So I was wondering if maybe some of you could give me suggestions about some corals that would work in my tank. I'm wanting this to be mainly an LPS & soft coral tank. I added the red circles and numbers to the photo so maybe it'd be easier to understand what I was talking about. I don't know if I am over thinking coral placement. I see some tanks that have corals very close together. It kind of scares me to put stuff too close. I want to let things have room to grow in peace. So at this point I'm kind of being a little too cautious maybe.
As mentioned before about the rocks on the right of the tank, I'm going to fill up with zoas and palys. I'm just going to let them grow wild. The gonoporia on the bottom right hand side, I've given it room to grow. I've had it close to 6 months. I'm hoping that it will continue to grow and not die. It's kinda scary when you read all the articles online about the survival rates (even though it seems like they are improving).
#1:
I'm really trying to figure out what to do with the sand bed spot labelled #1. I'm thinking that I want some kind of LPS that is bright red to go in that spot. I have a lot of greens and purple in my tank. I could possibly move the green brain coral to the left, and put the #1 coral in its spot. I also plan on letting the frogspawn to the left of #1 grow larger. It is only a single head now. But the current in this area is flowing to the left, so hopefully it'll help keep it somewhat in check from stinging other corals.
I have googled red LPS corals, but not really sure would be the best. I wouldn't be opposed to putting the red lps on the rock in the #2 spot, but it just seems like most LPS I find prefer sand bed spots.
#2:
I am also having problems with what to do with this rock. It's a pretty large area of open space right now. I have a Green Leather Toadstool behind #2, to the right. From what I read about it, if it's a male toadstool, it'll only get like 4 inches wide. But if it's female, it can get much larger. I know fragging is always an option, but I've not really done it yet, and it kind of worries me. The kenya coral tree, I am going to hopefully move to the #5 spot when I build my sump, and get rid of the HOB protein skimmer. I don't have it there now because of two scarlet skunk shrimp who constantly harass anything I put in that area. So back to the #2 spot. I was thinking maybe putting something like a Duncan coral there. I'm not sure if it would be more of the same green and purple though. But I thought it might look kind of like a massive anemone. But my concern was the toadstool, and then the green star polyps at #3. I was going to let the green star polyps grow in the area of #3 and some up the side of rock #2. Just didn't know if they would over take the Duncan colony. I know that GSP grows like weeds, but it doesn't happen over night. And I think I shouldn't have no problem keeping it cut back.
Another option would be to move the candy cane corals labelled #4 to the #2 rock, and put something like a duncan coral on the sandbad in the #4 slot. But I think my candy cane corals really like this spot. I did have them on rock #2, but they seem to open up even more in spot #4. I'm not set on just a duncan coral. I just seen it tonight.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I would like to start filling these spaces in with corals this month or maybe in October. I hope this makes sense reading this information, as I am seeing it in my head. It's kind of hard when you aren't looking at the actual tank.
I'm still stocking my tank, but it's slowly getting there.
