How to Grow Montis Like This?

[MolaMola]

I have some nice plating montis, mostly from awesome former BAR member Winfield, but need to find a way to keep them in check so I have room for other corals. Saw this striking photo and am wondering how to try to emulate it. Just mount diff montis close together? Think they all need to be frags to start out?

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yup basically just have them "close" together (not too close though!). They aren't super aggressive corals in that they will sting each other, they are aggressive in that they grow fast and horizontally for the most part. And if you're lucky you'll see them swirl around each other that way, if you're not lucky one will grow over the other and it'll look like crap because it's forever shaded.

 

[Flagg37]

I've had troubles with monties in my tank in general so I'm not going to be much help.

 

[wpeterson]

Thanks for taking some of those Montipora, they had nice colors and do grow pretty quickly.

I regretted mounting them in mid/high locations where they grew out and shaded lower corals/LPS and even grew over/into the acropora on the higher levels of our reef.

If I were to do it over, I would mount them on the rear wall or lower down on the sides and let them curl/grow over each other. I've also only added Confusa in our current tank and may not grow any Capricornis since it's only a 40breeder in our current tank.

Good luck! I hope other folks have some good tips for aquascaping monti caps or pruning them more effectively.

 

[MolaMola]

Ooh - I never thought of the back wall. And I have no idea how to prune. I grow a bowl, then cut it in half or remove one of the layers if it grew that way, then grow a new bowl. The curl thing will be fun to try.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I did see Jesterix had a few wall mount rock formations that looked absolutely awesome at the swap, he had a piece of acrylic vertically just to show them off and I'm fairly sure magnets held them on. Before I could get a chance to ask how much they were already gone.