Mounting corals on overflow Pros & Cons - Poll & opinions please

PiscesPower · Oct 9, 2017

I'm thinking of mounting some encrusting montis and maybe some shrooms on the center overflow of my RSR 250. Would love opinions on this, particularly if you think its a bad idea. Let me know if you have experiences with this.

Pics are always welcome!!

Alakai · Oct 10, 2017

Plan to put up more

Kayvon · Oct 16, 2017

Lots of votes but no comments.

RyanCSGO · Oct 16, 2017

I don't see a problem with it.
as long as there's no way for something to grow/spread in a way that could obstruct anything

LandenB · Oct 16, 2017

I voted no as I was thinking of the overflow as the slots that allow water to go to your sump or back chamber. If the overflow is defined as basically the false wall, which I think is what this question was inferring actually inferring, then I will have to revise my response to a "yes". That is the only place safe for my invasive gsp lol and the monti pictured above looks like a cool idea

Cherub · Oct 16, 2017

My last build I had psammacora encruting my overflow. It looked nice and caused no issues. Not sure why anyone would say its bad. Not like it grows out of the water to block flow.

914joe · Oct 16, 2017

I'm a small tank guy... I see a lot of valuable real estate there

madweazl · Oct 16, 2017

If you don't plan on cleaning the back of your tank (e.g. macro algae etc) I don't suppose it would matter too much but it (coral) might be difficult to remove from acrylic over time.

andrewkw · Oct 16, 2017

It's hard to just say yes or no. It varies a lot tank to tank. The best look in most cases is a clean scraped back which includes overflow. If you have a wide tank then you can probably avoid doing it for a cleaner look. However if you have an 18" front to back tank you may need the real estate on the overflow. A lot will depend on coral too. The first idea that may pop into your head is a monti cap and that's going to look cool initially but eventually that's going to shade a lot of space and in turn a lot of corals.

I've done it before with stuff like gsp and xenia and it was fine as my moderately size 112 gallon fills up I may go back to doing it again. For now I'm using other available space. If you are conflicted its probably best to look at other tanks or ask for advice with a picture of your tank.

Yuki Rihwa · Oct 16, 2017

I don't see any problem. I'm actually wanted all my tank wall except the front glass (duh) cover with all corals, any types of corals that can attach and grow on the tank wall, it would give a true small nature looking reef rather then a blue/black side tank wall.

Salty1962 · Oct 16, 2017

I guess the biggest consideration is the type of coral. Intrusive vs non-intrusive.

Lovemyreef2015 · Oct 16, 2017

It is cool to have them grow on the overflow. I think it would be ok as long as you keep an eye out for anything encrusting in between the draining areas. We have GSP growing on ours and every few months I go in there and peel away the parts that are starting to block the flow. Here is a picture. The halides aren't on yet so sorry for the quality.

porterreef · Oct 16, 2017

I see no issues it is a surface that can be used for placing corals on.....It's an easy equation really Frags on back wall = more corals I can put in my tank.

Yuki Rihwa · Oct 16, 2017

Lovemyreef2015 said:
It is cool to have them grow on the overflow. I think it would be ok as long as you keep an eye out for anything encrusting in between the draining areas. We have GSP growing on ours and every few months I go in there and peel away the parts that are starting to block the flow. Here is a picture. The halides aren't on yet so sorry for the quality.

This is what I'm talking about, nature beautiful looking

Lovemyreef2015 · Oct 16, 2017

Yuki Rihwa said:
This is what I'm talking about, nature beautiful looking

Thank you

they have been through so much (moving 3 times) been out of the water during the moves for sometimes 6+ hours. They are very resilient. I love how the move in the flow and as a bonus it's alot easier to keep them from taking over the tank by having them on the overflow

Tahoe61 · Oct 16, 2017

After having the entire back and overflow of my older JBJ tank covered in GSP I would probably not use GSP again. I have had Xenia and other softies such as Sinularia take up residence on over flows.

Lovemyreef2015 · Oct 16, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
After having the entire back and overflow of my older JBJ tank covered in GSP I would probably not use GSP again. I have had Xenia and other softies such as Sinularia take up residence on over flows.

Wow, that's a lot of GSP!

kyleinpdx · Oct 16, 2017

Alakai said:
Plan to put up more

I tried attaching some monti caps to the false wall in my IM 25 but couldnt get them to stick, how did you adhere yours?

Crabs McJones · Oct 16, 2017

My vote is no just because eventually the coral is going to grow up to the top, and I don't want to have to continuously cut it back to keep it from blocking the intake.

Reefrookie220 · Oct 16, 2017

I find it's a decision that leads to regret. Montis shade everything after awhile. Gsp becomes a nuisance.

Another point to consider, if you up grade tanks 2 things happen. You lose the majority of the mounted coral, and is harder to sell the old tank with dead unremoveable corals attached to the overflow.