Hood Coral

Hood Coral is the most approachable SPS for a reefer stepping up from softies — Stylophora pistillata is bulletproof by branching coral standards, grows fast, and develops solid pink or purple coloration in a well-lit system. High light and strong flow at the top of the tank; pistillata will tolerate more variation than most SPS but it rewards proper high-energy placement with noticeably better color and growth rate. The main pitfall is false confidence — because it's tough, people neglect water quality, and then when parameters drift it crashes faster than expected because there was no early warning sign. Feed weekly with Reef-Roids or similar and frag every few months; pistillata is a heavy grower that will crowd your layout and provides excellent frag stock for trading.