Coral (frag) placement

[Ajae]

I haven't really seen much of this ( maybe because it's a dumb question) but can I'm running out of surface space on the topside of my rocks. Can I place some frag plugs sideways on the rocks? or just certain ones? Won't they just grow towards the light like plants do?

 

[A1t2o]

If you can get them to stay and they are at the right distance from the lights with the right flow and so on, then it can be really good to do this. You can get more surface area of the coral that gets higher par. Mainly best for SPS, but you usually don't want LPS at the top of your tank anyways. LPS you can place wherever as long at the mouth/head is facing towards the light, so branching LPS are good when properly arranged while others need to be on a flat surface.

 

[Ajae]

Ah ok so I can't mount a frogspawn sideways, how about a favites? will they work? when they grow they end up all over the side of the tank.

 

[Ogi]

I have hammers and torches with skeleton sideways, but fleshy parts are all in the light, doing great.

 

[A1t2o]

Ah ok so I can't mount a frogspawn sideways, how about a favites? will they work? when they grow they end up all over the side of the tank.

Frogspawn are euphyllia. The euphyllia corals are a little different since their fleshy portion extends out so far that it can catch a lot of light without directly facing the light. Favites are a brain coral that grow in a ball, so they are best on a flat surface where they can grow upward and outward in all directions. Any portion that is facing at all downward will not grow, and even the mouths facing sideways don't grow on their own. Since they are attached to the ones facing upward and they share nutrients through the attached flesh, they do still grow.

 

[billdogg]

I have started mounting some SPS to the back glass using plastic coated rare earth magnets and JB Waterweld.

 

[Ajae]

Umm sounds like an idea! Any pictures?