LPS Coral Guide For Beginners: Types, Care & Tips

We are here to help you find the very best types of coral for your aquarium and we want to help you find the most beautiful ones. In our LPS Coral Guide for Beginners, we talk about some of the most popular types of coral and how you can easily take care of them.

Coral is a really cool thing to have in any aquarium, but of course, they are a necessary feature for any coral or reef aquarium, because after all, that is what coral and reef fish need to survive, plus it makes them happy too.

If you are new to the aquascape world then you might find our Aquascaping for Beginners post helpful, it has some great starter tips.

The 6 Types of LPS Coral:

1. Aussie Dragon Soul Prism Favia

This type of coral is very beautiful and under the right conditions, it produces some amazing purple, pink, green, and blue colors. In order to make the most of its coloration, it needs to be under a medium metal halide light. When you buy this type of coral it is roughly 2 inches in width, but it can grow well past that size (more on coral growth in this article).

Moreover, in order to keep this type of coral healthy you need to have a light that provides at least 5 watts per gallon of water. These things like to eat zooplankton, so you may want to add some to the water.

Basically, in order to keep Aussie Dragon Soul coral healthy, the water needs to have a hardness level between 8 and 12 dKH, plus the calcium level in the water needs to be between 400 and 500 parts per million. You can keep the calcium levels appropriate with calcium and buffer supplements.

In addition to Coral, Freshwater plants are also a great addition to any aquarium, you can check out our best freshwater aquarium plants post here for more information.

2. Pink, Purple & Blue Tip Elegance Coral

This is a polyp coral, meaning that it develops polyps, also known as tentacles. These tentacles extend during the day and retract during the night. These polyps are blue with a purple tip, and they grow off of a green base. These polyps grow out of a bulbous-shaped base.

One of the best ways to see the colorful qualities of the Elegance Coral is by putting it under fluorescent light. This type of coral is ideal for both beginners and experts to maintain. One thing to keep in mind is that you need to keep it far away from other coral because it expands up to twice its size during the day and the polyps will sting other coral if it comes into contact with it.

You need to place the Elegance Coral on a fairly soft substrate to avoid damaging the soft underbelly. Something that is quite cool about this type of coral is that clownfish may use it as a home if there are no anemones present. In terms of their housing, they do fairly well in normal reef aquarium conditions, and they need moderate lighting and a moderate amount of water movement, making them fairly easy to take care of.

In terms of feeding, Elegance Coral love to eat micro plankton or brine shrimp on a daily basis. Moreover, they need regular additions of calcium and strontium into the water for continued health. These things are moderately easy to take care of, also when you first buy this type of coral, you can purchase ones that are anywhere from 1 to 7 inches in size.

3. Aussie Green Goblin Reverse Prism Favia

This is another excellent type of coral to have in your aquarium and it is mostly thanks to the fact that it is absolutely beautiful. The stunning shades of green definitely add some much needed color to any reef and coral aquarium. Under the right type of lighting, you will also see several notes of yellow in the Green Goblin coral.

In order to maintain its health, it needs a very high amount of reef lighting, plus it also requires moderate water current in order to thrive. Furthermore, the Green Goblin coral needs to be placed on top of an exposed rock in the middle of the aquarium. This is so that water currents can supply the coral with the required nutrients it needs to survive.

Keep in mind that this type of coral also has sweeper tentacles that come out at night and can extend several inches, so be sure to leave more than enough room between it and other corals, or else it will sting other coral. In order to keep the Green Goblin coral well-fed, you should supply it with a daily dose of calcium and other trace supplements, plus some marine snow and phytoplankton too.

If you feed it at night when the tentacles are out, you can also feed it some brine shrimp. These things come in at around 2 inches when you first purchase them, and depending on the water quality they can keep growing larger for quite a while.

4. Red Sun Coral

This is a really beautiful type of coral that will definitely add some bright notes of color to your coral and reef aquarium. Red Sun Coral has forms a big ball shape that consists of many red bulbous bases with orange and yellow polyps growing out of those bulbs.

These polyps usually only extend during the night time for feeding, but if the coral is very healthy and well-fed, the polyps may also emerge during the day.

In terms of the placement, Red Sun coral can be placed close to other corals. This is because it is a non-stinging coral that will damage others. Keep in mind that you should not place it near stinging coral because they may damage the red sun coral.

You also need to place the Red Sun coral in a place where there is high water flow so that the polyps can catch an adequate amount of food. In terms of its size the Red Sun coral can be anywhere between 1 and 7 inches in width, plus it can grow quite a bit larger too.

Furthermore in terms of feeding, these things need to fed around 2 to 3 times per week and they like to eat things like zoo plankton, fish larvae, small crustaceans, Mysis, brine shrimp, chopped seafood, and even its own excess pods.

The polyps, which are the things that gather food, may not want to come out for feeding, especially when the coral is first introduced into a tank, however, when they get hungry and sense food blowing across them, they should open up to feet. This type of coral is moderately easy to take care of.

5. Big Polyp Bright Red & Green Blastomussa Wellsi

This is by far one of the most beautiful types of coral that you can have in your aquarium. The Bright Red & Green Polyp Coral is an absolutely beautiful coral that is also referred to as the swollen brain coral.

This coral has round discs which resemble mushroom anemones that are quite large and cover the skeleton when they open. The discs are covered in large fleshy polyps that are bright red in color and have a green base.

This type of coral is a very hardy coral that does not require too much care. It does well in medium to low light conditions and also needs medium to low water flow in order to find food. This coral does the best in fairly dim lighting and it does not do so well in high light conditions. If your tank does have a high light level, position it so the polyps are facing sideways.

Moreover, this coral should be placed at the bottom of your tank. Something that is great about this coral is that it is a peaceful non-stinging coral that gets along well with others. That being said, it is susceptible to being stung by other coral, so you should place it next to other non-stinging coral.

Another thing that is quite convenient about this type of coral is that it uses photosynthesis in order to feed so it really does not require much food, but they do like to be fed with some micro plankton or small pieces of Mysis or brine shrimp.

The Green & Red Big Polyp Coral comes at an initial size of 1 inch and can grow up to 5 inches in size. Our favorite part about this coral is that it is very easy to take care of.

6. Aussie Bright Pink Worm Brain Coral

This is an absolutely beautiful type of coral that works well in reef and coral aquariums. This is perhaps the most beautiful type of coral we have ever seen and it is thanks to the bright pink, green, yellow, and purple coloring. It looks pretty much like a rainbow and that is really cool. It gets its name because it kind of looks like a brain with little worm-like polyps or sweeper tentacles that are fairly short.

This is a fairly easy type of coral to take care of because it only requires moderate water currents, plus it requires moderate to high levels of reef lighting. In terms of placement, the Worm Brain Coral needs to be placed on an exposed rock near the middle of the aquarium so that moderate water currents can deliver food to it.

The sweeper tentacles come out during the night for feeding. Speaking of feeding, the Bright Pink Worm Brain Coral needs several trace elements such as calcium in order to stay healthy, plus they also like marine snow, phytoplankton, and food for filter feeders.

You can also feed it during the evening and the night in which case the sweeper tentacle can also catch brine shrimp. The initial size of this coral is around 2 inches, but depending on water conditions it can grow exponentially.

Featured Image Credit: Vojce, Shutterstock