Red Sea’s Coral Nutrition Program – Complete energy efficient coral nutrition formula.

Referred to as photosynthetic, most corals have a symbiotic relationship with Zooxanthellae algae, which provide around 85% of their nutritional requirements. The coral nutrition program is about providing the remaining 15% to the photosynthetic corals and the complete nutritional requirements for the so called non-photosynthetic corals such as Gorgonia or Sun Corals that do not have any Zooxanthellae.

Corals can’t move towards food or even bring the food to themselves so they digest any Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) that flows freely into their oral disc (about the size of a pin head) or gets absorbed through their soft tissue.
On the reef the DOM comes from a wide range of organic sources such as the mucus from neighboring corals or bacterial flocks.

Red Sea’s nutrition research focused on isolating the various DOM components from a variety of conventional and non-conventional food sources to create an easily digestible and highly nutritious DOM complex that:

Provides all of the energy components that Soft, LPS, SPS and non-photosynthetic corals utilize for growth and coloration
Gives the greatest energetic value after digestion
Causes the least pollution to the water


The amount of coral nutrients required will be dependent on the type of corals stocked. The nutritional requirements of SPS corals in particular are also dependent on the levels of algae nutrients (nitrate & phosphate) in the water. In reduced algae nutrient systems e.g. when using Red Sea’s NO3: PO4-X, the amount of energy the corals receive from the Zooxanthellae is significantly reduced and therefore higher levels of coral nutrients must be provided to meet the corals energy demands.