Coral Spacing

[MUCHO REEF]

I received an email 2 weeks ago from a local reefer who was having some issues with his Zoanthids and Palys that were failing badly. He didn't have a camera and ask what the problem could be. Surprisingly he lived less than 2 miles from me so I stopped by with a friend. All of his parameters were in check, I mean his system was perfect, but his corals were severely crowded which prevented them from receiving the food, nutrients, current and lighting they needed to flourish. After rearranging 40 % of his aquascaping and viewing it yesterday, the difference is night and day.

How important is spacing of corals to you as it relates to your polyps and other corals?

Any tips you can share to other who might be experiencing the same issue?

No need to limit your answers to the questions only BTW. The more info the better.

Mucho Reef

 

[IridescentLily]

What kind of spacing did you arrange his corals in Mucho?
That's so cool that you did that for him.
In both Bornemann's "corals" book, and Sprung's book he did with Delbeek, they say that spacing is a basic thing that is of importance. The books make it clear and simple but it took me awhile before I began to notice just how much of a difference spacing seems to make in people's tanks. Just from the photos they post.
I read just the other day in one of the books which basically said "If you give them room, they will be more apt to grow." Because they have room, they will grow. Well that's about the simplest thing I've ever heard. But it looks like sometimes we may forget that as reefkeepers.
I've always read to keep most corals 6" apart.
I think I read that sweeper tentacle length is what matters because of allelopathy.

This is a good thread, I'll be reading this because it'll be good for us to learn what works and what doesn't for people's zoanthids/corals.
Thanks Mucho.

 

[killingseed]

as my tank gets more and more packed i can see its harder to get flow to all the colonies in my tank. flow is very important and the ones that dont get much or any dont do well at all. i have had zoa's in dead spot just go south and melt away. doesnt matter the size of the tank once they are packed it is hard to proved proper flow. i am working on a larger tank inorder to provide more room for growth, better placement and to setup a better flow system. over all i am hoping for a better and bigger system for displaying , view and enjoy my collection.

 

[Pufferpunk]

My tank is super packed, as some of you have seen in pics:

I use a SeaSwirl for occilating flow, so that's never a problem. I spot-feed every single polyp & coral that will eat & leave off the flow for 1-2 hours (until the water clears & then keep sht skimmer off for 24 hours (no reason to skim out all that expensive food!).

I find the biggest challange is knowing exactly which corals out-sting their neighbors. To keep a crowded tank you MUST KNOW THIS!

 

[Don-Coraleone]

wow! pufferpunk sweet tank.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13666876#post13666876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IridescentLily
What kind of spacing did you arrange his corals in Mucho?
That's so cool that you did that for him.
In both Bornemann's "corals" book, and Sprung's book he did with Delbeek, they say that spacing is a basic thing that is of importance. The books make it clear and simple but it took me awhile before I began to notice just how much of a difference spacing seems to make in people's tanks. Just from the photos they post.
I read just the other day in one of the books which basically said "If you give them room, they will be more apt to grow." Because they have room, they will grow. Well that's about the simplest thing I've ever heard. But it looks like sometimes we may forget that as reefkeepers.
I've always read to keep most corals 6" apart.
I think I read that sweeper tentacle length is what matters because of allelopathy.

This is a good thread, I'll be reading this because it'll be good for us to learn what works and what doesn't for people's zoanthids/corals.
Thanks Mucho.

I didn't rearrange it, I showed him how to do it. His aquascaping was basically a vertical wall with most of his corals not receiving enough flow, nutrients etc, they weren't receiving enough lighting and those which were growing began to crowd many others. Mushrooms were placed too close to small zoa frags which received little or no light once the mushrooms expanded for the day. We simply brought the wall out and with a slope which gave him some depth and room for corals to expand and receive the proper amount of current.

We first remove many of the corals in question to a tub, lowered the wall, move rocks up high down low and brought the reef forward which gave him room for current to move around the lower half of the reef. We added 30 lbs of new live rock, placed the frags on individual rocks with adequate spacing and added some mod kits to his powerheads he had laying around.

He has a very nice reef.

Does anyone else have anything to share?

Mucho

 

[IridescentLily]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13674385#post13674385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MUCHO REEF
I didn't rearrange it, I showed him how to do it. His aquascaping was basically a vertical wall with most of his corals not receiving enough flow, nutrients etc, they weren't receiving enough lighting and those which were growing began to crowd many others. Mushrooms were placed too close to small zoa frags which received little or no light once the mushrooms expanded for the day. We simply brought the wall out and with a slope which gave him some depth and room for corals to expand and receive the proper amount of current.

We first remove many of the corals in question to a tub, lowered the wall, move rocks up high down low and brought the reef forward which gave him room for current to move around the lower half of the reef. We added 30 lbs of new live rock, placed the frags on individual rocks with adequate spacing and added some mod kits to his powerheads he had laying around.

He has a very nice reef.

Does anyone else have anything to share?

Mucho

Awesome Mucho. That was cool of you.
I hope others can chime in on how far or near they space their corals.
That's something I need to know about before I have a tank of course.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

How concerned are you about placement/spacing?

Have you implemented proper spacing when placing new corals or even existing corals?

 

[chucktd321]

What i do when i get a frag or colony is space them a part so after time grwoing out they will mesh together like what pufferpunk did. I really like the look of seeing no live rock just coral

 

[kichimark]

+1 with chuck. Whenever I get a new colony I place it...i say about three inches or so away from other zoas (of similar size...just me) so they can grow into eachother. I tend to keep my mushrooms far away in their own corner of the tank mostly. I did get a colony of zoas as hitchhikers with green florescent mushrooms. I placed them in a flow area the zoas like (and reproduce) but the mushrooms do not care for and I see the shrooms gradually migrate with the flow to another rock. Hopefully they will leave to the new rock and leave the original with the zoas to themselves.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

+1 with chuck. Whenever I get a new colony I place it...i say about three inches or so away from other zoas (of similar size...just me) so they can grow into eachother. I tend to keep my mushrooms far away in their own corner of the tank mostly. I did get a colony of zoas as hitchhikers with green florescent mushrooms. I placed them in a flow area the zoas like (and reproduce) but the mushrooms do not care for and I see the shrooms gradually migrate with the flow to another rock. Hopefully they will leave to the new rock and leave the original with the zoas to themselves.

+1, spacing not only affords the polyps room for growth and expansion, but it allows current to hit the actual reefing. By doing so it helps to feed the reef, aids in reducing and removing any settled detritus, uneaten food, poop left on the reef, etc thus keeping your live rock from clean for filtration purposes in those Berlin systems.


Mucho Reef

 

[Waggs]

I didn't rearrange it, I showed him how to do it. His aquascaping was basically a vertical wall with most of his corals not receiving enough flow, nutrients etc, they weren't receiving enough lighting and those which were growing began to crowd many others. Mushrooms were placed too close to small zoa frags which received little or no light once the mushrooms expanded for the day. We simply brought the wall out and with a slope which gave him some depth and room for corals to expand and receive the proper amount of current.

We first remove many of the corals in question to a tub, lowered the wall, move rocks up high down low and brought the reef forward which gave him room for current to move around the lower half of the reef. We added 30 lbs of new live rock, placed the frags on individual rocks with adequate spacing and added some mod kits to his powerheads he had laying around.

He has a very nice reef.

Does anyone else have anything to share?

Mucho

Ok, this leeds to another problem then, aquascaping. It sounds that the 2 go hand in hand. So, some lessons in aquascaping and coral locations go hand in hand.

Anyone can just stack rocks in a tank but doing it correctly is rarely mentioned. A stack of rocks may appeal to you the human but there must be a fine line where you can have both. I'm in the precess of replumbing my tank due to the DIY overflow system I'm building. I know I need to move some of the major rock scapes so to re-scape and do it properly would be a a big help.

The expertise of those who have been having success with coral/reef/fish aquariums would go a long way to the success of others. Photos and descriptions, sure would be a nick thread if there isn't one already.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Ok, this leeds to another problem then, aquascaping. It sounds that the 2 go hand in hand. So, some lessons in aquascaping and coral locations go hand in hand.

Anyone can just stack rocks in a tank but doing it correctly is rarely mentioned. A stack of rocks may appeal to you the human but there must be a fine line where you can have both. I'm in the precess of replumbing my tank due to the DIY overflow system I'm building. I know I need to move some of the major rock scapes so to re-scape and do it properly would be a a big help.

The expertise of those who have been having success with coral/reef/fish aquariums would go a long way to the success of others. Photos and descriptions, sure would be a nick thread if there isn't one already.

Aquascaping is a personal endeavor. The tank itself is like a blank canvas, you are the artist and it's up to you to paint, or in this case, create that vision via aquascaping. Vincent VanGough once said, "I dream my paintings, then I paint my dreams". You have to envision, through researching pictures in reefing books, online etc, and then map out on a simple piece of paper what that vision is. Then begin to build your reef from the back of one corner forward and upwards.

No two tanks should be alike and I have seen my fair share lately here locally of brick wall aquascaping. One rock stacked on top of another vertically against the rear wall of the tank. I mean, if that is your vision, then fine. But there are no right angles in the ocean and aquascaping should be created with the best health and welfare of all tankmates involved. Poor aquascaping can actually be detrimental/stressful to fish. It can also create dead spots just right for cyano algae to fester.


I had a vision many years ago of what I wanted my aquascaping to look like. I wanted my tank to look like a snap shot of the ocean floor. I searched and looked for a full week. Just taking in all that I saw. Then I grabbed a sheet of paper and sketched it. I once tore my tank down to do some serious cleaning many years ago and to catch a pistol shrimp and a mantis which hitchiked into my tank and I wanted out ASAP. I was able to reaquascape my entire tank back to nearly indentical of that it was just days before.

No one can tell you how to create your vision, just take it slow. Don't pack your rocks in tight formations, allow spacing for water flow/movement which aids in keeping the reef free from settled uneaten food, debri, detritus etc.

I would just start doing some searches to get an idea of what you want and go from there. Good luck and I hope this helps.


Mucho Reef