fijiwigi
Aquarium Advice Addict
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yes figi i think brains like to be in the sand. Thats is where i usually see them and I know I heard something about their underside getting irritated if they sit on rocks; good choice on positioning. I know it also needs lots of light so hopefully you have a nice setup as far as that goes.
You can always count on Kurt to know what he's Posting. It is a Favia. A Favia is what exactly? LOL After looking at my tank I am thinking it would look best Placed in the sand and out front as the Main attraction. More of a flat surface for it to rest on. Since you have the exact size tank and light fixture as me Kurt do you think the 192W will feed the lighting need of the Favia brain coral so that it thrives??? And how large can it get will it after a few years grow huge? Where do I find information about it?I think you're thinking of open brains, like the Trachyphyllia varieties. Those want to be on the sand. This one is a type of favia and doesn't see the dramatic tissue expansion that the trachyphyllia do. I'm pretty sure you can put this one on the rock and leave the sand open for things that really need to be there. Not sure whether it wants to be high or middle though. I'd go middle of the tank and see how it likes it.
Exactly what I was wanting to know thanks,A favia is just one of the hundreds of families (species? genus? I get those confused!) of corals! As I mentioned in that PM last night, I just try and use the latin/scientific names for the corals because all "brains" are not the same. This post is a good example - while it's true that open brains (trachyphyllia) want to be on the sand, other brains don't. And if people just think "Ahh... brains want to be on the sand" then it's confusing when someone comes along and says "Oh... but not THAT brain. THAT brain wants to be on the rocks." But once you get familiar with the latin names for some of these, you start to realize the very very big differences between corals that have similar "common" names, but are very far apart on the family tree.
For your new coral, I honestly don't know if the bottom would be good. I know the middle would be good, but am not familiar enough with favias, and that specific one, to know if it would be OK with the lower lighting. You might give the folks at Barrier a call and ask them since they're the pros.
One thing about putting it on the sand is that it's not going to have anything to encrust on to. That coral is currently on a little plate of rock (I visited it today!) and if you put it on your rock work, it will grow off of it's little rock and start encrusting on to your rock. Not sure what it would do with sand.
It won't grow huge in a couple years like other corals, but I bet it could double it's surface area in 1-2 years. My Maze Brain (Platygyra) has probably doubled it's surface area in a little over a year.
A good introductory coral book that is well worth the money spend is Eric Borneman's "Aquarium Corals". You should be able to find it just about anywhere. You'll find info on favias in there... as well as hundreds of others.