Encrusting corals for the back wall of the tank

[Starganderfish]

Been looking into getting some encrusting corals to cover the back wall of my 20 gal Waterbox tank.
Thought about GSP but I really didn't want to deal with the invasive nature of it.
Looking at other encrusting coral types I like the look of Cyphastrea, Leptoseris and the (encrusting) Montipora types.

I don't want anything that will grow out too far horizontally, more something that will cover the back wall without taking up much open space.

I have AI Prime lighting over the tank which provides pretty good lighting. No idea of the PAR levels but my Maxima Clam is about 200mm below the surface and growing happily and well. Rose BTA is chilling and happy, Other corals are all LPS (torches, Gonios, Zoa's etc ) and are content.
My params are pretty solid - I'm dosing Nitrate because Hanna tests peg it at 0.0, Phosphates are negligible, I dose All-for-Reef daily, feed GonioPower and Red Sea Reef Energy AB+ pretty regularly as well as various frozen foods etc.
Flow is a pair of Jebao MLW 5's that create a nice current across the back wall.
I think any of the corals mentioned would manage fine in the tank.

The first question is: Are any of those three corals (Cyphastrea, Leptoseris and encrusting Montipora) safe to grow in proximity or will they attack and annihilate each other?
In terms of lighting needs, it looks like Lepto are low light, Cyphast are medium light and Monti vary from medium to high depending on the type.
How crazy would it be to mount a small frag of Monti at the top, Cyphastrea at the middle and Lept at the bottom of my tank's rear wall and just let them grow out and see what happens? It would be pretty cool to have a range of colours and textures across the back wall. It would take a few months to a few years for them to spread out enough to touch so I'm curious about the practicality

I can source the below for pretty good prices locally so am weighing up between:

Bowser Cyphastrea
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
Aliens Blood Cyphastrea

Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris

SR Fairy Lights Montipora

CN Rainbow Phoenix Montipora

Is this a crazy idea doomed to end in tears or worth a try? If mixing would be bad, which would be the best option to cover the back wall?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

rainbow Monti. Skittles is another name I think for it
-d

 

[homer1475]

Lepto will kill anything it is near. Monti will kill by outpacing everything else, and grow over it.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Cyphastrea will kill monti. I have a spongodes that was beside a clump of Bizzaro cyphastrea. The spongodes was attempting to grow over top the cyphastrea. I thought I was going to have to intervene, I like the cyphastrea, but the cyphastrea was able to handle the situation on it's own. The vertical gap between the 2 was small enough (2-3 mm | 3/32" - 1/8") that the cyphastrea nukes the growth margin on the spongodes.

I have another cyphastrea on the frag rack that the same spongodes is overgrowing, but in this case the vertical distance is too far for the cyphastrea to defend itself, about 25 mm | 1", so I will need to intervene in that case to save the cyphastrea.

I have found that when cyphastrea encounter each other, they get into a pushing match, trying to outgrow their opponent rather than sting them. So it might be important for back wall applications.

 

[Starganderfish]

I went ahead and ordered a mix of corals from the site, and got a freebie thrown in.
I do have to say, I really wish sellers would label their frags when they send them. At least write on the bag or container with a sharpie!
8 corals:
Orange Bernardpora Frag (Small) × 1
Cyphastrea (Small) Frag Pack - Bowser Cyphastrea, Meteor Shower Cyphastrea, Aliens Blood Cyphastrea
SR Fairy Lights Montipora Frag × 1
Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris Frag × 1
Sponge Bob Zoanthid × 1

FREE Rainbow Phoenix Monti frag

I'm having to stick them in a quarantine tank under lights for a day or two till they emerge and I can hopefully figure out which is which. They've started to emerge and colour up so hopefully it's not too hard to work out! If I get stuck I'll attach additional pics for help with ID!!

 

[jasper9]

How did this go so far on the back wall?

 

[HB AL]

I would go with any encrusting monti and/or chalices..

 

[nano reef]

I am attempting to do sort of the same thing LOl

I have a lot of tonga rocks propped against back wall with holes drilled in to mount corals. I have a brige in the middle seperating them. I have yet to attaching anything but I do have zoas on one. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to put that can grow vertically!

I have done some auctions and picked up jack o lantern leptos and quite a few cyphastrea. Does anyone know if I can mix them on the same rock? I dont think either sting?

If not then I defiently need to get more leptos because I dont want the whole big tonga covered in the same color and I have 2 Jack o lanterns.

I rather not put all encrusting but it pretty much all vertical growth.

I have a chalice siting on top of the branching bridge and doing fine. I think I will take pics of tank and maybe get better advice. I have an auction I am doing and thinking of adding more. Like electric daisy stylocoeniella and bizarro cyphastrea.

Sorry if I am hijacking the post!

 

[Project]

I have some of both on my back wall currently started to encrust. I will check back when it starts to encrust over each other

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

I did this first thing when I set up my 125G a year and a half ago almost now. Was a big success so far, they're all puddling out and make for an awesome looking back-drop IMO.

I also made a thread on this topic if you're interested:

Encrusting coral back walls

Hello everyone, I just glued a bunch of different cyphastrea to the back wall in my tank. So far so good... I'm wondering if I could see any pics of any successful back wall encrusters from other reefers here. Here's an example from @rusgum Looks like an encrusting monti on the left side...

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