Coral Placement

[starseed]

Coral Placement

OK – I know there is no easy answer, but I want to get a better understanding of how to place corals. This is my basic understanding:

LPS – aggressive nature: Sweeper tentacles up to 1 foot w/ some species
SPS – aggressive nature: chemical warfare with other SPSs
Soft Corals – aggressive nature: chemical warfare with other softies and overgrowth
False Corals – aggressive nature: very low, possible overgrowth

I have several aggressive species; mainly from LPS sweepers. I only have one SPS coral (x-mas tree rock - polyps and growth is good). I have a bunch of mushrooms, polyps, and zoos isolated on the right of the tank. I’ll be placing 2 or 3 clams in the middle of them.

The left side on my tank is my hard coral area. Right now I have an Open Brain, Xenia, Cup Coral, X-mas Tree Rock, Branching Flower Pot Coral, Flowerpot Coral, 2 Galaxy Corals, and a Pineapple Coral (I think).

Each coral is about 6 inches apart which leaves big gaps between.

What can I use to fill the gaps between hard corals (especially aggressive species)? Polyps, Zoos, Xenia?

I have a 1 Galaxy Coral with sweepers 1 foot long, especially at night. I really cannot place any hard corals near it and might have to get rid of it.

Any help or advice please would be greatly appreciated? Oh how I long for the days of just dealing with fish compatibility. Understanding coral compatibility is 10 times harder IMO.

[Sk8r]

Your corals may sort of fill those empty spots. And you can (cautiously) get similar corals to go next to each other: I've seen torch set fairly close to frogspawn and neither ticked off. Leathers and anemones are the worst for chemical warfare: I put them nearest the exit flow, never upstream of everything, I don't like anemones because they move. And if your flow is good, you can pretty well assure that certain corals don't 'reach out and touch someone' because the sweepers don't go up-current real well. Candy cane is a good buffer, because it's vertical, and its sweepers are pretty modest. I'd advise going to the corals-for-sale sites and reading up on their specs, because they do have some pretty good warnings: it's almost as good as a 'corals' book.