Has anyone done this other than Leonardo and Chris Ward?

[Andrew17030]

I am planning my coral frag stocking and keep coming back to the idea of having between 3-5 large colonies, staghorns. I have a 120g quarter hex. that is roughly 32"x32"x36" and 30" tall. This gives me alot of room for growth. I have already desinged my pillars and drilled holes all over. I am just waiting for my rock to be done cooking. I think that if I placed several frags of the same corals around the tank that it would look more natural. Not that I would know. I haven't been in the ocean after I was stung by jelly fish when I was young. So my idea is low amount of rock about 90-100 lbs and most likely two to three species with lots of room for growth. Has anyone seen or done this? The two inspiring designs that I have seen are from Leonardo's "Formosa Forest" and Chris Ward's October, 2006 TOTM. I would love to see pictures from anyone who has done this. Thanks...

 

[InsaneClownFish]

I'm considering doing something similar with no live rock in the tank. I may put the Millepora frags right on the bottom glass and let them develop into small colonies.

 

[velvetelvis]

I'm doing something similar in my tank, with branching montiporas (digitata, confusa, capitata), a school of threadfin cardinalfish, and some low-growing halimeda on the substrate. I think those clean, minimalist, open aquascapes with just a few species of corals and fish--and with the corals given plenty of room to grow out--are a refreshing change from the usual frag-packed rock wall/garden with a little of everything. The way they use negative space in their aquascapes reminds me of Takashi Amano's FW planted tanks.