Care for elegance coral

[xcali1985]

Does anyone know where I can find detailed information about these corals. I love the way they look and think its a great addition to my tank, so far the only thing im able to find is that it doesn't like a lot of light.

 

[scsinet]

Elegance used to be a very easy coral to keep. Lately however, there seems to be two types of Elegance out there. I think the difference is where they come from but I can't remember the specific areas. Basically, one is very difficult if not impossible to keep alive long term and the other is very easy. I want to say that Australia is the area where the "good" ones come from, but again, I can't say for sure.
I have one in my tank that I scored as a cheap frag. I've had him for about 2 years now and he's doing very well. They are absolutely gorgeous corals. In nature, they are normally found in mud flats where the water is very murky, so they do not need nor want a lot of light, and they expect filthy water. In fact one of the big problems with captive care is that our tanks are often "too clean" for them to do well. They prefer higher nitrate levels. I've found that mine is happiest with bottom placement. I have a 24" deep tank with 250w 20K halides.

 

[xcali1985]

thanks for the info. im told its the harder one.

 

[stanlalee]

the harder ones (which are ANY from the indo pacific) require dirty nutrient rich water. the easy ones (any from australia) dont require anything special. they arent particularly demanding in any other way (typical LPS). Who knows what happened to the indo pacific elegance but I think its more likely cleaner aquariums and advances in filtration have changed, not the corals. they havent done well since the days a typical reef tank was a poorly or non skimmed tank full of softies running wild.

 

[oceansidefish]

+1 on the ones from Australia being the easy ones to keep. The problem is that you can't know for sure generally where its coming from....