Chalice Coral Colony (6″) – Echinophyllia sp.

Description

You are buying the exact coral in the photo — a mature 6″ chalice colony that has fully encrusted its plate and is now cresting over the edges. Under blue spectrum reef lighting the tissue reads deep violet-magenta, and every corallite opens as a bright teal-green ring around a hot coral-red center. The eyes are large, evenly spaced, and raised, giving the colony real depth rather than the flat look of a young piece. Along the right margin you can see fresh white growth teeth where the colony is actively laying down new skeleton. This is a display-ready colony, not a frag, and it has been conditioned in our Key West systems under stable parameters and standard reef LEDs.

About Chalice Coral (Echinophyllia sp.)

Chalice corals are encrusting to plating LPS prized for the way their corallites fluoresce in contrasting rings — the classic “eye” that collectors chase. Colonies at this size are uncommon on the market because chalices are slow to encrust and most vendors cut them into frags long before a piece reaches six inches. Mature colonies show far more color separation than frags do, since the raised eyes develop their ring contrast with age. A piece that has already settled in and is putting down new growth margins is a much safer buy than a freshly imported colony still deciding whether it likes your tank.

Care Guide

Chalices are a forgiving intermediate coral that rewards patience — give it dim, stable light and leave it alone, and it will encrust outward and deepen in color over months.

• Lighting: Low to Medium — PAR 50–150. Diffused light is better than intense light; too much PAR bleaches the eyes and washes the reds out.
• Flow: Low to Medium — enough indirect flow to keep detritus off the surface, never a direct powerhead stream.
• Placement: Lower rockwork, angled so the face catches light without direct blasting. Give it 4–6 inches of clearance from neighbors.
• Feeding: Medium — responds well to small meaty foods and reef roids target-fed after lights out, once or twice a week.
• Aggression: Semi-aggressive — extends sweeper tentacles at night and will burn anything it can reach.
• Water Parameters: Temp 76–78°F, salinity 1.025–1.026, Alk 8–9 dKH, Ca 420–440, Mg 1300–1400. Stability matters more than exact numbers.

Ships UPS Overnight every Tuesday and Wednesday from Key West, Florida. Packed with insulated box and heat or cold pack appropriate for current conditions. Specimen is carefully secured to prevent movement during transit.

Placement: Lower rockwork on an angled face, out of direct flow, with several inches of clearance from neighboring corals.

Not sure how to keep it? See the large polyp stony corals in our Coral Field Guide — ID notes, PAR, flow, placement and aggression, next to the corals people mistake them for.

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