Coral placement - what are these?

[Reef of Fillory]

Hi everyone - coming back to the hobby after a couple of years away. I started up this new tank and I've got some Corals in it that I'm not sure of the lighting requirements.

What I'm wondering is if anything looks to be too high on the rock, or more tolerant to being higher in the tank.

Fluval Evo 13 gallon with Hamilton Cayman Sun 150w (14k) metal halide hung 6" over the tank. There's about 5" of water down to the top of the structure.

Here's BRS's PAR chart for this light [different bulb] for reference - it's hung center on my tank which is 19" x 12" and 10" to the sandbed

Here's par at 12" [sandbed depth]

I'm seeing polyp extension on most things (the coral in the front right is hit or miss/short polyp - and the big green one is on/off polyp extension)

The blue coral on the top has some deeper grey/browning type coloration as well, but overall pretty descent polyp extension.


Thanks for your help - on my last tank I never knew what the Corals I had were, I just went along for the ride.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Here's some more pictures in case it's helpful

 

[Seamore2001]

The placement looks good to me in terms of lighting. The only thing I might be concerned about is the pavona looks to be a little close to the orange digitata - I'd worry that eventually the pavona would start stinging your montipora and eventually kill it. I'd keep an eye on them and if you see the digitata begin to get stung, frag it and move it somewhere else. Fortunately montiporas are generally fast growers.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Looks good to my eyes but I agree, beware if that pavona. Or better yet, get rid of it! Horrible corals, grows like weed and sends out sweepers everywhere haha

 

[Reef of Fillory]

The placement looks good to me in terms of lighting. The only thing I might be concerned about is the pavona looks to be a little close to the orange digitata - I'd worry that eventually the pavona would start stinging your montipora and eventually kill it. I'd keep an eye on them and if you see the digitata begin to get stung, frag it and move it somewhere else. Fortunately montiporas are generally fast growers.

Thank you - I had to google those names to place the coral to the name here!

I haven't seen any "tentacles" or anything like that off of either of those corals - The Pavona seems to just have little "hairs" on it - is it more dangerous than that? It looks like a coral that will encrust and grow up from the rock?
Is it more dangerous than just the little "hairs"?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Looks good to my eyes but I agree, beware if that pavona. Or better yet, get rid of it! Horrible corals, grows like weed and sends out sweepers everywhere haha

Oh no - Maybe it's unhappy in the tank? I haven't seen any sweepers from it yet. Is this something that it would do only at night? The wife really likes the bright green "hairy" look of it.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Took your warnings and moved the pavona down to the sand bed where it can easily be moved

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Oh no - Maybe it's unhappy in the tank? I haven't seen any sweepers from it yet. Is this something that it would do only at night? The wife really likes the bright green "hairy" look of it.

Yeah, the sweepers mainly come out at night and if it’s close to another coral.
Good call on moving it

 

[Alexopora]

Thank you - I had to google those names to place the coral to the name here!

I haven't seen any "tentacles" or anything like that off of either of those corals - The Pavona seems to just have little "hairs" on it - is it more dangerous than that? It looks like a coral that will encrust and grow up from the rock?
Is it more dangerous than just the little "hairs"?

As someone keeping pavona and leptoseris (i’m mentioning leptos since they are in the same family), they are definitely the more aggressive sps. Mine have displayed sweepers occasionally but because I keep them away from all of the other sps (monti, acros, pocis etc) its fine.

 

[Seamore2001]

I think you'll be happy with the pavona. It's a nice encrusting coral that gets really interesting shapes and has good color. You just need to keep it a little farther from other corals as it doesn't always play nice. Night time is play time for that one.

You made a good decision to move it away from where you originally had it. Fortunately you have good lighting - anywhere in the 150 PAR and above range should be fine for it, I think. Try putting it on its own little boulder and letting it cover that.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I think you'll be happy with the pavona. It's a nice encrusting coral that gets really interesting shapes and has good color. You just need to keep it a little farther from other corals as it doesn't always play nice.

You made a good decision to move it away from where you originally had it. Fortunately you have good lighting - anywhere in the 150 PAR and above range should be fine I think. Try putting it on its own little boulder and letting it cover that.

I might just leave the frag plug stuck in the sand and let it grow up/out from there.

Space will be at a premium in this small of a tank and there's still a good bit of rock to cover with frags, so I'm trying to play the long game in terms of what corals to keep in which spots.
I'm looking for a Nuvo 25 Lagoon locally and if I can find it i'll probably just plop the current rockwork into it and add another island. If that happens, I can give the pavona some space, otherwise it might just be a sand queen.

I do plan to get another clam though, so where I placed it on the sand might not be its final place either.