Acropora Coral Information and Care; Lighting, Amino Acids, more
Carl
Introduction
Acropora Coral is one of the most vast coral groups. They are a member
of the Acroporidae family, Subclass Zoantharia and the Order
Scleractinia.
Their group makes up one third of the ‘reef building coral’.
Out in the Indo-Pacific and the Atlantic, these coral are the largest
group to make up corals with usually first being on the building scene
of a reef. Once this hard coral is in place, other softer corals start
their placement.
In the ocean, the Acropora are also one of the most tolerant when it
comes to water temperature, current movement, salinity, and lighting.
Even with their ability to adapt in the wild, they still often prove to be difficult to keep in captive.
Appearance
Acropora come in a massive verity of sizes, shapes, growth
formations, and colors. It is all depending on their species, which
there are over 400 of.
They are a small polyp stony coral (SPS) that have a very thin flesh covering their calcium base bodies.
They also are referred to as table coral, elkhorn coral, or a staghorn
coral. This is because of their appearance and because the form a table
top like structure when growing with other corals.
On the branches, the small polyps have mouths surrounded by small tentacles for feeding. These branches form a great habitat for other reef creatures to live such as crabs and fish.
The shape of Acropora is depending on its location.
The coral that is closer to turbulate waters will be thicker, while the
coral that is out in calmer water will be longer and thinner.
[1] Picture Source
Other shapes can be things like plates, columns, ridges, bushes, fingers, or clusters.
When it comes to aquariums, the table tops species of Acropora is highly sought after, but also one of the most difficult of these species to keep. Because of these common characteristics, they are the easiest coral species to identify. They have a distinctive skeletal texture which is referred to as Reticulate Coenosteum.
All most all of the species of Acropora come from the Pacific, with just three species that come from the Atlantic. Despite their delicate looking shape, they are mostly found on the upper reef slope were the wave action is strong. When these corals are broken, they will form a new coral asexually from the fragment.
Colors of Acropora come in about any color that you can image. The color is depending on the location of the coral, but how they form the color is all the same. They all have a zooxanthellae marine algae which resides in the corals skin. These zooanthellae range in a wide variety of fluorescent pigments.
Acropora do have similarities to a few other coral species. They are sometime confused with Cyphastrea, Anacropora and Isopora.
Cyphastrea
Anacropora
Isopora
Lighting–
Good lighting IS KEY for coral growth. 6500K -20K lamps are the most
effective for sustaining coral life, depending upon species, depth,
& light source PUR/PAS.
The blues provided in these higher kelvin provides the useful light
energy (PUR) needed for symbiotic Zooxanthellae found in the coral.
Bluer color lighting is required for deeper waters. Blue light
penetrates waters deeper. Anything light that used that’s not at the
optimum levels needed will cause additional Zooxanthellae to compensate
for the loss nutrition.
With quality LEDs now more of a commonplace than as recently as 2010,
finding a good/adequate LED should not be a problem. However many of
even the better LED fixtures still compensate with cool white and many
other less than optimum emitters in combinations and quantities to make
up for poor PAS/PUR resulting in higher wattages and PAR readings being
used than would be necessary with the few LED fixtures optimizing output
using licensed/patented emitters, PWM, and more for more efficient
fixtures for the same results.
Often the need for cooling fans is a telltale sign of this problem,
which also is a part that fails and thus severely shortens the life of
the LED fixture.
Specimen placement according to lighting depth penetration, as well as water movement is also important.
References:
PUR/PAS vs PAR in Aquarium Lighting
Aquarium Lighting; Complete Information
With poor levels of light, the coral will almost stop growing completely and will most likely die. The market standard for reef lighting are Metal Halide and “high end” LED (not the mass market brands).
Recommended Merchandise Link: AAP AquaRay Super Premium LED Aquarium Lighting
Note that AAP is the ONLY North American authorized online full
service retailer of the Aquaray lighting line of products, despite
Google bringing up an official sounding website selling out of a
residence!!!