Which Encrusters To Avoid?

[dangles]

I’m wanting to get some different encrusting corals for my rock work between branching corals.

Which encrusters are super fast/aggressive that I should avoid? Which are some slower, less aggressive that won’t choke out everything around it?

Will overhangs act as barriers to growth because of the lack of light?

I don’t want to find myself in a situation later on where I have to remove my rock scape because it gets dominated by one coral.

 

[Rjukan]

I’m wanting to get some different encrusting corals for my rock work between branching corals.

Which encrusters are super fast/aggressive that I should avoid? Which are some slower, less aggressive that won’t choke out everything around it?

Will overhangs act as barriers to growth because of the lack of light?

I don’t want to find myself in a situation later on where I have to remove my rock scape because it gets dominated by one coral.

Encrusting montis are the first I think of.. superman monti being a particularly aggressive one.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The red plating monti is the weed of sps corals, it grows super fast and will grow over and/or shade other corals. I've been trying to kill mine for years, but it always grows back.

 

[GARRIGA]

The red plating monti is the weed of sps corals, it grows super fast and will grow over and/or shade other corals. I've been trying to kill mine for years, but it always grows back.

Oddly I want one as a show piece as I'd like to have something that takes over one corner. How fast do they grow? Considered getting a larger specimen as I'm in patient and would like to see something vs rocks with one inch frags and therefore at least have one item that fills in fast.

 

[billyocean]

Any kind of monti just keeps going..lol. if you can isolate it on a loose rock or one not attached to the main rock work it's ok.

The Kung pao, beach bum, fruity pebbles just encrust

 

[Pod_01]

I would stay away from montiporas, they eventually take over in my humble opinion. Red plating one definitely weed, nice but…

Stick to acros that create large bases. Blueberry wine acro from my experience created large base.

Good luck,

 

[vetteguy53081]

In terms of continuous growth, i would say Montis, chalice and spongodes.

 

[billyocean]

Tgc orange creamsicle is another acro that loves to base out

 

[Cell]

Lepastrea, leptoseris, and psammocora are all relatively slow growing encrusters for me compared to monti's which take over rapidly.

 

[Matt L]

Some montipora will grow very quickly, like “mystic sunset” and other types of that species. I have removed entire rocks with them on it. Pavona and Leptoseris will in time as well, but are slower than montis. But all encrusting coral will eventually run into each other and fight for territory. It gets to a point of deciding to continuously prune them, or let the winners take over.

 

[Dburr1014]

Some montipora will grow very quickly, like “mystic sunset” and other types of that species. I have removed entire rocks with them on it. Pavona and Leptoseris will in time as well, but are slower than montis. But all encrusting coral will eventually run into each other and fight for territory. It gets to a point of deciding to continuously prune them, or let the winners take over.

Mystic is much faster than the normal sunset. I found that one to be real slow.

 

[kartrsu]

I would avoid leptoseris. They send out very long stingers. I just had to kill mine back and ended up gluing rocks over it.