Questions about compatibility and survival of corals

[falesdk]

Alrighty,

I know I just asked this question about triggers, but my father is also looking into buying a puffer or two (with the hope that when introduced they won't eat each others fins) and hes still hoping he'll be able to put an anemone in with those. He's not sure exactly what kind of puffers hes going to get yet, so if the type is an issue, and you know what is safe with them please let me know!

He also bought some live rock the other day that had some kind of plant on it which the tang (no big surprise) ate, but he had really liked the look of the way it moved with the current in the water. He was wondering if there was anything that he could safely put in the display that would give some nice movement with the water flow that his fish wouldnt eat.

What hes got is...

a 90 gallon tank with A 175W metal halide, and two 96 W PC's.
Heavy water flow, all pumps included the calcuator on reef central put it at something around 1000 gallons per hour (if I'm remembering correctly).

110 Lbs of live rock with a very small brain coral and some other orange coral which is a stalk with two balls on top, these came on the rock. Still alive after two weeks with the trigger, so we're starting to assume they'll survive (until he gets the puffers probably).

Two false percula clowns, 1 yellow tang, 1 picasso trigger.

Hes also looking at possibly buying a purple urchin, he likes the look of it, but I'm afraid that its spines are too small to effectivly protect itself from the trigger. I'm not sure, any advice on that would be great too.

[theatrus]

I can't comment on the puffer specifics, but would strongly suggest putting no more than 1 in. The tang + trigger + puffer is a lot of agression and waste production. Your flow helps with the latter, but not with the former. Urchins are tough critters though. If you get an anemone it can survive if its under the MH bulb. But wait awhile for the tank to settle in and make sure your nitrates aren't out of control first.

If you're looking for something tang proof which won't get eaten and has a high survivability in most tanks: Xenia or a leather (colt, finger, kenya tree). Both will move in currents and some leathers are even green .

[Avi]

As for the urchins, the trigger will in all likelihood do it in as soon as it's in there, so it would most likely be a simple waste of money to put it in the tank together with the trigger.

As for something that will move with the water, I think that the perfect coral for that is Clavularia. There are number of different kinds, but there's one that looks a lot like large Anthelia that will accomplish the look that you want exactly. Here's a pick of two kinds of Clavularia that I have in my reef that was taken some time ago...I'm referring to the one on the left side of the photo. The one on the right are often called "Clove Coral" and they aren't as dramatic with their movement as the other one:



Here it is as it was maturing:



And here it is as it is now, much larger and really waving with the water movement in the tank (it got so big that I had to move the other one):

[falesdk]

Will those corals survive the trigger and a possible puffer?

The question about the anemone is will it eat a puffer, or will the puffer eat it? Not will it survive in the tank in general. All my sand and rocks went into my fathers tank along with a bunch of new fully cured rock, so in 3 to 4 months I'd say it'll be stable enough to put an anemone in (considering my tank had been set up for nearly a year).

He wants an aggressive tank when I take my clowns and tang out in 6 months. I do understand that this is a lot of aggression but we're having a hard time finding docile fish to put in that would surive. We talked the puffer thing over with the owner of the lfs here and he said it was basically hit or miss.