Starting to add corals more often, need some help/ideas

[Andresnyc93]

Hello everyone,
I’m close to getting my numbers in place for Cal-Alk and Mag, Also have a ReefDose placed just in case numbers start to drop quickly and was wondering with this Aquascaping would you guys add more live rock or leave how it is? I have a couple of cured live rock arches running on my other tank and was wondering if it’s okay so move rocks between tanks.

I also need some help with coral placement, plan on having mostly LPS dominant with mostly different torches and frogspawns ( some acropora down the line) and I’m not really sure where to place them, I have an MP40 running at 65% tidal swell during the day and nutrient transport when lights go off. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[muzikalmatt]

Hello everyone,
I’m close to getting my numbers in place for Cal-Alk and Mag, Also have a ReefDose placed just in case numbers start to drop quickly and was wondering with this Aquascaping would you guys add more live rock or leave how it is? I have a couple of cured live rock arches running on my other tank and was wondering if it’s okay so move rocks between tanks.

I also need some help with coral placement, plan on having mostly LPS dominant with mostly different torches and frogspawns ( some acropora down the line) and I’m not really sure where to place them, I have an MP40 running at 65% tidal swell during the day and nutrient transport when lights go off. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What size tank is this? From the picture it looks like you have a good amount of rock in the tank already while leaving headroom for coral growth. You can definitely move rock between tanks if you want, the only caveat is that any pests from one tank could hitchhike on the rock to the other tank. Just something to keep in mind.

As far as coral placement, I would leave the upper portions of the rockwork open for your future SPS/acro corals. It looks like you have some nice shelves in the middle of the rockwork which would be good for small euphyllia gardens. However, you'll want to give your torches their own area so they don't sting other nearby corals. Also, with the pistol shrimp and goby you'll probably want to avoid putting anything on the sandbed unless it's large enough that they can't move it. Even then, they have a tendency to bury things.

 

[Andresnyc93]

What size tank is this? From the picture it looks like you have a good amount of rock in the tank already while leaving headroom for coral growth. You can definitely move rock between tanks if you want, the only caveat is that any pests from one tank could hitchhike on the rock to the other tank. Just something to keep in mind.

As far as coral placement, I would leave the upper portions of the rockwork open for your future SPS/acro corals. It looks like you have some nice shelves in the middle of the rockwork which would be good for small euphyllia gardens. However, you'll want to give your torches their own area so they don't sting other nearby corals. Also, with the pistol shrimp and goby you'll probably want to avoid putting anything on the sandbed unless it's large enough that they can't move it. Even then, they have a tendency to bury things.

Noted and thanks for the reply!
this is 85 gal with 20 gal sump. I have a quarantine 35 gal and haven’t had any pests on that tank until this day.
The euphyllia garden was legit what I was visualizing when I set up this tank. I put all the rocks together so they’re holding eachother up also the foundation rocks have all been glued together before cycling tank while also giving enough room so most of the acro’s can get as tall as they’d like. I lost my pistol shrimp recently due to aggression of a fire shrimp which I’m not even sure how he can beat a pistol with his giant claw… my diamond goby does make a mess with the sand before lights go out but that’s just him being smart and covering all entrances to his cave, eventually in the morning it goes back to normal but you are correct I won’t put anything on the rocks closer to the sand.

 

[shakacuz]

can definitely stick a monti cap on the back wall once you start delving into SPS.

 

[Andresnyc93]

can definitely stick a monti cap on the back wall once you start delving into SPS.

Thought about this as well, would you put them more towards the top half or closer to the surface? If I can get any of my fish to be hosted by it I’d be more than happy

 

[muzikalmatt]

Thought about this as well, would you put them more towards the top half or closer to the surface? If I can get any of my fish to be hosted by it I’d be more than happy

Definitely not near the surface as montis can grow pretty quickly and shade out everything below it. I'd place it in the middle to lower part of the wall. I marked up three different spots on your photo where you could place it and still see the monti from the front, but in these positions it won't shade out your rockwork. Or if you get the right piece, you might be able to put it in one of the corners. That would look really cool!

 

[Andresnyc93]

Definitely not near the surface as montis can grow pretty quickly and shade out everything below it. I'd place it in the middle to lower part of the wall. I marked up three different spots on your photo where you could place it and still see the monti from the front, but in these positions it won't shade out your rockwork. Or if you get the right piece, you might be able to put it in one of the corners. That would look really cool!

Will definitely keep this in mind, thank so much for the suggestions!
time to go coral shopping