Need ideas for keeping softies from spreading in a BB

[kevensquint]

I will soon be doing a 125 BB, I have a mixed tank and when I go to the new set-up I want the softies in thier own part of the tank. I don't like how they encroach on my SPS. I plan to have 3 seperate piles of LR, one being reserved for softies, I figure if the LR is'nt too close to the glass at least they won't go there. However, since I won't have any sand to stop GSP and zoo's from leaving the LR, what to do? I thought of carving a shallow moat of sand into the starfire that the softies will have a hard time to cross.

[Chris_Campbell]

just prune 'em back

[Scuba_Dave]

Depending upon what softies your are going to keep, many can detach & float around.
With starfire bottom, I would think you could easily scrape them off if the bottom isn't too deep

[starseed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7143545#post7143545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevensquint
I will soon be doing a 125 BB, I have a mixed tank and when I go to the new set-up I want the softies in thier own part of the tank. I don't like how they encroach on my SPS. I plan to have 3 seperate piles of LR, one being reserved for softies, I figure if the LR is'nt too close to the glass at least they won't go there. However, since I won't have any sand to stop GSP and zoo's from leaving the LR, what to do? I thought of carving a shallow moat of sand into the starfire that the softies will have a hard time to cross.

Forget the sand bar on the BB, if your BB is set-up correctly, that sand should blow of the botton and into your overflow.

Otherwise, your plan is a great one, I set my 55 up that way and if I can do it in a tank that small, you can easily do that in a 125.

All my softies are on a rock pile to the far left w/ space for a few clams too - it's the lower flow area in the tank and also where detrius gets blown into the overflow.

The middle and far right is dedicated to LPS and SPS and they too are separated by tank height (SPS top half, LPS lower half) and rocks. Placement is also based on growth rates.

Right now I'm keeping an eye on my xenia, but it's the only coral that I will allow to "fill in gaps" and grow on glass/plexi. I don't think I'm going to let them get on the BB though since that would start to interfere with the BB flow.

Having a BB makes pruning very easy. Just keep easy access areas of glass/plexi/board between your different rock work. Worst senorio would be a polyp releasing from a rock and floating over the the SPS side and growing, but you could easiy Kalk Paste it ASAP, long before it's an issue.

I would also recommend keeping the softies near the overflow since they can handle more detrius that SPSs and a proper BB will have plenty of detrius moving off the bottom and over the overflow in that areas of the tank. That also gives you SPSs minimal exposure to "reef snow" too.

[kevensquint]

Hmm, well my worst spreaders are the yellow polyps and GSP, then the bulls-eye zoo's. I tryed to scrape yellow polyps off the glass and they were destroyed, which leads to softie juice in the water, which may cause a problem for the SPS. Ideally, I would love to trade/sell those corals and have my new tank as only SPS and LPS. But the softies are an inexpensive way of filling up the tank and giving movement. I don't know what I'm gonna do.

[starseed]

Well...

You could follow through with your set-up, keeping the softies isolated; maybe not add the Yellow Polyps (that was my second choice as a "filler", but I heard they get out of control like that).

Start setting up your current LPS and SPS and start trading your softies over time and just faze them out. You could try frags.org