Coral Suggestions for Direct High Flow

[phinatic]

I have a 13.5 G nano and would like to add some coral to rocks that are directly in the flow of my Nero 3 powerhead. I get about 60x turnover on the tank and it is generally diffuse, but I am using a couple of rocks that are in the direct flow to break it up. The rocks are at the other end of the tank from the powerhead but break the flow to keep sand from being kicked up at the glass.

 

Any suggestions on corals that would like this very high flow? I was thinking about something like Pocillopora or an encrusting Montipora with a low profile that wouldn't get pushed around too much by the flow. I do have a plating Montipora frag that I am considering putting over there as well. Also considered a Green Star Polyp given its hardiness, but not sure it would like direct flow. Confirmation of this, or other suggestions would be great.

[mcarroll]

In general... Anything branchy in form should like strong flow.  There are also lots of mound-shaped or encrusting corals that would like it.  Sprung's coral book would be really helpful if you can locate a copy.   Other ref's would be great too (eg Borneman's coral book, etc) but the Sprung book is VERY concise.

 

Also, the flow from pumps like the Nero (ie most pumps) is VERY soft....very low velocity.  So I'm guessing that if you experimented you'd be surprised how many corals would tolerate that position just fine....could turn out to be "most".

 

All your suggestions would be great – plating and encrusting Montipora, Pocillopora and Star Polyps.  But there really are tons of other potential candidates....Some Favia, Hydnophora just to name a couple other stonies.  More specialist...maybe you wanna Acro or a Leather coral?