Gradients in competition and predation that regulate communities should guide biogenic habitat restoration, while restoration ecology provides opportunities to address fundamental questions regarding food-web dynamics via large-scale field manipulations. We restored oyster reefs across an aerial exposure gradient (shallow subtidal to mid-intertidal) to explore how vertical gradients in the natural settlement, growth, and interspecific interactions affected the trajectory of man-made shellfish reefs. We recorded nearly an order-of-magnitude higher oyster settlement on the deepest (subtidal) reefs, but within a year abundance patterns reversed, and oyster densities were ultimately highest on the shallowest (intertidal) reefs by over an order of magnitude. This reversal was due to a) significantly elevated survivorship on intertidal reefs, and b) larger surviving oysters on intertidal reefs. These patterns are likely to have developed from greater levels of biofouling and predator abundance (e.g. stone crabs, gastropods) on deeper reefs where aerial exposure was <5% of the monthly tidal cycle. Synthesis and applications. The success of restoration initiatives involving habitat-forming species can be enhanced by accounting for the biotic interactions that regulate population fitness. In littoral systems, vertical gradients in predation, competition, and disturbance can be exploited to guide the restoration of vegetated (e.g. mangrove, seagrass) or biogenic reef habitats. In particular, our results demonstrate that paradigms of vertical zonation learned from the rocky intertidal and saltmarshes also describe the fate of restored shellfish reefs. As with rocky shores, the lower vertical limit of adult oyster distribution in our study system was most likely driven by predatory and competitive (i.e. smothering) interactions, with a threshold depth at ~5% daily aerial exposure. Below this depth, experimentally restored reefs failed completely. As with Spartina saltmarsh, the accumulation of oyster biomass was greatest at an intermediate vertical position relative to mean sea level (i.e. mid-to-low-intertidal). Our developing model prescribes a vertical “hotspot” for restoration efforts to maximize biogenic reef fitness and production. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.