Chalice coral is a collection of plating corals, usually those with large polyps. Chalice coral is an excellent choice for reef tanks of all levels of experience, and are known to prefer nutrient-rich tanks meaning it’s ok to have a bit more dirty water. Chalice corals can be finicky to get started, but once you’ve dialed in the perfect reef tank parameters and coral placement, these vibrant and diverse corals will brighten up any aquarium.
As the name suggests, these corals grow in plating or chalice shapes. When Chalice coral starts growing in your aquarium, it can also encrust over rocks before it starts to plate. It all depends on where you place the coral. Chalice corals, in general prefer low light, and medium to low flow. Chalice coral can sometimes be kept in medium light but they will need to be slowly acclimated to receive more light. We find the lower third of a reef tank to be the sweet spot for growing Chalice coral. At night Chalice coral comes alive and some species have long sweeper tentacles that extend from their mouth. These tentacles can be a quarter inch to multiple inches in length depending on the species, and the sweeper tentacles can sting other corals that get too close. Mcyedium is notorious for this and should be given extra room to grow.
If you want to keep your Chalice corals healthy we recommend adding some amino acids to coral food to get their polyps to open up. Once your corals are active and you can see the mouths you can feed them some meaty foods like mysis shrimp. Chalice corals are photosynthetic and will grow with lights, however, feeding them twice a week will help them corals grow faster, just make sure not to overfeed! Shop our selection of Chalice coral, including Echinopora, Echynophyllia, Oxypora, and Mycedium
