Coral Placement

[usmcmarc]

I was under the impression that corals need to be placed at a distance from each other for growth and because they will sting each other. So I have taken great pains in placement of my corals to keep them away from each other (at least 4 inches or more)..but when I see pictures in the forum of others reef setups, I see corals praticaly on top of each other or butted up side by side. I have wanted to purchase a few more, but never did since I thought they needed their space.

What is the correct answer here? Need space or can be placed right next to each other?

 

[MsBeanCtr]

I'm glad you asked this question-I've also wondered about that myself. I see all of these beautiful tanks set up with those beasties right next to each other....

 

[Lance M.]

It depends on the corals. You can do it by trial and error to see what can be placed close to what and what damages what.

I have some violet/blue mushrooms that will do some damage to these purple mushrooms I have, but the violet/blue won't hurt my metallic red mushrooms, so I can pretty much place them touching each other.

There are some things you know will do damage, like Torch corals (I have to place everything at least 4 inches away from it's sweepers or it will kill it) and my rock anemone (it can take out my mushrooms I know that). So those need to be placed away from other corals.

Something like star polyps doesn't sting other corals but it spreads quickly and just the constant touching from the polyps can cause other corals to close up and waste away. And I've had problems with xenia overgrowing button polyps. I guess xenia will grow on anything, but all you have to do is peel it off.

 

[usmcmarc]

ok.. I have:

Trumpet Coral
Zoos
Frogspawn
Bubble Coral
A rock with blue mushrooms (or purple with a sheen to it) with a few polyps on it.
Porites

I want to get:

Moonstone (Green Favia Brain)
Candy Coral (Caulestrea furcata)
Blue Ridge Coral (Heliopora coerulea)
Green Star Polyps (Briarium Asbestinum)

and a Rose Anenome (BTA) *note this will be later on after the tank matures more*


Who can be placed near whom?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You'll want to keep the Frogspawn and Bubble at opposite ends of the tank, in my opinion. They're kind of in the same family and probably won't take a liking to each other. You'll probably want to keep a good buffer zone (4-6 inches at least) around those two corals.

As Lance noted, mushrooms are kind of weird. They *can* cause major problems, but it really depends on the individual mushroom, I believe. I'd give those a good buffer also, just to be safe.

I think you'll be able to put the zoas, trumpet, porites and the rest fairly close to each other as they aren't as hostile, sweeper-wise. However, they have their own chemical defenses and could let loose if threatened I suppose.

And the BTA... well, it can move wherever it darn well pleases so you'll just have to cross your fingers on that one.

I agree - a lot of pictures I see seems like things are way too close. But what we don't know is how long those corals stayed like that!

 

[melosu58]

It really depends on the coral. Alot of your LPS corals have sweeper tentacles and need space.I look at it like if they are peaceful corals then they can be close to other peaceful corals. If they are semi aggressive then they need space as does the aggressive corals that need more. It`s really based on the coral and how aggressive it is. Another factor on leathers is that they can wage a chemical warfare on each other if too close.

 

[Lance M.]

I was looking through the archive for some info and came across a post where someone mentions their rbta was moving around and came into contact with a torch coral and after that the rbta died. So you might want to keep that in mind with the frogspawn and bubble.

 

[melosu58]

That`s why I skip the anenomes because they can roam the tank causing problems.