SPS Corals Battling Each Other

[Severum]

I'm sure we've all drooled over many tanks like the one Hookup has linked to in another post. http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=51548.0

Aside from salivating over the beauty of those SPS corals the first question that came to mind is how does that guy keep his corals from fighting. Having just started SPS somewhat recently I'm now having to deal with branches touching each other and bases encrusting over each other.

I know it partly has to do with coral placement (which I've messed up on in some parts) and fragging encroaching pieces, but at some point the corals get too large/close and you can't really frag encrusting bases.

Whats the best way to deal with slow moving SPS warfare?

[xiaan]

I find the best way is to find out who beats who.

I also find that slower growers most likely have more bite then fast growers but that is not always the case.

I also try and clump together like corals as they seem to do well and might merge but not attack if they are the same species.

Generally you will find over time that a couple SPS will do really well in your tank and those colones will get really big smothering out some of your smaller stuff (hopefully they are nice corals) but that is how it goes you can frag those fast growers to keep them at bay.

For here is a list of common SPS in my tank from fastest growth to slowest and how potent they are 1(week)-5(strong))

1. Birdsnest Seriatopora (Weed in my tank) (2)
2. Stylophora (2)
3. Montipora Cap (1)
4. Montipora Digi (1)
5. Montipora Encusting (1)
6. Acropora Mili (5)
7. Acropora humilis (4)
8. Thin Branch Acropora (4)
9. Pocillopora (2)
10. Staghon Acropora (4)
11. Deep Water Acropora (very slow to grow) (2)

[redbelly]

Excellent advice there xiaan!

Also you can workaround things a bit with the way your design your rock structure and the way that you glue your corals in.
For the rock structure, if you have what I refer to as a fruit stand, where you basically have rocks arrange with a variety of plateaus towards the back of the tank you can place a lot of corals on these flat spots but as they are all right next to eachother it realy does not take long for them to be stinging eachother.

Hookups tank is more in the bonsai style of aqua scaping, where less rock is more. More what? well more space for corals! Certainly NOT more space for easy placement! Placing corals is very difficult and most pieces must start out as frags or at least small corals. And plugs almost never go into the tank. Also as you have minimal amount of rock, you can actually epoxy more piece in as you have 360 degrees around each structure to epoxy pieces into.

Personally I prefer having fewer select sps in the tank and letting them grow out to monster sizes. I recently broke the rest of my monti cap out. It was a PITA, at 18" with 6-7 layers it kept bridging gas in my bonsai style aqua scaping that I just didnt want to be bridged. I kept breaking off layers as it was getting too big, but then it didnt look the best as you only saw the bottoms of the inner layers that were growing up at 45 degrees instead of flat. Plus it was too high in the tank. At about 12" off the sand bed it was stopping me from putting ANY other corals below it. I have started with a new monti cap though, at about 2" above the sand bed. Its an Aussie piece that encrusts and plates and has some really unique shapes already with about 5 plates that are extra thick. This one grows MUCH slower than the standard cap so it should suit my my tank much better.
I just let my monti caps grow into the stag and millipora. Stag and the milli burn the cap back easily.

For my Millipora, I have all of them in one area so they grow together quite well. All of mine were started at 1" and my green with red coralite is up to at least 12" now (but growing into the higher light and higher flow from the mp 60 WAY faster), pink millipora is probably 10" now, green plating is about 12" and I have 2 other frags in the 3" tange now with lots of new branches but growing well. So I put the plating at the bottom, placed the pink on the side of my rock structure and 2" above the plating green milli (it puddlede down to .25" above the plating but of course grows up towards the light) and I put the green with red coralites about 3" above the plating and on the back side to my rock structure (but its primarily growing towards the side and front due to the higher flow and better lighting). 1 frag is mounted on the front of the rock structure, 1 is on top. None of them overly sting eachother at this time and are well on the way to being nicely intertwined.

All that to say basically what Xiaan wrote, placement is important.
Put similar corals together and/or put corals together knowing that one will easily burn the other back and keep it at bay.

[Hookup]

You've heard from two of the best reefers on OVAS...  I cannot add much. 

Just keep in mind that nothing is permanent in the tank... It can be broken, chipped, moved, fragged into control.  Even encrusting can be covered with epoxy and chipped out... 

Try things and move em...  Move em for better color, better growth and better warfare... 

[Severum]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Looks like I have some fragging, relocating and live rock chipping ahead of me. Otherwise nature is going to run its course.

I should have planned the layout better based on how corals grow. Lesson learned.

[redbelly]

Just pop em off the rock and re-eboxy them where you want them.

Did you keep the plug that most of the pieces come on?

If so this should be super easy.

If not and they have puddled out it can be a bit more work.

[Severum]

They've all encrusted out way beyond the plug. It'll be more work unfortunately.

[Hookup]

They've all encrusted out way beyond the plug. It'll be more work unfortunately.

Yeah, UNFORTUNATLEY, you've kept a healthy system and those darn corals grew...    LOL @ sev

[Severum]

Yeah, UNFORTUNATLEY, you've kept a healthy system and those darn corals grew...    LOL @ sev

Ya that true. When you put it that way its not as bad a problem as I could be having...

[xiaan]

They've all encrusted out way beyond the plug. It'll be more work unfortunately.

and the cool thing is that after you brake it off in the next couple of months there could be a new colony where it encrusted