Coral Wars, placement, future growth

[norfolkgarden]

Coral Wars, Placement, future growth

New to salt water, 1 yr+. fresh water for a few decades.

I started my coral selection with a gardeners mentality. Buy a bunch of tiny frags and see what does well and grow more of that.

So far, everything is growing well. Now I just need a bigger tank to put it all in...

I'm looking for more info on possible coral interactions.

If I place a Blasto and a bunch of zoas a few inches apart, will they eventually come to a draw? I know (so far anyway) the zoa's growth leaps compared to the Blasto's slow growth. I'm afraid the zoa's will ignore the Blasto's short sweepers and overrun it completely?

If I place zoa's a few inches from the base of some 1/8" diameter staghorn coral frags, will they climb the staghorn and overrun it, or will they just form the perfect "annual's around a shrub" look that I'm hoping for?
Same question with orange Monti Setosa, and several varieties of Birdsnest SPS.

I'm hoping the Zoa's ability to slowly adjust to highly variable light levels will keep it healthy a few years down the road, when the branching corals have begun to really grow out.

We also have a few tiny clove/glove frags that I would like to use similar to the zoa's.

What about Clove/Glove vs Zoa? Just a draw wherever they meet?

The several anthelia's and several types of GSP are on 2 large vertical rocks, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
The GSP takes up most of the top halves of these 2 rocks. It is doing well. (lol) So far it is only interested in expanding upwards, toward the light.
I just added some of the anthelia, 4 inches down from the bottom edge of the GSP. I'm hoping the anthelia will fill in the base of the rock and the GSP will continue to just grow upwards. Is this likely?

I've read that various monti's will most likely fight each other.
According to what I've read so far the winning order is;
forest green is strongest/most deadly then
orange morph then
purple morph then
lowly brown morph

We have some quarter sized frags of Monti Cap in red(a brownish red), orange, green haze with a light orange background (sold as solid green at LFS), orange with obvious green polyps, bright purple and a bright neon acid green Le...something that has similar growth to the Monti Cap.
The Le...something was growing entwined with a reddish Monti Cap at the LFS and it didn't look like they were fighting. Need to go back for some pics later this week.

Also an awesome neon pink chalice and a purple with many green eyes chalice. The LFS said the purple with green eyes grows fast. I know they are both pretty aggressive. Any ideas on how long it will take them to expand to about 5" diameter?

And last but not least, Favites in a pastel green and purple, war coral, and a new one in neon green with a true red center. it should definately have some fancy Christmas name attached to it.

Zoa's or Clove/Glove vs any of these are my main concern.

I plan on keeping most of the aggressive stuff separated from each other on separate, fist sized rocks. I'll still have options a few years down the road.
I'm hoping I can add the zoa's and clove/glove's here and there around the other aggressive stuff.

Thank you for any suggestions!
Matt

[Ron Reefman]

Fast growers tend to over run slow growers unless the slow grower is aggressive (like a frogspawn or hammer). I started out a lot like you. I moved up from a 75g to a 180g and had lots of room. Now, 3 years later they are all growing into eachother. It can be somewhat surprising as to who wins which battles as they go to war with eachother. I just trim back the winner first and maybe the damage from the loser. If that isn't enough space, I'll take more from the faster grower. The other factor that weighs into the choice of who gets cut back the most is which coral do I like better?

The only problem is the frags sell and I want to use the money to buy more coral and I'm already out of room. I guess I could take a few of the bigger colonies and make them smaller. But I really like the mature look of a tank with big colonies. Decisions, decisions, decisions...

[betamed]

Originally Posted by norfolkgarden

Coral Wars, Placement, future growth

New to salt water, 1 yr+. fresh water for a few decades.

I started my coral selection with a gardeners mentality. Buy a bunch of tiny frags and see what does well and grow more of that.

So far, everything is growing well. Now I just need a bigger tank to put it all in...

I'm looking for more info on possible coral interactions.

If I place a Blasto and a bunch of zoas a few inches apart, will they eventually come to a draw? I know (so far anyway) the zoa's growth leaps compared to the Blasto's slow growth. I'm afraid the zoa's will ignore the Blasto's short sweepers and overrun it completely?

most likly the zooas will surround the blastos preventing them from further growth. they can always be trimmed back

If I place zoa's a few inches from the base of some 1/8" diameter staghorn coral frags, will they climb the staghorn and overrun it, or will they just form the perfect "annual's around a shrub" look that I'm hoping for?
Same question with orange Monti Setosa, and several varieties of Birdsnest SPS.
They should not grow up the coral they may irritate the base of the coral a bit.
I'm hoping the Zoa's ability to slowly adjust to highly variable light levels will keep it healthy a few years down the road, when the branching corals have begun to really grow out. Zoas can handle a range of light. they tend to stretch out if they need more light or get pale colors.

We also have a few tiny clove/glove frags that I would like to use similar to the zoa's.

What about Clove/Glove vs Zoa? Just a draw wherever they meet?
that has been my experience

The several anthelia's and several types of GSP are on 2 large vertical rocks, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
The GSP takes up most of the top halves of these 2 rocks. It is doing well. (lol) So far it is only interested in expanding upwards, toward the light.
I just added some of the anthelia, 4 inches down from the bottom edge of the GSP. I'm hoping the anthelia will fill in the base of the rock and the GSP will continue to just grow upwards. Is this likely?Never kept anthelia but it sounds possible
I've read that various monti's will most likely fight each other.
According to what I've read so far the winning order is;
forest green is strongest/most deadly then
orange morph then
purple morph then
lowly brown morph
the red has been the most aggressive for me. they don't sting so much as overgrow each other. its easy to trim if it plates and difficult where it attaches to rock. its nice when they grow into each other just give them a bit of space.

We have some quarter sized frags of Monti Cap in red(a brownish red), orange, green haze with a light orange background (sold as solid green at LFS), orange with obvious green polyps, bright purple and a bright neon acid green Le...something that has similar growth to the Monti Cap.
The Le...something was growing entwined with a reddish Monti Cap at the LFS and it didn't look like they were fighting. Need to go back for some pics later this week.

Also an awesome neon pink chalice and a purple with many green eyes chalice. The LFS said the purple with green eyes grows fast. I know they are both pretty aggressive. Any ideas on how long it will take them to expand to about 5" diameter?groth rates are hard to predict and it depends on how big they are now, the purpke is probably a hollywood stunbner. they grow real fast.. give chalices a couple inches from other corals they have sweepers. they can be kept togther is they are the same species.

And last but not least, Favites in a pastel green and purple, war coral, and a new one in neon green with a true red center. it should definately have some fancy Christmas name attached to it.

Zoa's or Clove/Glove vs any of these are my main concern.

I plan on keeping most of the aggressive stuff separated from each other on separate, fist sized rocks. I'll still have options a few years down the road.
I'm hoping I can add the zoa's and clove/glove's here and there around the other aggressive stuff.

Thank you for any suggestions!
Matt

[norfolkgarden]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

... The only problem is the frags sell and I want to use the money to buy more coral and I'm already out of room. ...

LOL!
Other than tossing a few more rocks into the tank for more Zoa's to grow onto, I have no idea how I'm going to have room to let the LPS and SPS keep growing beyond a 3" to 4" diameter.
But there are at least a few more corals at the LFS that I really want to get next week...

Thanks for the suggestions!
Matt

[norfolkgarden]

...

[norfolkgarden]

The several anthelia's and several types of GSP are on 2 large vertical rocks, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
The GSP takes up most of the top halves of these 2 rocks. It is doing well. (lol) So far it is only interested in expanding upwards, toward the light.
I just added some of the anthelia, 4 inches down from the bottom edge of the GSP. I'm hoping the anthelia will fill in the base of the rock and the GSP will continue to just grow upwards. Is this likely?Never kept anthelia but it sounds possible.

They are another beautiful plague, like GSP, minus the sting. They have the ability to 'flow' over things, just like the GSP.
They are also a good "indicator coral". The last time I waited too long to replace the PhosBan and GFO, they nearly melted out completely.

Monti's, Staghorn and Birdsnest are probably as far as I'll go with the SPS.
Acro's are definitely *not* in my foreseeable future. ;-)

Thanks for the suggestions, Matt