Soft Corals in Reefs! Hardy and Easy! | Coral Care Guide

what's going on reefers Blaine here back in the farm again as you can see and today we're going to be talking about an overarching group of corals that I have loved ever since I joined the Hobby and I think don't get enough respect today we're going to be talking about soft corals we're also going to be talking about some of the Care requirements for soft corals some of our favorites here at the top shelf Aquatics farm and why I feel soft corals should be in any reef tank at home let's go a and get right into it and let's check out softies [Music] and soft corals there are a ton of species that we can talk about all day long but today we're going to mention just a few that we think that at Top Shelf Aquatics are some of our favorites and that we actively aquaculture here as well in the hobby there are three major groups of corals that we mainly talk about there's soft corals the one group we're going to be talking about today there's LPS corals which are your large po of Stony corals and there's SPS corals your small pup Stony corals there's obviously some other groups like NPS corals your non-photosynthetic corals but we're going to focus on the big three soft corals LPS and SPS but today we're going to strictly focus on soft corals soft corals are tend to be known as the beginner Corals in our hobby they could be easy to care for but I will let you know there are some soft corals out in the market they can be really hard to keep there's a ton of species out there that yes they may be soft corals and a lot of people think soft corals are for beginners there can be some others obviously today though we are going to mention that soft corals overall are really great for beginners and if you're starting a reef tank now and you're looking to add in some corals into your system soft corals is a great place to start when it comes to the group of soft corals and how they got their name most of the species that are in this group are going to be lacking a skeletal structure so they're not going to have a calcium based skeleton and they're going to be a lot more fleshy so obviously they're going to be considered soft corals due to that fact these are also some corals that provide a lot of really good flow to a tank if you're looking to add some motion to the ocean you could add maybe a sarof phien like a toad stool maybe some gorgonians there's a lot of different Corals in the soft Coral group that can really add some nice flow to your tank at home soft corals come in a wide range of color sizes and forms there's things from zoanthid mushrooms senal areas there's all kinds of different styles of soft corals that you can enjoy in your tank at home and like I mentioned before these are some of the corals that can readily accept a wide range of parameters so this is a reason why they're more so leaning towards the beginner side of the hobby is due to the fact that if you have a lot of changes in your tank if you're new to reefing and you know these things happen where mistakes can happen in reefing these corals are going to be able to make the bounce back from any big parameter swings or changes like that whereas if you're you're looking at your SPS corals your small po of Stony corals those small changes can be the death of those corals and can be end of that system whereas if it's a soft Coral system and you have a lot of different changes if there's fluctuations these corals tend to do well with it and they can also deal with a wide range of how far you spread out your maintenance if you end up having a system that runs a little bit higher nutrients that's actually probably a good thing for most of your soft cors and they'll end up enjoying it as well they'll soak it up and really be able to grow out and look nice and FL once again due to the lack of their skeletal structure this will help make the maintenance and upkeep of these soft Coral tanks just a little bit easier obviously with your LPS corals and your SPS corals you're going to be consuming a lot of calcium and carbonate that's going to be actively going on for these corals to grow and continue to expand whereas when we're talking about soft corals you can probably spread out your maintenance do maybe a 20% water change every couple of weeks or so and just that amount of Trace elements and the parameters that it's bringing back in the water will be more than enough for your soft Coral system this is another reason once again why we tend to recommend them for beginners because if you're not doing your maintenance if you're not on top of it every single week for LPS or SPS things of that sort soft corals can tend to really enjoy that kind of sway of parameters they can definitely be Hardy enough where they can maintain themselves during that period I'm not telling you to skip out on your testing but I'm telling you that this is a good thing to have in the back of your mind to know that these corals can maintain and withstand these parameter swings better than most [Music] corals when we're talking about some of the Care requirements for our soft corals we're going to be talking about when it goes for our lighting we're going to be looking at the lower end of the spectrum for our par when we're keeping our soft corals and maintaining keeping them happy when we talk about flow we're going to be doing a lower amount of flow but obviously we don't want to do too low of flow where we have a buildup of detritus and things like that on top of the soft corals I will mention just right here next to me Saro fans toad stool corals a lot of the leather Corals in general will go through what looks like a shedding phase they'll basically show none of their pups they'll kind of cover themselves up and they'll go through this shedding process where they're actually growing it's a process that sometimes a lot of beginners in the reefkeeping hobby will notice it they'll freak out they think their Coral's dying but in reality this Coral is just shed and growing out I've seen it where some toad stools end up shedding over the course of a month or so a couple of weeks this is something that takes some time so don't freak out if you're seeing this just put a little turkey baster on it every once in a while try to get some flow going and try to Wick off that mucus layer this is an example though of a coral that's going to enjoy a little bit more flow in the soft Coral group so some of these Leathers will really enjoy a little bit higher flow so anywhere from that lower to medium flow level as for the parameters when we're talking about these soft corals like we mentioned earlier a huge range of parameters is tend to be okay for these corals we are going to focus a little bit more on nutrients though they're going to tend to like a little bit higher nitrate levels make sure you do a nice heavy amount of feeding make sure you have a nice amount of fish make sure that your nutrient levels in general are in check and you're not getting anywhere close to zero these are a coral that are really going to enjoy the higher levels of nitrates when we're talking about those nitrate levels and the numbers we're looking at we're looking at anywhere from 10 20 30 and even Beyond these are coral that are really going to enjoy a nice high nutrient level system I want to remind you once again getting close to that zero number is going to be bad for many reasons but especially for your soft corals [Music] all right it's our favorite part now in all of these Coral Spotlight videos let's make our round around the farm let's check out some of our favorite TSA pieces and showcase them [Music] here pulsing Zenia is easily one of the most recognizable Corals in our industry and also is one that easily draws the most amount of new Reef Keepers into the hobby the mesmerizing pulsing of the coral really is something special to see and witness and it tank full of this Coral of course with fair warning I'm going to let you know that this is a coral that can truly take off and if it's not kept in Shake in your tank it can really take over I always recommend to people if they want to grow it out that they put it out onto an island away from their main rockscape to try and differentiate it from spreading around the system simple in color scheme but the sheer movement from the pulsing has and will continue to make this one of the most recognizable soft Corals in the hobby [Music] TSA firework clove PPS are next on our list and rightfully so when you see these grown out into larger colonies they are really amazing to see and put you under a trance the colors on these are as magnificent as well representing a firework the bright orange working into that green brilliant color is nice to see on this Coral if you're looking for a nice Coral to add some movement and have the ability to really take off and do well in a system the TSA firework clove pups are a nice [Music] choice another Classic on our list and in reality I wanted to mention this one because it's another beginner friendly Coral we have on our soft Coral list is going to be our metallic green center star pops surely most of you have seen this Coral carpeting areas in a reef tank either in person or online and the idea of a patch waving like grass in the waves and flow is a really fun concept there are a lot of people that will glue a frag to the back wall and allow it to cover it up and create a nice interesting backdrop for their tank another Coral known to be slightly invasive so once again getting it onto an island can be the best way to enjoy it and being proactive in your reef tank to make sure it's not taking over and getting out of hand overall though a really fun softy to add into a reef tank and use in many different [Music] ways the last Coral we're going to mention and really it's a bigger group of corals is going to be zoanthids if you haven't seen it already we did a top 10 video already on our channel from our favorite zo is here at topshelf Aquatics I will make mention though one of our favorites that we did leave off that list is going to be our TSA Helter Skelter the nice bigger pop sizes with the amazing color combos is a nice addition to any reef tank or zoa Garden but once again zoanthids are an amazing choice for anyone looking to add some soft corals to their tank [Music] soft corals are labeled beginner corals of our hobby but something about a fully grown in soft Coral tank truly captivates me I want to hear down in the comments below some of your guys's favorite soft Corals in our Hobby and I also want to leave you guys with a question would you all want to see continued videos here on the channel talking more about the overarching groups in soft corals obviously we talked about our top 10 zoanthids but maybe we can get into mushrooms toad stools things like that be sure to let me know and be sure to head over to our website now and grab up any needs you have for soft Corals in your tank if you guys have hung out all the way till the end I want to say thank you so much be sure to like subscribe and hit the Bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads [Music]