Zoanthids in a sps tank
 

A friend of mine is shutting his tank down and want to sell me his zoanthids. He has about 8 colonies that are about fist size.
If I put these into my sps tank will the acros and monties that I have be affected?

I have zoanthids in my tank that's mainly SPS. No issues. I've seen tanks with zoanthids surrounding the bases of some SPS. I like the look, but try to avoid that in my tank so they don't bother each other.

but in high numbers and with the toxin in the zoanthid will it affect the sps

If you run carbon, you will be fine.

I have lots of zoanthids left over from my softy days and they don't seem to bother SPS at all chemically from what I have seen in the year I have kept the two together. I have trimmed and cut zoanthids in the water and never had an adverse reaction from the SPS. Maybe shading the encrusting base of the SPS, but that can be trimmed back. The green protopalythoa like the single polyp directly under the green candy cane in the left foreground of the picture (dark green with a pale center) will sting sps if allowed direct contact, though.

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/55851left_end_shot_11-12-07.JPG[/IMG]

I have very few toxin issues in my mixed reef.

I was thinking to toxins were from Palythoas and not zoanthids.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11440039#post11440039 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjmcat [/i]
[B]I was thinking to toxins were from Palythoas and not zoanthids. [/B][/QUOTE]
from what I know the paly toxicity level is much higher than zoanthid levels

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11441556#post11441556 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by deep6er [/i]
[B]from what I know the paly toxicity level is much higher than zoanthid levels [/B][/QUOTE]

lol palytoxin has nothing to do with sps in a tank......i can assure you that. zoas live in the same ocean as sps do........and many people successfully keep lots of zoas in sps full tanks (myself included) with no ill effects or need for special filtration.

the only factor you will have is if the zoas are growing right against the sps........some sps are more sensitive than others to the sting a zoa can have (same chemical warfare a mushroom would cause by touching an sps coral)

i dont run in to any issues and i keep a lil of everything and have lots of yellow polyps, zoos, and gsp... now i wish i didnt have gsp but i have to watch it cuz its growing on everything now

you should be fine
michael

I literally have thousands of zoas and paly's with the full range of SPS and no ill effects. I would not place them near any SPS until it is pretty well encrusted and established though, they will compete for space and hold their ground, but do not not have any direct toxic effect IME...

Placing new frags near zoas is a bad idea IMO.

I also have no issues with zoas. They grow all over the place in my tank and around the bases of the corals. The only time it is an issue is with plating montipora corals. The zoas can grow on them and kill them and also smoother them.