Description

Branching cyphastrea is a unique coral in the way that it branches instead of just encrusting. The colors are a salmon skin base with pinkish red polyps. In many of our custom aquarium builds we like to place this coral in areas with good lighting and flow. Also next to corals with colors it will contrast to help it to pop even more.

Lighting: medium – medium strong lighting around 150-250 PAR.
Flow: medium – medium high
Care Level: intermediate- advanced
Original Location Range: Indonesia, Coral Triangle, South Pacific
Grown in our California coral farm where we provide zero impact corals
Water chemistry Calcium 400-450, Magnesium 1350, KH 7-9.5, pH 8.1-8.4, Nitrates .01-10, Phosphates .01-.1 salinity 1.026
Temperature Range: 74- 81 Fahrenheit

Dosing: Doc highly recommends automated dosing of Ca, Kh and other elements to provide ultimate stable water chemistry throughout the day. It is important there are no large fluctuation swings especially with Kh/alkalinity. For more information on dosing and products click here.
Placement recommendations: Cyphastrea coral will do best in the upper half of the aquarium where light and flow is high. Best to have alternating flow in a back and forth motion.
Attachment: Use epoxy and reef glue or just reef glue for smaller fragments. Clip off as much of the plug or disc possible. Add a small amount of coral glue to the underside of the disk. Mix up enough two part epoxy to create a small mound and dab it a few times into the glue to get it tacky then press and mold a conical shape. Add a few small daps to the tip of the cone dabbing the glue so it really sticks to the epoxy. Press the coral disk onto the desired location and press the epoxy flat around the disk. Be sure the coral is fully secure, the coral should never fall off the reef. The epoxy part can be skipped using only the extra thick reef glue gel. Be sure to rub a little reef glue onto the reef section and there is enough reef glue on the coral plug to set it securely.

Click here for our favorite epoxy and reef glues.