encrusting coral?

[gobies]

I have a bunch of coral skeleton pieces that came in a box of shells (which I bought for my gobies to spawn in). I'd like to make them useful somehow. Are there any encrusting corals that stay very short? I think it would be cool to have these SPS skeletons covered with some kind of fuzzy-looking coral in the tank.

[crollison]

You could try green star polyps. That might look cool:happy:

[gobies]

I think I've got one of those already.... and I was thinking of something with shorter buds.

[Nishant3789]

if u have the lig hting monitpora digita? i think they have a few species that are encrusting....

nishant

[Jefe12234]

Yeah, you could try an encrusting Montipora or Porites, but then you'd be growing an SPS over an SPS skeleton. It would be like bringing the dead coral back to life, except it wouldn't branch any further (because it's an encrusting species). It might continue to encrust downward, though.

 

Button polyps (the short ones, not the tall ones) might look cool as well. They lay pretty flat and would probably show the branching shape quite well.

 

-Chris

[gobies]

How much lighting would porites need in a 30g long?

I figure I could always attach more skeleton pieces to the base.

[Jefe12234]

MH would be your best bet, but Porites can be very adaptable when it comes to light. I would think it would grow pretty well under PC or VHO. I'm currently trying to grow some under 4 NO bulbs, but it's a little early to tell how it's doing. I'm guessing it will be a slow grower under the NO's. Porites have poor prey capture so they depend more heavily on light to meet their energy needs. Also, they like lots of current.

 

-Chris

[glazer]

hey gobies,

 

I dunno if this will be any help at all.... I have got an encrusting type Montipora (sorry, don't know the exact kind) in my 5.5, it came on the rock. In two months time it has shown some pretty awesome growth. The tank is lit with two 32 watt PC's. There is a store in Chicago called Reef Dweller. He has some awesome SPS frags AND he has some of the encrusting type Monti's. You could prolly get a chip/frag off of him for like five or ten bucks. Might be worth a try anyway.

[tinyreef]

you may want to try an erythropodium (sp?). they're fast growing and short n' fuzzy. not really colorful though. the branching/veiny types are much faster than the encrusting/mat-type.