Do you color situate your SPS?

spspirate · Oct 31, 2016

Do you color coordinate or situate your SPS? I know I do. For some reason I can't have two blues side by side or two reds. For example I wouldn't put a Red Planet and a Tierra del Fuego side by side, or a blue millepora and a blue tenuis in very close proximity to each other. I know sounds petty but I think a lot of reefers are like this. Normally I would do a orange, blue, green together with a tri-colored type all in one are but sometimes you collect so much coral your run out of space..Ha!! Heres a similar example from an older reef of mine. Trying not to blend but have each colony contrast the ones around it.

ReeferMaddness843 · Oct 31, 2016

Looks good. I read a while back the best way to get a striking contrast is to look at a color wheel. Place corals directly across from the color wheel next to each other and they will stand out the most.

ReeferMaddness843 · Oct 31, 2016

revhtree · Nov 1, 2016

spspirate said:
Do you color coordinate or situate your SPS? I know I do. For some reason I can't have two blues side by side or two reds. For example I wouldn't put a Red Planet and a Tierra del Fuego side by side, or a blue millepora and a blue tenuis in very close proximity to each other. I know sounds petty but I think a lot of reefers are like this. Normally I would do a orange, blue, green together with a tri-colored type all in one are but sometimes you collect so much coral your run out of space..Ha!! Heres a similar example from an older reef of mine. Trying not to blend but have each colony contrast the ones around it.

I really like to do this. Looks good!

BigJim · Nov 1, 2016

I couldn’t help but notice a few purples close together on the left there.

It seems funny to meticulously plan randomness, but I do the same thing. I think you are better than I am though. It really looks nice.

themcnertney · Nov 1, 2016

I like where you are going with this, but I think some of those coral will out grow others and you will lose some. I would do this when the coral a bit bigger. My profile pic is a great example.

spspirate · Nov 1, 2016

The thought plan is always the trick. You also have to consider light flow depth and the type of coral that your adding. It's not easy but that's what's strived. A trick that I use if two corals do not play nice together is using a syringe of vinager and hitting the outside base of the coral which knocks it back a bit.

spspirate · Nov 1, 2016

Dan McNertney said:
I like where you are going with this, but I think some of those coral will out grow others and you will lose some. I would do this when the coral a bit bigger. My profile pic is a great example.

Your profile pic is great! Yes you do loose some but even a home reef is constantly evolving.

spspirate · Nov 1, 2016

BigJim said:
I couldn’t help but notice a few purples close together on the left there. It seems funny to meticulously plan randomness, but I do the same thing. I think you are better than I am though. It really looks nice.

Thanks

Yea I need a red in there to separate the two.

jlanger · Nov 1, 2016

After taking lighting and flow requirements into consideration, color theory is next in importance where I place my corals.
When I was a design student, I took a color theory class and thought it was a useless class. Little did I know that years later, it's probably the most useful class I took in school. I use color theory all the time!

Here's some pictures I took for a posting I made about using color theory with coral placement.

Here's a picture showing what is achieved by complementing the red/orange of a setosa frag against the green/purple of some Emerald Eye zoanthids.

And sometimes, a single coral will complement the colors themselves.
Lobophyllia hemprichii brain coral.

And there's times when two adjacent secondary colors work well with each other; purple and green.
Bicolor hammer coral.

ritter6788 · Nov 1, 2016

I always kept my colors separated. I went to great lengths to keep similar color corals apart.

Drove me nuts to have 2 of the same color coral in an area. Even if they grew that way on their own I would relocate if possible.