What are the pretty colorful “flowers” I see in the salt water tanks?
That is coral, which is a colony of small animals, not a plant or a flower. Living in the very stable ocean for millions of years they have not evolved to be able to deal with environmental changes so they are VERY delicate and react poorly to any changes in water quality. These coral get some of their energy from symbiotic single cell algae called zooxanthellae that live within the tissue of the coral. It is this algae that needs intense lighting to perform photosynthesis. Most of our customers have captive raised live coral that grows and thrives in their aquarium, a few have fake synthetic coral.
