OP
OP
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2014
- Messages
- 424
- Reaction score
- 706
- Location
- Long Island
- What state or country do you live in
- New York
I try to stick with acros that form smaller colonies or keep a compact shape. I tend to avoid staghorns because they get too large, too quickly for me. When you first start a tank, fast-growing corals sound great. But a whole tank can go from little frags to big colonies in about two years. If you plan on keeping it longer than that, you can run out of room pretty quickly unless you’re constantly fragging.
I try to leave about 6 inches (15 cm) between frags. They grow faster and get larger than you think. That gives them some room to develop into nice colonies while still leaving enough space to frag without making the tank look like a wreck every time. I also like putting dissimilar colors next to each other. The contrast looks good once they start growing close together.
Think about the shape the coral will take as it grows. I put tabling corals where they can grow out over an open area rather than straight into another rock. I also look at how each colony will affect flow when it gets bigger. There are always a few prime spots that would look great with a coral, but I know a colony there will eventually choke off flow to everything behind it. I leave those spots open. I tend to put more corals toward the sides of the tank than in the middle because I find it easier to get flow to them as the tank matures.
You really do need good flow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean crazy turnover numbers. I want to see water moving through the colony, with polyps moving even on the inside. People get pretty carried away with flow levels. In my tanks, I’ve found moderate flow that actually moves through the coral works well.
