Keeping a Mixed Tank, keys to success???

[Reefdude3]

I've seen some beautiful purely SPS tanks and some beautiful mixed tanks, with SPS, LPS, and Softies. What are the keys to doing this successfully? Lets discuss what corals can be mixed together and what chemical filtrations are neccessary? Are these some good starting points.

1) Keep stinging LPS (eg: galaxy sp.) away from SPS

2) Keep leather corals (eg: Sarcphyton sp.) away from SPS (Can they be kept in the tank at all?)

3) heavy skimming + heavy carbon use to keep down affects of allelotrophy

4) keep LPS/softies in lower flow than is needed for SPS

5) Where's a list of most toxic softies?

6) Don't keep shrooms (execpt Ricordea)

[griffey83]

My advice to you is to try to keep your SPS corals away from your zoo's. Or at least keep the SPS corals that you dont want the zoo's to grow over seperated somehow. I found that once Zoo's start to take off the husbandry of the tank increases. I seem to have to fight back the advancing Zoo army every couple of months. Not a bad thing since I get to trade the zoo's for other stuff.

[Reefdude3]

Thanks Griffey, Yeah my zoos are multiplying like crazy also. I heard they were SPS safe and that you could have them all around the bases of the SPS covering the rocks and the like, but I guess i'm mistaken as I don't have experince with sps with the zoos.

[griffey83]

Zoo's are SPS safe as long as they are kept seperated in my opinion. I have seen a bunch of tanks that have zoo's growing all around the base of SPS's and it does look pretty cool. I have just run into the situation that the zoo's started to take over the SPS's and SPS corals are my babies!

[Potsy]

I keep a mixed aquarium with a large sinularia, a small sarcophyton, hundreds of zoathids, hairy mushrooms, a bubble-tip anemone, a large frogspawn, plate, brain and tongue corals, and a variety of montipora, acropora, and hydnophora. I run a canister filter with carbon 24/7 and a Euro-reef skimmer. The my zoanthids don't bother any of my corals, even when in direct contact. My sinularia flexibilis (I might be wrong) will cause damage with direct contact but otherwise coexists peacefully. I purchased some new acro frags and they're encrusting their epoxy bases very quickly, so their growth does not appear to be inhibited by alleopathy.

[anative]

We have a 220 that is 2/3 SPS and 1/3 Softies. The Softies are one their own island and don't touch any of the rock where the SPS corals run. I run a large (CS12-2) EuroReef skimmer and skim pretty wet. I also run carbon in a mesh bag in the sump. Sp far I have gotten great growth and color from the SPS.

The tank has been running for about 18 months now and everything seems pretty happy.

Jon

[jaden1]

I keep a mixed tank. Some of the corals are:
many many montis of all sorts.
4 acros 2 large bali aqau cultured 2 frags grown out.
1 stylophora
2 pocillopora
1 rugosa
1 hydnophora
1 pavona
1 purple colored anemone (forget which)
1 growing galaxia
1 large echinopora
1 large encrusting goniapora (now 6 yrs and counting)
several euphylia (anchor and hammer)
1 lg lobophytum
1 large sinularia
many zoos, mushrooms, blastos, and clams.
Aside from when the galaxia , echinopra or hydnophora send out sweepers and catch a coral, no probs. Sinularia is in close prox. to several monti frags. Haven't lost one. I run a turboflotor sl and a phosban reactor, along with a lifeguard 300 filled with carbon. I believe the carbon and water changes are the key. All my corals seem happy and grow well. I change carbon religiously and do 15 gal water changes ona 75 weekly.
JAson

[Reefdude3]

Thanks Jason, Jon, and Potsy! I'm beggining to be encouraged. I'm also wondering what the most harmful species are to SPS?

[arinick]

IMO, Xenia and Mushrooms are much more difficult to control than Zoas are. Zoas spread relatively slowly compared to either of these, and of course their frags are more valuable in comparison. Xenia is my true nemisis.

[halo222005]

i keep a mixed reef really well it has been set up for over a year and is doing great i run carbon 24/7 and have two protein skimmers some say that's over doing it but i have had no problems

75 gal tank
75 gal sump
2 250 watt metal halides
2 air driven skimmers
2 100% actinic lights
125lbs of LR recently added 25lbs
100lbs LS
1 blonde naso tang
1 blue tang
1 yellow tang added 3/15/05
4 green chromis
1 marron clownfish
1 blue devil damsel
1 engineer goby
1 royal gramma added 3/22/05
1 chocolate chip starfish
1 pink java brittle star
1 hermit
50 snails
1 pistol shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp added 3/15/05
1 very large colt coral
1 finger leather
1 green bubble anenome added 3/05/05
1 blue crocea clam
1 set of green star polyps
2 colony's of brown star polyps
1 brown birdsnest
1 green acropora colony
1 scroll coral
5 montipora corals
1 mushroom rock green indo
1 mushroom rock bullseye blue green purple pink orange shrooms
2 colonys xenia
1 frogspawn
1 maze brain
3 acropora colonys
1 baby blue acropora

[Potsy]

Originally posted by Reefdude3
Thanks Jason, Jon, and Potsy! I'm beggining to be encouraged. I'm also wondering what the most harmful species are to SPS?

Sinularia Flexibilis (which I think I have) is considered to be the most toxic and Sarcophyton is fairly toxic as well. Generally, the leathers tend to engage in the alleopathy.

Try doing a search in Eric Boreman's Coral Forum for toxic corals. He actually devised a ranking of coral toxicity.

While it would certainly be better if you ran a sps only tank, a thriving mixed tank is certainly a reality, as you've seen. Just remember that the leathers can grow quite large very quickly and can take up a lot of real estate. I've contemplated trading in my sinularia but my wife likes it too much. The civilian population always prefers the swaying soft and lps corals to the colorful sps sticks.

[Reefdude3]

Arinick, yes, its sad but I've decided the xenia will not be making the transfer to the 180g.

Thanks for you advice Potsy, i will try doing a search in Borneman's forum.

[Reefdude3]

Any other opinoins anyone? I mean, can you have a tank so nutrient starved to keep the SPS happy that the softies and lps shrivel away?

Should all the leathers be put on one side, or will the effects of allelopathy get spread around the tank no matter what?

[jaden1]

I have found that my blastos don't do so well, since I started really concentrating on water quality. The sps on the other hand don't stn or rtn anymore. I guess you have to trade one for the other. All my other lps and softies seem quite happy though. ON e other observation; my euphylias seem to grow quite differently now than before I addded sps. They used to form new heads quickly, one would become two would become four. Now they seem to form subdivisions ( hard to explain) each head elongates and shows signs of forming new headds, but rarely completes the process. Just forms rows. They get bigger but diffrent growth form. All I can say really.
Good luck
Jason