How do you plan your tank

[pstank1]

I've been slowly switching my tank over to sps after having an anemone and mixed reef over the past 4 years. I've picked up a few pieces and started thinking about where they should be put in my tank. I've been scanning http://sdmas.com/corals/species.php to see how the various species grow, but how often does the growth in a tank match what's seen in the wild?

Should I just give a few inches for growth around each coral and let them go, or is it worth the effort to plan everything out? Do any of you sit in front of an empty tank and picture how things will look when they've grown in then go out and try to find corals to match the picture in your head?

I've got a nice vertical wall in the middle of the tank and I'd love to put a few horizontally tabling corals in at various heights (maybe a. granulosa or a. caroliniana or something along those lines). If they would actually table.

 

[Finland]

I think it would be a good idea to plan things out on how you want things to look after the corals grow out. Some corals will encrust a large area before they grow vertical while other will barely encrust at all. Definately plan ahead. I made the mistake on my first sps tank, on seeing how many corals I could pack into it. They ended up growing into each other before they could really mature to look good. On my current tank, I am leaving a minimum of 6 inches between most corals. Remember also, that when tables and caps grow out, the area below them is shaded. On my last tank, I ended up with a cap higher up in the tank that was 18 inches round and it wasted so much real estate below it.

 

[pstank1]

How do you handle placing corals that can both table or grow like a shrub? Can you always get it to table by putting on the edge of a rock or mounting it horizontal.

I've already looked at my available space and realized I needed far fewer corals than I thought. That's what made me start thinking about not only how large they get but also what shapes they grow into to try to minimize growing into each other later.