leathers mixed with sps

[milkshake]

Are there any dangers in mixing leathers and sps? I heard something breifly about this from someone. I dont even remember who. I have a 40 gallon tall tank with a couple of leathers and 3 frags of sps. Before I venture off into LPS and SPS,
I would like to have a little more understanding of what to keep and what not to keep in a SPS and LPS tank.:spin1:

 

[Justin74]

There can be immediate dangers if they come into contact. Otherwise softies can inhibit growth in SPS by chemical compounds called terpines, and some claim to have poor coloring in there SPS with too many softies in the tank.

-Justin

 

[milkshake]

Appreciate that info Justin. I have some zoanthids, a few mushrooms, one ricordia, zenia, 2 frags of alien mouth mycedium, cabbage leather, gsp, and 3 small frags of sps. One of the sps frags seems to be coloring up some. When I got it, it was mostly brown and now is showing some bright green color and polyp extension. I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of all the zoanthids except for a few.

 

[Justin74]

No problem, sarcophyton's and sinularia are up there in terms of potency. Not sure about Sinularia Dura (cabbage) Although I do have one, and SPS with it. But with so many variables that were going on with my tank I couldnt pin point anything. Although I am very happy with the results of keeping them segregated with seperate systems now. More reading on this in Eric Borneman's Book of Corals .


-Justin

 

[milkshake]

I do have one green sarcopython that is about 1.5 inches in diameter at the head. It's about 7 to 8 inches away from one of the sps frags. Potential problem??

 

[waterfaller1]

When I started getting more sps I removed all my leathers and euphyllias. Good excuse to set up an LPS/leather tank...that's what I did.

 

[Ciarán]

Are there any dangers in mixing leathers and sps?

Definitely. Justin was right about the "terpenes" or biological chemicals emitted most potently by soft corals to stunt their faster growing stony rivals. The term is "allelopathy" or chemical warfare. It can be counteracted through the use of activated carbon and good protein skimming. However you can never be sure. I was toying with the idea of keeping leathers myself with some stonies. If the waxy film that leathers shed periodically lands on your stonies (or any other sessile inhabitant for that matter) it can spell very nasty results. Be aware also that mushrooms (corallimorpharians) and ricordia etc. are similarly inclined to emitting chemicals. I think a good precaution would be to keep your leathers downstream of your stonies so the SPS/LPS arent in a direct stream of a soft-coral. What i think is, that you should just try and see how it goes, take the precautions of carbon/skimming/adequate placement and see how it works out.

The larger the water volume the better the chances.

 

[milkshake]

My tank is a 40 gallon tall and a sump/fuge that holds around 25 gallons. My water volume is around twice that of what the main tank is holding. I am running 2 bags of carbon in the sump and run a ASM G1X skimmer at the other end of the sump. I'm also running an ozone box for an hour a day.
Does anyone know of someone that has leathers and softies mixed with sps and is successful?

 

[waterfaller1]

I have a mixed reef, just no leathers.

 

[milkshake]

Nice tank waterfaller! What type of lighting are you using? Looks
like 6500K or 10K.

 

[waterfaller1]

Thanks! 2 X 250 Ushio 10K MH's and 4 X 110 URI actinic VHO's.