How much is too much

[JTL]

I recently have wondered how many corals is too much? We have at least 60 frags in a 100 gallon tank. Some are 3 months old and are now encrusting and some are new today. They are all sps and lps, mostly lps. No softies. I figure the zoas will grow together, the acans can lay on the bottom, the palys can also grow into nice colonies. Also have some chalice. Right now it looks a little bit like a frag tank.

[heathlindner25]

No softies??

[JTL]

I take that back we do have a duncan and frogspawn but no mushrooms or xenia.

[ReefMaster48]

Once the fish can barely swim because there is so many corals, then that's about good...

[nereefpat]

Originally Posted by heathlindner25

No softies??

Right!? Besides the aforementioned zoas

Originally Posted by JTL

I take that back we do have a duncan and frogspawn

Those, too, are LPS. Anyway, stuff will fill out. Give us a picture if you want some more useful opinions.

[JTL]

I consider mushrooms and the like softies not lps. Just a matter of definition I guess. Picture?? Use your imagination.

[Ron Reefman]

John, mushrooms are softies as are leathers. Your duncan and frogspawn are lps, not softies.

I've not done many zoas until my tank crashed (chiller over run) and mostly just the zoas survived. So do most reefers consider zoas as part of the softie group or do they consider zoas as a totally separate group?

To your question, when is it enough? When you have to start fragging things so they have room to grow and not fight with each other. In my 125g I had 110 species of coral before the crash. Most were bought as frags and in a year I was just getting to the point that fragging was going to be required. However, my old 180g tank only had about 20 corals and they were all big. I had a hammer and a frogspawn that were each the size of soccer balls and a Hollywood Stunner that was a full 20" in diameter. That tank was full too! So there is no numerical answer.

[JTL]

I don't know what I was thinking because I know frogspawn and ducan are lps, in fact what I have isn't even a frog it is a hammer. Duh!

Zoas are not softies which are octocorals but they are also not "true" stony corals. Maybe they are nothing

I probably have 15-20 zoas and palys some of which have already doubled in size, but of course they were only a few heads to begin with.

I have enough corals for now.....until I run across that must have one. I am moving on to fish now.

[sde1500]

My plan has been to keep fewer corals but allow them to get really big. So most of my corals have a lot of spacing between them. Really really hard to not just jam it full, but I love seeing those huge colonies so that is what I'd like. That and tons of zoas everywhere.

[JTL]

Originally Posted by sde1500

My plan has been to keep fewer corals but allow them to get really big. So most of my corals have a lot of spacing between them. Really really hard to not just jam it full, but I love seeing those huge colonies so that is what I'd like. That and tons of zoas everywhere.

I too like the look of larger colonies. I figured I would throw a lot of frags at this and see which ones did the best and looked the best. Sort of like over-seeding a lawn I suppose. Any that I remove a year or so from now should be nice little colonies in their own right and very salable.

[sde1500]

Originally Posted by JTL

I too like the look of larger colonies. I figured I would throw a lot of frags at this and see which ones did the best and looked the best. Sort of like over-seeding a lawn I suppose. Any that I remove a year or so from now should be nice little colonies in their own right and very salable.

That's a pretty good idea!

[Jekerry]

Is there a guide somewhere for what corals can be close to each other? I’ve noticed my Rasta leather seems to be always reaching towards my frogspawn to touch him. We moved Froggy last night so they can’t touch. I would like a fuller look but I am afraid of them hurting each other. My Rasta leather is just recovering from my tank getting cold due to a bad heater, but before he deflated (almost back to normal) he was not near to touching Froggy. How do you know what can be close together before you glue them down?

Jane

[pisanoal]

Originally Posted by Jekerry

Is there a guide somewhere for what corals can be close to each other? I’ve noticed my Rasta leather seems to be always reaching towards my frogspawn to touch him. We moved Froggy last night so they can’t touch. I would like a fuller look but I am afraid of them hurting each other. My Rasta leather is just recovering from my tank getting cold due to a bad heater, but before he deflated (almost back to normal) he was not near to touching Froggy. How do you know what can be close together before you glue them down?

Jane

I wouldn't think those two corals would hurt each other directly. But your frogspawn is a euphyllia. Other types of euphyllia coral can go next to it and they will not sting each other (hammers and torches). Soft corals don't really sting that I am aware of. They usually compete via chemical warfare (the produce toxins that help keep other coral close to them from getting big). So you should be able to put softies next to each other as well, just run carbon to keep the toxins from building up.