Attaching Corals & where to keep.

[Mnemic]

Morning everyone!

Even though this is for my Nano, I feel its more of a general Question. I have pics, but don't have them available to post just yet, but will soon! My morning project is to find out the needs of some various corals that I just got.

Well I have made home in my 5 Gallon Nano 12 Various small Corals from Seacrop, and wanted to get some help on attaching them to the rockwork and whatnot. Something that I just haven't seen an actual question about. How do you do it?

I ordered the following (Can't pick species): Not sure how to classify most of these yet.

2 Mushrooms,
4 Hard Corals,
3 SPS Corals, and
3 Soft Corals.

Here is what I got:
2 mushrooms (each on rock bits, easy to mount)
Slipper coral (no clue how to mount it-leave on substrate?)
Candy coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Fox coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Torch Coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Hyndophora (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Montipora Capricornis (Its brown/pink unattached)
Pavona (glue/epoxy base to rock?)
Cabbage Leather (its attached to some rock)

These two I don't know how to mount at all.
Finger Leather
Speckeld Leather

Other bits:
The strange 'Slipper' Coral: I'm not sure how to mount it at all.. guessing just leave it on the substrate? I noticed it has not put any tenticals out at all yet, but I can see some small green "heads" in the coral, and I think those are the tenticals. I think it is in too high of a flow area for the moment, and thats why.

everything I have is not very big, and looks Very nice in my 5G so far. Does anyone see anything I should try to keep away from other certain things, and what CAN I keep next to each other with little to no harm?

Thanks and I promise to post picks of all this stuff soon!

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Mnemic
Here is what I got:
2 mushrooms (each on rock bits, easy to mount)
Slipper coral (no clue how to mount it-leave on substrate?)
Candy coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Fox coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Torch Coral (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Hyndophora (glue/epoxy base to Rock?)
Montipora Capricornis (Its brown/pink unattached)
Pavona (glue/epoxy base to rock?)
Cabbage Leather (its attached to some rock)

These two I don't know how to mount at all.
Finger Leather
Speckeld Leather

I trust you have some awesome lighting for the stony corals you received. The Hydnophora, the Pavona and the Montipora will need pretty intense lighting to thrive in a captive system. In addition, the presence of the Euphyliid (torch) will stimulate some allopathic confrontations in the tank when it sends out sweepers or detaches pieces of tentacles as a defense. All the soft Octocorals will produce terpenes that will stunt the growth of the stony corals in such a small tank, I hope you intend to skim heavily and use carbon 24/7. The Candycane will do OK in a tank with PC's or VHO, and will not be too offended by the octocorals. If you place the Corallimorphs (mushrooms) next to the stony corals, they may produce some defenses that appear as fine white threads either from the oral opening (in moderate cases) to those emanating from the edge of the oral disc (in extreme cases). To make the nano tank work with less conflict, I would swap the stony corals that are light needy for a few other specimens that have lower light requirements, as if you meet the needs for these specimens, it will tend to drive your water temps up, and in such a small tank, it will be difficult to maintain a consistent temp. The stony corals with the exception of the Fox and the Torch will need higher current requirements to survive as well, almost to the point that they will make the other corals and Octocorals in the tank suffer.

The slipper is most likely some spp. of Fungia and will do fine on a sugarsized sand substrate. All the leathers can be either superglued to some rubble pieces or rubberbanded to a piece for a few weeks. This will usually result in a new specimen growing from both sides of the constriction. Toothpicks work as well, and most leathers and Sinularia will do OK next to each other (corallimorphs as well, although there are a few really aggressive shrooms)

Before you make any drastic changes, I would suggest that you refer to Eric's excellent book on coral requirements (Aquarium Corals, Eric Borneman) and decide on which biotope you would prefer to keep in such a small tank, as you will need to select one set of conditions and populate your tank based on which specimens meet those requirements. A tank that small would be difficult to try and supply for the demands of several different types of corals. At best, it will be a compromise for all the specimens involved.

Sorry, I am sure that is not what you want to hear about these critters.

HTH

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Mnemic you have just received some great advice and information from Tom(TWyatt) and I respect his opinions greatly!!

I also would be interested in what type lighting you have especially for sps corals!

[Mnemic]

Wow, Thanks TDW. Appreciate the information.

I couldn't pick species when I ordered the stuff, so It was a gamble either way. I'll be reading up a lot more on everything you said there, and I'll do my best to try and determin what I'm going to do.

the 5G tank I have right now has a 13W 6400K and a 13W 50/50 Actnic/10,000K.

Tank shot below. Nothing is fully attached yet, as I had to go out of town this weekend, and Had a friend take care of things for me while I was gone. I knocked the Torch over when I was cleaning algae off, and didn't see it till after the pic.

[Mnemic]

I've looked at various pics, and I'm not quite sure I have ID'd these correctly yet.

here are some pics see if you can help see exactly what I have.

Pic1

[Mnemic]

Pic 2 Sorry about the quality, I Was in a rush this morning, and didn't have time to take a lot of pics before work.

[Mnemic]

Pic3 (kinda fuzzy)

[Mnemic]

Pic4 I think this is the Pavonia, but I'm not sure.

[Mnemic]

pic5, PRetty sure this is the finger leather.

[mnreefgeek]

IMO you really need to up your lighting. 26wts is nowhere near what you'll need for those SPS.

[coralkeeper]

Pic #4 is Hydnophora

your light should be fine for the soft corals but not for the SPS

Best of luck

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I agree more lights would do wonders for your sps corals!

[Mnemic]

More lights would not be a problem, as I'm getting an Iceprobe to help with the Temp on the tank.

But the biological warfare that would prob occur in the system between some of the corals is what I think I'll try to avoid.

Ordered the book TD mentioned as a refrence, but in the mean time, I think I'll try to trade off the SPS's I have for now. If anyone is interested in them leme know

run carbon on that tank with the chemical ware fare thats going o be going on....... also get a 75w mh for the sps

[tdwyatt]

take the sps to the Atlanta reef meeting Next tuesday night, it is at jenn's shop, there is almost always some frag trading going on either before or after the meeting.