Mixing Montipora in a soft coral reef

[Nick D]

Tank specs: 210 gal with 65 gal refugium sump, co reactor, protein skimmer, up filter running constantly, or set up for monthly water changes of at least 30 gal. Lots of gentle water movement over entire tank.
For years I ran with lps corals. Very difficult to keep up with the cost of keeping water perfectly clean and wanting to add a few larger fish I switched to mostly soft coral, allowing me to add a few large angels( Emporer, Regal). I have some large tangs with me for years and lots of smaller reef type critters. ( snowflake eel, blue lobster, purple lobster, shrimp, reef safe wrasse, gobies, cardinalfish, pyramid butterfly,Ritter I with 8 different oscolaris clownfish, many other reef cleaning snails, crabs.
I place charcoal in sump to help break down the toxins from leathers. I am now trying to incorporate some plating montipora, but not sure if they will do ok in my set up with all the soft coral. Any thoughts?

 

[reef lover]

As long as your proactive with carbon youll be fine.

 

[krbnsol]

Need more info about using charcoal to remove toxins from leather corals. I did not know that this was an issue.

 

[ZoWhat]

I'm more interested to know how you are keeping a Emporer, Regal angels with softies.....


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[reef lover]

Need more info about using charcoal to remove toxins from leather corals. I did not know that this was an issue.

Most corals have defense some mechanical some chemical. Leathers are notorious for producing toxin when shedding or injured.

 

[Backreefing]

Depending on lighting and space . Monti tend to like high light and high flow . But can be beautiful, especially with blue lights. But if you run with activated carbon already go for it .

 

[Nick D]

I'm more interested to know how you are keeping a Emporer, Regal angels with softies.....


.

The trade off is I can’t keep zoos, Xenia but the angels haven’t bothered anything else. The emporer was a baby when I bought it and the regal was healthy adult. I keep tank well fed with multiple types of food both frozen and dry flake, pellet and sometimes live. Corals are auto fed twice a day and at least 3 times a week with marine snow or comparable, also greens from refugium. All fish eat like pigs and are very healthy and colorful however I still haven’t seen the regal eat. However after 2 months he is fat and healthy looking so he must be getting nutrients somewhere. Maybe he’s eating when he is in his hideout as I shoot food in there with a Turkey baster .

 

[Super Fly]

I have monti in a soft coral dominat tank and have no problem since they're provided with plenty of space from one another to avoid territory battle. Monti's very hardy and you'll love how it looks with soft corals.

 

[Nick D]

The trade off is I can’t keep zoos, Xenia but the angels haven’t bothered anything else. The emporer was a baby when I bought it and the regal was healthy adult. I keep tank well fed with multiple types of food both frozen and dry flake, pellet and sometimes live. Corals are auto fed twice a day and at least 3 times a week with marine snow or comparable, also greens from refugium. All fish eat like pigs and are very healthy and colorful however I still haven’t seen the regal eat. However after 2 months he is fat and healthy looking so he must be getting nutrients somewhere. Maybe he’s eating when he is in his hideout as I shoot food in there with a Turkey baster .

Regal just died after 4 weeks of not eating. Will not try again.

 

[forestsofkelp]

Tank specs: 210 gal with 65 gal refugium sump, co reactor, protein skimmer, up filter running constantly, or set up for monthly water changes of at least 30 gal. Lots of gentle water movement over entire tank.
For years I ran with lps corals. Very difficult to keep up with the cost of keeping water perfectly clean and wanting to add a few larger fish I switched to mostly soft coral, allowing me to add a few large angels( Emporer, Regal). I have some large tangs with me for years and lots of smaller reef type critters. ( snowflake eel, blue lobster, purple lobster, shrimp, reef safe wrasse, gobies, cardinalfish, pyramid butterfly,Ritter I with 8 different oscolaris clownfish, many other reef cleaning snails, crabs.
I place charcoal in sump to help break down the toxins from leathers. I am now trying to incorporate some plating montipora, but not sure if they will do ok in my set up with all the soft coral. Any thoughts?

I keep montipora, blasto, favites, and leather coral in 20g w/o skimmer no problem.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Can be done easily. SPS, LPS and softies. Angels can be problematic with any coral.

 

[forestsofkelp]

I have always kept montipora with my soft corals (including leathers). I have never had an issue as long as I didn't run my tank dirty.

I have found when I run it dirty my GSP and Xenia grow like wildfire and the monti will start to die, when I run it clean they grow very slowly (and my monti grows as well).

They also need to be placed near strong flow. Its a great one to put near the powerhead in a softie tank.