Can i place sps close together?

[Monster00101]

I bought my first couple acro frags and was wondering if they can be placed close together? Will they grow into eachother or will they fight? Can zoos or mushrooms be placed close to them?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Znut Reefer]

I would not place them close together. They will fight, one or both will lose. And I wouldn't place mushrooms or zoos anywhere near them.

 

[mayjong]

good question.
is too close 12 inches? 6 inches? 1 inch?

any experts care to chime in?
i've seen some awsome SPS tanks, where they were "stacked" on top of each other...

 

[flyyyguy]

if you let them grow into each other....vs placing them next to each other they can tolerate each other much more and will generally tend to grow near...but not into each other. I am not talking encrustment of course. The encrustment will be a battle in which one will lose either by necrosis or one will simply grow over the top of the other.

I wish I had taken some pics, but I recently had a minicolony of blue milli get grown completely over by another blue milli. It was the ORA that won. I glued them both to the same rock thinking theyt would just grow out together when one day I noticed the ORA blue grew right over the top of the other, without killing it as it went. The other coral died due to being grown over with no actual fighting going on between the two. kind of interesting to see I thought

 

[tecsavi]

You shouldn't place them too close, they will compete with each other and one will eventually loose. Murphy's law rules my life and it is usually that favorite SPS that looses to that "brown frag with potential". Research your coral and place them based on their growth form (branching, tabling..etc.), lighting and flow requirements. Eventually these corals will fill out your reef and you will be amazed at how fast this will happen. Just check out the many threads on tank progression photos.

I have seen that similar types of corals will encrust on another without killing the other but this competition has to stess one or both colonies. When you have different types is where the real chemical warfare comes into play. There will be a winner and a loser.

When you get to the point of encroaching is where the fun part start, fragging! In my experience its best to place these corals apart and allow them to mature and be strong. They will handle the competition much better when they are larger. Then you can prune the corals by fragging if they start to touch and control things a bit.

 

[Monster00101]

so i have two acro frags one green one blue about 6 inchs apart should i move one?

 

[tecsavi]

It would be helpful if you had some more information on the types of acro's you have. For instance if they are branching types you might be ok, if they are tabling you probably need them farther apart. Can you ID them our post pictures? It would be very helpful.

 

[Monster00101]

I dont know what they r. but would like to know if someone could id these.

 

[tecsavi]

Hard to tell from the picture, can you give us a clear, closer shot of the corals?

+1 on flyyguy's response. There is a big difference between letting them grow into each other and placing them close to each other in the very beginning.

Just remember these colonies get very large as they mature. Plus the fun part comes when they grow into each other and you have to start fragging

 

[Monster00101]

my camera sucks

 

[ehutchby]

As you learn more about the different species of SPS you will find out which pieces can be close to each other and which ones can not. It is a good rule to keep the frags several inches from each other. I originally placed my frags three inches from each other and found out six months later that was a mistake. I've had some pieces grow into each other and do nothing and I've had others die. I lost a large mini colony of Oregon Blue tort when it touched a wild lokani. The wild piece had nothing happen to it.
For example: I have a piece of Green Slimmer very close to an encrusting undata and blue stag. I watch the growth of the green slimmer and trim it when it gets too close to the other pieces because the green slimmer will hurt the other pieces. see below.

 

[kaserpick]

I watch the growth of the green slimmer and trim it when it gets too close to the other pieces because the green slimmer will hurt the other pieces.

No joke! I had a green slimer accidentally fall into an Acan Lord colony. I pulled them apart after touching for half a day. I saw some white stringy tissue and thought the slimer was getting nuked. Nope. The slimer destroyed 2 polyps of the A. Lord; I didn't see that coming. They both did fine once I placed them in more permanent locations.

You can place SPS a few inches close to each other if you'd like, but it requires a lot of trimming. I'm doing it in my nano because I want a miniature reef, not a chunk of life-sized reef. But, if I had a large tank, I'd want them to growth large to acheive the same look.

It just depends on what you're trying to pull off and how much work you want to put into it. But, like said above, touching isn't a good idea...usually.

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Mushrooms are killers...still trying to get them out of my tank with little to no success...or at least only temporary success.

 

[tecsavi]

I hear ya kingfisher! I had a rock of brick red mushrooms in my old tank that dropped new mushrooms every few days. I was able to pull out the rock with the most shrooms on it relatively quickly but spent months eradicating all of the babies. I used a large diameter needle (for horses) filled with kalk and injected them one by one. Took a while but I they stung quite a few sps corals before I got rid of them.