Too large of a coral for tank?

[dwalampa]

Hey guys. Was wondering if it is possible for a coral be too large for a tank? Talking about a leather coral. Other than flow and lighting requirements, would having too large of a coral in a small body of water foul the tank and make it crash?

Here's the scope:

Have a 100G mixed reef, and have a leather coral that has grown substantially in the past couple of months. I believe the leather coral got too excited and nuked my SPS. Lost couple of SPS already. Some LPS are now showing signs of stress with tissue receding. WC and running carbon doesn't seem to cut it. All parameters and maintenance routine has been the same for the past year. SG 1.025, ALK 7.8, CA 130, MG 1350, PO4 ~.02.

Anyways, have a 20G frag tank which I have some soft coral and some monti frags in there. The frag tank is filtered by an Aquaclear 50 with two sponges and has been up and running for half a year. Have one flasher wrasse in there. The size of the leather I want to remove from the 100G tank is about 9 inches in diameter and 9 inches tall. Would take up 1/4 - 1/3 of the space of the 20G long.

From your experience, do you think adding a soft coral of this size to the 20G long will cause any trouble to the 20G frag tank? Would hate to lose it as I have had it for awhile. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mark9]

Is that a typo on the ca?
Sounds like a show piece, maybe clear some room for it?

 

[Pife]

I've seen some huge leathers that take up people's whole tanks.

 

[dwalampa]

Is that a typo on the ca?
Sounds like a show piece, maybe clear some room for it?

Oops! Yes it is. CA is 430.

It had plenty of room around, before it doubled in size. I hate to remove it form the tank. But I already lost more than a hand full of small SPS colonies, and now have a candy cane and torch having its tissue recede up to the rim of the polyp. The candy cane was one of my first corals, had it from 3 heads to 50+ now, so bummed about it. Not even sure if this leather is the culprit, but the affected corals started going down hill when all the leathers exploded in growth. Water changes and carbon doesn't seem to be doing anything. Not sure what else I can try but to remove these leathers from the tank.

Here's a pic of the coral, just used a Dremel to remove it from a rock a week ago. Cut off a piece of the rock where the coral was attached to. Was not happy for couple of days. In such a dilemma, hate to lose any of these corals.

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[dwalampa]

I've seen some huge leathers that take up people's whole tanks.

Yea. I wouldn't mind having a tank full of softies, but just loving the LPS more at the moment. Maybe its time for a second tank? :fun2:

 

[o2manyfish]

I don't think putting it in the frag tank should pose any problems.

First inclination is that the leather is not the issue with all your others corals that are unhappy.

But that's not to say your assumptions are not correct.

Your profiles says So Cal. I'm located in Encino. I have a 250g rock sump outside attached to my system. If you wanted to tank the leather in there for a few weeks to see if your tank starts shifting back in the right direction I'm more that happy to help out. I have plenty of tank space and am happy to help out fellow reefers.

Dave B

 

[dwalampa]

I don't think putting it in the frag tank should pose any problems.

First inclination is that the leather is not the issue with all your others corals that are unhappy.

But that's not to say your assumptions are not correct.

Your profiles says So Cal. I'm located in Encino. I have a 250g rock sump outside attached to my system. If you wanted to tank the leather in there for a few weeks to see if your tank starts shifting back in the right direction I'm more that happy to help out. I have plenty of tank space and am happy to help out fellow reefers.

Dave B

Oh man. Thank you so much for your generosity Dave! Will definitely let you know if the need arise.

Just blaming the leather as I can't seem to pin point any other issue. Did find mixed opinions regarding the chemical released by softies harming stonies though. One other possibility is that the tank started evaporating more since the weather got warmer back in May. I have kalk in my ATO, but pH stays at 8.3. It is around this time that the leathers started taking off and dropping babies 2-3 times a week, SPS started RTN one by one (started with the millies than the birdsnests), and LPS tissue slowly receded. One other change that I did to the tank back in Feb was switching from IO to Red Sea Coral Pro. Been pretty consistent with the rest of the stuff, same food, feeding schedule, WC schedule, cleaning glass/pumps, swapping out carbon, changing RO filter 6 months, DI filters, etc. BUMMED!

 

[Tweaked]

A buddies leather he had to get rid of. Monster!

 

[dwalampa]

A buddies leather he had to get rid of. Monster!

That bangaii looks so puny next to it!

Any reason why he got rid of it? Just cuz it got too large? Or was it causing problems? Just curious. Thanks.