bad at lps?

[donfishy]

Can anyone help me? i have a mixed reef with sps, lps and softies

for some reason, Euphylliads, Fungiids, Blastos, and candycanes all do well. however, whenever i try a Lobophyllia, Trachyphyllia, or Cynarina, they slowly die off

any clue?

 

[lpslover]

Possibly more sensitive to allelopathy from the softies than the others?

 

[donfishy]

is that a valid reason? I do have softies in there, just curious, ...

 

[lpslover]

Pretty much every coral and many algaes secrete allelopathic chemicals that are intended to slow the growth of or outright kill any other organisms around it. Wet Web Media has a bunch of info on this.

Most LPS/SPS rely less on secreted chemicals and more on sweeper tentacles for this. But softies don't have the sweepers so they can be much more noxious. Many aquarists don't mix stony and soft corals in the same tank for this reason.

Some corals are generally more sensitive to water chemistry than others. So my guess is that the ones that you are having difficulty with are succumbing more easily to the softies chemical warfare methods.

Short of removing the softies and any soft polyps there isn't any sure test. But think about when you've done a water change and replaced the carbon, did they seem to perk up for a day or two?

 

[skinz78]

Do you run carbon? Do you feed the LPS corals?

 

[donfishy]

i do not run carbon, but I am thinking of starting to, ... my SPS are definitely not growing slowly, so I am not sure, but it definitely could be alleopathy. A couple of large toadstools, and several med to large Sinularia corals which I know are bad about the chems, ... thanks for the idea and advice.

 

[adamfajge]

I am surprised that the Trachyphyllia would die even with the softies. They are pretty hardy. I had same experience with a huge red Lobo. I have a large finger leather in a mixed reef 46 gallon. Favia brains are the hardiest LPS I think. Small tentacle Fungias are very hardy. MIne lasted for about 3 years till I was having hair algae issues and it started growing algae on it. This all started from overfeeding and almost no CUC. I got 10 turbo snails and fixed the entire algae problem

 

[Otter_rs]

Hate to point out the obvious, but here goes. There is no aquarium out there that can keep every kind of coral happy. Since you are having success with some types of corals, stick with those types. If you go and change everything in order to try and keep something you are having trouble with, something else will most likely start doing poorly. My advice is, stop trying to keep the things that your aquarium can't support. Be happy that you are having success with the corals that are doing well. If you truly would like to keep these corals that are doing poorly, then set up a new system and design it specifically for those corals. Just a suggestion... Not to say that you shouldn't use carbon every now and then for the reasons that lpslover states. Probably a good idea.