Aquascaping help needed - how do I deal with encrusting/spreading corals?

[tranceFusion]

I have a 25 Lagoon and am not really sure what strategy to take on aquascaping.

 

I really like the look of tanks with mature encrusting corals so I bought some frags - a chalice, cyphastrea, favia, and encrusting stylo. I read that some of these can really spread and take over a rock, however I setup my tank using 20lb of live rock that I had ordered and it is basically 5 larger pieces.

 

I really don't like the look of frag discs laying around the tank. Should I just spread the frags out and let them go free on the rock, dealing with it if they become a problem? Or try to isolate them as much as possible? Maybe break my existing rocks so I have smaller pieces to work with? Or worry about breaking them up if something really takes off?

 

I liked the idea of using some smaller cheap natural looking dry rock to isolate frags on, but the best thing I found seems to be CaribSea LifeRock Frag Zone and I can't really tell how big the pieces are - though they seem pretty small. I also have a clay pot in there that I would like to remove for aesthetics but my blenny loves to hang out in it, so I thought maybe I could decorate it with an encrusting coral, or find something similar to replace it with?

 

Here's what my tank looks like now, for reference..

 

[jservedio]

You can remove corals from plugs and glue them down - even if guy don't they won't stay on that plug for long.

 

You should try and group things that are non-aggressive or less aggressive towards each other that grow at similar rates close to each other. They will compete for space, not entirely smoother each other, and will never nuke each other.

 

You can't prevent competition or fighting long-term, but you can prevent big lopsided fights.

 

Keep really aggressive things grouped together and farther from peaceful coral. For example, your favia is aggressive and pretty fast growing, so keep it away from your montis and stylos.

 

Take a look at my 20g tank in my signature to see what I mean by corals competing without nuking each other. For example:

 

I haven't been totally successful in prevent all big fights, but there are small fights and competition daily and things just keep moving along and growing. It'll take a free years before you have to worry about that too much.

[tranceFusion]

Thanks, your tank looks awesome!!

 

So on the stuff I've pointed at here, are you generally growing it out on a smaller piece of rock and then mounting it? Like could you move/remove them easily? Or just putting the frag it's just encrusting straight onto your base rock?

 

And the stuff in the sand, is that on smaller pieces of rock?

 

Thanks again so much!

[jservedio]

So all but the platygyra and the three blastos are directly on base rock. Most of my rocks are "glued" together with coral skeleton. Lots of that I've had 6-8+ years though. You should be able to move most frag sized things for like a year or so depending on how fast it grows with no damage after its been glued down. However, once your corals are happy, you shouldn't be moving them.

 

The three blastos are on a 6-7" piece of rock and can be moved together but can't be separated. The platygyra was on base rock but I chiseled it off during a move. 

 

The acans on the sand are glued to a leftover piece of tile from my kitchen backsplash to grow out without getting buried in the sand. The merulina on the right is attached to the base rock and now the glass. That whole front right island is locked in and attached to the glass

 

Some people glue corals to smaller rock so they can be moved, but that's really hard to do in a nano and you never get that natural look since you are just "placing" things and they aren't actually growing together.

[tranceFusion]

On 9/20/2020 at 4:28 PM, jservedio said:

The acans on the sand are glued to a leftover piece of tile from my kitchen backsplash to grow out without getting buried in the sand.

Hah, that's hilarious! Thanks so much for all of the tips and ideas.