adding a couple new SPS, concerned about roommates though

[NanoReefWanabe]

as it says i am adding a couple nice new pieces of SPS to my tank:

this beautiful blue polyp birdsnest..

and this sweet little acro...

i am curious though, having only 5g of water to play with real estate is at a prime...i am thinking the blue acro would look stunning above my yellow tipped torch it would be about 3" above it just wondering if the occasional swipe would hurt the acro? ( i have never seen the torch put out sweepers)

and the birdnest location, depending on which way the water is blowing could come in contact with a toadstool leather or a kenya tree...

will the SPS win the wars?

i also have a red montipora cap growing painfully close to what i was told is a green slimer (though it i think it is something else) and my GSP has started to creep down my overflow toward both the green acro and the red cap..

man i hate having such a small tank...i am just hoping the SPS will keep the LPS and softies at bay..

 

[MammothReefer]

No unfortunately they won't win, and hoeksemai can be rather finicky.

 

[mushroom head]

If the torch tentacles touch the acro..even ocasionally,it will sting it.they don't put out sweepers.I leave at least 6 inches between my torch and surounding acroporas.And leathers can't touch birds or any acros.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

okay so the LPS will win, the leathers will win and the softies?

for sweepers i meant i have seen other torches, deflate the majority of the head to increase the length of one of their arms effectively sweeping the surrounding area.

looks like i have to do some rearranging..

 

[stevedola]

In a tank that small I dont know if Id waste my money on expensive SPS when you have softies and long tentacled LPS in there. The leathers release toxins which can cause issues with SPS and if they ever touch...sps will rtn and become toast from either the softy or torch.

At night, I bet that torch puts out sweepers with a reach even longer than you see during the day. Youre better off getting rid of the torch/leather and going SPS if you want to keep sps in a tank like yours.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

In a tank that small I dont know if Id waste my money on expensive SPS when you have softies and long tentacled LPS in there. The leathers release toxins which can cause issues with SPS and if they ever touch...sps will rtn and become toast from either the softy or torch.

At night, I bet that torch puts out sweepers with a reach even longer than you see during the day. Youre better off getting rid of the torch/leather and going SPS if you want to keep sps in a tank like yours.

so far i have 0 casualties...i dont have any noticeable chemical warfare going on, i do have 1 bag of chemipure elite in the sump along with a bag of purigen, along with additional 100g bags of both carbon and phosban, (running the chemipure is likely pointless but i like redundancy...)

i have three SPS in there already and they all display beautiful colours,and polyp extention...as for the torch and frogspawn, i have never seen either one sweep the tank, at any time of the day, and i am around my tank, at many many different hours of the day and night.

but i will move a couple pieces around to allow more breathing room...all my corals start as frags and in a tank this small are essentially trimmed to stay as mini colonies anyway...i much prefer the look of a mixed and moving tank then a tank that just stands still. but i really like the colours of the sticks.

thanks so far for the insights guys.

 

[jimrawr]

My kenyra tree grew to the point where it was almost touching my birdsnest, and now my birdsnest is half white Kenya Tree was sold shortly there after

 

[stevedola]

as for the torch and frogspawn, i have never seen either one sweep the tank, at any time of the day, and i am around my tank, at many many different hours of the day and night.

I kept Torch corals aka Euphyllia glabrescensfor years in a lps tank...at night they would get these long sweepers that could sting near by corals.

Here is the write up on them by tidal gardens:

Although anemone-like in appearance, the torch coral
has a stony skeleton hidden deep.
Indo-Pacific - Islands of the Indopacific including Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.

Euphyllia glabrescens does not require as much light as some other corals. It can be kept under normal output fluorescents without much difficulty. In some cases, it may extend more readily under subdued lighting, however it may display more attractive colors when placed under stronger lighting.

Moderate water movement is recommended.

Like most coral, Euphyllia glabrescens rely to a large extent on the products of their zooxanthellae, however, in our experience, they also benefit from direct feeding. There are a variety of frozen fish foods available that make outstanding meals for Euphyllia glabrescens. We like to feed a mixture of meaty foods such as shrimp, fish, and squid with vitamin additives and highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA). The size of the food must be small enough that the polyp can fully ingest it.

Euphyllia glabrescens are one of the corals that extends long sweeper tentacles. Sweeper tentacles are often used as a means of defense against other encroaching coral colonies. Their white tips contain a concentration of nematcysts that can damage more delicate tank mates. Most of the time, this is not a major problem but to be safe, we recommend placing it in a location far from other corals initially.

I wish you all the luck in the world with a tank that small and a torch near sps. I was simply giving my advise and experience. Of course its your time effort and money...you can do as you see fit. I just know that the day you come home to a dead mini colony of a beautiful acro youll be cursing the oversized torch (like I did). Best wishes and happy reefin'

 

[stevedola]

Eric B's write up on Euphyllia: theres a section regarding sweepers half way down.

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0197/0197_2.html

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i have seen the sweepers in full action in my old tank 10+inches long and smokin what ever it touched...this one i have now though seems very docile...and could be all the carbon i run, i dont know, but its normal tentacles are only maximum 2" long, and never seen it sweep at all...

i have sold the one kenya tree...the other i will just lop off branches as they get too close...the one coral that scares me is the toadstool leather, as i dont know how to frag it, and i have seen them grow very large..currently it has a show piece location...although it is only 3" tall..

i am going to glue together some pedestals for the new sps to grow on...only time will tell who isnt going to play nice...and at that time they will get branches/ arms, hands and fingers cut off, LOL play nice or you wont play at all...

frags came in today...they had an extended stay in a friends tank as we were working opposite schedules...they lit up as soon as i put them in there...i also picked up a pretty sweet open brain too for 5$

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

just wish i could use a camera...but none-the-less some pics..

well here they are as they arrived...

and now i have moved a couple things around..top and centre for them both...high flow high lighting..