Running out of room for corals. Have you yet ?

SaltISlife · Sep 20, 2020

So 2 days ago i traded in a large colony ( kept some heads for myself of course) of trumpets and a hand sized peice of a lemon favia. Got store credit. Bought like 6 different corals and one was a palm sized cyphastrea pretty large.

Ive been staring at the tank for hours now and im starting to think. Im running out of room where am i going to put these corals ? Then i look at some acroporas ive had for awhile and the red/planet is getting too close to a smaller acro i have. So im like dang i need to break that red planet off and move it and put puddy on the encrusting part thats left over or itll probly grow right over that other acro lol.

But where do i put the red planet.. LOL

I ran outa room for corals it seems.. sure i got lots if shadded spots on the bottom of my rocks.. but mid to upper sections are gone. And some of my corals are so big now it makes it hard to put anything near them due to how fast theyre growing now.

Tank is 135 gallons 6 feet. Long. Never thought id have 80-100 different corals and run out of room like this. Lol.

PicassoClown04 · Sep 20, 2020

I’ve got a 20 gallon with over 50 different corals in it. The trick is to mount things completely vertical on the rock, like on the side of a cliff. Utilize the shaded areas by putting shrooms or euphyllia that can reach around to the light. Floor space is good space, maximize it. More often than not, acros don’t have to be at the very top of the tank, I’ve got a red dragon acro growing beautifully on the bottom of my tank

. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and I definitely have the will.

Flippers4pups · Sep 20, 2020

Yes I know the feeling. I’m rearranging some stuff to day to make room for new corals. I may have to add some rock from my sump to gain some space!

SaltISlife · Sep 20, 2020

Yea my 135 isnt a wall of rocks i have lots of room for my 5 tangs to swim in. (Smaller tangs like a yellow tomini and so forth) and so it creates alot of open ness. But even then ive filled up the samd bed with corals. Like my entire middle is just 4 bubble corals. One bigger than a basketball.

I took like 6 rocks outa my 60g hex and put them in the tank so i can put more corals in.

But i guess i gatta start adding corals vertically like someone mentioned.

My rocks are all like pillars 4 sections of pillars with little bridges connecting them. So lots of room on the sides. Its just hard to mount excrusting corals and make it look good doing that. And space them apart enough too.

I could fit 150 corals in here if i crammed them in 2 inchs apart but then they will just grow into eachother and i worry about fighting

PicassoClown04 · Sep 20, 2020

SaltISlife said:
Yea my 135 isnt a wall of rocks i have lots of room for my 5 tangs to swim in. (Smaller tangs like a yellow tomini and so forth) and so it creates alot of open ness. But even then ive filled up the samd bed with corals. Like my entire middle is just 4 bubble corals. One bigger than a basketball.

I took like 6 rocks outa my 60g hex and put them in the tank so i can put more corals in.

But i guess i gatta start adding corals vertically like someone mentioned.

My rocks are all like pillars 4 sections of pillars with little bridges connecting them. So lots of room on the sides. Its just hard to mount excrusting corals and make it look good doing that. And space them apart enough too.

I could fit 150 corals in here if i crammed them in 2 inchs apart but then they will just grow into eachother and i worry about fighting

The trick is knowing which corals will fight and which are peaceful. I’ve got 6 varieties of clove that I use to separate aggressive corals from each other, and I use a hammer garden because hammers can hold hands no problem. The only real meanie in here is my RBTA, it’s got a 3” berth around it.

SaltISlife · Sep 20, 2020

footgal said:
The trick is knowing which corals will fight and which are peaceful. I’ve got 6 varieties of clove that I use to separate aggressive corals from each other, and I use a hammer garden because hammers can hold hands no problem. The only real meanie in here is my RBTA, it’s got a 3” berth around it.

Dont acrosporas fight ? What about cyphastreas ?

Everything Aquatics · Sep 20, 2020

My 20 cube which barley has any space and has over 30 coral and is still growing, my zoa sand bed are has like 12 varieties. I am hoping to get a rock and frag them onto it to save so space

brandon429 · Sep 20, 2020

Footgal look at your scape pic and then this mini model of it from 17 yrs ago lol. Thirty nub frags plus grow out time / was full. 2 inches aqua scape room pico

PicassoClown04 · Sep 20, 2020

brandon429 said:
Footgal look at your scape pic and then this mini model of it from 17 yrs ago lol. Thirty nub frags plus grow out time / was full. 2 inches aqua scape room pico

THATS AMAZING! That tiny little thing held 30 corals?! I’m shocked and amazed! I’ve got a 45 lagoon that I’m slowly moving stuff to as it outgrows the 20. The 20 is really just my favorite/sick/TLC coral tank because I’m in it the most. I do a lot of coral rehab out of this tank and about 1/2 of the corals in it were brought back from the dead!

Daniel@R2R · Sep 21, 2020

Sounds like it's upgrade time... ;Smuggrin

brandon429 · Sep 21, 2020

I never did end up going bigger than one gallon lol one reason was to prove longevity and the other reason was cash, able to reef cheaply and divert funds to travel works out perfect! ya'll get all the good fish though. a clownfish physically cannot fit anywhere in my tank the only marine fishkeeping i do is vicariously through everyone's posts.