Best Corals For Sand Bed?

[RyanReef]

Hey everyone,

I am curious to know what corals you have had success with on the sand bed in your reef tank. And, also, if they are actually just on the frag plug, on rubble, their own rock island, or literally on the sand.

 

Currently have a small Hammer coral in the sand. I just have the frag plug pushed into the sand. Will he do ok there long term? Or will he out grow the plug and then have no where to go?

I also have a small island with GSP starting to grow.

 

Thanks!!

[RyanReef]

bump

[jservedio]

20 hours ago, RyanReef said:

Hey everyone,

I am curious to know what corals you have had success with on the sand bed in your reef tank. And, also, if they are actually just on the frag plug, on rubble, their own rock island, or literally on the sand.

 

Currently have a small Hammer coral in the sand. I just have the frag plug pushed into the sand. Will he do ok there long term? Or will he out grow the plug and then have no where to go?

I also have a small island with GSP starting to grow.

 

Thanks!!

Plate corals are the best coral at digging themselves out, but pretty much any larger polyped LPS will do great on the sandbed - stuff like lobos, trachy, and bowerbanki. Plating LPS like chalices also do very well on the sand. As long as you avoid putting corals that can't remove sand and debris from themselves, they will do fine.

 

Smaller polyped LPS like micromussa and favia are fine as well, but if your sand shifts a lot due to very high flow, you will need to make sure they aren't getting buried and occasionally dig them out.

 

SPS are the worst in the sand due to the fact they can't clean themselves off - any sand that lands on top of them will kill the coral below it and eventually the sand will just be incorporated into the skeleton, If they get buried too much, they will just die.

 

I have a ton of flow in my tank so sand shifts a lot - I tend to mount my LPS on bathroom tiles to help them float on top of the sand, and even then stuff still starts to become buried:

 

 

[RyanReef]

6 hours ago, jservedio said:

Plate corals are the best coral at digging themselves out, but pretty much any larger polyped LPS will do great on the sandbed - stuff like lobos, trachy, and bowerbanki. Plating LPS like chalices also do very well on the sand. As long as you avoid putting corals that can't remove sand and debris from themselves, they will do fine.

 

Smaller polyped LPS like micromussa and favia are fine as well, but if your sand shifts a lot due to very high flow, you will need to make sure they aren't getting buried and occasionally dig them out.

 

SPS are the worst in the sand due to the fact they can't clean themselves off - any sand that lands on top of them will kill the coral below it and eventually the sand will just be incorporated into the skeleton, If they get buried too much, they will just die.

 

I have a ton of flow in my tank so sand shifts a lot - I tend to mount my LPS on bathroom tiles to help them float on top of the sand, and even then stuff still starts to become buried:

 

 

Oh that is smart with the tiles on the sand. 

Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it.

[TatorTaco]

I have a torch coral on my sandbed.  I also glued it to a bathroom tile I picked up from the local hardware store to give it a bigger footprint in the sand and keep it from falling over - works like a charm. 

[RyanReef]

4 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

I have a torch coral on my sandbed.  I also glued it to a bathroom tile I picked up from the local hardware store to give it a bigger footprint in the sand and keep it from falling over - works like a charm. 

So did you cut it off of the flag plug it came on?

 

[TatorTaco]

12 hours ago, RyanReef said:

So did you cut it off of the flag plug it came on?

 

I did, yes.  Instead of the skeleton being secured to the frag plug it's secured directly on to the tile. Then, I just "shimmy" the tile a bit under the sandbed so the tile isn't visible but I don't have to worry about the torch falling over. 

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

(Helio)Fungia, Diaseris, or Cycloseris. Basically anything categorized as a plate or tongue coral. They can pack a wallop if let's say another coral were to fall on top of them. I have an Acan echinata colony that has been love tapped by my fungia...

 

In other people's tanks I've also seen scolymia, lobophyllia, and acanthophyllia put on the substrate.

[jservedio]

13 hours ago, RyanReef said:

So did you cut it off of the flag plug it came on?

 

You've got a few options when it comes to this depending on what you want to do with the coral in the end. If you are just temporarily keeping your frag on the sandbed to acclimate it - you can just glue the skinny stem of the plug to the tile. It'll allow you to remove it from the tile when you want to move it with a quick snap and no tools.

 

If you plan to glue it to your rockwork in the future but want a natural look with no plugs, remove the coral from the plug and use a small dab of super glue to glue it directly to the tile. As long as you don't leave it there too long, you'll be able to get it off without damaging the coral. If you plan to keep it on the tile forever, use more glue.

 

If you want it there to grow out but the frag is heavily encrusted on the plug or the skeleton is just really thin or fragile looking you can use bone-cutters or side-cutters to cut the skinny stem off and leave the coral on the plug then glue the disk of the plug to the tile with some superglue. You can get the plug off by sliding a flathead screwdriver underneath and twisting.

 

If you are using regular ceramic or porcelain tiles, make sure you glue to the underside of the tile - nothing sticks well to the glazed side. If you don't want to look at the underside of a tile, you can use natural stone that blends in more with the sand like travertine with a rougher finish.

[RyanReef]

On 3/3/2021 at 10:26 AM, jservedio said:

You've got a few options when it comes to this depending on what you want to do with the coral in the end. If you are just temporarily keeping your frag on the sandbed to acclimate it - you can just glue the skinny stem of the plug to the tile. It'll allow you to remove it from the tile when you want to move it with a quick snap and no tools.

 

If you plan to glue it to your rockwork in the future but want a natural look with no plugs, remove the coral from the plug and use a small dab of super glue to glue it directly to the tile. As long as you don't leave it there too long, you'll be able to get it off without damaging the coral. If you plan to keep it on the tile forever, use more glue.

 

If you want it there to grow out but the frag is heavily encrusted on the plug or the skeleton is just really thin or fragile looking you can use bone-cutters or side-cutters to cut the skinny stem off and leave the coral on the plug then glue the disk of the plug to the tile with some superglue. You can get the plug off by sliding a flathead screwdriver underneath and twisting.

 

If you are using regular ceramic or porcelain tiles, make sure you glue to the underside of the tile - nothing sticks well to the glazed side. If you don't want to look at the underside of a tile, you can use natural stone that blends in more with the sand like travertine with a rougher finish.

Awesome info. Thanks very much!