Mom, I can't sleep, so tell me a story... Cyphastrea tank

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

I'm itching for another tank with a different selection of coral. At first I thought I wanted a zoa garden, but I wanted to make another biotope (of course). I saw some places can be dominated with Cyphastrea.

 

Now, I've been eyeing Cyphastrea. As of late, I'm brainstorming a pico of just that. Maybe two or three colonies of different colors. Is that asking for trouble? I realize that this genus falls in the Faviidae which is clearly associated with Favia and Favites and are known to have some pretty hefty sweepers. Can they be belligerent to members of the same genus and/or species? Or am I asking for a thunder dome? Big time sweeper action.

 

Basically, share with me your personal experiences with members of this type of coral. They can look really stunning and especially what Jason Fox and Chaos can sell I'm quite interested and I feel like they've gone under the radar.

 

Also basic info. I hear they are low light and low flow.

 

Would it be a problem if I placed a small frag of Micromussa lordhowensis?

[WV Reefer]

3 hours ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

I'm itching for another tank with a different selection of coral. At first I thought I wanted a zoa garden, but I wanted to make another biotope (of course). I saw some places can be dominated with Cyphastrea.

 

Now, I've been eyeing Cyphastrea. As of late, I'm brainstorming a pico of just that. Maybe two or three colonies of different colors. Is that asking for trouble? I realize that this genus falls in the Faviidae which is clearly associated with Favia and Favites and are known to have some pretty hefty sweepers. Can they be belligerent to members of the same genus and/or species? Or am I asking for a thunder dome? Big time sweeper action.

 

Basically, share with me your personal experiences with members of this type of coral. They can look really stunning and especially what Jason Fox and Chaos can sell I'm quite interested and I feel like they've gone under the radar.

 

Also basic info. I hear they are low light and low flow.

 

Would it be a problem if I placed a small frag of Micromussa lordhowensis?

Cyphastrea is a very fast grower and tends to take over. Mine was finally killed by my Chalice, thank god, or it would have covered the entire reef. 
 

 

@Cannedfish has had some issues with it also

[Cannedfish]

Don't get me wrong, I actually really like cyphastrea (in fact I have three different ones in my tank ATM), however, I also agree with @WV Reefer, cyphastrea can take over. I am dealing with this issue right now, and I am constantly beating back my colony of meteor shower with a dental pick. Some additional notes: 1) "cyphastrea don't care," it will grow over anything and everything (except apparently a chalice, and I'm still waiting for mine to meet the evil (and undefeated) echinata), what it can't kill by puking out it's stomach, it will simply grow over, one of my colonies is growing over zoas, the other is growing over GSP (it is literally out 'weeding' reef weeds); 2) despite being incredibly aggressive, cyphastrea doesn't really send out sweepers (I've never seen them), instead it just grows over to something, and as soon as it touches... eats it; 3) it's super resilient, it was one of the few corals to survive my crash, and it can grow into dark areas of the tank (caves, the underside of overhangs, other places that are completely shaded).

 

A couple additional thoughts for the road, if it was me, I would rather go with a zoa garden over a cyphastrea specific pico. First, although cyphastrea is a fast growing LPS, that is still a relative term, its going to take a long time to fill even a pico. Second, although it's an admittedly amazing accent coral (I love the look of it on the back wall), as the centerpiece (unless it was the branching variety), it would be kinda boring. The tank would just have an encrusted rock... Third, zoas are super fun. They are colorful, easy to grow, and like pokemon there are a million of them to collect (it's fun to always be searching for zoa diamonds in the rough). And it doesn't hurt that a fully grown in zoa garden is one of the most visually appealing things in this hobby (and they might be the second most photogenic coral). Even though I am a die hard acro-holic, I have recently relapsed in to zoas, because curating (millenial buzzword!) a zoa garden is so much fun. If it were me, I would do both, put a couple different cyphastreas on the back wall and have the rest of the tank be a zoa garden... the tank would be an explosion of color, like a candy crush pico. 

 

Terrible photos that may or may not help illustrate my point!

 

 

This is hard to beat:

 

Peppermint cyphastrea out weedin' the weeds:

 

The meteor shower has taken over the entire right side of my tank... I have to glue corals on top of it:

 

 

Not the best photo but you can side it growing under the monti (and everywhere else for that matter), the what skeleton under the monti was caused by the cyphastrea:

(also Blenwood! (for those who know...they know)

 

My newest cyphastrea, I searched for this one for a while (second favorite to the Bizzaro, but I needed more contrast in the spot I put it in)

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

Fun and unrelated story. Couple months ago, one my snails knocked off my A. echinata colony into the sand and it landed right on the mouth of my Fungia. The Fungia won hand over fist. The echinata lost three heads.

[WV Reefer]

4 minutes ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

Fun and unrelated story. Couple months ago, one my snails knocked off my A. echinata colony into the sand and it landed right on the mouth of my Fungia. The Fungia won hand over fist. The echinata lost three heads.

That is surprising. 

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

Right!? And I was very worried about my Fungia. They don't show up often for me in my area. (I also whiffed on getting a Heliofungia...I should have got it...)

[ECLS Reefer]

58 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

That is surprising. 

I watched my pinwheel plate literally INHALE a whole krill yesterday. It was at least dime sized if not nearly nickel sized and that thing surrounded it like a giant nem would do. I was shocked it’s never been so good aggressive before but it’s been putting on the growth lately. 

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

32 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I watched my pinwheel plate literally INHALE a whole krill yesterday. It was at least dime sized if not nearly nickel sized and that thing surrounded it like a giant nem would do. I was shocked it’s never been so good aggressive before but it’s been putting on the growth lately. 

Yup! Sometimes I'll leave like decent portion of PE Mysis cube on my plate and it'll be gone with in 30 minutes. They're pretty special corals.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

11 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Don't get me wrong, I actually really like cyphastrea (in fact I have three different ones in my tank ATM), however, I also agree with @WV Reefer, cyphastrea can take over. I am dealing with this issue right now, and I am constantly beating back my colony of meteor shower with a dental pick. Some additional notes: 1) "cyphastrea don't care," it will grow over anything and everything (except apparently a chalice, and I'm still waiting for mine to meet the evil (and undefeated) echinata), what it can't kill by puking out it's stomach, it will simply grow over, one of my colonies is growing over zoas, the other is growing over GSP (it is literally out 'weeding' reef weeds); 2) despite being incredibly aggressive, cyphastrea doesn't really send out sweepers (I've never seen them), instead it just grows over to something, and as soon as it touches... eats it; 3) it's super resilient, it was one of the few corals to survive my crash, and it can grow into dark areas of the tank (caves, the underside of overhangs, other places that are completely shaded).

 

A couple additional thoughts for the road, if it was me, I would rather go with a zoa garden over a cyphastrea specific pico. First, although cyphastrea is a fast growing LPS, that is still a relative term, its going to take a long time to fill even a pico. Second, although it's an admittedly amazing accent coral (I love the look of it on the back wall), as the centerpiece (unless it was the branching variety), it would be kinda boring. The tank would just have an encrusted rock... Third, zoas are super fun. They are colorful, easy to grow, and like pokemon there are a million of them to collect (it's fun to always be searching for zoa diamonds in the rough). And it doesn't hurt that a fully grown in zoa garden is one of the most visually appealing things in this hobby (and they might be the second most photogenic coral). Even though I am a die hard acro-holic, I have recently relapsed in to zoas, because curating (millenial buzzword!) a zoa garden is so much fun. If it were me, I would do both, put a couple different cyphastreas on the back wall and have the rest of the tank be a zoa garden... the tank would be an explosion of color, like a candy crush pico. 

 

Terrible photos that may or may not help illustrate my point!

 

 

This is hard to beat:

 

Peppermint cyphastrea out weedin' the weeds:

 

The meteor shower has taken over the entire right side of my tank... I have to glue corals on top of it:

 

 

Not the best photo but you can side it growing under the monti (and everywhere else for that matter), the what skeleton under the monti was caused by the cyphastrea:

(also Blenwood! (for those who know...they know)

 

My newest cyphastrea, I searched for this one for a while (second favorite to the Bizzaro, but I needed more contrast in the spot I put it in)

Thanks for the input. I might divide up the rockwork and make several tiny islets featuring certain coral type.

[mitten_reef]

18 hours ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

They can look really stunning and especially what Jason Fox and Chaos can sell I'm quite interested and I feel like they've gone under the radar.

If you want your tank new tank to look anything like those two vendors, you're gonna have to learn to embrace the blue leds, lots and lots of it.

from your main build thread, I didn't get the impression that you like blue leds.  

JF's basement video: 

 

[lizzyann]

I love cyphastrea but like everyone else has said, it will spread and cover everything. It will keep to its own rock at least (or be very easy to break off if it starts to travel across the sand) and doesn't have sweepers, so I love the idea of having one rock with cyphastrea, and another with zoas! I think a minimalist look with cyphastrea could be really beautiful and interesting actually, you just need to be very picky about the rock shape you choose for it.

 

No idea about a micro lord but... my smaller polyp goni will sting and kill back the cyphastrea near it. Some of my zoas seems to be growing over or holding back the cyphastrea, but kinda waiting to see what exactly happens there. My two cyphastrea are next to each other and don't hurt each other, but kinda just try to grow over and around each other.

 

It will grow in low light, and even shade, but in shade mine hasn't seemed very healthy and certainly has no color.

 

 

 

 

 

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

21 hours ago, lizzyann said:

I love cyphastrea but like everyone else has said, it will spread and cover everything. It will keep to its own rock at least (or be very easy to break off if it starts to travel across the sand) and doesn't have sweepers, so I love the idea of having one rock with cyphastrea, and another with zoas! I think a minimalist look with cyphastrea could be really beautiful and interesting actually, you just need to be very picky about the rock shape you choose for it.

 

No idea about a micro lord but... my smaller polyp goni will sting and kill back the cyphastrea near it. Some of my zoas seems to be growing over or holding back the cyphastrea, but kinda waiting to see what exactly happens there. My two cyphastrea are next to each other and don't hurt each other, but kinda just try to grow over and around each other.

 

It will grow in low light, and even shade, but in shade mine hasn't seemed very healthy and certainly has no color.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the input. Very helpful. I've noticed that there is or has been mentioned some variability in lighting requirements. Some website say low while others moderate. It's just as much as a spectrum when talking with y'all and people I bump into (within 6 feet) at the LFS these days.  It makes me think there could be some genetic variation from the original colony. At some point in the genealogy it's probably reasonable to assume that such collected coral whether fragged then farmed or just outright scraped off a wild reef may just have different sensitivities to light. Some cyphastrea from a shallower depth while others may have been from a deeper part and light can quality quickly within a few meters.

 

The other and around thing sounds like something a zoa garden would do to each other. haha.

 

It's an experiment I'm willing to try and seeing if a lord will sweep up a cyph...if I have the initial money saved up in my bank account. If things go south, I could always move it back to the my 20 long