Acan Gardens Help

[Tamale]

Hey all! Once I get my tank cycled (20 gallon red sea nano) and established (month or two) I plan on creating a small lordhowensis garden for a portion of my tank.

 

Question: What is the best way to go about this with regards to placement? I've never really seen a good before and after to replicate/follow. I know they like low-moderate light so lower is generally what I've seen. Is it best to just select a portion of the larger rock face and space out some frags or smaller rock segments placed close together with a frag on each? Any suggestions or examples is appreciated! 

[jservedio]

Placement is totally dependant on your lighting, but they are extremely flexible corals and will be fine in almost any lighting and flow. Even under pretty strong light they can thrive as long as they are slowly acclimated to it as long as they aren't being starved for nutrients. They are a pretty ideal beginner coral and do not need to be isolated because they are not aggressive at all. How close you place them together is up to how you want them to look - they can be placed in direct contact with each other so long as they have room to inflate their polyps.

[Tamale]

3 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Placement is totally dependant on your lighting, but they are extremely flexible corals and will be fine in almost any lighting and flow. Even under pretty strong light they can thrive as long as they are slowly acclimated to it as long as they aren't being starved for nutrients. They are a pretty ideal beginner coral and do not need to be isolated because they are not aggressive at all. How close you place them together is up to how you want them to look - they can be placed in direct contact with each other so long as they have room to inflate their polyps.

Thanks for the reply!

 

That tracks with what I've read and seen in other tanks. As a general rule/advice how much space would you give between frags to allow them to inflate and propagate into decent sized colonies (get that's probably up for taste but am happy to hear opinion!)?

[Tired]

If it were me, I'd put them on frag discs close together, and move them apart as they grew too crowded. If they attach directly to a rock, you're never movin' that thing, or taking it out to frag. 

[banasophia]

I love acan gardens. I don’t think my Facebook friend Pete would mind at all if I post this screenshot I took of his tank back when I was getting started and looking for ideas for my first tank. You can see he had a beautiful acan and zoa garden on his sandbed. 


 

 

 

[banasophia]

Agree with @Tired’s suggestion about putting them on frag disks. I really like this type for sandbed corals:

 

 

A guy I know in my area makes and sells them… haven’t been in touch with him lately, so I’m not sure if he’s still selling them and shipping them out, but here’s his website if you want to check it out:

https://www.reefway.org/store/p5/Circle_Disk.html#/

 

[sirrtuan@yahoo.com]

@banasophia - the disks look useful and pretty cool. Thanks!

I just started my acan garden as well. They're pretty flexible in term of flow and light. Good luck with them.

[Tamale]

7 hours ago, Tired said:

If it were me, I'd put them on frag discs close

together, and move them apart as they grew too crowded. If they attach directly to a rock, you're never movin' that thing, or taking it out to frag. 

That makes sense! I’ll have to make sure to allow space in front of the rockwork for them.

 

7 hours ago, banasophia said:

Agree with @Tired’s suggestion about putting them on frag disks. I really like this type for sandbed corals:

 

 

A guy I know in my area makes and sells them… haven’t been in touch with him lately, so I’m not sure if he’s still selling them and shipping them out, but here’s his website if you want to check it out:

https://www.reefway.org/store/p5/Circle_Disk.html#/

 

That garden is gorgeous! Thank you for the inspiration. And I’ll definitely check his work out! Do the different strains actually grow together if they are close? That’s what it seems like in pictures. Does this lead to competition amongst them? I really appreciate help!

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, Tamale said:

That makes sense! I’ll have to make sure to allow space in front of the rockwork for them.

 

That garden is gorgeous! Thank you for the inspiration. And I’ll definitely check his work out! Do the different strains actually grow together if they are close? That’s what it seems like in pictures. Does this lead to competition amongst them? I really appreciate help!

I always thought you weren’t supposed to put the different types of acans next to each other, tbh, so I’m not sure on that… 

[jservedio]

42 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I always thought you weren’t supposed to put the different types of acans next to each other, tbh, so I’m not sure on that… 

I think OP was just referring to different colors of lords, not different species. You can absolutely place as many different color/morphs of lords all together as you want as long as they are all M. Lordhowensis, but you definitely can't mix other species in there without possible issues. For example, you can place M. Amakusensis pretty much in direct contact with lords, but A. Echinata can't be placed anywhere close and will absolutely kill the lords.

[Tamale]

26 minutes ago, jservedio said:

I think OP was just referring to different colors of lords, not different species. You can absolutely place as many different color/morphs of lords all together as you want as long as they are all M. Lordhowensis, but you definitely can't mix other species in there without possible issues. For example, you can place M. Amakusensis pretty much in direct contact with lords, but A. Echinata can't be placed anywhere close and will absolutely kill the lords.

Correct! Though thank you for that info banasophia, as it still is good info. 
 

That’s what I was tracking with regards to different acan/micro species. Thank you for the help! There are so many little details involved with corals and I love learning all I can!

[Tired]

Yeah, definitely don't put echinatas near anything you don't want dead. They have a nasty sting and a long reach. "Acan lords" (technically micromussas, but the name's stuck) are generally pretty chill and unlikely to cause trouble, as are Micromussa amakusensis. Main difference between the two is that amakus are much smaller-polyped. They might sting another coral if it directly touches them. Lords can be placed right up against each other with no stinging issues, but will eventually start to crowd each other for space and try to overgrow each other, so it's good to be able to shift them around a little. 

[Tamale]

18 minutes ago, Tired said:

Yeah, definitely don't put echinatas near anything you don't want dead. They have a nasty sting and a long reach. "Acan lords" (technically micromussas, but the name's stuck) are generally pretty chill and unlikely to cause trouble, as are Micromussa amakusensis. Main difference between the two is that amakus are much smaller-polyped. They might sting another coral if it directly touches them. Lords can be placed right up against each other with no stinging issues, but will eventually start to crowd each other for space and try to overgrow each other, so it's good to be able to shift them around a little. 

That makes sense. And adds credence to jservidio and banasophia's advice. Once I get to the coral stage I'll plan to put them on discs on a portion of the sand bed w/some room for each to grow! 

[jservedio]

4 hours ago, Tamale said:

That makes sense. And adds credence to jservidio and banasophia's advice. Once I get to the coral stage I'll plan to put them on discs on a portion of the sand bed w/some room for each to grow! 

Placing them on disks is never a bad idea since you can always move them around or change your mind, but how far apart you place is entirely up to how you want them to look - they don't really much care. Yes, if they are all smooshed together, you are going to limit the direction the inner colonies can grow, but it looks really good!

 

While this isn't acans, blastos grow pretty much exactly the same way as acans, just bigger and puffier polyps. I glued this down about 3" apart from each other as tiny little frags and let them all grow together. With lords, 2-3" is good if you want them to grow together like this. If you don't want them all bunched together, just place them further apart and keep them separated. Most LPS of the same species can be grown the same way in little "gardens"