QUICK STATS

Care Level: Easy to Moderate
Coral Type: Encrusting LPS / Cyphastrea / Meteor Coral
Scientific Name: Cyphastrea sp.
Temperament: Peaceful to Semi-Aggressive by Encrusting Growth
Photosynthetic: Yes
Placement: Lower Rockwork / Shaded Rockwork / Frag Tile / Encrusting Surface
Lighting: Low to Moderate
Water Flow: Low to Moderate, Indirect
Approximate Purchase Size: Varies by Frag or Colony Size
Approximate Max Size: Encrusting Growth Depends on Stability, Nutrients, Lighting, Flow, and Available Surface Area

HI-C CYPHASTREA CORAL

The Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral is a colorful encrusting coral known for its bright contrast, tightly packed corallites, and glowing “meteor coral” appearance. Depending on the specimen and lighting, it may show shades of orange, yellow, green, red, pink, teal, blue, purple, cream, or metallic highlights across the base tissue and individual polyps.

This coral is best treated as Cyphastrea sp., a hardy encrusting stony coral that is often grouped with beginner-friendly LPS or low-light SPS-style corals in the aquarium hobby. It grows by spreading over rock, plugs, tiles, and other hard surfaces, creating a colorful crust of raised polyps. In plain English, it is a reef-safe paint spill with skeleton, because apparently that was an available design option.

Hi-C Cyphastrea is popular because it is hardy, colorful, adaptable, and excellent for lower-light areas of the reef where many other bright corals may struggle. It can be used to cover rockwork, frag plugs, rubble, back walls, or isolated islands.

This coral is photosynthetic and receives much of its energy from reef lighting through symbiotic zooxanthellae. It can also benefit from occasional feeding with very fine coral foods, small planktonic foods, or dissolved nutrition. Direct feeding is not always necessary, but light supplemental feeding can help improve growth and polyp fullness.

Hi-C Cyphastrea is usually not extremely aggressive by sting, but it can be competitive by growth. It may encrust over nearby rock, plugs, or slower-growing corals if allowed to spread unchecked. Give it its own surface or island if you want to avoid future coral border disputes, because apparently even encrusting corals believe in annexation.

Note: Image is a representation of what to expect. The coral you receive may vary slightly in size, base color, polyp color, contrast, growth edge, encrusting pattern, and overall appearance.

AQUARIUM REQUIREMENTS

AQUARIUM SIZE

A minimum aquarium size of 10 gallons or larger is recommended for Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral, though larger mature reef systems are preferred. Larger aquariums provide better stability, more placement options, and more room for controlled encrusting growth.

Cyphastrea can do very well in nano reefs if water chemistry is stable and lighting is not too intense. Smaller tanks require more careful attention to salinity, alkalinity, nutrients, and coral spacing. Tiny tanks are not automatically simple. They are just small enough for problems to happen faster, because apparently convenience needed consequences.

PLACEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Hi-C Cyphastrea is best placed on lower rockwork, shaded rockwork, frag tiles, rubble, or isolated encrusting surfaces where it receives low to moderate lighting and low to moderate indirect flow.

Lower Placement: Best for new arrivals and most reef lighting setups.

Shaded Placement: Often works very well, especially under strong LEDs.

Frag Tile Placement: Excellent if you want controlled encrusting growth.

Rockwork Placement: Works well if you want the coral to spread across rock.

Island Placement: Recommended if you do not want it growing into nearby corals.

Avoid High Light Zones: Do not place directly under intense lighting at first.

Avoid Sand Burial: Keep away from areas where sand constantly blows onto the tissue.

Growth Space: Leave room around the coral for encrusting expansion.

Stable Mounting: Secure the frag plug, tile, or rubble so it cannot fall onto other corals.

Cyphastrea is a great coral for dimmer areas, overhang edges, and lower rockwork. Putting it high under intense light because the color looked nice online is how people turn a bright coral into a sad beige apology.

WATER PARAMETERS

Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral does best in clean, stable reef water with moderate nutrients. It is hardy, but sudden swings in salinity, alkalinity, nutrients, lighting, or flow can cause fading, tissue recession, poor polyp extension, or slow growth.

Temperature: 75-80°F
pH Level: 8.1-8.4
Salinity: 1.024-1.026 specific gravity
Alkalinity: 8-10 dKH
Calcium: 400-450 ppm
Magnesium: 1250-1350 ppm
Nitrate: 5-15 ppm
Phosphate: 0.03-0.10 ppm

Cyphastrea generally does not need ultra-low nutrient water. In many systems, moderate nutrients and stable chemistry produce better color and growth than sterile water with heroic lighting. The goal is stable reef water, not an illuminated chemistry anxiety chamber.

LIGHTING

Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral prefers low to moderate lighting. It is especially useful for areas of the reef that are too dim for many SPS or higher-light LPS corals.

LIGHTING RECOMMENDATIONS

Starting PAR: Start around 30-75 PAR when newly added, especially if the coral is freshly shipped or coming from lower light.

Target PAR: Many Cyphastrea do well around 50-120 PAR.

Upper Range: Some specimens may adapt to around 150 PAR, but increases should be slow and careful.

Avoid High Light: Strong light can bleach, fade, wash out, or stress Cyphastrea.

Gradual Acclimation: Increase intensity slowly over several days to weeks if moving into brighter placement.

Blue-Heavy Spectrum: Blue reef lighting often enhances orange, yellow, green, red, and metallic contrast.

Too Much Light: Signs may include pale tissue, washed-out color, shrinking polyps, recession, or stalled growth.

Too Little Light: Signs may include very slow growth, dull color, or reduced polyp extension.

Do not treat Cyphastrea like Acropora. It does not want to live on the reef’s sun deck. It wants the lower-light real estate, because apparently at least one coral in the hobby has reasonable expectations.

WATER FLOW

Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral prefers low to moderate indirect flow. Flow should keep detritus from settling on the coral without blasting the tissue.

FLOW RECOMMENDATIONS

Ideal Flow: Low to moderate, indirect, diffuse flow.

Avoid Direct Blast: Strong direct flow can irritate tissue and reduce polyp extension.

Prevent Detritus Buildup: Enough flow should keep waste from collecting between corallites.

Feeding Flow: Flow should allow fine foods to reach the polyps without being immediately blown away.

Sandbed Placement: Avoid areas where sand is constantly blown onto the coral.

Tissue Movement: Polyps should extend naturally without being flattened by current.

Too little flow lets detritus settle into the little valleys. Too much flow makes the coral sulk. As usual, reefkeeping demands the annoying middle option, because joy apparently needed calibration.

DIET

Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral is photosynthetic but can benefit from occasional fine feeding.

PRIMARY DIET

Photosynthesis: Reef lighting provides much of the coral’s energy.

Fine Coral Foods: Powdered coral foods and small-particle reef foods may be accepted.

Phytoplankton-Style Blends: Useful as part of broadcast feeding in mixed reefs.

Zooplankton-Style Foods: Very small planktonic foods can support polyp feeding.

Amino Acids / Reef Nutrition Products: Optional, but may help feeding response and tissue fullness in some systems.

Broadcast Feeding: The coral may capture suspended foods during normal reef feeding.

Fish Feeding Benefit: Regular fish feeding often provides dissolved and suspended nutrition.

FEEDING FREQUENCY

Feed lightly 1-2 times per week if desired. Broadcast feeding is usually easier than target feeding because Cyphastrea polyps are small.

Avoid heavy feeding directly onto the coral. Too much food can rot between corallites and irritate tissue. The coral wants fine nutrition, not a seafood casserole packed into its face.

COMPATIBILITY

Hi-C Cyphastrea Coral works well in many mixed reefs when given stable conditions and enough space to encrust.

COMMON TANK MATES

Fish: Reef-safe fish such as clownfish, gobies, blennies, wrasses, tangs, rabbitfish, cardinalfish, anthias, and other peaceful to semi-peaceful fish.

Use Caution: Angelfish, butterflyfish, filefish, puffers, and other fish known to nip at stony corals.

Invertebrates: Generally safe with cleaner shrimp, snails, hermit crabs, and common reef invertebrates.

Coral: Compatible with many soft corals, zoanthids, mushrooms, LPS, and SPS if spacing is managed.

Avoid Direct Contact: Do not allow it to grow into or touch neighboring corals.

Best Placement Strategy: Give it an isolated rock, tile, or controlled encrusting surface.

CORAL SPACING

Use caution around:

Torches
Hammers
Frogspawn
Galaxea
Chalices
Favias
Favites
Acans
Lobophyllia
Scolymia
Acanthophyllia
Trachyphyllia
Pectinia
Montipora
Encrusting corals
Zoanthid gardens
Anemones

Cyphastrea may not have the most terrifying sting in the reef, but it can still compete by slowly spreading across whatever surface it is given. That is not aggression in the dramatic sense. It is just coral bureaucracy with tissue.

BEHAVIORAL NOTES

Temperament: Peaceful to semi-aggressive by encrusting growth.

Growth Pattern: Encrusting. Spreads across hard surfaces over time.

Polyp Appearance: Small raised polyps are often tightly packed across the colony.

Coloration: May show orange, yellow, green, red, pink, teal, blue, purple, cream, or metallic tones depending on lighting and specimen.

Trade Name Reality: Hi-C Cyphastrea is a trade-name coral, not a guaranteed scientific species identification.

Low-Light Strength: Often performs well in lower-light areas where many brighter corals may not.

High-Light Sensitivity: Strong lighting can fade or damage tissue if acclimation is too fast.

Growth Speed: Can grow steadily when happy, especially over plugs, tiles, and rock surfaces.

Encrusting Risk: May spread onto nearby rocks or coral bases if given contact.

Frag Plug Growth: Often covers the plug or tile before spreading outward.

Tissue Health: Healthy tissue should look full around the corallites without exposed white skeleton.

Polyp Extension: May show subtle polyp extension, especially during feeding or lower-light periods.

Stress Signs: Watch for bleaching, fading, tissue recession, exposed skeleton, algae growth on dead areas, or sudden color loss.

Pest Awareness: Inspect for algae, flatworms, nudibranchs, vermetid snails, aiptasia, and other hitchhikers.

Handling: Handle by the plug, tile, or skeleton edge when possible. Avoid touching the tissue.

Placement Reality: This is one of the better corals for lower-light reef zones. Treating it like a high-light SPS flex piece is how people invent problems and then blame “mystery swings,” the reef hobby’s favorite ghost story.

ACCLIMATION PROCESS

This acclimation method helps reduce stress by gradually introducing the coral to your aquarium’s temperature, lighting, and water chemistry.

1. DIM THE LIGHTS

Turn down aquarium lights or place the coral in a shaded lower area at first. This helps reduce stress while it adjusts.

2. FLOAT THE BAG

Float the sealed bag in the aquarium for 15-20 minutes to allow the temperature in the bag to equalize with the tank.

3. OPEN BAG, ADD CORAL TO CONTAINER

Carefully open the bag and transfer the coral and shipping water into a clean container. Handle the coral by the frag plug, tile, or skeleton edge when possible.

4. ACCLIMATE USING TANK WATER

Add small amounts of tank water to the container every few minutes for 20-30 minutes, especially if salinity differs between the shipping water and aquarium.

5. CORAL DIP

Use a coral-safe dip according to the product instructions. Inspect carefully for pests, eggs, algae, aiptasia, vermetid snails, tissue damage, and exposed skeleton.

6. TRANSFER CORAL TO AQUARIUM

Place the coral on lower rockwork, shaded rockwork, a frag tile, or an isolated encrusting surface with low to moderate light and low to moderate indirect flow. Discard shipping and dip water. Do not pour either into your aquarium.

7. LIGHT ACCLIMATE

Start in lower light and gradually increase exposure only if needed. Avoid sudden moves into bright areas.

8. GIVE SPACE TO ENCRUST

Leave open surface area around the Hi-C Cyphastrea so it can spread without growing into nearby corals.

9. FEED LIGHTLY IF DESIRED

After the coral settles, broadcast fine coral foods once or twice per week if desired. Keep feeding light to avoid waste buildup.

10. WATCH FOR STRESS

Monitor for fading, bleaching, tissue recession, exposed skeleton, algae growing on dead spots, or poor polyp response. Early correction is better than pretending the coral “just wants more light,” which is usually how Cyphastrea ends up looking like a toasted fruit snack.