monoculture/single coral tanks?

[flowystony]

do people ever start a tank with the intention of showcasing only one coral and letting it grow to fill the whole scape?

I'm toying with the idea of doing a 24k lepto tank and letting it encrust over a large piece of coral skeleton:

I'd also love to have a tank that's just one massive torch coral colony, sort of like what this guy almost did:

I just like the idea of letting a single coral make a statement.

Do people do stuff like this? Assuming the tank is started with dark-start live rock and established with a good population of copepods at the start, is there some reason this would be inadvisable to try? as a newb i'd like to hear what people think the potential problems of a system like this would be.

thanks!

 

[kevgib67]

do people ever start a tank with the intention of showcasing only one coral and letting it grow to fill the whole scape?

I'm toying with the idea of doing a 24k lepto tank and letting it encrust over a large piece of coral skeleton:

I'd also love to have a tank that's just one massive torch coral colony, sort of like what this guy almost did:

I just like the idea of letting a single coral make a statement.

Do people do stuff like this? Assuming the tank is started with dark-start live rock and established with a good population of copepods at the start, is there some reason this would be inadvisable to try? as a newb i'd like to hear what people think the potential problems of a system like this would be.

thanks!

I have not seen a tank like that but I have seen one that has a specific coral that is dominant. Not my cup of tea but I find it very interesting. I’ll be following along.

 

[kevgib67]

Wait, there is an active member on here with a 125g zoa tank but there are many different types of zoas with many different colors.

 

[flowystony]

Wait, there is an active member on here with a 125g zoa tank but there are many different types of zoas with many different colors.

i figure that's probably the main example of ppl doing this, yeah---it always looks like a world made entirely of granny squares:

not knocking it, but it pings my interest that it seems so over-represented given the variety of encrusting, fluorescent corals out there

 

[Mebbid]

I saw a tank that was only Xenia once; it was covering every rock surface. Not sure if it was intentional or just Xenia being Xenia :D

Looked really cool though.

 

[Clowning_Around72]

It happens. Usually people letting one soft corals be 90% of the tank and maybe throwing in a nice LPS piece on the sanbed or similar. I saw a nice tank once that was all birdsnest.

A few good all anemone tanks exist as well (I know we said coral, but I figure that satisfies you're intended goal)...

 

[Subsea]

do people ever start a tank with the intention of showcasing only one coral and letting it grow to fill the whole scape?

I'm toying with the idea of doing a 24k lepto tank and letting it encrust over a large piece of coral skeleton:

I'd also love to have a tank that's just one massive torch coral colony, sort of like what this guy almost did:

I just like the idea of letting a single coral make a statement.

Do people do stuff like this? Assuming the tank is started with dark-start live rock and established with a good population of copepods at the start, is there some reason this would be inadvisable to try? as a newb i'd like to hear what people think the potential problems of a system like this would be.

thanks!

Why not! It’s your dream.

As a generalization, the coral Holibiont will adjust system parameters to favor itself. It’s called gene expression. As long as you established bio -diversity during your cycle, a monoculture coral system should work well.

 

[Nami]

I would like to have a tank dominated with just a few large corals, i.e. giant staghorn colony, giant nepthea, giant clam, etc.

 

[hadri420]

yup, i remember seeing a guy on instagram having only GSP in a red sea AIO cube
he also had a young emperor angelfish in it and it was stunning

 

[DIYreefer]

I sort of have, but more for propagation than anything else. This is my Jawbreaker grow out tank. It is solely jawbreakers with one exception being a Cali Tort colony that is in the tank so that the fish have somewhere to hide.




This was not the original intent of the tank, it was originally going to be for SPS grow out. However, my jawbreakers were growing so fast that I wanted to see what would happen if I gave them A LOT more room to spread out. This is the result.

 

[Mebbid]

I sort of have, but more for propagation than anything else. This is my Jawbreaker grow out tank. It is solely jawbreakers with one exception being a Cali Tort colony that is in the tank so that the fish have somewhere to hide.




This was not the original intent of the tank, it was originally going to be for SPS grow out. However, my jawbreakers were growing so fast that I wanted to see what would happen if I gave them A LOT more room to spread out. This is the result.

Nice to see someone that could singlehandedly crash the market for a coral :D

I would like to have a tank dominated with just a few large corals, i.e. giant staghorn colony, giant nepthea, giant clam, etc.

Have you thought about a torch or hammer tank? I've seen a few of those, they look amazing.

 

[Hairyteeth]

I love the galaxea only tank, with flow designed to accentuate the sweepers