I am trying to study coral interaction/ placement/ requirements now. Have several books on the way to me. How did you figure out what all could be placed together etc.?? Also, fyi I am using stock led lights right now so sticking with soft and lps. Any recommendations for some of the"tree" like corals that would work? Was reading about some possible leather corals- toadstool mushroom leather arms spaghetti finger leather? Stil looking into them...dont keep xenia (or blue xenia), clove polyp , gsp. They encrust rock, which is why its hard to get rid of them. Frogspawn, hammer etc may grow fast, but if you want, its relatively easy to frag them off. They grow big, which is the main reason I would hesitate to keep them , since I dont want to relocate corals in my tank for several years, and I also want space for other things.
Zoa's are good choice, can lords are good choice, there are some cyphastrea and leptoseris that will be good. Remember, other than your isolated island, you can also your rockscape the kinda segregate the corals, they all avoid shaded places, so wherever you have two rock faces separated by a shaded place, they are perfect to keep separate fast growing corals.
Another point to consider is that you can keep some smaller polyp softies, like some zoa or cloves or some monties that are encrusting on the base , while grow some branching hard corals on the same rock, its very much like you have a big tree (branching coral) and grass/shrubs in the ground (encrusting corals, cloves/zoas). This work out becuase the shade produced by the branching corals inhibit the encrusting coral to grow towards its base and encrusting itself. You have to rememver to add the branching coral first, and then introduce the encrusting one later, and the whole thing needs to be done in a way that considers those corals growth rates.
Anyway.. dont want to side track the thread, but I think rockscaping and coral placement is a very involved thing and I was only able to understand some aspects of it after couple of years of reef keeping when I realized how individual corals grow and how flow, light & rockscape controls their direction of growth/sweeper tentacles etc.
Judi, nice little star!
So how big is your RFA? And I assume you have a sandy bottom? How deep in the sand?
I've taken many of my bigger ones and put them in a PVC pipe end cap. BTW PVC end caps are cheap and can easily be cut shorter if your sand isn't deep enough. They come in different sizes so you can find one that's about the correct size for the foot to fit into and have a bit of room to grow. After the RFA is attached to the bottom inside of the end cap, you can place it in the sand and push the end cap in until it almost disappears. If left like that for a couple of weeks, it's very unlikely the RFA will move. They like being in the sand and having their foot in a hard hole they can hide in. After a 2 or 3 weeks, I can push the end cap all the way into the sand so it really can't be seen and every RFA I've done this to has stayed in place. Even when pulled back out of the sand and moved to a different tank! There is a bit more about the idea in the RFA discussion linked in the signature at the bottom of this post.
Lol i hope someday to go bigger but this is already costing more than planned and a good start ti get my feet wet again. So fun your son in interested too!!
Very nice!Here are pics of my rfa's:
Try keeping the net handy. Fish always seem to run from the net in fear. Ages ago I used to just drop the net in the water to keep my shrimp from climbing all over me when working in the tank. Nothing stressful, just there as a warning.
Awesome! I love diving!Wanted to share a few pics from our trip this month to Roatan, Honduras , sorry for poor quality
That’s so cool! Those boats are really neat. I do deffinetly recommend getting certified though, it’s truly amazing to be down there, you will love it.
I always wait at least an hour, but admit that is arbitrary. Probably not that long at all really.
This is my Biocube 4 months old. The toadstool mushroom looks great. However, as you can see the placement is in the wrong spot for future corals and growth. As everyone says, research harder work slower. I like your aquascape.
Your tank looks great!This is my Biocube 4 months old. The toadstool mushroom looks great. However, as you can see the placement is in the wrong spot for future corals and growth. As everyone says, research harder work slower. I like your aquascape.
Looks almost like a Tunicate. A harmless filter feeder. Possibly a Sponge. If it moves though, I am wrong.
Wow! Really a huge array of colours. The scape I think could have been a bit more interesting other than being a flat shelf. Other wise a great collection.A zoa garden? You mean kind of like this?
