Favorite encrusting coral?

MiniGbr

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Favorite encrusting coral?

Hi R2R community!

First time posting a question on R2R. I’m not new to the hobby, been in and out of the hobby for nearly 30 years since I was in middle school, but it’s been about 15 years since I’ve last built a system, and boy have things changed!. Over the last 8 months I’ve built a new custom peninsula tank myself from scratch (cutting glass, siliconing the glass, sump design and build, stand, hood, everything! I’ll never do that again…), which I plan to post a build thread about soon as well,

For now though, my first question is simple, which is, what are your favorite encrusting corals? Not just a general type, but name brand? I'm not super into the naming of coral (that was only just starting 15 years ago), but for this instance, it’s relevant to get exactly the piece I want as the front tank showstopper. The obvious choice is an encrusting Monti of some kind, but I know there are lots of new and interesting choices out there, so would love to hear what the community thinks.

The way my aqua scape ended up, I have a focal point at the very front of the peninsula that got a bit closer to the front of the glass than I had hoped (see last photo). I have planned for an acro heavy mixed tank I’m stocking, and with this front focal point, I want to add an encrusting sps (or maybe cyphastrea…?) that won’t interfere with the scraping/cleaning of the glass. The PAR is about 120-160 depending on the time of day at this front focal point, and medium flow.

Money of course matters, but since this is the very first thing I’ll see, I feel like I need to get something that is a real show stopper. Open to any and all ideas! Thanks for the help, and looking forward to seeing peoples thoughts.

- Mike

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LeftyReefer

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How about a sunset Monti? The flowing polyps are nice. I get bits of yellow, green, orange and pink on mine.

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or a mystic sunset Monti also has nice colors I think, but it's also very common.
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MiniGbr

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I love the Jason fox beach bum monti! I just got a piece from @Living Reef Orlando and it is a beautiful coral! Also got a tweety bird monti from them…. So yellow!
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Beach bum is definitely going on the list. I was just up at LRO the other day picking up coral I had purchased from my first live sale with them (I live down in Fort Lauderdale, but had wanted to check them out since I moved to Florida a year ago. Such an amazing place!. Figured the 7 hours of driving as worth it.... haha).

Thanks for the the suggestions! Is the tweety bird that middle frag, just above the cyphastrea plug?
 

Utubereefer

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Exactly! I love everything I get from them. You gotta post some pictures of next time you go!
 
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MiniGbr

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How about a sunset Monti? The flowing polyps are nice. I get bits of yellow, green, orange and pink on mine.

20211229_192112.jpg


20211229_192104.jpg
or a mystic sunset Monti also has nice colors I think, but it's also very common.
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I have plans on some of these types along the bottom sides of the aquascape. Definitely not opposed to common Monti's, but something about being the front of the tank makes me want something wild
 
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MiniGbr

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Exactly! I love everything I get from them. You gotta post some pictures of next time you go!
I felt weird taking photos, but will do.

I also checked out @TSA Corals and was lucky enough to get a tour of their farming operation and setup. Now talk about a facility and operation. I was so dumbfounded by it I couldn't stop to take photos, just had so many questions. And kept being distracted by all the pretty corals. Too many to even keep track of.
 

Utubereefer

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Dude they love it when you post their stuff! TSA is phenomenal love them! I have a piece of their Taj Mahal coming next month
 
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MiniGbr

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Dude they love it when you post their stuff! TSA is phenomenal love them! I have a piece of their Taj Mahal coming next month
That's indeed true. Jed, who was nice enough to give me the tour kept saying it was fine to take photos, along with Chris (who was helping pick all the corals I had ordered) who also encouraged me to snap some photos, but I couldn't stop being distracted! There were just so many things to look at. It was insane their operation.

I just looked up that Taj Mahal, really great looking stick! I keep debating between more of the "normal" stuff, or just going slow with all high end. But then again, I have a lot of rock and tank real estate, so I guess I can do both. Plus, today's 'normal' stuff is mind blowing compared to what we had access to 15 years ago, let alone 30 years ago. I feel so old saying "I remember" when bubble corals and torches and frogspawn were basically all there were, and they were cheap. Too cheap, people didn't take good enough care of them. Same with yellow tangs. It really is a different world today. I really love that the hobby has gone towards aquaculture and tank raised.

I did find this crazy Monti I've been eyeing. I've sort of blown through my coral budget this month, (and the next 3 months really, but we all say that), but this one is pretty amazing. Looks similar to some of the other high end 'name brand' stuff out there, and hard to find anyone else selling this named Monti to compare photos, but seems pretty awesome. Called prometheus monti. May be the one to go up front.

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vetteguy53081

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Tossup for me. Monti, gsp and Lepto. This is my daughters favorite Lepto

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MiniGbr

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Bizzaro cyphastrea is also good


that one is really cool! I bet it has a decent price point during a live sale. I’ll keep an eye out.

I haven’t researched, but how bad does the coral warfare get between cyphastrea and acros? Would cyphastrea kill off the base and then the colony of an acro?


Burnin Banana
Klepto Lepto
Skittles Cyphestrea
Blue Leptastrea
I do love the skittles. I have a small one already near the back wall of the rockwork. The blue leptastrea is really interesting too
 
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