Horizontal zoning in a shallow mixed reef tank?

[Keannis]

Hopefully this isn't something that's constantly asked that I've just missed. I'm about 4-5 months in to my first tank since a 90 gal LPS/softy tank probably a decade ago. This time around it's a 30L IM nuvo fusion tank with two OceanRevive T247s on it, and I'm having a lot of fun with it - water chem is really nice and stable, everything is thriving - and looking ahead, I'd like to aim for a mixed SPS/LPS tank this time, but the tank's shallow nature (the water column is only ~12" deep but the tank's 36" wide) has me a bit thoughtful.

Has anyone ever set up a mixed reef tank that's more side-by-side lighting/flow zones than vertical? I've got two lights - powerheads on either side of the tank - can I set up one side as lower light, lower flow for my LPS and the other side higher lights and stronger flow? What are the downsides that I'm missing here besides the typical mixed reef considerations? Thanks!

 

[Rover88]

Hopefully this isn't something that's constantly asked that I've just missed. I'm about 4-5 months in to my first tank since a 90 gal LPS/softy tank probably a decade ago. This time around it's a 30L IM nuvo fusion tank with two OceanRevive T247s on it, and I'm having a lot of fun with it - water chem is really nice and stable, everything is thriving - and looking ahead, I'd like to aim for a mixed SPS/LPS tank this time, but the tank's shallow nature (the water column is only ~12" deep but the tank's 36" wide) has me a bit thoughtful.

Has anyone ever set up a mixed reef tank that's more side-by-side lighting/flow zones than vertical? I've got two lights - powerheads on either side of the tank - can I set up one side as lower light, lower flow for my LPS and the other side higher lights and stronger flow? What are the downsides that I'm missing here besides the typical mixed reef considerations? Thanks!

I have no experience in this, but I've definitely seen some youtube channels of mixed reefs done left-to-right rather then top bottom. The person doing this had a light over each area of the tank, and the left side was dimmest while the right side was brightest. And then within those zones you have top to bottom for most needy coral to more light sensitives at the bottom.

You can certainly do the same with flow if you know how it works and can get your pumps to do what you want. I think getting the flow exactly balanced in each area would be harder then adjusting the lights. Having three separate lights with their own controls make that part easy, you just need to watch how intense the bleedover zones get where two lights meet.

 

[MarkW64]

Hopefully this isn't something that's constantly asked that I've just missed. I'm about 4-5 months in to my first tank since a 90 gal LPS/softy tank probably a decade ago. This time around it's a 30L IM nuvo fusion tank with two OceanRevive T247s on it, and I'm having a lot of fun with it - water chem is really nice and stable, everything is thriving - and looking ahead, I'd like to aim for a mixed SPS/LPS tank this time, but the tank's shallow nature (the water column is only ~12" deep but the tank's 36" wide) has me a bit thoughtful.

Has anyone ever set up a mixed reef tank that's more side-by-side lighting/flow zones than vertical? I've got two lights - powerheads on either side of the tank - can I set up one side as lower light, lower flow for my LPS and the other side higher lights and stronger flow? What are the downsides that I'm missing here besides the typical mixed reef considerations? Thanks!

I don't see any reason you can't. My mixed reef is NOT shallow (31"), so I have vertical zoning, but I'm also using "side-by-side" zoning. My tank is a peninsula, and I have my rock sloping from high on one side to low towards the other end. My Gyres and returns are all at the "high" end, and I also have my lighting set up on a gradient from more to less intense.