stonies and softies??? why or why not

[fella1320]

just like the title says can you or would you put stony corals in the same tank as softie corals. i curently have a acropora, bubble, blue ridge, and a hammer coral. my main interest is in stonies but of course the girlfriend really wants a pink leather and or toadstool for the tank. so can i acomidate her or not??/

[grimmjohn]

With a skimmer and carbon...but it is certainly a compromise from a system devoted to stonies. And many softies don't do so well in SPS conditions. Colts and leathers are the worst for chemical warfare, and mushrooms spit out babies that float aound that you have to be on the look out for.
But it can/has been done with very nice outcomes.

Cheers,

grimmjohn

[fishamajiggle]

why not have a little diversity, personally I like a mix of the two myself.

[fella1320]

anyone have pictures of tanks with both stonies and softies?? i would really appreciate it thanks

[skuntking]

it works fine just keep either one down to a minimum, i have a toadstool and some zoos but thats about it with my mostly sps and lps, cause there are always i few softies i cant live without i just keep them fairly seperated

[Aquaguru]

I have leathers and shrooms with my lps and they are doing well I think at some points though that it stunts growth and happiness but usually they are healthy and happy together. I think that the main thing is to run carbon and have good filtration. Another thing that will help is if you seperate the two, I have my lps on one side of the tank while the other side is mostly softies

[fishykidd916]

i give props to folks with a mixed tank ... i was doin pretty well with sofites and sps. .but when my 5-6 inch neon green leather died because it fell upside down in the sand bed when i was gone.. and slowly deteriorated away .. i swear. .all my sps died off.. =( .. my tank is lookin really bare now.. pretty much have of my tank is gone. .while most of the softies look fine.

[fishykidd916]

here's the pic of my tank before.. id ont have an after tank ..but this was my tank at its prime.




-bngowe

[Aquaguru]

That looks like a really nice tank. I'm sorry to hear that all of your sps died off. How is it doing now?

[Fuegofish777]

here's a pic of my mixed tank....i have some bad hair algae right now...but if you ignore that its a nice tank...imo

[Reef_Obsession]

Fuegofish777 .. LOVE the pillars/caves on either side of the tank!

I've seen LPS/SPS tanks before with no problems. I just think you will have to be willing to accomodate each - ie coral placement and lighting requirements of each individual coral ... I've seen tanks with 4 MH pendants ALL different wattages (400 250 250 175) to give a gradual brightness??? Looked nice to me .. too bad I didn't have my camera with me ...

[CeeGee]

Fuegofish777,
Is that a leopard wrasse? I really like those fish and wouldn't mind getting one I have just read that they are really difficult to keep. Do you have any info and how is yours holding up?

I am following this thread as I want a mixed tank and I currently have one. My corals are not looking their best and I am in the process of adding a fuge and a really oversized skimmer so hopefully they will come back around in due time.

[GregM779]

Originally posted by fella1320
anyone have pictures of tanks with both stonies and softies?? i would really appreciate it thanks

Here's some pics of my tank, it also helps to have a UV sterilizer to help with the chemical wafare.

[Potsy]

Here's my mixed reef. Montipora, acropora, lps, sarcophyton, sinularia, zoanthids, mushrooms, bubble-tip anemone - I use carbon and haven't had any problems.

[Nuhtty]

Mixed reefs are definately nice.

Fella, I think you could easily get away with a pink leather in there.

[Reef_Obsession]

GregM779 .. .WOW talk about a full tank! I love it!

[luntiz]

Greg, how long has that tank been setup? Size? If its the 125 in your sig, I can't believe it, it looks a whole lot bigger than a 125.

And how were the corals bought? Close to those size or small frags? I love how your ricordias look. I only have a few frags and can't wait til it takes over a rock like yours.

[itsme123]

Here is mine. I also like a more "mixed" reef. The only draw back that I noticed is maybe the sps' growth rate is a bit slower then if was in a dedicated tank.

[GregM779]

Originally posted by Reef_Obsession
GregM779 .. .WOW talk about a full tank! I love it!

Originally posted by luntiz
Greg, how long has that tank been setup? Size? If its the 125 in your sig, I can't believe it, it looks a whole lot bigger than a 125.

And how were the corals bought? Close to those size or small frags? I love how your ricordias look. I only have a few frags and can't wait til it takes over a rock like yours.

Thanks guys, it's almost 11 months old, it's a 125g standard (72*18*22), a lot of corals were bought as frags and of course some were bought larger. One of the Florida Ricordias has over a 4 inch diameter. Here's my thread that's been going a couple of months.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=596694

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They can be mixed fine, IMO. I will speculate that the biggest issues in mixed tanks have far more to do with optimal levels of various organic and inorganic nutrients available, with some corals liking more and some liking less. Comments about chemical warfare, IMO, are almost always entirely speculation as there is little to no evidence of how much it takes place with different corals in aquaria.

Here's a picture of my mixed tank:

[itsme123]

[i]Comments about chemical warfare, IMO, are almost always entirely speculation as there is little to no evidence of how much it takes place with different corals in aquaria.

[/B]

Randy does have a good point there, or else my huge Sarco would of wiped out my sps' .

[fella1320]

Wow thanks alot guys for all your opinions and pictures for proof hahaha nuhtty i agree i really think a pink leather would look great i just have to get some money for it. any way i think you guys have convinced me that it is possible. and for those of you that run carbon how often do you change it? monthly or do you have to do it more often due to the chemical warefare?

[goalieman92]

i have hairy shrooms and a yellow goni close together. there is only about a 1/4 an inch between them and they are fine.

[Markieb]

I think it is fine. Here is a shot of my mixed!
I do think a uv is a good idea for mixed.



Here you can see zoas and Xenia right next to my Monti which has quadrupled in 8 months.