Do I have too many different corals in my little tank? failure?

[ralphie16]

I have a 45 gallon tank with the following corals:

6" across Torch Coral (Euphyllia sp.)

2" pink birds nest frag (Seriatopora hystrix)

4" Acropora aspera

1" monitporas capricornis

I have them situated throughout the tank as per their light and flow requirements. The closest any of them are to each other is about 8" but they are on different levels of the tank.

Anyways, is this too much variety and too many different kinds of corals for a 45 cube tank?

I have refugium w. macroalgae, a skimmer, and replace evap water with kalkwater. Lighting is 250 MH and two T5 with individual reflectors. Flow is two Tunze 6025 and whatever return pump does (but its slow).

Do I need to run carbon or phospate removers? I have alage but its all concentrated in my refugium with literally none in the display.

Is there anything I am missing equipment or husbandry wise? I cvan move stuff out of the tank to another tank if needed.

[XSiVE]

I wouldnt worry about too much variety in there at all. I'd probably put a lot more in, actually.

[ralphie16]

But aren't they going to grow? I thought I would need a lot of space to allow for growth and to make sure they do not physically touch each other since I read that would injure/kill them. Is there not a huge issue with chemical warfare between them in such a small tank? Tank is 2ft cube.

[silvers]

I have sooooo much in my 22g cube atleast 30 diff. I eaven have stuff hanging on the side of my glass with fishing line and I have no problems except for loseing frags.This is temporary till I get my 120g finished

[kathainbowen]

Agree. I wouldn't worry much, if at all, about that grouping. Just keep the Euphyllia where it can't reach anything.

In fact, I've seen people keep much more crammed into smaller tanks. Corals are like candy, crack, or Lays potato chips. Once you get one or two, it can be hard to stop adding! But, what you currently have are relatively slow growers (compared to other corals like softies- speed it all relative), so you shouldn't really have much of an issue with them.

[honda2sk]

start my own thread. sorry.

[kathainbowen]

Watch the gsp and the Xenia. Those are two faster growing corals, often overtaking more delicate and slower growing corals.... and.... in some cases... WHOLE TANKS! (seriously. I've seen tanks that look more like rolling, grassy fields from gsp).

I'd recommend making a sort of rock-island for xenia far enough away from the rest of the rocks that it can't "jump" over, keeping in mind that xenia can reach pretty far when it wants. You can use a similar technique for gsp. Either that, or I've also seen people use reef putties and cements to make a sort of gsp barrier to keep it from over growing towards more delicate corals.

[honda2sk]

there is only one piece of live rock in display so i dont have to worry about the xenia moving, right? they wont spread on sand will they?

the gsp I have glued to the back of the tank. hoping to create a wall of gsp.

[kathainbowen]

It might move across sand, if really pressed to, but not likely. Xenia can be pretty tenacious when it wants to be, but, more often than not, it's going to spread upwards and in the direction of the current to cover a rock, as opposed to sand. In a pretty "spartan" landscape like this sounds like, this should be pretty easy to combat even if the xenia does decide it needs to annex more space. If you notice it moving towards other corals, try shifting your current to gently blow the xenia away from your more desireable corals (so it slightly bends in another direction). This is usually enough to encourage the xenia to grow in a different direction (but still upwards, for the most part).

The GSP is an encrusting coral, and it can make small mats on the sand if pressed, but GSP is easily removed. You can just peel it away gently with a razor, cut it to a neat edge, attach it to a new rock, and sell/trade to other reefers!