First Coral

[MrMeanyHead]

Background:
Two days ago a fish store near me was closing down and had 50% off everything in store. I got there to look around and saw that they had stopped maintaining their tanks and there was a frogspawn and Kenya tree for sale. I decided to save them and try my hand at coral.

I have two questions:
1. I need help with flow in my tank basically how to get it so it’s not just pure blast?
2. Can I take the coral off the plug because it makes placement very hard in my tank

 

[tbrown]

You can take the corals off the frag plugs absolutely - a lot of people prefer to do just that.

For flow, do you have a controllable pump or wavemaker? Do you use 1 or 2? I like more powerheads/wavemakers aimed mostly at each other turned up just to the point the sand isn't moving around the tank. I also aim one more towards the surface to assist with evaporation which helps cool the tank.

 

[MrMeanyHead]

I have a sicce voyager nano and then the basic return nozzle for the fluval evo.

 

[tbrown]

Does the Voyager have a controller?

 

[MegabiteOG]

You can also cut the stub off the plug to make it easier to mount without removing the coral from the plug. Ditto @tbrown on flow.

 

[MrMeanyHead]

No the voyager is just one speed. Which is making directing flow hard. Because it’s too high I think

 

[MegabiteOG]

Corals can usually take a lot more than you'd think in flow. Outside of directly blasting it, you're likely okay. If the coral doesn't like it, it will show.

 

[MrMeanyHead]

It’s also for aesthetics, they aren’t really flowing and are more being thrown from side to side every now and again.

 

[tbrown]

Move the powerhead closer to the front and let it blast the glass more than the rockwork.

You can move it forward more and then lower on the glass aimed up and towards the front. That'll help make it more random throughout the tank without destroying the sand bed