Coral placement to avoid reef rock figurine

[leeloo82]

Hi all! Newbie here and just added my aquascape to my new build! See my cool custom-made mermaid figure! So my question is what corals can place around her that has a smaller, compact or at least predictable footprint? I don't mind if she gets overshadowed but I just don't want her to get encrusted over. I was researching beginner LPS like duncans, candy canes, sinularia and also frogspawn, branching hammers but hard to find full grown sizes (if there is one). Would a toadstool work like if it just overshadowed her but doesn't "smother" her? Am I completely off the mark? Thanks in advance!

 

[leeloo82]

 

[bluemon]

Hi all! Newbie here and just added my aquascape to my new build! See my cool custom-made mermaid figure! So my question is what corals can place around her that has a smaller, compact or at least predictable footprint? I don't mind if she gets overshadowed but I just don't want her to get encrusted over. I was researching beginner LPS like duncans, candy canes, sinularia and also frogspawn, branching hammers but hard to find full grown sizes (if there is one). Would a toadstool work like if it just overshadowed her but doesn't "smother" her? Am I completely off the mark? Thanks in advance!

will need a picture attached for reference!

edit: picture just loaded.

In reality, most corals will get massive. the frags we get are just 1% of the sizes they can get in nature.

Unless it's really small solitary polyps like Scolys, the LPSs you mentioned can get BIG.

Sinularia is a soft coral as well as a toadstool and will get big faster and easier as well

most corals have the potential to smother her, just frag them up when they do.

 

[leeloo82]

will need a picture attached for reference!

edit: picture just loaded.

In reality, most corals will get massive. the frags we get are just 1% of the sizes they can get in nature.

Unless it's really small solitary polyps like Scolys, the LPSs you mentioned can get BIG.

Sinularia is a soft coral as well as a toadstool and will get big faster and easier as well

most corals have the potential to smother her, just frag them up when they do.

Ok, thanks! Making a note to research Scolys. Any others that are solitary? Or what would you put in there on that rock if this was your aquascape? I guess I'm intimidated by having to frag anything. Will look at more YouTube videos on how to frag.

 

[bluemon]

Ok, thanks! Making a note to research Scolys. Any others that are solitary? Or what would you put in there on that rock if this was your aquascape? I guess I'm intimidated by having to frag anything. Will look at more YouTube videos on how to frag.

honestly, I'd just have something like cyphastrea encrust it.

 

[exnisstech]

It should be interesting to see what is the first to stake a claim. I'm with @bluemon and think I would just let cyphastrea encrust on it. Any coral will look better than it being covered in nuisance algae

 

[bluemon]

@leeloo82 I know you don't want anything on the statue, but here is an example of a nice cyphastraea colony on a similar statue. Although it is a bit bigger and less detailed so the shape is still quite there after the encrusting.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cyphastrea.874969/

 

[JonoH]

Could also use a few different Cyphastrea's to get the tail to be a different colour etc...

Would be a fun use of coral!

 

[leeloo82]

@leeloo82 I know you don't want anything on the statue, but here is an example of a nice cyphastraea colony on a similar statue. Although it is a bit bigger and less detailed so the shape is still quite there after the encrusting.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cyphastrea.874969/

That is cool! But yeah, I think since it's small I wonder if all the details would be lost after encrusting. But neat, thanks for sharing!

 

[leeloo82]

Could also use a few different Cyphastrea's to get the tail to be a different colour etc...

Would be a fun use of coral!

ooooh, creative

 

[leeloo82]

@leeloo82 I know you don't want anything on the statue, but here is an example of a nice cyphastraea colony on a similar statue. Although it is a bit bigger and less detailed so the shape is still quite there after the encrusting.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cyphastrea.874969/

Hmm. I think cyphastraea idea is growing on me!