Little Shop of Coral
Meteor Coral (Goniastrea spp.) (A46)
Meteor Coral (Goniastrea spp.) (A46)
Couldn't load pickup availability
Goniastrea, often called meteor corals, share the brain coral family lineage with favias and favites and offer similarly hardy, encrusting growth. Their coralite walls are typically thinner, and the genus holds rich colour potential, especially under proper blue lighting.
Why we love it
• Hardy LPS in the brain coral family
• Strong colour pattern across well defined coralites
• Encrusts steadily into striking colonies
• Forgiving for newer reefers stepping into LPS
Suggested parameters
• Temperature: 24 to 26°C (75 to 79°F)
• Salinity: 1.025 to 1.026 SG
• pH: 8.1 to 8.4
• Alkalinity: 8 to 10 dKH (stability matters most)
• Calcium: 400 to 450 ppm
• Magnesium: 1250 to 1400 ppm
• Nitrate: 5 to 20 ppm
• Phosphate: 0.03 to 0.12 ppm
Care and placement
• Difficulty: Easy to moderate
• Placement: Lower to mid rockwork
• Lighting: Low to moderate
• Flow: Low to moderate
Feeding
Goniastrea will accept feedings and grow more reliably with regular feedings.
• Mysis, brine, small meaty foods, or coral pellets
• Target feed once per week
• Best response often after lights out
Compatibility and spacing
Goniastrea can have sweeper tentacles at night, so leave clearance.
• Several cm of buffer from neighbouring corals
• Avoid placement next to softies that may chemically irritate
• Watch new placements for sweeper damage
• Reef safe with most fish and inverts
What you are buying
• You will receive: 1 Meteor Coral frag
• Mounted on a frag plug or small tile
• For WYSIWYG listings: you will receive the exact frag shown. For non WYSIWYG listings: the frag will be similar to those pictured but each piece is unique.
Colour, pattern, and polyp size can vary between systems and may shift slightly during acclimation due to lighting, flow, and nutrient levels.
Collapsible content
LIGHT
LOW: Place coral at the bottom of the tank. Depending on the type, coral may need to be placed off sand and therefore mounted on a ceramic disc of piece of rock.
MEDIUM: Place coral at mid-range of the tank. Best placed/glued on top of a rock scape at mid-range height.
HIGH: Place coral from mid range to just below water level. SPS coral are shallow growing so they require and are able to tolerate intense light.
FLOW
LOW: Most soft coral do well with a small, gentle pulse. There are certain corals that can even be placed in areas of indirect flow, meaning places aside a rock structure or set into a entrance to a cave style space.
MEDIUM: Many LPS types of coral prefer medium pulse current. Most Euphyllia or corals that have more tissue structure connected to their skeleton, don’t like to be in a high flow area like the direct flow of the wave pump.
HIGH: Similar to high light, SPS enjoy being in some heavy current. Most LPS and SPS that branch encrust or plate prefer high flow that simulates the top water waves.
SKILL
ENTRY: While some may say beginner level, "Entry" is a good term to be used when starting out in the world of corals and marine life. Prior to adding livestock, you want to ensure that your reef has the proper parameters including zero levels of ammonia and nitrite. Seeing traces of nitrate in your waters is a good sign - just keep them at a lower level of 2ppm to 10ppm. Maintaining correct temperature and salinity are a huge factor to stable parameters. Starting to monitor your PH, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium is a great habit to get into to keep a successful reef.
While some soft coral don’t require too much light, having a proper reef light that puts out the proper pars is very important. You'll also want to have a good amount of flow and protected rock areas, as placing corals in their happy spot is ideal for success.
ADVANCED: