flow
Middle to Top
small meaty foods once a week
Yellow polyps (Parazoanthus)
Direct High
Soft Coral Only Tanks, will sting hard corals
Moderate
High in tank
frozen brine shrimp and cyclopeeze
Kenya tree, ‘Nephthya’ (Capnella)
Bright Indirect
Semi-aggressive
Gentle
All
None
Anthelia, or waving hand polyps (Anthelia)
Bright
Peaceful
Strong pulsed
Top
Regular water changes to add trace elements
Ricordea (Ricordea Florida)
Low to moderate
Moderate
Low to moderate, turbulent
Halfway up the tank
Mysis and other frozen food
Xenia (Xenia)
High
Semi-aggressive, can damage stony corals
Pulsing
Top
Regular water changes to add iodine




Sources:
http://aquadaily.com/2008/12/05/eight-great-soft-corals-for-new-reefkeepers/
http://www.fishlore.com/coral/ricordea-florida.htm
http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/mushrooms.htm
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/corals/leather.php
http://www.fishlore.com/coral/zoanthids-button-polyps.htm
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+600+652&pcatid=652
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/kenya-trees-and-xenia-food-and-essentials-99346.html
http://www.aquariumdomain.com/viewCoralSpecies.php?coral_id=1
http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/ricordea.htm
http://www.fishlore.com/profile-pulsingxenia.htm

[themartins]

Lighting RequirementsTemperamentCurrent RequirementTypical PlacementFeeding RequirementsMushroom corals (Discosoma)IndirectPeacefulLow FlowBottom and SidesNoneLeather corals (Sarcophyton)DirectSemiaggressive, will relaese chemicalsLow FlowBottomNoneZoanthids or button polyps (Zoanthus)Direct HighPeaceful but can grow fastModerate to Strong FlowMiddle to Topsmall meaty foods once a weekYellow polyps (Parazoanthus)Direct HighSoft Coral Only Tanks, will sting hard coralsModerateHigh in tankfrozen brine shrimp and cyclopeezeKenya tree, ‘Nephthya’ (Capnella)Bright IndirectSemi-aggressiveGentleAllNoneAnthelia, or waving hand polyps (Anthelia)BrightPeacefulStrong pulsedTopRegular water changes to add trace elementsRicordea (Ricordea Florida)Low to moderateModerateLow to moderate, turbulentHalfway up the tankMysis and other frozen foodXenia (Xenia)HighSemi-aggressive, can damage stony coralsPulsingTopRegular water changes to add iodine

[themartins]

I'm not sure why this isn't coming out in chart form.

[ccCapt]

Save the chart as an image....jpg or gif and post the pic.

[themartins]

Try this format of the chart. Again, this is our beginning effort, feel free to make any suggestions.

[themartins]

Here are our sources.

[Sniperhank]

I like the idea...just don't know if I'd agree with some of the info, especially feeding. I'll have to check out your sources and see if I'm missing something, but Xenia high light? Do you mean higher light or top of the tank under, say, a 2 bulb T5HO? Some more info on the chart might be helpful to avoid confusion.

[themartins]

Thank you for your imput. That's exactly what we're looking for! We'll continue with our research and make adjustments to our chart as necessary. Hopefully we'll hear from others as well.

[themartins]

Currently we're comparing information from 4 different sources just on xenia: liveaquari.com, feefcorner.com, fishlore.com, and aquaticcommunity.com

These different sources seem to have very conflicting information. I've read before that keeping xenia can be hit or miss. We're wondering if this could possibly be because of all of the differing information out there. We're in hopes that doing this chart, with the help of other hobbyists and experts here on AA that we can come up with good, solid information to help others out with keeping this and other corals.

We would like hearing about any personal experiences with xenia.

Here is the information that we've gathered from those different sources.

lighting: ranges from medium (liveaquaria.com), others say medium to high (reefcorner.com & aquaticcommunity.com)

placement in aquarium: middle (liveaquaria.com), low to middle (reefcorner.com), can move around (fishlore.com), any placement, but higher is reccommended (aquaticcommunity.com)

flow: slower flow is better and provides better puls rates (fishlore.com), medium (liveaquaria.com), medium to strong and intermittent (reefcorner.com), low to medium (aquaticcommunity.com)

temperment: peaceful (liveaquaria.com, reefcorner.com, aquaticcommunity.com) - some give the caution that while it's considered peaceful it can allso overgrow other corals, while fishlore.com says that it releases chemicals and toxins

feeding: photosynthetic, however zooplankton and filter feeder foods (liveaquaria.com), photosynthetic, dissolved nutrients (fishlore.com), carnivore: zooplankton (reefcorner.com),

[themartins]

Here is a slightly updated chart with some additional information.

[themartins]

We're trying this again. Hopefully we're able to upload the jpgs of our soft coral chart as well as definitions for clarity.

[joshuajimenez]

That rocks thanks