I'm trying to get my tank actually stocked up at long last but I'm feeling a bit lost when it comes to deciding where to put the corals long term. I know about checking light/flow preferences etc, but in terms of visualising how they'll grow out and look as a cohesive whole, I don't really know where to start!
Any opinions and suggestions very much welcome
FTS shot with the scape (excuse the algae, I need to get in there with the scraper again!)
Light is an AI Prime 16HD running a modified Saxby preset (I like a whiter look), with peak intensity of mid to high 40% on the blues.
Flow is currently the stock pump + return; I'm planning to get the random flow generator outputs soon and I'm open to/expecting to end up getting an additional powerhead at some point down the road for the SPS.
Currently in the tank are:
- 2 rock flower nems, which have settled in the front left (only 1 in the photo above)
- 3 frags of zoas
- 1 Ricordea florida, also front left - my hermits pushed it up against the front glass but it seems very happy there so I've not moved it until I know where it will go
- 1 favites, currently on the right hand lower rock but not attached permanently
- 1 duncan coral (not pictured above)
My planned stocking includes also
- pink birdsnest coral. I want to have a good sized colony of this as the focal point. I think I will attach it to the tall left rock about halfway up the height of the tank towards the back, so it can grow out over the middle area? Does this sound like it can work?
- plating monti? I'm not dead set on this one but I do like how they look. I was thinking of putting him on the tall left rock on the left hand side, and letting it plate over the left side of the tank. I think that side is too dark lower down for anything else, anyway.
- I would like to pick up a frag of magician's palys, it was one of the very first corals I got and the only one I've lost
Other than that I have no further plans, so I'm also happy for ideas of corals you think would work well to fill in available spaces in the tank! I don't want to rearrange my rocks, I like how they look. I would probably have set it up differently in hindsight (that top peak is pretty high up and there is a lot of shading on the left side of the tank), but for this iteration of the tank I'm sticking with it.
Thank you!
Any opinions and suggestions very much welcome
FTS shot with the scape (excuse the algae, I need to get in there with the scraper again!)
Light is an AI Prime 16HD running a modified Saxby preset (I like a whiter look), with peak intensity of mid to high 40% on the blues.
Flow is currently the stock pump + return; I'm planning to get the random flow generator outputs soon and I'm open to/expecting to end up getting an additional powerhead at some point down the road for the SPS.
Currently in the tank are:
- 2 rock flower nems, which have settled in the front left (only 1 in the photo above)
- 3 frags of zoas
- 1 Ricordea florida, also front left - my hermits pushed it up against the front glass but it seems very happy there so I've not moved it until I know where it will go
- 1 favites, currently on the right hand lower rock but not attached permanently
- 1 duncan coral (not pictured above)
My planned stocking includes also
- pink birdsnest coral. I want to have a good sized colony of this as the focal point. I think I will attach it to the tall left rock about halfway up the height of the tank towards the back, so it can grow out over the middle area? Does this sound like it can work?
- plating monti? I'm not dead set on this one but I do like how they look. I was thinking of putting him on the tall left rock on the left hand side, and letting it plate over the left side of the tank. I think that side is too dark lower down for anything else, anyway.
- I would like to pick up a frag of magician's palys, it was one of the very first corals I got and the only one I've lost
Other than that I have no further plans, so I'm also happy for ideas of corals you think would work well to fill in available spaces in the tank! I don't want to rearrange my rocks, I like how they look. I would probably have set it up differently in hindsight (that top peak is pretty high up and there is a lot of shading on the left side of the tank), but for this iteration of the tank I'm sticking with it.
Thank you!