Coral skeleton aquascape. Am i going to regret this?

SamMule

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I have some coral skeletons from a tank that was taken down a few years ago. Setting up a new tank and thinking about using some for my aquascape. It is wonderfully porous, but I feel like unless I have obscene amounts of flow, it is gonna become an absolute detritus trap.
Opinions?

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And no... this is not the stand I am using for the tank :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
 

Waters

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I think it looks great and will work fine.......as long as you don't end up with any GHA issues growing out of those crevices, which will be impossible to manually remove lol.
 
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SamMule

SamMule

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I think it looks great and will work fine.......as long as you don't end up with any GHA issues growing out of those crevices, which will be impossible to manually remove lol.
This was my other concern. Been dealing with that in the nano, and it's a pain.

Invest in a good size cleanup crew! Pods as well! Keep an eye on your lighting schedule. Ultimately they would be a great to grow zoas on. Good luck.
The pods thing is a good point! Would really like to get another mandarin and those porous skeletons would make awesome natural pod homes!

At the very least, I'm going to keep the tower piece. It's just too cool to leave out.
 
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vlangel

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Years ago I bought a huge plate coral skeleton cheap, (back in the day when our FOWLR systems were made of bleached coral skeletons). Anyway I have it in my reef now for my nems and it does collect some detritus. It also is full of beneficial critters and it does add character to the reef. So it's a mixed bag of good and bad. Since my tank is a softie/macroalgae dominant reef, detritus is not much of an issue other than unsightly.
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I did recently add an oversized gyre which has helped a lot.
 

vlangel

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I like it. If it were mine I would move the middle skeleton closer to the left piece so they touch at the top but make an arch/cave underneath. That way the viewer's eye would be drawn to look at a dominant structure on the left rather than 3 fairly equal structures. I realize that that might not be the best for coral placement but the trained artist in me overpowers the reefer in me. In the end, it's what looks best to you that matters!
 
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SamMule

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Thanks for the tip. I'll play around with that. It can't move left though, without coming towards the front glass. That cardboard is where the AIO drop-in is going.
 

vlangel

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Thanks for the tip. I'll play around with that. It can't move left though, without coming towards the front glass. That cardboard is where the AIO drop-in is going.
Oh, yes I see that now. There is only so much room, LOL. Well, I am sure that it will be nice whatever you do.
 

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I like it! I do have a piece of old coral skeleton in my tank also. It's larger than a softball, I like the fact small fish can hide in it and pods. But I also hate it as the CUC usually don't clean it well. I've had to remove it to scrub a patch of GHA.
 

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