Coral choices and LPS tank aggression

Hermie

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When I first started my reef tank, honestly my goal was just coralline covered rocks. Now, about 2 years later and I have virtually no coralline but instead, about 1 specimen from each of the major coral types (soft, lps, sps, corallimorph, encrusting/branching etc).

I was first drawn to LPS because they could "eat" and since my tank's prime inhabitant is a carnivorous puffer, I figured the LPS could consume excess food; but now that most of my frags have grown out some, I am realizing just how destructive corals can be towards one another. The most destructive corals are my goniastrea and platygyra. I researched them before buying and knew somewhat what I was getting into, but when I look at my tank at the wee hours, (3 am, 4am, 5am), I witness a cat'o'nine-tentacles sweeping around the aforementioned LPS.

So far, I have goniastrea (on the substrate) attacking some green cyphastrea and causing damage. The goniastrea also keeps the nearby GSP at bay. however, another goni frag is now threatening some nearby corals (a tubinaria and blasto merleti). So I am starting to realize now that not all LPS are created equal.

How do you deal with coral warfare? Does the LPS aggression (namely gonis and platys) keep you from buying those genus of coral? Which LPS do you find most peaceful? (Acans, right? micromussa lordhowensis).

Is coral warfare a large reason why SPS owners do not keep many LPS corals? I go on youtube and see tons of "SPS tank tours" but very few LPS/mixed reef tanks. Very few reefers focus on LPS corals. I am noticing more and more. I suppose the draw to SPS is the dual encrusting and branching behavior. However, if you ask me, LPS can look just as beautiful as SPS. And there is nothing even remotely comparable to the feeding behavior of LPS corals (unless you are counting "hybrid" types like cyphastrea/psammocora). It all comes down to the specimens.

What do you think...
 
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Hermie

Hermie

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footgal

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LPS are funny and weird, I’ll try to help but it’s a lot of trial and error

Acan lords may touch each other but not other LPS. Had a candy cane fall on my lord and it was gone in 3 hours. But I had an acan lord next to acros for about 2 weeks, they definitely touched especially at night and neither became damaged.

Candy Canes seem to be relatively peaceful. Mine definitely touches a Birdsnest and bonsai (acros) at night with the feeders and all three remain undamaged. The bonsai and Birdsnest have damaged each other pretty badly so I know they’re capable of warfare but it doesn’t really seem like they mind the candy cane there

Scolys haven’t hurt anything yet. Chalice, zoas, alveopora, mushrooms, etc have all not been harmed by any of my scolys. But a chalice did sting the crap out of my scoly and it’s got a dent now.

Chalice have crazy sweepers but if you place it so the flow pushes the sweepers away from other corals they’re fine. I’ve got a toadstool and a neon green leather 1/2” - 1” away from a large chalice with no issues doing this. They’ve been like that for about 4-5 months now so it seems like a pretty permanent solution.

Goniopora seems to be hit or miss, some appear to be aggressive yet some don’t. I prefer to isolate in any case

my plate coral hasn’t stung anything but it’s only been with zoas as of right now.

Most LPS are okay, just don’t let them touch other species and try to position them to the flow pushes their sweepers away from other corals. Ex: Goniastra with long sweepers positioned so the sweepers get pushed into the glass/back wall instead of rock work where you may want to put a coral in the future
 
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Hermie

Hermie

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LPS are funny and weird, I’ll try to help but it’s a lot of trial and error

Acan lords may touch each other but not other LPS. Had a candy cane fall on my lord and it was gone in 3 hours. But I had an acan lord next to acros for about 2 weeks, they definitely touched especially at night and neither became damaged.

Candy Canes seem to be relatively peaceful. Mine definitely touches a Birdsnest and bonsai (acros) at night with the feeders and all three remain undamaged. The bonsai and Birdsnest have damaged each other pretty badly so I know they’re capable of warfare but it doesn’t really seem like they mind the candy cane there

Scolys haven’t hurt anything yet. Chalice, zoas, alveopora, mushrooms, etc have all not been harmed by any of my scolys. But a chalice did sting the crap out of my scoly and it’s got a dent now.

Chalice have crazy sweepers but if you place it so the flow pushes the sweepers away from other corals they’re fine. I’ve got a toadstool and a neon green leather 1/2” - 1” away from a large chalice with no issues doing this. They’ve been like that for about 4-5 months now so it seems like a pretty permanent solution.

Goniopora seems to be hit or miss, some appear to be aggressive yet some don’t. I prefer to isolate in any case

my plate coral hasn’t stung anything but it’s only been with zoas as of right now.

Most LPS are okay, just don’t let them touch other species and try to position them to the flow pushes their sweepers away from other corals. Ex: Goniastra with long sweepers positioned so the sweepers get pushed into the glass/back wall instead of rock work where you may want to put a coral in the future


What do you think about favia? I think I have 1 and the longest tentacle it produces is probably 2cm, under 1 inch, so I'm thinking they might be a safer bet than gonis.
 

ZoWhat

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Back to your original wish to have coraline encrusted LR. If you find another reefer or a LFS that has it growing heavily on the wall....ask if they could scrape some coraline and put in a zip lock bag....then go home and seed your LR with the flakes
 
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Hermie

Hermie

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Back to your original wish to have coraline encrusted LR. If you find another reefer or a LFS that has it growing heavily on the wall....ask if they could scrape some coraline and put in a zip lock bag....then go home and seed your LR with the flakes
I'm fairly sure that it's in my tank (having dosed arc reef twice), but there is so much phopshates and occasional ammonia spikes (from normal feeding) that microalgaes outcompete it on surface area. For example, if I clean the glass daily, it will grow in small spots, but if I let the glass go, diatoms and then fuzzy algae grows on over it. the tank I'm sure has a ton of bound up phosphates on the rock and substrate too. I'm focusing on increasing my nitrification filtering now to decrease ammonia presence and hopefully that helps with the nuisance algaes, thus letting coralline take over.
 

footgal

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What do you think about favia? I think I have 1 and the longest tentacle it produces is probably 2cm, under 1 inch, so I'm thinking they might be a safer bet than gonis.
I’ve never had goniastrea so I couldn’t tell ya! Favia was super docile though. If you’re looking for peaceful, alveopora, scolys, acan lords, trumpet, zoas, palys, and hammers are the way to go. Here’s some tank shots so you can get a feel for everything. If you have an ID question please just circle it and I’ll be happy to tell you what it is!
36C1305B-1654-473A-9033-B3100A31D638.jpeg
510DD766-3AE9-494F-9BA9-BCF224148181.jpeg
F7E032A7-8EF8-42F0-83EF-AA3A4F99F520.jpeg
E1ED2804-3D37-462F-9E9D-223E8DD38E0F.jpeg
 

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