Please help with future coral positioning and scaping

[KonradTO]

Hi all,
FInally after months of struggle with nuisance algae, water parameters and malfunctioning of some tools, I finally seem to have reached a kind of stability. The tank looks nice and does not grow tons of algae every week. Also corals seems finally to show some growth and every frag I have looks happy.
Now I want to slowly fill the rocks with corals, hoping that with this new stability they will survive and thrive.
I need some help in deciding where to place corals and whether they are compatible with each other. Also I have an awful sense of aestethics, so I need some help in melding corals and rockwork nicely.

I have 2 wavemakers (the one on the left is hidden by the rockwork). PAR is around 400 at the surface and 50 at the sand level

1) First issue. I want to get some torch/hammer/frogspawn. Maybe 1 of each for now. I am not sure where to position them in the scape and I know they are quite aggressive so I want to plan ahead in order to avoid aggression. The red circles are the spots where I was thinking to position them it has decent but not too strong flow and 100-150 PAR. How far away should they be from other corals in general? On the left side, the lower spot is maybe 10 cm away from the duncan, when fully extended.
On the right side I have a chalice more or less where the lower side of the green square is, and also I moved the gorgonian there as well because flow was not enough. (not shown in the picture above)

Since it's a bit messy and the quality of the pics is quite bad I would just start with the euphyllias placement and continue with the rest when I can get better pics with my wife's smarphone.

But in general:
green squares--> SPS
yellow circle--> zoa garden
triangle--> Big kenya tree in the background

 

[Timfish]

Sorry I can't give youdifinitive answers but placement really depends on the lighitng conditions and the species/genotype/variety in question. Probably your choices as outlined will work fine but what you actually get is the deciding factor. I'd suggest getting some PAR readings and using those to get corals grown under those levels.

 

[KonradTO]

Sorry I can't give youdifinitive answers but placement really depends on the lighitng conditions and the species/genotype/variety in question. Probably your choices as outlined will work fine but what you actually get is the deciding factor. I'd suggest getting some PAR readings and using those to get corals grown under those levels.

Thanks for your answer! I am actually not overly worried about PAR levels, as I have other frags with very similar requirements in the rockwork that are doing well. It's more about whether they will sting each others and whether with growth they will look nice in those spots.

 

[Timfish]

Sooner or later as they grow there will be issues over territory. How much a coral expands will vary over time so that's something you'll just have to keep an eye out for.

 

[Nano sapiens]

One could say that as a reef aquarium succeeds it eventually becomes a victim of it's own success (corals grow and obstruct flow, fight for space in various ways). The reef keeper can either keep up with regular pruning to control this growth, or let corals grow as they will and then perform a drastic cut-back one day as a kind of reset.

As far as placement goes, knowledge of the type of environment that a coral comes from in the wild is helpful along with general reef hobby recommendations. That being said, lot of what reef keepers do is still trial and error (for example, I've had a coral thrive in one location, then had to move it over just 1" and then it didn't do well).

General rule with Euphyllia is 'Torches separate, all others can touch' (although a few have said that they had luck combining all types together). They are aggressive and can have a long reach of a few inches (sweepers), so other corals need to be placed out of their reach so as to not get severely damaged.

 

[KonradTO]

thanks everyone for the replies!
Any suggestion concerning the aesthetic aspect? where would you see them best in my scape?

 

[Nano sapiens]

thanks everyone for the replies!
Any suggestion concerning the aesthetic aspect? where would you see them best in my scape?

Unless you are really happy with your current rockwork I'd take a good look at the 'Rule of Thirds' as it's one of the most pleasing to the human sense of aesthetic and has been used for centuries by artistic masters for that reason. I would strongly recommend keeping the rockwork away from the glass to allow for less obstructed flow around the aquarium (healthier for the system/corals and less detritus buildup as well as easy access to keep the glass panels clean).

Coral placement is a bit of an art that one gains from experience. Very generally, larger bushy type coral types in the back with smaller and flatter types in the front, but most important is to be sure that the spot where you want to place the coral has the correct flow and lighting necessary to sustain that particular animal.