Acropora's are one hardy coral

[seanoman]

WOW!!! Thats amazing, where is that pic from do you know??

[banditpowdercoat]

Well that beach sux for swimming LOL

[dsaundry]

They wouldn't survive my tank..It is a softie only tank, every piece of sps I have ever put in goes terminal..yet everything else flourishes...
Nice pic though

[Zoaelite]

"I think this picture proves the notion of SPS being hard to grow is completely false!!!" I don't think tony will agree with this statement .
Levi

[Delphinus]

It's a neat picture. But I might present a counter-opinion. corals exposed at high tide doesn't demonstrate their "hardiness" per se, but it does demonstrate what sort of conditions they have adapted to over countless millenia. Think about the intensity of light they are exposed to in that shallow water, what they are exposed to during low tide, and the pounding of the waves. Those exact conditions are going to be near impossible to replicate in an artificial environment - however, luckily we know that their tolerances are wide enough to include those which we can nearly replicate. However those corals we see in the picture have been in the low tide conditions since they settled out as planktonic larva - taking a deep water acropora and putting them at the same depth might show that extreme changes in conditions are enough to ... well, do them in.

Sorry for the counterpoint but felt compelled to share MY thoughts on it

[Aquattro]

Years ago I left a colony out on my deck for about 3 hours, then decided I wanted to keep it. I put it back in my tank, and other than some serious sliming, it was back to normal within hours.

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

- taking a deep water acropora and putting them at the same depth might show that extreme changes in conditions are enough to ... well, do them in.

Tony, isn't that what we do already? That is what so cool, you introduce a deepwater species like lokani or granulosa etc, into shallow water (our tanks) & intense light and they turn bright colours they don't normally at depth. What's even cooler is they thrive in the new conditions.
(ok maybe not in Tony's tank but that is a whole other topic)


Here is an example from my tank. Is this bright enough for ya'?

[Mikee]

Now thats a dream tank .

[Delphinus]

Well, Ok, it may have not been the best example. I was trying to find an example of extreme changes. Mainly what we're seeing here is SPS in their native natural environment and drawing conclusions about hardiness. Hardiness to me is about boundary conditions - a hardy animal has wider boundaries than a .. a "non-hardy" animal (for lack of a better way to put it). I'm not so sure that most acroporas have a very wide tolerances to environmental conditions. We know what ranges tend to be ideal, but knowing what those parameters are and being able to replicate them to encourage good health and growth doesn't mean they are necessarily hardy.

My own lack of success with acros notwithstanding. My particular example shows, if anything, that there are parameters outside of the "big 8" (ie.: Ca, Alk, NO3, PO4, pH, temperature, lighting, water movement) that can have an effect as well. Luckily for most, it tends to not be an issue though.

Just my $0.02. It's not that I'm trying to say they're impossible to keep, rather the opposite, in fact for most it's quite possible to replicate ideal conditions without a low tide! But seeing their natural environment versus an artificial environment introduces many variables that it's really not possible, IMHO, to really replicate a natural environment, but we do our best and come reasonably close in most cases.

[Snappy]

I guess my point is that I think a lot of people shy away from sps thinking it is harder to keep than it really is.