Coral Care & Propagation
Keeping, placing, growing, and fragging corals — from first polyp to full colony
Corals are the point. This book covers what a coral actually is (animal, plant-ish tenant, and skeleton-builder in one body), the honest care tiers of softies, LPS, and SPS, how light and flow decide growth more than any additive, placement and coral warfare, feeding, and then the craft that turns keepers into propagators: fragging with clean cuts, healing frags into colonies, dipping and quarantining against pests, and growing enough coral that your frag rack funds the tank tax.
Contents
- 17 min
The Animal in the Rock
Polyp anatomy, zooxanthellae, and the skeleton beneath the flesh: the coral biology that quietly explains every single care rule you will ever follow.
- 27 min
Softies First
Zoanthids, mushrooms, leathers, and GSP: the forgiving, fast, occasionally invasive corals that belong in your tank first, and their few real demands.
- 37 min
The Middle Kingdom: LPS
Hammers, torches, frogspawn, and acans: flesh over skeleton, moderate light, a real alkalinity demand, and the sweeper-tentacle politics of placement.
- 47 min
The Deep End: SPS
Acropora and montipora, the small-polyp stony corals that demand stability above all else, and the honest readiness checklist to run before you ever try one.
- 57 min
Light Is Food
PAR, spectrum, and photoperiod: target ranges by coral class, how to acclimate new corals to your light, and why more light almost never means more growth.
- 67 min
The Shape of Water
Random versus laminar flow, dead spots, gyres, and tuning wavemakers so every coral in the tank sways and breathes without a single one being sandblasted.
- 77 min
Placement & Coral Warfare
Light and flow zones, growth trajectories, sweeper range, and allelopathy: placing corals so that today's small frag does not become next year's turf war.
- 87 min
Feeding the Colony
Which corals actually eat, target versus broadcast feeding, amino acids, and how to feed a reef generously without spiking the nutrients that fuel algae.
- 97 min
The First Cut
Tools, cut lines by coral type, mounting to plugs, and operating-table hygiene: fragging approached as a clean craft rather than surgery-by-guesswork.
- 107 min
Healing & Grow-Out
Post-frag recovery, encrusting, realistic growth-rate expectations by coral class, and running a grow-out rack that compounds one frag into many colonies.
- 117 min
The Border Inspection
Aiptasia, flatworms, red bugs, and vermetids: the dip protocols, coral quarantine, and inspection habits that keep pests out of your display tank forever.
- 127 min
From Frag to Colony
Scaling from one plug to a trade-worthy collection: colony shaping, frag swaps, local trading etiquette, and quietly funding the endless tank tax with coral.
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