Help with coral placement

[OishiiSato]

Hey all, new reefer here.

I’ve had my 20x20 cube going for about 2 months now, it’s got a 18x8 sump below (no skimmer, no refugium for now)

2 clowns, 1 mandarin, 5 hermits & 3 turbos.

i bought some corals from @AquaSD sale this weekend and was wondering about placement of my corals

I have 1 power head for now but can/will add more if needed.

This is my order

• Favia x1
• Recordia x3
• GSP x1
• Hammer x3
• Cyphastrea x2
• Zoa x1
• Bubble x1

Will be LPS dom tank, overal par is 50-175 @ highest peak.

All suggestions appreciated!

 

[shakacuz]

attached are my thoughts. color's/letter corresponds to what coral you place there. the empty spaces towards the center/middle is open to any other corals you may want later down the road like scolys or other lps!!
or you can put the bubble coral there.


black - hammer
grey [back glass]- cyphastrea
red - favia
purple - zoa
green - gsp
cyan - ricordea

 

[littlefoxx]

I agree with the diagram drawn above. I do have one concern though, your mandarin. How is it doing? They need pods to be fully healthy, even if its captive bread and “eats frozen” cause thats not good for them in the long run and usually they find their first pod and its all over for the frozen. I dose artic pods every day to my tank as its good coral food and good for my mandarin to keep her fat and happy and make sure she doesnt starve! Any other copods will also work, I dose a few kinds like trigger pods and others! Just a thought cause once the pod population goes down and they get thinner they usually die, which is why I mentioned the pods cause the tank is 2 months old

 

[OishiiSato]

I agree with the diagram drawn above. I do have one concern though, your mandarin. How is it doing? They need pods to be fully healthy, even if its captive bread and “eats frozen” cause thats not good for them in the long run and usually they find their first pod and its all over for the frozen. I dose artic pods every day to my tank as its good coral food and good for my mandarin to keep her fat and happy and make sure she doesnt starve! Any other copods will also work, I dose a few kinds like trigger pods and others! Just a thought cause once the pod population goes down and they get thinner they usually die, which is why I mentioned the pods cause the tank is 2 months old

Thanks for asking! So he does eat frozen & I dose copepods (working on culturing copes + phyto) to make sure everything is actually getting the nutrition they need.

 

[littlefoxx]

Thanks for asking! So he does eat frozen & I dose copepods (working on culturing copes + phyto) to make sure everything is actually getting the nutrition they need.

Ah good! As long as he has pods! Its common that if captive bread people wont give them pods but its detrimental to their health in the long run. As long as he has pods as well he should be good! These are one of my favorite fish!

 

[OishiiSato]

Ah good! As long as he has pods! Its common that if captive bread people wont give them pods but its detrimental to their health in the long run. As long as he has pods as well he should be good! These are one of my favorite fish!

Yeah I knew when I started this hobby that would be the main fish I wanted. So him & culturing were the two main focuses. Also working on getting the refugium up and running so they can populate even more in there

 

[littlefoxx]

Yeah I knew when I started this hobby that would be the main fish I wanted. So him & culturing were the two main focuses. Also working on getting the refugium up and running so they can populate even more in there

I agree, angels got me in the hobby then I saw a mandarin and it was all over from there! Had to have one! Ive got a target spot one right now

 

[OishiiSato]

attached are my thoughts. color's/letter corresponds to what coral you place there. the empty spaces towards the center/middle is open to any other corals you may want later down the road like scolys or other lps!!
or you can put the bubble coral there.


black - hammer
grey [back glass]- cyphastrea
red - favia
purple - zoa
green - gsp
cyan - ricordea

Thanks for the input. That’s kind of exactly what I was thinking too except GSP on the back wall and chypha in the front. Didn’t know that could go on a wall?

 

[littlefoxx]

Thanks for the input. That’s kind of exactly what I was thinking too except GSP on the back wall and chypha in the front. Didn’t know that could go on a wall?

Yeah! Ive got my GSP frag on the wall in my nano. Kinda hard to attach, but mine was a big 5 inch frag. My cousin has his growing on his front glass!

 

[Legendary Corals]

Welcome to the hobby, I love your aquascape! Your knowledge and aquascape would have fooled me into thinking this was your 2nd or 3rd tank setup, it definitely seems like you know your stuff.

Most of the corals on your list will do best lower in the tank with maybe the exception of the Zoanthids. Some Zoanthids can handle/ color up better with more light. Do you have a photo of the Zoa? If so I can give suggestions as I've kept 100s of varieties.

The hammer coral can tolerate more light and flow and will do better around the middle to top areas.

I think your tank will also do well with an additional power head on the right side of the tank that helps create water movement to the front parts too.

And very jealous of your Mandarin goby who eats frozen. What a dream fish to keep in a nano. GSP on the back wall sounds pretty awesome.

 

[shakacuz]

Thanks for the input. That’s kind of exactly what I was thinking too except GSP on the back wall and chypha in the front. Didn’t know that could go on a wall?

either would work. personally GSP does get out of hand and will eventually grow over itself and on the sand. so you could just swap out the rock if it gets to that point or trim the excess. with the GSP on the back glass now you have to worry about it clogging up your overflow as well as return line, BUT it would be easy to trim the excess as well

 

[OishiiSato]

Welcome to the hobby, I love your aquascape! Your knowledge and aquascape would have fooled me into thinking this was your 2nd or 3rd tank setup, it definitely seems like you know your stuff.

Most of the corals on your list will do best lower in the tank with maybe the exception of the Zoanthids. Some Zoanthids can handle/ color up better with more light. Do you have a photo of the Zoa? If so I can give suggestions as I've kept 100s of varieties.

The hammer coral can tolerate more light and flow and will do better around the middle to top areas.

I think your tank will also do well with an additional power head on the right side of the tank that helps create water movement to the front parts too.

And very jealous of your Mandarin goby who eats frozen. What a dream fish to keep in a nano. GSP on the back wall sounds pretty awesome.

Thank you! It’s actually quite surprising how much I rabbit holed into the hobby since May I thought I was just going to do a simple freshwater tetra tank for my son and ended up falling in love with the process.

As far as placement I think that’s what I’ll be doing. A stony bottom with more flow on top.

Here’s a pic I have of the zoa, sorry if low res I forgot to save pictures as I was buying.

 

[Legendary Corals]

Thank you! It’s actually quite surprising how much I rabbit holed into the hobby since May I thought I was just going to do a simple freshwater tetra tank for my son and ended up falling in love with the process.

As far as placement I think that’s what I’ll be doing. A stony bottom with more flow on top.

Here’s a pic I have of the zoa, sorry if low res I forgot to save pictures as I was buying.

That is quite the leap! Saltwater is very fun, I'm sure your son can still have his tetra tank as a nano.

The Zoanthids are Radioactive Dragon eyes, they're very easy to care for. They will do well almost anywhere in the tank but will appreciate a little bit more flow once they start multiplying more. I would suggest starting them lower in the tank and then moving them up more afterward. They do grow faster than some other Zoanthid morphs, so if you are considering making a garden give them about 3" to grow out. Zoanthids also have many pests that enjoy eating them, I would always recommend dipping Zoanthids frags.

A magnetic acrylic frag rack would also be a good idea to have corals stay on as they adjust into their new tank. It will give you time to think about where you would want to glue them down as well instead of having to glue them right away onto the rockwork.