Tell me about Cyphastrea

[apex003]

I know they're favites, so do they have similar light requirements? What's the growth rate like? Do they put out sweepers? Any info you can provide is helpful. Husbandry info is pretty sparse through the boards and google, from what I've seen. And of course, post your pics...

[gflat65]

They aren't Favites... They are their own genus. Some consider then SPS, but that depends on who you ask (like Hydnophora). I've got a small frag of a Cephastrea decadia (similar to the Tyree LE) that has been in the sand under 250W DE AB 10K's and VHO's (too much light for many of my corals). It still gets ton of light (even at the bottom of the tank) and medium to med/high flow and seems to do fine. The guy I got mine from has his under 175W DE 10K's and PC's and has it pretty high up in the tank getting medium flow and whatever light intensity you wantt o consider the 10K 175W DE's to be (175W DE's don't seem to put a whole lot out when compared to other DE's). HTH

[oddballs]

i keep my cyphastreas in the store under a wide range of lights from pcs,vhos,and halides.when keeping them under halides aclimate slowly if you want them up high close to the lights.they are one of my most fave corals that i keep!

[Justin74]

gflat: not trying to split hairs but dont you mean 175w SE? DE's come in 50,70,150,250 etc. to the best of my knowledge.

-Justin

[gflat65]

I was wondering when someone would ask;). Odyssea makes a 175W DE. I've got a friend who has a 4' fixture with 2 175W DE's, PCs, and moon lights. I said the same when he said 175W DE. I had to see it to believe it. He's not the biggest fan of it, though. He's got a 90 wave front, so it doesn't penetrate as much as he'd like.

[Justin74]

How interesting. Sounds pretty proprietary. Though if it took off it would be very nice Ive heard alot of people wanting more than the 150 but not quite capable of pushing a 250 regards to need, and heat. Glad I said something, thanks gflat:)

-Justin

[apex003]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7810460#post7810460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
They aren't Favites... They are their own genus. Some consider then SPS, but that depends on who you ask (like Hydnophora). I've got a small frag of a Cephastrea decadia (similar to the Tyree LE) that has been in the sand under 250W DE AB 10K's and VHO's (too much light for many of my corals). It still gets ton of light (even at the bottom of the tank) and medium to med/high flow and seems to do fine. The guy I got mine from has his under 175W DE 10K's and PC's and has it pretty high up in the tank getting medium flow and whatever light intensity you wantt o consider the 10K 175W DE's to be (175W DE's don't seem to put a whole lot out when compared to other DE's). HTH

I guess I misspoke. It belongs to Family Faviidae. But that would seem to make it more closely related to the other LPS genus in the family, rather than SPS. I don't want to get into a classification debate... In any case, I'm hoping it will do well up high (4" or so) next to 48W of PC and eventually 92W of PC+T5. It's a very small frag so I hope it does well, gets that nice color, and picks up that branching morphology. Wish me luck...