Plate Coral Placement

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debdp

Premium Member
On someone else's thread "Sand Corals" a reply mentioned that Tony Vargas said plate corals shouldn't be kept on the sand. I tried researching it and nothing came up.

I wasn't at the Dallas Aquarium meeting so can anyone tell me why they shouldn't be kept in the sand?

Thanks.
 
He said their natural habitat was rubble bottoms I believe. I put one of mine on a couple pieces of rubble and it looks better than ever. It's not that they won't live there necessarily, I have another on the sand and it's doing fine too.
 
I know the article you're referring, but IME mine has done nothing but thrive for 2 years on the sand bed so not really sure .
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When I get home, Im going to pack some rubble under my plate and see if I can spot a difference in the coral. But in the few years mine has been on the sand, its grown quite a bit and appeared to be just fine.
 
The last piece of plate coral I had sat on the bottom and did well for a while. Eventually though I noticed that sand would cover parts of it and it eventually began to recede and it died. I have a piece of plate coral now that when I put it in my tank I cut a piece of PVC pipe and embedded it in the sand so that the very top of the pipe was sticking out of the sand. I put the plate coral on that. It looks like it's sitting on the sand but it's elevated just enough that the sand doesn't get pushed up on it. It's doing great.
 
I have always placed them on the sand, without issue. Tongue corals, favias, favites, fungias, all have done well.
 
From what I recall, Tony said that all the plates he saw while diving were propped up in rubble rather than sitting on the sand. He talked about how the plate coral's tissue is on the bottom too, and propping them up allowed water flow to this tissue. While many people have obviously been successful with keeping them on the sand bed, I took away from the presentation that a propped up coral had increased contact area with the water for increased health and potentially a faster growing coral.
 
Awesome number of replies. Thanks. Mine is currently on sand and doing very well. But further research did show pictures of them on rubble in their natural habitat. Yet when you read seller's comments or other articles they all say to place them on the sand in the home aquarium. So could be confusing. As far as being covered in sand I am careful to blow it off if I see some on it.

I'm thinking about eventually moving it to my new tank set up because it just doesn't have enough growth space where it is now. In the meantime I may try some rubble under it and see if it makes any noticeable difference.
 
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