Coral Placement and Lighting: Where to Put Soft, LPS and SPS Corals
By Melbourne Tropical Team Β· 2 min read
Put your corals in the wrong spot and they'll struggle. Here's how to place soft, LPS and SPS corals by light, flow and aggression.
Think in zones
A reef has three rough zones: the bottom/sand (lowest light and flow), the middle rockwork (moderate), and the top (highest light and flow). Match each coral to the zone that suits its needs, and acclimate new corals to your lights slowly over a couple of weeks to avoid bleaching.
Where each coral type goes
As a general guide:
- Soft corals (mushrooms, zoas, leathers) - low to mid, gentle to moderate flow. Forgiving of position.
- LPS corals (hammer, torch, Duncan, brain) - low to mid, gentle indirect flow. Strong flow tears their fleshy tissue.
- SPS corals (Acropora, Montipora) - mid to high, strong turbulent flow and high light.
Mind the stings: spacing and aggression
Many corals defend their space with stinging sweeper tentacles or by growing over neighbours. Euphyllia (hammer, torch, frogspawn), chalices, bubble and elegance corals have long sweepers and need generous gaps (10 cm or more) from other corals. Fast 'spreaders' like green star polyps and Xenia should go on isolated rocks or islands so they don't smother slower corals.
Lighting basics
Corals get most of their energy from light via the algae in their tissue, measured as PAR. Soft corals are happy with modest light; LPS want moderate light; SPS need high light to colour up. Too much light bleaches corals (they turn white); too little turns them brown. If in doubt, start a coral lower and move it up gradually. Each of our coral care guides lists the ideal light, flow and placement.