Any suggestion for coral placement on this Aquascape?

[Stuckita]

Hey everyone, I’m going to be starting with coral in 1-2 weeks and Im looking for advice on coral placement. Im not that familiar with coral types or growth patterns, and don’t want to have some early on mistake effect the end game.

I’m undecided to adding additional rocks to the sand bed as I do like minimalist look of the arch. I’ll be starting with zoas though and unsure if it’s wise to put them on the arch, and if so, I’m not sure where. I’ll for sure be doing LPS down the road and maybe some SPS in the few higher up, high flow areas.

Advice welcome!

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Similar build in my 20g setup i went with zoas on plugs in the sand for now so they dont overgrow anything while i wait for sps maturity of the tank. Also have a couple test hammers in a couple areas chalice blastos and then some gonis on sand as well....great scape got some good levels.

 

[Stuckita]

Similar build in my 20g setup i went with zoas on plugs in the sand for now so they dont overgrow anything while i wait for sps maturity of the tank. Also have a couple test hammers in a couple areas chalice blastos and then some gonis on sand as well....great scape got some good levels.

Yours looks really good! Can you tell me a bit more about leaving the zoa on the plugs? How would you go about getting them off one day? Or would you leave them on and just glue the entire plug? And do the zoas grow off the plug into the sand bed?

 

[coralnutz]

Yours looks really good! Can you tell me a bit more about leaving the zoa on the plugs? How would you go about getting them off one day? Or would you leave them on and just glue the entire plug? And do the zoas grow off the plug into the sand bed?

Yep, can just leave them on the plug and glue them to the rocks. I like to bust the little nub off the bottom when I do it. I've never had any zoas grow onto the sand bed.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Yours looks really good! Can you tell me a bit more about leaving the zoa on the plugs? How would you go about getting them off one day? Or would you leave them on and just glue the entire plug? And do the zoas grow off the plug into the sand bed?

Mine have matted out here is a pic of that

I let them overgrow the plug snip the plug bottom off so it a flat disc and glue to rock work if thats where you want it. It takes longer for it to mat out and slows down growth (for me at least) so i leave in sand until i find final placement. I have always said to myself that it makes it easier to frag them and also makes it better then having one rock full of zoas before anything else can grow how I want it to Lol. They can grow fast when they have the real estate to. (Rock or objects to mat across) the sand isnt stationary so it takes longer to to push out once it fills the plug. These watermelon zoas are a very fast grower when put on rock or something stationary the sand has helped keep them at a better pace while things mature.

 

[Stuckita]

Mine have matted out here is a pic of that

I let them overgrow the plug snip the plug bottom off so it a flat disc and glue to rock work if thats where you want it. It takes longer for it to mat out and slows down growth (for me at least) so i leave in sand until i find final placement. I have always said to myself that it makes it easier to frag them and also makes it better then having one rock full of zoas before anything else can grow how I want it to Lol. They can grow fast when they have the real estate to. (Rock or objects to mat across) the sand isnt stationary so it takes longer to to push out once it fills the plug. These watermelon zoas are a very fast grower when put on rock or something stationary the sand has helped keep them at a better pace while things mature.

Looks great. That might be my best plan of action, lay them all out on plugs in the sand while I learn how to care and branch into different corals.

 

[kevgib67]

I keep mine isolated to a rock island so they don’t take over the main scape.