Sps for the bottom of the tank

[JGoslee]

I'm looking for some sps that will thrive in low to moderate light to place on the bottom of my tank. I have a good amount of light (2-250watt de 14k phoenix) over my 58gal tank but I have a few holes that I want to fill in towards the bottom of my reef. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[patedship]

Man I have had great luck with caps being in low light... you could also look for a deepwater piece.

 

[familyreefer]

Low SPS

Digitata and Caps. I am growing them in the 55 under PC's!

 

[surfn]

lol leave that space open for all of those tiny frags to grow.

i'm finding that i'm having to get rid of a bunch of sps as my awesome ones need more room to grow.

 

[surfn]

frogspawn is always something good to fill in a big void area...lol

 

[143gadgets]

I think you can get some nice encrusting montis. That would look pretty cool.

 

[minibowmatt]

I have always had montis under moderate lighting and they have done very well.

 

[gflat65]

My purple bonsai likes it low (and high...). jacquelinae and the like also like it low. You will be thinning out eventually due to overgrowth and not be able to reach anything... I guess caps make good shelves for catching things when they fall.

 

[Chelsey]

Chadfarmer has a 58 with a 6-bulb T-5 fixture over his tank and pretty much anything does fine there, but he has no overhangs. Are you looking to put something under a ledge or just worried about the bottom of your tank? I *think* you should be ok with almost anything (other than stuff that needs to be like 4" from the light), but then again I'm fairly new to the sps scene.

 

[drowzee]

you might have success with caps and encrusting monti. i have this one filing one of the space in my tank.

You can always go with a psammacora or povona they are pretty indestructible.

 

[JGoslee]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I moved an A. echinata to the bottom last night along with my flower petal and sunset monti. I also have a Tyree pink polyp cap and Rainbow monti I can move but I think they need higher light so I will leave them at the top. I still have a few spots on the sides of my rock islands that I need to fill in. Here's some frags that are on my frag racks. Will any of these work in lower light? True undata, aquarium city selago, pink dragon selago, Tyree purple unknown acro, crayola a. plana, purple efflo, greg hiller tri-color. Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[gflat65]

I'm gonna say that most of that list are high light acros (have been wrong once or twice before). There are a number of tables, etc. Sounds like a lot of them are nicely colored, too, which usually means they like light. They'll be fine in terms of growing, but they may not hold color.

 

[spankey]

With that amount of light over that size tank you can keep allot of sps down on the bottom. Your acros will change color if you put any of those down there. I have one acro in my tank, same lights but 150's and up high it turns pink, on the bottom it turns deeper red....

As most stated though monti's look the best on the bottom. Try it out with a frag of something you have the colony from and see what happens.

Good luck

 

[naturebat]

ORA purple pillow also does nicely on the bottom of mine.

 

[surfn]

ORA purple pillow also does nicely on the bottom of mine.

really? is it nice and purple?

i was reading over on RC that people had more success with it turning completely purple under lower light.

i have a frag on a frag mag at the VERY top of the tank, 2 inches under the water line. its completely light aqua colored. no purple at all. its in a low-med flow area and has alot of polyp extension.

my other frag is about 3/4 the way up the tank, directly under the light. is mostly aqua colored with a little bit of light purple tips. flow is high in that area and has no polyp extension.

guess i'm gonna need to try moving it down some.

 

[twon8]

really? is it nice and purple?

i was reading over on RC that people had more success with it turning completely purple under lower light.

i have a frag on a frag mag at the VERY top of the tank, 2 inches under the water line. its completely light aqua colored. no purple at all. its in a low-med flow area and has alot of polyp extension.

my other frag is about 3/4 the way up the tank, directly under the light. is mostly aqua colored with a little bit of light purple tips. flow is high in that area and has no polyp extension.

guess i'm gonna need to try moving it down some.

my purple pillow is aobut 5 inches down under 250w 14k, and it is purple with aqua highlights and corallites, so i dont' think the low light is what determines color, but rather color temp.