Cut to the chase.

[lanshark]

Please help me understand the play pin and indulge the following RANT ......

I have acquired several LPS, some mushrooms, Zoas, few SPS in the tank.
I'm reading various threads of Mushrooms are VERY VERY VERY Bad ...

Rather than learn a lesson by watching coral perish, I'd certainly prefer to here from experienced reefers regarding choosing coral inhabitants.

I've gotten the question at LFS, "what to you want to keep SPS OR LPS OR Softies or ZOAS? How bout whatever looks good? :idea:

It's not fair to have warfare occurring in the tank INVISIBLE to my eye.

I'd hate to think the few SPS I have go south coz of chemicals being put off by neighboring animals.

Questions;

Should I KILL as some have stated all my mushrooms to better grow SPS/LPS corals?

Who wins when a mushroom grows right next to a Zoanthid?

What if a mushroom is growing one inch from my Montipora plate/cap ?

Moderators;
How bout a RC WIKI so we don't have to search for the same answers?

Coral Compatibility WIKI ?\

Example entry - Majority SPS reefers do not/will not have the following corals in the same tank;
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx

RANT concludes..... :hammer:

 

[LifeAquatic]

Hmmmm... let me take a shot at this.

1. You can have Mushroom and sps in the same tank. I have them.. they dont bother SPS. Just give them a little space. My mushrooms are a 12" away from any SPS. I also have rogue mushrooms located sparatically throughout the tank. No problems.
2.Mushrooms and Zoos can grow together. I have a blue mushroom colony with pink zoos sprouting from the middle. They are fine touching each other.
3. I have mushrooms 3" from a montipora cap. They dont touch each other but are fine.
4. You didnt mention this but I will through it in to answer any doubt. I have a leather coral growing next to SPS frags. Been healthy for months. No worries there either.

I think soft corals get the blame sometimes when we cant really figure out what the true problem is. No doubt there might be some chemical warfare going on, but if you keep the tank healthy all corals can live together. Tricky part is flow. Softies dont like that violent SPS tank flow. So place them with consideration.

 

[listen2bob]

I am in line with lifeaquatic, I have sps, lps, softies etc. all in the same tank.
The term you are looking for is zonation. You find zones in your aquarium, little micro-habitats if you will, maybe you have a nice overhang in your system, this area would be prime for many softies and lower flow\light lps whereas the area on top recieves higher flow and light allowing for sps and high light oranisms.

real reef seems to have zones with a dominant species in each. Its the touching that you need to worry about between shrooms, zoas, lps, sps, anenomes

 

[lanshark]

Thanks Much! Really appreciate the clarity. I feel better now about what I have in my tank. Happy Reefing!!!

 

[AD87]

Mushrooms will eventually take over a tank and kill sps. I had similar issues before, it usually takes a few years but it will happen. FYI.

 

[dan223]

The nicest tank Ive ever seen and a tank of the month was a mixed tank with a very good amount of lps, zoa's, and some ricordias, and the entire middle to top packed with sps to the point of everything being completely packed and growing into each other.http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/4-tank-of-the-month He would do heavy pruning as soon as one started overtaking another and saw dieoff. Running carbon may help and every tank is different. On the other hand I had a loose shroom touch an acan colony and ruin the entire thing, and the carnage of the battle almost fried the whole tank with whatever chemicals were released. IME zoas are a lot more forgiving, shrooms can be trouble.