Coral Spacing

[jd4g]

A few months ago I set up a 25 gallon nano tank with a Sunpod 250 DE HQI light. This will be primarily a SPS tank. I've added a few small SPS frags including a blue Tort and a flourescent green Hydnophora. For diversity I added a small one inch frag of zoas and a Torch coral (LPS) who's polyps expand to about four inches wide in the lower left corner of the tank. I usually research a coral's requirements on Live Aquaria before I buy it, and that's worked pretty good so far. But I'm confused about adequate coral spacing. I've read that the Torch and the Hydnorphora should be spaced adequately away from other corals to prevent them from stinging others with their sweeper tenticles. But what does "adequate spacing" mean? How far apart should they be from the other corals? Two inches, six inches, twelve inches??? I've tried to watch for these sweeper tenticles, including several hours after lights out and have yet to see them. So far, all corals seem to be doing fine, and the SPS are even showing new growth.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[lando]

I would keep 5 or 6 inches between the torch coral and any SPS

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Brian. 5 to 6 inches is a good distance.

 

[jd4g]

So far, so good. Right now the spacing is about 6 inches, maybe 7, from the Torch to the nearest SPS above it. Thanks for your help!

 

[MsBeanCtr]

Two inches, six inches, twelve inches???

I have a rather large torch coral that is approximately 8 inches from any other coral. I've seen some of the tentacles extend 5+ inches. I ended up moving a kenya tree coral because he was too close to the torch and kept on getting stung.

I certainly would go with the advice given by the other two gentlemen and keep it a good healthy 6 inches from the other corals.

On the positive side....these are beautiful corals and I hope you have good luck with it!

 

[Ziggy953]

One thing you need to keep in mind is that your Torch is going to grow and eventually that 5-6" will close up to 3-4" and so on...Of course that's when it's frag'n time. I have a large multi-head frogspawn that I'm going to have to consider fragging because it is just getting enormous.

 

[MT79]

The Hydnophora, while very aggressive, will not produce long sweepers IME. Another coral would basically have to be within an inch or two before it sent out mesentery filaments to dissolve it. It's an impressive sight when it happens though. The torch will need more room. The main objective is to allow for growth. So the farther you space the coral, the better IMO, though space is at a premium in your tank. W/ a 250w over that tank, you can expect to be fragging a lot in the future. Be careful w/ the zoas, they will quickly take over LR, stinging corals and choking off the pores in the LR.

 

[tangster]

I would keep 5 or 6 inches between the torch coral and any SPS

an easy way to check out sweeping tentacles distance is to shine a flashlight in the tank at night or at dusk---this is the time when corals like to feed or take over realestate etc
Tangster