Filling Out Your New Reef Tank One of the biggest challenges for new aquarium hobbyists is patience. It’s not uncommon to have a rock garden in your living room for two months before your aquarium is cycled and ready for its…
How to Care for Soft Corals
Are you just getting started on your first saltwater aquarium and looking to dive into your first corals? If so, soft corals are an excellent group of corals that are easy to care for and are pleasing to the eye.…
How to Frag Soft Corals
The colorful, fast growing, undulating characteristics of soft corals make them an appealing choice among beginners and advanced hobbyist. From the expensive “Bounce” mushroom to the captivating pulsing Xenia, there is a wide variety of soft corals to choose from…
Sinularia levi, a new species of soft coral from the Red Sea
There’s a new soft coral on the books and it’s called Sinularia levi. This new species of finger leather coral comes to us from the shallow waters of the Red Sea. Sinularia levi was described from a re-examination of S. polydactyla, the pulsing…
Special Considerations for Soft Coral Placement
In discussions of coral placement in reef aquaria, topics such as spacing between colonies, distance from the light source, level of water flow, sweeper tentacles, and coral chemical warfare (allelopathy) often predominate. But there are special considerations beyond these that…
Sinularia dura, the one and only cabbage leather coral
The cabbage leather coral, Sinularia dura, is one of those inimitable corals that all reefers should keep at some point in their aquarium career. This coral has the potential to be incredibly beautiful but it is rarely ever displayed in a flattering…
O Christmas Tree Coral, how lovely are thy branches
The Christmas Tree Coral is a very unusual species of Studeriotes soft coral which, due to its superficial resemblance to a christmas tree, used to show up quite more often at the Local Fish Store around the holidays. Since the…
Stereonephthya, portrait of an uncommon soft coral
Stereonephthya is an uncommon soft coral which is seriously underrated, both as an aquarium coral, and as a unique member of the coral reef community. The simplest way to describe Stereonephthya is that it’s the lovechild of photosynthetic Nephthea and…
True pink Nephthea is Japan’s best kept secret
There’s a gorgeous pink Nephthea soft coral that seems really common in Japanese reef tanks, but yet seems virtually unknown in American or European reef aquariums. We’ve been drooling over the pink Nephthea that can be seen in many photos of…
Salty Q&A: Okay to Add LPS to Established Softy Tank?
Question Hi guys! My husband and I really enjoy your site and the commonsense advice you always give. My question for you is about the feasibility of adding an LPS coral to an established 60-gallon soft-coral tank. We’ve been keeping…