Coral my rocks!

[martin.a]

Hi Guys,

Here is my empty canvas! Please help me with coral selection and placement. Use your creative imagination and tell me what corals I should get and where I should put them to make this tank awesome! Feel free to annotate the photos directly to show me where you would place particular corals. I am looking to see your ideas!

The tank is 1500 x 700 x 600 mm (LWH), 540 L / 143 G. Lighting is provided by 4 x A8SE Max LEDs (A8SE is equivalent to XR30).

I would like this tank to be a mixed community reef with softies, LPS and some SPS corals. It will need to have one Xenia and one A. millepora (both work-related). There will also be one large BTA, hopefully the one you can see in the pictures, although it will most likely not stay where it is now. I'm also entertaining the idea of getting a Tridacna crocea clam (if I can even get it).

Resident fish:

• YWG with pistol shrimp
• Pair of pink skunk clown
• Decora goby
• Yellow coral (clown) goby
• School of 6 threadfin cardinals

Fish planned:

• Pair of Banggai cardinals
• 2 yellow assessors
• 2 blue assessors
• Pair of mandarins
• Another ~4 threadfin cardinals to bring the school up to ~10
• Coral Beauty angel
• Flame angel

I know the last two are not exactly reef-safe, and I may end up not getting them.

Photos of the tank as it looks now:

Front:

Angle top/front:

Top:

(Photos above are multi-frame panoramas; AI was used to stitch them.)

And a video (from when the tank was still very fresh):

 

[BryanM]

I will give you generalized coral ideas for zones as this is really your choice.

The top tier of the rocks should be for SPS

I'd personally ditch the idea of a BTA. They are more trouble than they are worth, they wander, don't generally stay put, and if they start splitting they create a huge issue.

Mid level rock: Euphillias... Torch, hammer, frogspawns
Mid-log, gonis
Low, zoas, mushrooms.. Make sure these rocks don't touch upper tiers or both might overgrow rock.
Sandbed, acan, scoly, trachy, plates.

As for the fish, you should definitely skip the last two... they have a rep for being more NOT safe than safe.

As for a pair of mandarins.... I'd opt for one, but if you really "need" two, I'd definitely get captive bred ones from Biota that generally don't rely entirely on pods, and you really need a male/female mated pair.

 

[Sam7]

Hi Guys,

Here is my empty canvas! Please help me with coral selection and placement. Use your creative imagination and tell me what corals I should get and where I should put them to make this tank awesome! Feel free to annotate the photos directly to show me where you would place particular corals. I am looking to see your ideas!

The tank is 1500 x 700 x 600 mm (LWH), 540 L / 143 G. Lighting is provided by 4 x A8SE Max LEDs (A8SE is equivalent to XR30).

I would like this tank to be a mixed community reef with softies, LPS and some SPS corals. It will need to have one Xenia and one A. millepora (both work-related). There will also be one large BTA, hopefully the one you can see in the pictures, although it will most likely not stay where it is now. I'm also entertaining the idea of getting a Tridacna crocea clam (if I can even get it).

Resident fish:

• YWG with pistol shrimp
• Pair of pink skunk clown
• Decora goby
• Yellow coral (clown) goby
• School of 6 threadfin cardinals

Fish planned:

• Pair of Banggai cardinals
• 2 yellow assessors
• 2 blue assessors
• Pair of mandarins
• Another ~4 threadfin cardinals to bring the school up to ~10
• Coral Beauty angel
• Flame angel

I know the last two are not exactly reef-safe, and I may end up not getting them.

Photos of the tank as it looks now:

Front:

Angle top/front:

Top:

(Photos above are multi-frame panoramas; AI was used to stitch them.)

And a video (from when the tank was still very fresh):

oh ya.....Rocks looking really nice.....love the clowns and anemone

 

[Baldyreef]

Hi Guys,

Here is my empty canvas! Please help me with coral selection and placement. Use your creative imagination and tell me what corals I should get and where I should put them to make this tank awesome! Feel free to annotate the photos directly to show me where you would place particular corals. I am looking to see your ideas!

The tank is 1500 x 700 x 600 mm (LWH), 540 L / 143 G. Lighting is provided by 4 x A8SE Max LEDs (A8SE is equivalent to XR30).

I would like this tank to be a mixed community reef with softies, LPS and some SPS corals. It will need to have one Xenia and one A. millepora (both work-related). There will also be one large BTA, hopefully the one you can see in the pictures, although it will most likely not stay where it is now. I'm also entertaining the idea of getting a Tridacna crocea clam (if I can even get it).

Resident fish:

• YWG with pistol shrimp
• Pair of pink skunk clown
• Decora goby
• Yellow coral (clown) goby
• School of 6 threadfin cardinals

Fish planned:

• Pair of Banggai cardinals
• 2 yellow assessors
• 2 blue assessors
• Pair of mandarins
• Another ~4 threadfin cardinals to bring the school up to ~10
• Coral Beauty angel
• Flame angel

I know the last two are not exactly reef-safe, and I may end up not getting them.

Photos of the tank as it looks now:

Front:

Angle top/front:

Top:

(Photos above are multi-frame panoramas; AI was used to stitch them.)

And a video (from when the tank was still very fresh):

a bit of advice for the angels is get a captive bred coral beauty and as for both of them keep them well fed to reduce chances of eating coral, my coral beauty only nipped at a Duncan a single time and I kept feeding her well and she has since never gone after any coral or even my clam