Montipora, Leptoseris, Cyphastrea Corals ???

[sixline]

I'm looking to branch out a bit with my coral selection. I keep seeing these 'encrusting' corals online and they all look somewhat similar.

Are they similar as far as difficulty of care and requirements?

And I guess, now that I'm asking, what are the difficulty levels and requirements? Do they get along in mixed environments with soft corals and LPS?

Thanks in advance>

 

[Graffiti Spot]

They similar in that they are all fairly easy to keep and do well in a variety of situations. Most might grow pretty fast so keeping them off your main rocks is probably a good idea if you want other corals. Most acropora collectors stay away from them because they take up so much real estate but people who like to frag love them because they are easy to frag and there are lots of colors. Problem is some of them have decent price tags which I would stay away from until the market is saturated because they grow fast, no reason they should be pricey for very long.
I would be curious if there are any variants that don’t grow fast. The darth maul porites is the only one I have kept with acros because it grows very slow and is a rare piece. I fragged mine until a lot of people had it in my area because back then no one had that piece. Took a while to even find it.

 

[nano reef]

no one else has an answer? I am branching out myself and have bought some encrusting like jack o lantern lepto and meteor showers cyphaestra captain america cyphaestra.

I dont want my whole tonga brach covered in jack o lantern so can I mix it with the cyphaestra's I just mentioned?

Tomorrow there is an auctioned I am involved in and he has a bizzaro cypheastra and a daisy stylocoeniella I am considering.

Can someone please tell me what I can mix with what?

 

[MrGisonni]

Cyphastrea will grow quickly. Stylocoeniella will spread just not as fast. All the corals mentioned will grow in stable conditions and low to moderate lighting 50 to100 par. Montipora like more light than the others. Corals will grow into each other as they compete for space. It's a bit tricky to keep things under control with encrusting corals.

 

[encrustingacro]

Montipora require medium-high light and flow and are the most sensitive to parameter swings of the 3. Leptoseris, being deeper-water/mesophotic corals, require low lighting; not sure about flow. Cyphastrea require medium lighting and flow. I would say they are actually LPS, as they are Merulinids.

 

[19Mateo83]

I would keep like species in close proximity with each other or they will fight. As mentioned above, the cyphastrea is technically a lps I believe. I see a lot of folks letting them grow on the back glass.