Confused by some of the LiveAquaria recommendations

[Wade]

LiveAquaria recommends that a frogspawn should receive moderate to high light, but placement on the bottom. Is there a specific reason it should be placed on the bottom instead of placing it higher in the tank where the light is stronger? Also, if I'm doing weekly to 10 day water changes, is it still necessary to add the supplements that they recommend like strontium, iodine, etc.?

[Bpb]

I'm of the camp that trace elements don't need to be dosed, especially if you're doing somewhat regular water changes. That being said my frogspawn hated high light. It would only expand its polyps if it was in the corners at the bottom with very low flow and slightly shaded light

[Wade]

Actually, that's where mine is located. In the corner below the wavebox. Gets medium intermittent flow and while the light is not at all shady, it's in the lower third of the tank. Seems to be fine there. My hammer is in the upper third and seems to be ok, but i just read it should also be on the bottom. It doesn't seem to be quite as full looking as it was when I first put it in the tank. I'm wondering if I don't need to lower it down a bit.

[Richard L]

I've found that frogspawn and hammers don't really care where they are in my tank. About a year ago I had a large 9" colony of branching frogspawn break into several pieces which I sprinkled around they tank at various heights and they all still look identical. Gotta love LPS corals!

[Timfish]

At best I would say the recommendations I see online are very generalized. Most of the species/variants we keep are adaptable, some are vary adaptable. It's best to see the conditions a prospective coral is grown in (yes that's a plug for keeping Austin weird).

[Juiceman]

I've had mine all over the place. LPS seem to open up more with less flow and more light in my tanks.

[jestep]

High light and low flow is where mine like it best.

[Planeden]

so, to sum up, they do best in low to high flow, with low to high light, and somewhere between the surface and the sand. yeah, what timfish said...

[jestep]

and somewhere between the surface and the sand.

I think we can all agree on this at least.

[Sascha D.]

LPS recommendations for the bottom of the tank, in the sand, are general across almost all of the "fleshy" LPS species. The reason they recommend it is because rocks and other hard or sharp objects in the aquarium can irritate the polyps when they extend. They also assume that you have MH because that was the general standard for a long time.

Frogspawn is my favorite coral and I've kept them in every SW tank I've ever owned. I've found that they need less than moderate flow and moderate lighting. Too much flow and they close up or the flesh rips. I've kept them in as little as 1 watt per gallon, but in the top 20% of the tank. I currently run 300w T-5's and keep him in the 50% range of the tank.

[Wade]

That's good information guys. Thanks all.

[+Grog]

Mine are at the bottom in lower flow. Light is still pretty high down there but I find they are more sensitive to flow than the light.

[Timfish]

and somewhere between the surface and the sand.

I think we can all agree on this at least.

Consensus at last!