Compatability - Soft & Hard Corals Together

[Tobman]

What soft corals plus hard corals do you all recommend for a novice. I have a newly set-up 65 gal with 55-gal sump/refugium, 2 x 96W PC. Flow still in design, but currently with 5.5 x turnover from sump. Live rock, coarse coral sand. Refugium with Miracle Mud and sugar sand and a variety of typical macros.

I thought that softies are relatively easy and hard corals are more difficult. Borenams book Corals seems to suggest otherwise.

I've heard that soft corals can a bit aggressive and don't do well with hard corals. And that Zoanthids, one of the more commonly recommended soft corals for beginners, are a bit like weeds and can take over.

I want a diverse tank for the interest of it, as well as learning about them all:

Soft corals
Hard corals
Inverts
Reef-safe fish

As well as all the bugs, algaes and what not from the refuge.

 

[Sk8r]

If you want to do a mixed tank, you can mix stony lps and sps if you have the lighting for sps. Mushrooms, discosomas, ricordias, yumas, can go in it, no problem, ditto sponges, fish, etc. Green star polyps are compatible. So is xenia, a softie that pulses.

If you want to do a truly mixed tank, avoid some of the stronger softies like sinularia, and put all the softies nearest the outflow, the stonies nearest the inflow, and run carbon 24/7. The carbon will strip some nutrients, so you may want to add something like Kent Coral Vite, and do weekly 10% water changes.

I do not personally recommend putting an anemone in with either, particularly with softies. They're too mobile and spit the coral equivalent of tear gas.