Long Tentacled Plate Coral: Looks like an Anemone

There are many different types of brilliant colored corals that you can pick from. Some of them are soft corals and some of the corals are known as hard corals. Soft corals are recommended for people who are new to the hobby and they are wanting to purchase a new piece of coral for the very first time. Hard corals are for people who have already had soft corals and ran into absolutely no problems. People will purchase hard coral for the colors. Some hard corals are not as hard to take care of as people make them out to be. Hard corals will require more light, filtration and supplements than you average soft corals will. There are many different types of hard coral that you can choose from. One type of hard coral is known as the Long Tentacled Plate Coral.

With the Plate Coral, you will need to keep the salinity around 1.023 to 1.026. You will need to purchase a hydrometer so that you can check the salinity in your tank frequently. You will also want to keep the temperature at around 72 to 76 degrees. You will need to purchase a heater to make sure that the water doesn't get too cold. Plate Coral doesn't do well in water that is under 72 degrees and it wont survive in water that is over 78 degrees for a long period of time. You will need to make sure that the fish tank is not located next to windows or heating vents that will heat up the water. Set up your light on a timer and leave the light on for around 6 hours so that the light doesn't heat up the water as well.

Like most other types of hard corals, this coral will require a good amount of water movement and a good amount of light. If you have a good light you will want to keep the coral in the middle of the tank or the bottom of your saltwater fish tank to save some room for your other hard corals which require more light. You will also need to place this coral next to your filter where it can get a good amount of water movement. If you cannot get a good amount of water movement you will need to keep moving the coral around until you see that the tentacles are waving around in the water. You can purchase a wave maker for your filter system which will shoot water in many different directions to reach all of your hard coral.