[ben]

are there any type of sps that grow in calm lagoons?

or do they all need high flow areas?

[clippo]

I believe Pocillopora damicornis does. High flow isn't a requirement but affects growth and growth form iirc.

[Tony B]

I have seen many types of acropora in these lagoonal locations although the acropora are no where near as common when compared to higher energy areas.

[clippo]

yeah, actually thinking about it... it depends what you mean by lagoon really....

assuming you have intense light and clean water and you just mean lagoon in term of low water flow then quite a few SPS species should be OK (although it may affect their growth rate and form as mentioned).

technically though lagoon conditions can encompass turbid water, high nutrient levels, fluctuating temperatures, salinity etc.

In those cases I think there are only certain SPS that would do well.

[ben]

yeh i guess i mean just low flow

[tommo]

There are a large number of settled sps growing in our seawater fed artificial lagoons (essentially marine ponds). They are colonising lower flow areas as much as high flow TBH

Tom

[dylan]

that brown/purple you seen in my tank mate doesnt get alot of flow and growing nicely

[Simon Garratt]

Here you go. SPS in lagoons..some shots from the maldives.







Its actually quite surprising that we (as hobbyist) quite often assume that stags need to be attatched to rock like some sort of tree sticking up when in actual fact its very common for stags to be found in shallow protected lagoon areas quite high in turbidity just growing as huge colonies that break apart and spread over time through storm damage and predation by large grazing fish etc (parrots a case in point)...Ive seen these as large forests in some cases covering areas 50m by several hundred meters long as a band within the deepest part of back lagoons.

There is usually quite a distict break and absence of stags as soon as you get near the back reef, right across the reef flat and forwards down the reef front untill you are back out of the high energy areas and back into more sedate deeper waters where they start occuring again lower down the reef slope from about 5m.

all in all though as far as lagoons go its actually quite surprising just how many species seem to do quite well...maybe not in abundance, but you certainly find a few tenacious species that you would only normally expect to see in more open clean water.

Regards

Simon.

[SLAPPY]

Some lovely photos there Si, did you take those?

[Ross1]

Those staghorns are proper nice.

Looks beutifull.


I've seen staghorn fields in indonesia. The amount of fish hiding in the stags in amazing. It's an awesome feeling floating over them looking down through the branches.