While tabling corals are my passion, I don't proactively seek them out for my reef. This one was added to my 280g reef and grew out slowly but man was it amazing. The best view of course was from above. It didn't survive the period of time it took for me to set up the next reef tank when the 280g leaked, so pictures will be the only way to appreciate it forever. I need to get a few more like this acropora. :)
I purchased a coral that looked like an oversized ricordea, but was told it was a bubble coral. The best description I'd ever come close with was a 'pearl bubble coral' and it was grew nicely in my 280g for several years. Eventually it perished and I've never seen another one like it. The pinks and greens looked painted upon the inflated pearls, mesmerizing me often.
The structure of the A. secale coral indicates it likes high flow and can totally take it. I've purchased this species a couple of times, and will do so again in the future.
The Crayola acropora grew in my 280g like a weed. As soon as I had a palm-sized piece, I placed it upon the one beneath it creating a stair-step look that was impossible to overlook. The nickname came from the variety of colors seen when studying this species closely.
This particular picture will always be one of pride for me. I'd gotten a new camera, shot this moment in time, and love how it captured the essence of my full-blown reef. This tank was the definition of mature, probably somewhere around the 4 year mark.
Acropora is the species most hobbyists wish to attain to, and with enough experience, time and money, they will eventually have them in their reef. A decade ago you could purchase a small colony and put it in your tank. Of course frags existed back then as well, and we grew ours out from frags because it was fun to observe and usually cheaper. They grow in different ways, some like a bush, others like a table, and others extending branches. Here are three that grew in my reef.
This LPS has big giant polyps, each one with a mouth at the center. The Lobophyllia coral clearly belongs in the Large Polyped Stony family.
These zoanthids are but a few of the hundreds of types we see these days. I like them, but don't collect them like others.
Did you know Favias have feeder tentacles to capture prey? Here's a shot of some of them opening up during the daylight period. Usually you'll see this more at night, or around feeding time if you are doing so on schedule every day to where the coral anticipates the meal by internal clockwork.
When the flow was off in my 280g, the BTA tentacles stretched out in every direction. I still have these bubble tips in my 60g Anemone Cube, all these years later. And those are my original clowns. The bigger one lived for 12.5 years, dying suddenly under mysterious circumstances. I still miss that A. percula.
