[jollopee]

Ok so I have been pondering over when I was going to add corals and I finally took the plunge and ordered some up. They are all 1"-2" frags except the frogspawn if I remember correctly.

Fuzzy sinularia
yellow lobophytum leather
green frogspawn
sun coral
pink finger leather
devils hand finger leather

So any suggestions,or anything I should worry about with my choices. I ordered up about 10 coral books off marine depot to help me along......I thought they would have been here by now, oh well. I think I read somewhere that the sun coral needs to be in a cave or overhang out of direct light and a guy needs to hand feed each individual polyp. Is that right. Mabey I am thinking of something else. Great....where the heck are my books, now I gotta dig through all my notes and find what I wrote


STILL LOOKING FOR A BLUE BLUE BLUE ACAN


Todd

[Reefland]

That is correct, the Sun Coral will require manual meaty feedings 2-3 times per week. Thyey do not require light so it doesn't matter whether you place it in the light or not, placing it the light is not a problem. My only other suggestion would be to make sure you give the Frogspawn plenty of room.

[BubbaWPB]

With the combination of soft corals, you may also want to run charcoal in your system, too, if you're not doing so already.

[jollopee]

Charcoal?? I dont us that as of right now. Just put a bag of it in the fuge or mabey in the overflow box (I have a cpr hob overflow)??? What is the reason for the charcoal with the soft corals....GREAT my tank is gonna crash now because of soft corals.


Todd

[BubbaWPB]

Take a deep breath and relax, Todd! This should be fun, not anxiety provoking.

Soft corals defend their territory by emitting obnoxious chemicals. The charcoal adsorbs the toxins. It just helps a tank with soft corals to be a bit healthier.

Yes, you can put a bag of it in the fuge or overflow box. Read the containers that the charcoal comes in. Look for brands that say they won't leach phospates into your tank.

[kevinpo]

You can typically expect a negative response to Sinularia species by the Frogspawn (and other species of LPS) over time. They often shrink down in response to the terpenes produced by Sinularia family of corals. IMO it is best to keep LPS (large polyp stonies) and leather type corals separate. They usually do OK for the first year or so then the LPS decline in health.

HTH,
Kevin

[jollopee]

So what are you saying kevin, the frogspawn will kill the sinularia, but will not harm my other leathers. Or the frogspawn will eventually wipe out all of the leathers,or just the sinularia. Also does the charcoal prevent this from happening or slow the course of it happening? Thats kind of depressing to hear.

Next thing ya know kevin will be telling me santa clause isnt real

But really, should I be rethinking the frogspawn? The leathers that I just bought are the only leathers that will ever see this tank. I have 3 more lps corals (acan,blasto,lobophylia) I want to put in here and a handfull (like 5 different frags) of sps that I have picked out that I want as well. Although I am waiting on my reading material still from marine depot before I make my final decisions on the sps.

[ANGRY JOHN]

all corals are able to produce excretions that inhibit the growth of other corals and to protect there "piece of realistate" soft corals seem to be the worst offenders and they sting others in the tank to great effect. good for the soft corals bad for everything else. activated carbon is used to help mitigate the effects of theses excretions by absorbing some. it is common now a days to devide the types of corals you keep into groups and not keep ones that negitively affect each other. there is some information out there about these chemical battles and how to combat these problems. i would recomend looking at each of your aquasitions and do as much looking around as possible to see how they will live or combat each other.

[kevinpo]

Hello,
It is rather the oposite. The leather corals are the ones that produce the toxins. The Frogspawn and many other LPS are able to defend their territory by stinging corals they come in physical contact with. Leather corals kill with chemicals. Spacing LPS so they don't come in physical contact with others works well, but remember they can expand their polyps greatly so allow space accordingly.
Carbon will help reduce the amount of toxins produced by the leather corals in the water. Water changes are also effective.

Regards,
Kevin

[jollopee]

Ok,Im doing a 20 gal water change a week, I do this on sunday, so useing carbon once a week, say, if I put carbon in on wed night and take it out thur night. Would this be sufficient.

Todd

[kevinpo]

Yes, those are excellent husbandry practices.

Regards,
Kevin