Coral Confusion

[Editour2]

I'm a bit confused, (nothing new to my wife), I have just about amassed enough equipment to start running my 85 gal tank. I'm starting to think of livestock and made some inquiries based on the lighting my tank houses, (T-5's: 2X54watt 11k's, 1X39watt 11k, 1X39watt 6.5K and 2X39watt actinics), and the amount of flow the tank will have; panworld return, (1190gph), with 2 Seio 820 powerheads for circulation. I wanted to have a mix of SPS & LPS but was told that this ultimately would not be a good mix. I was advised to stick with one or the other. I am a bit confused about various types of corals: I was under the impression that all corals could be categorized as either SPS or LPS, (and also thought that SPS was synonomous with stonies, while LPS was synonomous with softies). Are blastos, zoanthids and mushrooms part of LPS or are they in and of itself separate categories? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

[emoore]

Quick answer is LPS (Large Polyp Stony) are also stony corals. zoa's and mushrooms are soft corals. A mix of LPS and SPS (Small Polyp Stony) should be ok. Some soft corals like leathers are very toxic and can be detremental to SPS.

[raoul]

People mix LPS and SPS quite a bit, one of the things to take into account though is their lighting and flow needs. SPS usally have higher flow and lighting needs than LPS.

softies = no calcium skeleton
LPS = calcium skeleton, but lots of flesh covering it (compared to sps)
SPS = colored sticks with polyps ;) Actually, some aren't sticks, but the polyps on these are much smaller than LPS

Good luck!