Requesting your thoughts on coral spacing/grouping

[Mr. Brooks]

I'm thinking about grouping like color acros close together. So area would have blue corals, another would have red and so on. The idea is to show the subtle differences in acro species of the same color by placing them next to each other. Anyone have any thoughts on this idea?

 

[Reefer40b]

You can place acro's close but... they will kill each other when they start getting closer... they don't have to be touching to do so... I would give them enough space that you don't have to prune all the time and not have to worry about them killing each other from being to close. you should still be able to see all the subtle differences just fine.

 

[reefmutt]

Aesthetically, it's a neat idea. But you still need room. Will you start with frags or colonies?
Like reefer40b said, different species can (and most often, but not always) do harm each other.
To have a good effect, you'd need a big tank.
Done right and well, I'd absolutely love to see a tank like this..

 

[itz frank]

In my tank, I gave everything about a 7-8 inch diameter of spacing. Things grow quick and in directions you can't control.

I've had a red planet take out two other sps so far and a tricolor begin to take out the base of a wwc piece that about 8 inches tall with multiple branches.

You're going to want to space everything out really well or you'll end up with more cons than positives.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

My tank is 96" x 36" x 26". I'm buying only small frags so I can thoroughly dip and qt. What I meant by spacing was how far away should I place like colors from each other. Sorry I wasn't clear about that point.

 

[jda]

Where you place this stuff will depend on your lights. If you have some lights that spread well, then you can put stuff where ever you want. If you have some point-source LEDs, then you will need to put the higher light stuff directly under them and the lower light stuff off to the sides.

If you are certain that you like a coral in a place, then mount it. If you are not so sure, then leave it on the plug so that you can yank it off later.

I like to have some stags mixed in with my plating stuff so that they can grow up through the plates. I would keep montis low since they can shadow anything under them.

The spacing depends on your patience. I have some as close as two or three inches, but the stuff that I know that I am going to love is about 6-8" away from other stuff. I also overstock a bit and then weed out the ones that I don't like. I have Tyree Pink Lem in four different places in my tank right now - I will end up with one, but I am not sure which one yet.

 

[stevejrnc]

I'm thinking about grouping like color acros close together. So area would have blue corals, another would have red and so on. The idea is to show the subtle differences in acro species of the same color by placing them next to each other. Anyone have any thoughts on this idea?

are you saying you plan to color coordinate your tank ?

I've never done that but I really like your idea makes so much sense because yes it would definitely show the small to big differences between red/green/blue etc

 

[Mr. Brooks]

are you saying you plan to color coordinate your tank ?

I've never done that but I really like your idea makes so much sense because yes it would definitely show the small to big differences between red/green/blue etc

Yes this is the idea. It will look unnatural for sure but I plan on collecting high end pieces under Radions. Nothing natural about the rainbow colors I want to display. Some of the best traits of the high end pieces I want are really subtle. By putting like color colors close together, you'll be able to see the differences. That's the idea anyway.

 

[jda]

What exactly are you looking for from the colors? LEDs are not really all that good about bringing out the subtleties in acropora, unless you mean something like a black-light effect. Nearly all really nice contrasting, multicolor acropora will not likely look as good to your eye as lights that you might have had before (if you had any).

Anyway, not wanting to start a war and actually trying to be helpful, and I will stop posting now... just wanted to mention this in case you had high end acropora before and have a baseline for what you are wanting.

This is a well thought out post about the subtle differences in lighting acropora and since you mentioned subtleties, then it might help:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24373989&postcount=1231

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I ran halides in the past. I've got a row of 6 Radion G3 pros mounted perpendicular and flanked front and back with ATI blue plus and coral plus T5 bulbs. I'm still trying this light set up out. A lot of my corals are coming from World Wide Corals. They're running all Radions in their tanks. Heat is a major problem for me in Southern California so I have to give the Radions a chance. If WWC can do it I'm hoping I can too. I'm going to give it a year.