Upside Down Corals?

[reefsaver]

Would anyone have a decent idea on varieties of coral that can grow upside down, or glued to the underside of an aquascape?
My first thought was NPS (Non Photosynthetic) Corals, because they don't need light and I could just spot feed.
But I'm a big fan of easy corals so I don't know if NPS is a good choice. I hear Blastomussa do well in shaded areas, but I don't know about completely inverted.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Why would you want corals to mounted underneath or upside down

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Why would you want corals to mounted underneath or upside down

Some people have overhanging ledges and branches. Ive mounted some upside down before.

 

[reefsaver]

Some Hardscapes have a lot of depth at different viewing angles, and you can see below the Hardscape.
Why not fill it out with Coral? I'm sure people do this and I'm overthinking it a little. It's not like the underside of a Hardscape is totally dark but I suppose it's subjective. But instead of leaving the underside of a Hardscape bare, why not fill it out with easy to keep, low light corals?

 

[VegasReefer]

You could get away with a few things depending on the rest of the environment. Light coverage, sand or bare bottom, how far off the substrate will the coral be, etc. all play a part. If you have PAR meter then anything in the 30-50 range will support a number of corals. If you don't have a meter, than blastos and cyphastreas are low maintenance.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Dendronepthya (which are very difficult to keep) naturally grow like this.

Sun corals (Tubastrea spp.) would also do fine, but need frequent feeding with appropriately sized foods to do well. I spotfeed my colony frozen mysis soaked in selcon or vitachem daily, as well as regular feedings of fish and oyster eggs, reefroids, phyto, live rotifers, live baby brine, and whatever else they catch from the water column (including live copepods and pellets). My colony is placed on a straight rock face directly under a ledge. I have various mushrooms in a similar spot, where they all receive between 50-75 par and are seemingly thriving. But the sun corals don't technically need the light at all.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Some Hardscapes have a lot of depth at different viewing angles, and you can see below the Hardscape.
Why not fill it out with Coral? I'm sure people do this and I'm overthinking it a little. It's not like the underside of a Hardscape is totally dark but I suppose it's subjective. But instead of leaving the underside of a Hardscape bare, why not fill it out with easy to keep, low light corals?

I don't see many people or other animals happily wandering around with their feet above their heads 24 hours a day.

Nor Plants with their roots above their foilage

Maybe it'll work for a while, but long term I don't think they'll thrive.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Dendronepthya (which are very difficult to keep) naturally grow like this.

Sun corals (Tubastrea spp.) would also do fine, but need frequent feeding with appropriately sized foods to do well. I spotfeed my colony frozen mysis soaked in selcon or vitachem daily, as well as regular feedings of fish and oyster eggs, reefroids, phyto, live rotifers, live baby brine, and whatever else they catch from the water column (including live copepods and pellets). My colony is placed on a straight rock face directly under a ledge. I have various mushrooms in a similar spot, where they all receive between 50-75 par and are seemingly thriving. But the sun corals don't technically need the light at all.

To build off the sun coral idea, here are some various pics off google from both wild reefs and somebody's home nano.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

To build off the sun coral idea, here are some various pics off google from both wild reefs and somebody's home nano.

I'll also point out that sponges and feather duster worms/coco worms thrive like this as well.

I had multiple feather dusters thriving in my tank using the same feeding methods I discussed earlier, until my pencil urchin ate them all. I have since put him in the sump and plan on replacing the worms. My orange elephant eat sponges and red tree sponges seem to grow very well in the shade/dark as well, and non-photosynthetic gorgonians could also be mounted upside down if the cave was large enough (although angled up from a rock on the side of the cave looks more natural since most tanks don't have huge rock arches and overhangs.

But look into sun corals, sponges, and feather duster/coco worms. You can always glue the tube for the worms to the rock with a little cyanocrylate.

The red tree sponge fell off the rock and hadn't been corrected before taking the picture, but it has steadily grown since going in. Superglue just doesn't hold it very well. You can see the elephant ear sponge in the other picture under the overhang with all the zoanthids. The fathead anthias likes to hang out down there as well.

 

[reefsaver]

Thank you Fishfreak, some feather dusters would make perfect sense for my situation.
Sun corals have kind of scared me after seeing people on YouTube have ups and downs with them but I can see now why people love them so much. But yeah Gluing tube worms under my hardscape sounds absolutely awesome.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Thank you Fishfreak, some feather dusters would make perfect sense for my situation.
Sun corals have kind of scared me after seeing people on YouTube have ups and downs with them but I can see now why people love them so much. But yeah Gluing tube worms under my hardscape sounds absolutely awesome.

Sun corals are honestly pretty easy to keep so long as you feed them. I make a big batch of food soaked in either vita-chem or selcon to use through the day. The fish (lots of wrasses and chromis) get fed that mix 2-3x daily, and pellets 2x daily. In the afternoon, about 15 minutes after the second feeding of the thawed and enriched mysis/fish egg/oyster egg/spirulina brine/Rod's food for the fish I use a turkey baster and direct feed the my sun coral. I also feed my Blastos, Micro Lords, Candy Canes, my mushrooms, anemones, and Euphyllias this way 2-3x weekly.

You can see my frag in this picture. It has grown 2 new heads since coming home in January.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Acans. U can grow acans in shade or overhangs
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Favias. Favites. War corals.
-d

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Platygyras and maze brains I'm gonna say no. They will need more light.
D

 

[J1a]

Upside down sun corals are really quite do-able. They open up nicely as well.

 

[mindme]

Would anyone have a decent idea on varieties of coral that can grow upside down, or glued to the underside of an aquascape?
My first thought was NPS (Non Photosynthetic) Corals, because they don't need light and I could just spot feed.
But I'm a big fan of easy corals so I don't know if NPS is a good choice. I hear Blastomussa do well in shaded areas, but I don't know about completely inverted.

If you do sun corals, make sure it's in a good area for feeding. Since they are upside down they are much harder to feed because the food will want to fall down. So you need a way to feed them so that the current will give the food to them.

I failed my first time doing this and haven't tried it again. I just never could feed them the way I wanted, and I think it was because I put them too far under. When they grow under things in the ocean, there is usually a current that flows up into them.

If I was going to attempt it again, I would instead of putting them upside down 100%, I would put them on the side a little, so that I could get to them easily. Hopefully they would then grow more on the underside over time as the food came.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Tubastrea is easy just feed it. One of the hardiest corals IMO. Difficult is not the same as requiring maintenance.

 

[J1a]

A

If you do sun corals, make sure it's in a good area for feeding. Since they are upside down they are much harder to feed because the food will want to fall down. So you need a way to feed them so that the current will give the food to them.

I failed my first time doing this and haven't tried it again. I just never could feed them the way I wanted, and I think it was because I put them too far under. When they grow under things in the ocean, there is usually a current that flows up into them.

If I was going to attempt it again, I would instead of putting them upside down 100%, I would put them on the side a little, so that I could get to them easily. Hopefully they would then grow more on the underside over time as the food came.

Actually, my tubastreas are 100% inverted. I don't spot feed them. They just catch whatever they can from the water, like my other NPSs do.