How to make a realistic reef at home

[strange33w]

With an upcoming tank build starting next moth for me I wanted to try to make this one more realistic. What are some ideas everyone has to accomplish this. I thought the use of multiple colonies of the same type of coral would help in this. When I look at pics of reef through out the world I always see several of the same coral near each other. So what other ideas do you all of you fellow R2R people have.

 

[Saulsa]

I've always thought a single specie or maybe 2 really nice ones would be crazy. Since just like you said that's quite common in the wild.

 

[Anthrax15]

Definetly consider the rockwork. The reefs in the ocean don't look like rock walls Maybe a single island with lots of open sand bed

 

[strange33w]

Thought a lot about the rock work and have looked at a lot of pics of reefs throughout the world. I am leaning towards a patch reef style aquascape

 

[strange33w]

any mor ideas

 

[ca2or]

For me it was 2 vortech's on opposite sides and a 10 second long pulse anti synchronized. I saw wave tanks and thought.....that looks cool but unnatural unless on a super long tank. On my little 36 inch tank it didn't look right....but when diving or watching Nat Geo or discovery I saw corals swaying left for 5 to 10 seconds then right.....not back and forth like a ping pong game.

My buddy and I have been doing a little experiment and although I am not sure what it all means we have noticed that his corals on a short pulse grew thicker structures with smaller polyps or less extension to where mine on a longer pulse have thinner structures with larger polyps or longer extension. Again we are no scientists....just 2 knuckle head hobbiests that like to try stuff. But my take on it is the shorter pulse makes the coral try to thicken itself to sustain the pressure or fear of breaking....point being it focused more on its stability and less on feeding to where mine did the opposite. Mine also out grow his with pieces from the exact same colony....but I have LED and he has MH so we don't know how that plays out....plus we have different tank sizes.

Not much of an experiment when there are so many inconsistencies so I guess take from it what you will.

Don't even get me started on the out door acro thing he is trying.....

 

[ca2or]

I also saw a par 56....yes 56....spot light setup that was remarkably nice.....between the rock work and the spot lights it reminded me of looking into a crevice or in between 2 rock walls from a side angle....very cool. Everything was growing out or extending from the walls...I don't know how to explain it and I am probably making it sound lame.

I can snap a pic of that setup.....to show you next time I am over there

 

[strange33w]

sounds cool and I have noticed the way they sway on actual reef videos. That was somthing I was going to try and replicate so I will have to copy your time on the pulses with the vortechs as well. Thanks
My goal is so when you see picks of it, it will not emidiatly look like a tank in someones house.

 

[ca2or]

That is what I want as well. I will snap pic's of my buddy's "crevice" tank....I have been thinking ever since I saw it. His 2 walls both peak out of the water which really makes it look realistic.