© Andrej Brummer 2014 1 Chapter 1: Introduction To Coral Keeping And Reef Systems ....... 6 Why Are Corals Supposed To Be For More Experience Aquarists? ....................... 6 No Capacity To Adapt ............................................................................................. 7 What exactly is a Reef System? ............................................................................. 9 Chapter 2: Important Saltwater Aquarium Components Corals Need To Thrive ..........................................................................12 Choosing a good life support system for corals .................................................... 12 Important reef tank components ........................................................................... 12 Protein skimming .................................................................................................. 13 Chemical filtration ................................................................................................. 14 Aeration And Water Movement ............................................................................. 16 Biological Filtration And Your Corals .................................................................... 17 Live Rock And Live Sand; Nature‟s Biological Filtration ....................................... 19 Heating/Chilling Your Corals ................................................................................. 21 Chapter 3: What You Need To Know About Lighting Your Corals .24 Providing light for your corals ............................................................................... 24 What lighting do you need if you only have a few corals in a FOWLR (fish-only- with-live-rock) tank? .............................................................................................. 25 Lighting a reef tank ............................................................................................... 27 Reef Tank Lighting Overview ................................................................................ 28 My general thoughts on Reef Lighting Selection .................................................. 29 Keeping Corals Happy Under Lighting .................................................................. 30 How To Choose Your Lighting Wisely! ................................................................. 32 Placement of Marine Invertebrates Regarding Light And Flow ............................. 33 © Andrej Brummer 2014 2 Chapter 4: How to Choose The Right Corals For Your Tank .........36 Setting up your coral tank ..................................................................................... 36 New to corals, or upgrading from fish to corals? ................................................... 36 Coral Compatibility ................................................................................................ 38 Stocking corals together with fish ......................................................................... 41 Selecting Marine Invertebrates ............................................................................. 42 Purchasing Corals ................................................................................................ 44 At The Coral Store… ............................................................................................ 45 Where Does Your Marine Life Come From and Why You Should Care? ............. 47 What Do Bad Collection Practices Mean For You? .............................................. 48 Chapter 5: Creating Pristine Water Quality For Your Reef Invertebrates.............................................................................50 Parameters necessary for healthy corals: ............................................................. 50 Ensuring Good Water Quality For Your Corals ..................................................... 52 Testing Water Quality ........................................................................................... 54 Specific Testing Necessary For Coral Keeping .................................................... 56 Carbonate Hardness (dKH) .................................................................................. 56 Phosphates ........................................................................................................... 58 Calcium ................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 6: Giving Your Corals The Best Chance: Acclimation And Quarantine ................................................................................60 Acclimating Corals Correctly ................................................................................. 60 The Drip Method ................................................................................................... 60 The Importance of a Quarantine Tank and Quarantining ...................................... 62 What Do You Need To Set Up A Quarantine Tank? ............................................. 64 How do You Quarantine Corals and Other invertebrates? .................................... 65 © Andrej Brummer 2014 3 Chapter 7: Meet The Corals: Softies, LPS and SPS ......................67 The Soft Corals and How to Keep Them Thriving................................................. 67 How To Choose The Best Soft Corals .................................................................. 68 My Top Tips For Soft Corals ................................................................................. 70 The Large Polyp Stony Corals and How to Keep Them Thriving .......................... 72 How to select a great LPS specimen .................................................................... 77 My favourite LPS corals; the Euphyllids ................................................................ 77 The Small Polyp Stony Corals (SPS) and How to Keep Them Thriving ............... 81 Why Are SPS Corals Considered so Demanding to Keep? .................................. 84 How to go About Fragging Your SPS Corals ........................................................ 86 Chapter 8: Feeding Your Corals For Optimal Health ....................89 Feeding Your Corals and Invertebrates ................................................................ 89 Phytoplankton ....................................................................................................... 91 Zooplankton .......................................................................................................... 91 Feeding Plankton in your Aquarium ...................................................................... 92 Chapter 9: How To Solve Problems With Corals ..........................95 Common Coral Problems and Solutions ............................................................... 95 Stress is Actually The Cause of Most Problems ................................................... 96 Coral Bleaching .................................................................................................... 98 Common Invertebrate Ailments and Diseases: ................................................... 100 Coral Diseases ................................................................................................... 102 Brown Jelly Disease: .......................................................................................... 103 Black Band Disease ............................................................................................ 104 Coral And Other Invertebrate Treatments ........................................................... 106 © Andrej Brummer 2014 4 Coral Pests, Predators And Parasites ................................................................ 107 Acropora “Red Bugs” .......................................................................................... 109 The Top 3 Coral Predators ................................................................................. 111 Nudibranchs ....................................................................................................... 111 Unwanted (non-beneficial) Flatworms ................................................................ 113 Predatory Snails ................................................................................................. 115 Invertebrate Problems and How to Solve Them ................................................. 116 Chapter 10: Getting Rid Of Algae Breakouts And Avoiding Common Reef Mistakes ........................................................... 119 How to Defeat Pest Algae ................................................................................... 119 Underlying Cause Of Excess Algae 1: Too Much Phosphate ............................. 121 Underlying Cause Of Algae 2: Too Much Nitrate ................................................ 122 Underlying Cause Of Excess Algae 3: Too Little Water Movement And Too Much CO2 .................................................................................................................... 124 Underlying Cause Of Excess Algae 4: Old Lighting Or Too Much Natural Light . 124 3 Common Mistakes With Reef Systems ............................................................ 125 Recommended Resources Section ......................................................... 127 © Andrej Brummer 2014 5 Chapter 1: Introduction To Coral Keeping And Reef Systems If you are interested in corals, congratulations you have chosen the hardest but most rewarding marine organism to keep alive in a captive saltwater system! Corals are swiftly becoming the hottest pets