ELEGANCE CORAL CARE OVERVIEW

• LIGHT: LOW-MODERATE (75-200 par) Lighting we find best, although they can probably tolerate more if adapted. This coral has a larger light range than most. It's important to keep in mind that it is easy to damage coral with too much lighting so in our opinion when it comes to lighting, less is often more for LPS corals. You can learn more about Lighting and it's overall impact on your reef tank in our article Lighting and your Reef Tank

• FOOD: We don't feel that elegance corals required any special feeding regimen, although they likely would benefit from occasional spot feeding. They will catch and consume most food types including frozen, liquid and even pellets. Like most corals they capture nutrients from the water column and will do best when supplied a healthy amount of food. Our method is high import, high export. You can learn more about Feeding and Filtration in our article Feeding, Filtration and your Reef Tank.

• FLOW: MODERATE. Elegance Corals especially larger varieties can tolerate a good amount of indirect flow. We find that enough flow to get them inflated nicely is just enough for their tentacles to sway gently back and forth continuously. That said it is always INDIRECT flow. Too much flow, especially direct flow, can cause damage to the corals tissue or an inability to capture food. You can read more about Flow and its overall impact on your reef tank in our article Flow and your Reef Tank

• DIFFICULTY: MODERATE. You don't see very many aquacultured Elegance and there are reasons for that. They do not grow fast at all, and long term can be difficult to keep healthy. Many have success for months, but it is less often found over years. Like with all corals, specimens have been seen to do well in captivity when the right combination of Food/Light/Flow and Filtration are achieved. We rate them at moderate difficulty in the short term (6 months) but the difficulty of successfully keeping goes up with time.

• PRICE: MODERATE-HIGH. Elegance Corals tend to be sold as large colonies as there are many risks associated with 'fragging' them both for us and the consumer after receipt. Elegance corals can grow quite large, and depending on their coloration (for example, pink, yellow, blue tips) the price can vary. You can expect to pay 150-300 dollars or more for a medium large specimen depending on coloration and variety.  "Medium" Size for Elegance Corals is 4-5" they can get much larger than that.

• COLLECTION ZONE: Indo-Pacific

• SCIENTIFIC NAME:  Catalaphyllia jardinei
  

• AGGRESSION: AGGRESSIVE. You would not want to place them too closely to anything that you don't want to get stung. Elegance corals, especially the most common larger varieties will often be healthy, inflated, and ready for war. We recommend at least 4" away from other species, potentially more. You should monitor as it grows.

• NATURAL TEMPERATURE: 82 °F / 28 °C  although most corals can adapt and survive in temps as low as 77 degrees and as high as 84 degrees. You can read more about temperature and how it affects your reef tank in our article Temperature and your Reef Tank.

• PH: Recommend 8.0-8.4, we tend to run around 8.2-8.3 over 24 hours. You can read more about pH in our article pH and your Reef Tank

• NITRATE: 5-10, try to keep stable. You can read more about nitrate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank

• PHOSPHATE: 0.05-0.1, try to keep stable. You can read more about Phosphate and our approach to maintaining it in our article Nutrients and your Reef Tank

• ALKALINITY: Recommend 8-9 dKh. You can read more about how we maintain our alkalinity in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank

• CALCIUM: Recommend 400-450. You can read more about how we maintain our calcium in our article Alkalinity, Calcium and your Reef Tank

More About Elegance Corals

First described by William Saville-Kent in 1893, the Catalaphyllia jardinei, known as the Elegance coral (also called the Wonder coral), is a member of the Euphylliidae family. Elegance corals are large polyp stony (LPS) corals. I believe the Elegance coral inspires "love at first sight" with a lot of Reef Chasers. Elegance corals are typically a shade of fluorescent green with green or contrasting tentacles of tan or white, often ending in pale pink, blue, or lavender tips. Elegance colonies can grow up to 12 inches in length and 8 inches in width. Their tentacles can extend an additional 4 inches in all directions.

When adding an Elegance coral to your reef, there are a few things to consider regarding location. Elegance corals prefer moderate lighting. We recommend 100-200 PAR. Moderate water flow is also preferred. Water flow that is too high could damage the large, delicate polyps. As we noted, this coral has very large, visible polyps. These polyps develop on a large, branching corallite skeleton that has a wedge shape. The shape of the skeleton is perfectly shaped for sitting in a sandy substrate - which is where they like to be in your aquarium. Placing an Elegance coral on a rock can easily tear the delicate polyps, which can lead to infection and possibly death.

Through their symbiotic relationship with a photosynthetic algae, known as zooxanthellae, they receive many of their nutrients. They also filter-feed on the nutrients in the water column. It is a good idea to provide your Elegance with additional foods like brine shrimp or krill.  These corals like to eat and would benefit from targeted feeding. To maintain good health, calcium, strontium, and other trace elements should be monitored and added as needed.

Be sure to provide ample space in the aquarium between your Elegance and other neighboring corals - taking into consideration that an Elegance coral can expand to twice its usual size during the day, is aggressive, and will sting other corals that touch it. Elegance corals have sensitive polyps and do not tolerate contact with other corals or algae. It's worth noting that, while the Elegance can sting, Clownfish may accept this coral if no anemone is present to host them. Use caution when handling this species, as it is very fragile and can release a toxin that could irritate your hands.