What requirements does a favia need?

[jfingers8]

I was looking at one at the fish store and i liked it. I have t-5 lighting and i would say that i have medium flow in my tank. Do they require anything special?

 

[maurod]

That should do the trick. You can also optionally feed them after the lights go out and their tentacles extend.
M.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Like Mauro said, this is a coral that will eat if you feed it. Also, be careful for any dead areas on the edge of the coral. You need to have good control over hair algae to make sure that it does not get a hold on the edge of the coral.

 

[RayD]

So when you say be careful for dead areas around the edge, should you trim away those dead edges?

 

[SteveDola]

I tend to use an epoxy to make it smooth up to the edge of the dead area (almost like a ring around it so it grows down).

 

[besl]

I have a christmas favia I picked up from bec and I am amazed at how little light and flow this coral wants - I have mh and t5 lighting. I leave it under a shaded cliff with low flow and it does well - I bring it out in a more visible area and of course more lights and more flow and it does really bad. It's too bad cause it's such a nice looking coral and I need to keep it in a rather hidden part of the reef.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>So when you say be careful for dead areas around the edge, should you trim away those dead edges?<

You could, or just be careful algae does not grow there. If it does you may have to manually control it until the coral is healthy. In some cases the coral will slowly grow over the dead areas, but it will take time. Even if the dead areas are removed, the coral will just put down new skeleton as it grows.

 

[RayD]

I have a Favia that the center of it died off and there's algae grown in the spot. Should I remove the coral and manually remove the algae?

Or just leave it be? Favia grows very slowly.

 

[SteveDola]

i would remove the algea and depending on how big the coral is to start with, frag a piece just incase.