Coral recommendations for vertical rock?

[cdw79]

I've got a largely vertical, mostly flat rock that's notably lacking any coral around it. At its peak I have a grafted cap that's slowly encrusting over its plug and will (hopefully) eventually fan out over the area in question, so while there's solid flow in the area and mid to upper 100's PAR on that spot, I'd expect long term for it to lessen.

I'm looking to avoid anything that's primarily green, but otherwise open to anything that doesn't have a significant risk of becoming invasive (GSP, Xenia, etc). I've considered clove polyps but have heard they can be slow to spread out at times. Any and all recommendations would be great! Thanks

 

[slythy]

What about riccordia floridas? Lots of colors and doesnt split much. Would thrive in that par range

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Green monti?

 

[Dkmoo]

Cyphastreas - doesn't require a ton of light so the verticle should be enough i have 5 different ones in 1 large vertical wall under the shades of my acro colony. so they are my "wall papers"

Leptoseris - same reason as above.

Any kind of encrusting monti if its closer to a glass where reflective light is high enough

Blastos - doesn't need a lot light

 

[cdw79]

What about riccordia floridas? Lots of colors and doesnt split much. Would thrive in that par range

I actually have Riccordias on the rock this rock sits on! I originally was hoping they would bud off and spread up the rock but 6-7 months later and none of them have split, just gotten puffier. So I figured I need to go with something different

Cyphastreas - doesn't require a ton of light so the verticle should be enough i have 5 different ones in 1 large vertical wall under the shades of my acro colony. so they are my "wall papers"

Leptoseris - same reason as above.

Any kind of encrusting monti if its closer to a glass where reflective light is high enough

Blastos - doesn't need a lot light

Cyphastrea sounds like a cool idea, especially with all the different varieties there are. What is the growth rate like for them? And I've read they can do ok under lower lights as I understand. My only concern was that I've had a cyphastrea once start to invade a really nice zoa colony I had and ultimately kinda choked them out- I had to chop up the colony to save what was left. So I'm a little wary, will they be safe with the Monti above (I love the thing) and the ricc's below? Any other ideas? Just want to consider all the options and make sure whatever I choose can deal with both my current PAR, as well as whatever the much lesser PAR that will come from the eventual Monti cap growth

 

[Dkmoo]

Cyphastrea sounds like a cool idea, especially with all the different varieties there are. What is the growth rate like for them? And I've read they can do ok under lower lights as I understand. My only concern was that I've had a cyphastrea once start to invade a really nice zoa colony I had and ultimately kinda choked them out- I had to chop up the colony to save what was left. So I'm a little wary, will they be safe with the Monti above (I love the thing) and the ricc's below? Any other ideas? Just want to consider all the options and make sure whatever I choose can deal with both my current PAR, as well as whatever the much lesser PAR that will come from the eventual Monti cap growth

Anything that encrust can take over and choke out the neighbors if its growth conditions are a lot more favorable than the neighbors. Mine grew slowly but that may also be bc of the shade its in.

The only thing that doesn't encrust in my list above are blastos.

Usually I just let them fight it out - if both things are in a spot thats good for both, then usually they reach a stalemate and reach a boundary

Another way to manage it is that if you see one encroaching on another, take some epoxy and cover up a piece of the coral thats too close. The covered up piece will die and the coral will start to grow over it. This buys time for the other coral to get bigger and hopefully better compete bc the bigger the colony, the more nutrient it can absorb and hopefully be stronger to fight off its borders. Then when the epoxy is covered with the first encrusted, pop the epoxy off, and the coral will have to re-encrust over that same area and you also get a frag out of it.

 

[Chrisv.]

There are some encrusting cyphastrea horror stories for sure...

 

[JaaxReef]

Stylocoeniella, cyphastrea, or Leptoseris would all be good choices. I have little gardens of each of those on the back wall of my tank growing pretty fast now. My burning banana Stylocoeniella colony is about 6” across on the back wall of my tank now.

 

[kevgib67]

Noot a coral but there are many beautiful rock flower anemones that come in many shades of green. They typically stay in one place.

 

[cdw79]

Any thoughts on the clove polyps? That was the original plan but wasn't sure, especially as I've heard that some strains are especially slow growers and felt it would look weird to just have a clump of 5 ish polyps just hanging there if it would take a long time to fill in.

And would some encrusters like Leptos, Cyphastrea, etc potentially cause the grafted cap problems? I could see the cyphastrea getting up to the bottom of the cap and stinging it without me noticing, which I imagine would cause issues. Just a little PTSD from my last cyphastrea encounter lol

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Any thoughts on the clove polyps? That was the original plan but wasn't sure, especially as I've heard that some strains are especially slow growers and felt it would look weird to just have a clump of 5 ish polyps just hanging there if it would take a long time to fill in.

And would some encrusters like Leptos, Cyphastrea, etc potentially cause the grafted cap problems? I could see the cyphastrea getting up to the bottom of the cap and stinging it without me noticing, which I imagine would cause issues. Just a little PTSD from my last cyphastrea encounter lol

Clove polyps might give you another case of PTSD... Lol

 

[Dkmoo]

Any thoughts on the clove polyps? That was the original plan but wasn't sure, especially as I've heard that some strains are especially slow growers and felt it would look weird to just have a clump of 5 ish polyps just hanging there if it would take a long time to fill in.

And would some encrusters like Leptos, Cyphastrea, etc potentially cause the grafted cap problems? I could see the cyphastrea getting up to the bottom of the cap and stinging it without me noticing, which I imagine would cause issues. Just a little PTSD from my last cyphastrea encounter lol

Generally speaking encrusting corals will encrust towards areas thats MORE favorable to growth. I would assume that under your cap there will be more shade so it would not grow as fast towards it. Remember that if it can't get enough energy to expand into the shade, then the only way for it to expand that way is to first expand to areas with more light so as a colony as a whole, it can get enough energy to "fund" the expansion towards the shade.

The pic below is my tank. As you can see, I got 24k, jackolatern and firefly leptos under a red monty cap. Its been 2 years and for the most part they all expanded downward where there's more light. Nothing has touched the cap

 

[Dkmoo]

Clove polyps might give you another case of PTSD... Lol

I would have thought cloves are even more aggressive spreaders bc
1) they are softies, so less requirement to spread (ie, don't need to grow bones)
2) larger polyp means it can easier capture food from water to fuel expansion, which means less light dependent in determining which way to spread
3) requires less light in general so can spread deeper into shades.

 

[cdw79]

Generally speaking encrusting corals will encrust towards areas thats MORE favorable to growth. I would assume that under your cap there will be more shade so it would not grow as fast towards it. Remember that if it can't get enough energy to expand into the shade, then the only way for it to expand that way is to first expand to areas with more light so as a colony as a whole, it can get enough energy to "fund" the expansion towards the shade.

The pic below is my tank. As you can see, I got 24k, jackolatern and firefly leptos under a red monty cap. Its been 2 years and for the most part they all expanded downward where there's more light. Nothing has touched the cap

That actually makes a lot of sense, for some reason I never thought about it that way! It seems like, then, the only thing to keep an eye on would be if it/they start to push downward toward the mushrooms below, at which point it seems like that epoxy approach you mentioned would be the way to go. Can different leptos, cyphastrea, etc touch each other? or will there be some warfare to where the "stronger" one prevails? I've only got two cyphastreas and they're on opposite sides of the display

 

[cdw79]

And so far it looks like encrusters + blastos are the main recommendations (never dipped my toes into blastos but heard they can be a little slower in terms of growing?), anything else come to mind? It's a bit if an unusual space to fill with the expected changing light and the moderate/moderate-high flow going through there

 

[Dkmoo]

That actually makes a lot of sense, for some reason I never thought about it that way! It seems like, then, the only thing to keep an eye on would be if it/they start to push downward toward the mushrooms below, at which point it seems likethat epoxy approach you mentioned would be the way to go. Can different leptos, cyphastrea, etc touch each other? or will there be some warfare to where the "stronger" one prevails? I've only got two cyphastreas and they're on opposite sides of the display

I dont have mine mix, I'm not cyph vs lepto would win. Anecdotally, leptos have longer /stronger sweeper stingers but cyphs require less light..so toss up?

I have mine in separate rocks. The cyphs are in the second structure under the shades of my acro colonies. Pardon the messy water, I was just broadcast feeding. My cyphs are growing very slow bc you see the shades they are under.

You can also see the blasto - yeah they are slow growers, esp if you put them in shade. This little cluster is 2-3 years from a single head.

 

[cdw79]

But if I were to, say, go with several cyphastrea, will there be issues between different kinds of cyphastrea? Or issues between different leptos?

 

[Dkmoo]

But if I were to, say, go with several cyphastrea, will there be issues between different kinds of cyphastrea? Or issues between different leptos?

Same specifies generally should be OK. Mine play nice among themselves

 

[Wasabiroot]

I'm going to suggest a Cynarina.
In the wild they are often vertical or at a steep angle, or on a slope. They can tolerate the low light and the lower flow.

 

[nano reef]

I have these vertical tonga that are connected with a bridge. I plan to use the ones on left side of pic for zoa. There are some rounded off kind of pointed tope. I have drilled holes all over the tongas.

Lierally wracking my brain for years trying to figure out what to put there. Especially being some towards the bottom will be in low light and top high light. Probably shouldnt have set up this way but I thought it looked ascetically pleasing!

I am not a big fan of encrusting corals because they just simply change the rock!

What else could I put there? Also the fronts of the big rocks?

Any ideas of some non stinging lps maybe? Love blastos but they keep dying on me! Maybe because the person I bought from sells wild ones! I just lost a huge colony of about 8 or 9! UGGHH Then lost some in other tank as well!

I thought I might use the bridge for some sps.

I also have meteor showers and another cypastrea and have 2 more coming in but they were so cheap I couldnt resist! lol I have several big chucks of leptos but they sting bad I read!

Appreciate any suggestions