Coral types and placement

[Dewana]

I realize I am no where near ready for corals, just doing some research and planning ahead of time.
Every coral I read up on says leave space around it, but how much space? I will be using just frags as a beginner I'm not looking to buy anything too expensive, so how do I know how much space to leave? Are there types of corals that can be very close without harming eachother?
The types I've looked at are:
Zoanthid
Palythoa
Pipe Organ Polyps
Toadstool leather
Torch
Frogspawn
Hammer
Fox
Pipe organ
Acan
Any suggestions or advice? I don't want to put something in that is going to spread rapidly until I have a plan. I have no problem with slow growers until I figure out what it is I like. Also, a lot of them say moderate light. I have no idea what that is. LOL We decided to go with two color Vegas in a 48' 100g 24' deep.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[FatWrasse]

Zoas and stuff look good as a garden on the sand and base rocks and same with acans. Acans have sweeper tentacled the can sting other corals.... Keep space on your corals to desired growth size with a little xtra to spare.

~introducing fish and coral into a electronically balanced body of water since 2007~

 

[texreefer]

Most of those corals you listed are fairly easy corals to start with. The hammer, torch, and frogspawn have been known to be fairly aggressive, so they need some space. Most genus of corals tolerate each other just fine in my experience. Liveaquaria.com has useful info on the corals they sell, easy to browse or search.

 

[daustinlucas]

Check out the aggression column on this page.

http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/what-your-coral-needs/

Sent from my IdeaTabS2109A-F using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dewana]

@daustinlucas wrote:

That is a great chart!! Thank you!

 

[Dewana]

@FatWrasse wrote:

So keeping them at a desired growth size will prevent them from killing eachother?

 

[Dewana]

@texreefer wrote:

But, how much space?? LOL. When you look at all these online reef tank photos, it always looks like the coral is on top of each other, at the very least touching, how is that possible?

 

[FatWrasse]

Zoanthids and palyothas are bothered by much... Usually the same type of coral can be housed close to each other. Also those pictures of corals like touching each other include fragging to control growth...

~introducing fish and coral into a electronically balanced body of water since 2007~

 

[texreefer]

Most corals (common ones) are fairly non-aggressive, that's why they are close to each other with no problem. The euphillia (sp?) corals: torch, hammer, frogspawn, are usually not very close to anything else. As far as the spacing goes, keeping them from touching when they are all "puffed up" is usually a good rule. Softies such as leathers or kenya trees or colt corals can touch (with a few exceptions) zoas and palys usually can too, giving the "garden of flowers" look. Most branching SPS do not grow very fast and can be placed fairly close together (again with a few exceptions) because they don't have any "feelers" or "sweeper tentacles" that protrude out and sting others. Most people start their tank with smaller frags of corals and spread them out throughout their tank so that they are not all in one spot, easily giving them all enough room. Older mature tanks with large coral colonies get to the point that some of the corals touch and the appearance of a tank "full" of corals, this is when you need to be more concerned about how close they are. When looking to purchase your first corals, concentrate most on what amount of flow the coral prefers and how much lighting. Those two factors will do the most to show you where you should place the coral. You can always just ask on here when you get a new one!

 

[sunfun]

@daustinlucas wrote:

This should be a sticky in our reef section. Great chart.

 

[Dewana]

All great information guys, it helped alot!! Thank you all for the advice!! So the acans and zoas, as long as I give them room to grow, I don't have to worry about them killing their own kind. Good!!
I do love this chart! I'm going to down load it to an excel and sift out all the corals that I'm either not interested in, or not experienced enough to handle as a newb. It will be a great resource next month when I'm ready to start adding.
I think the frag swap might be a bit to early for me to buy anything. I'll have to see how the cycle goes with this Real Reef rock. This morning my ammonia was at .25, no signs of anything else, except I think my salt level is a little low. Going to wait until maybe Friday and see where I'm at.

 

[texreefer]

Just a heads up, if you still have ammonia in your tank then you are just at the beginning of your cycle. You will still have to wait for it to break down into nitrites and then nitrates. When all of those levels are at 0 or near 0 then you are ready to start adding coral. You are probably about ready to add one small fish if you like.

 

[Dewana]

So everything has tested 0 for a few days straight. Our tank almost went through no cycle. Talk to the LFS, he said probably because of the real reef that we used. So we added two clown fish and a couple shrimp and crabs on Wednesday. Everything still at 0 today. Just seems way to fast for me.... like I'm missing something. LOL

 

[Mike M]

If you used existing established live rock this would not be surprising. The nitrogen cycle is an ongoing thing in all tanks. In simplified terms, ammonia is always being processed and turned to nitrite and then to nitrate so you want to add things slowly as it takes time for the bacterial populations to adjust to higher and higher bioloads.

There's a really great article on cycling that I can't find right now so I'll try to summarize it. You can have mini cycles that you may not even be able to detect with test kits as you start out. For example, if you introduce a bunch of organic waste that allows one type of bacteria to thrive, let's call it Bacteria "A," and then Bacteria "A" runs out of "food" it will die off. That die off will then lead to something else blooming like cyano, hair algae, or another type of bacteria that is feeding off of the dead Bacteria "A." What you end up with is a bunch of blooms and die off that you may not even notice or be able to test for. Hence the typical advice of waiting a few months before adding anything sensitive like an anemone. Waiting allows your system to complete all these mini cycles and find a stable equilibrium.

That said, I wouldn't panic or anything. You should be fine with what you've added. I would suggest continually testing for ammonia or, better yet, pick up a SeaChem Ammonia Alert if you are concerned and have some Prime on hand if you detect any ammonia. Give your system a few weeks or longer to adjust to the new livestock and bioload and then add more later.

 

[Mike R]

@MBSL55 wrote:

Great advice... Thanks!!!