differances in coral type.

OK, three main types that I'll briefly try to describe.

Soft corals - these corals are things like zoas, palys, and other polyps. They are called soft corals because they have no hard skeleton.

LPS - These corals have either a variable amount of "flesh" that covers the skeleton. Polyp shape and size is variable with some being very large like a cynarina and some being smaller like a war coral. As a family, these are called Large Polyp Stony corals.

SPS - These corals have a hard skeleton with a thin layer of "flesh" covering them and polyps that extend from the skeleton. These are called Small Polyp Stony corals because of the small polyps that extend out of the hard coral skeleton.

Softies are the easiest. They are most forgiving of poor water quality and low powered lights. Next is LPS and finally, most demanding is the SPS.

--AJ

 

LPS looks fleshy, often has tentacles that move in the water. They usually like less water flow & are more forgiving then SPS

SPS are harder. Sometimes referred to as fuzzy sticks. They have much stricter water standards such as flow, stable temp, calc, alk, & so on.

 

Frogspawn is a good LPS starter.