So I recently got a bunch of new corals from a tank breakdown in Denver, and I'm considering their final placements as they acclimate. Right now I have a GSP taking over some rock work near the bottom of the tank. I have a nice frogspawn I would like to place near it before the spot gets completely overrun by a field of GSP. Now I'm completely fine with the GSP taking over this particular rock as I love the color and movement, but I was wondering if the vigorous growth rate of the GSP would gradually overtake any corals nearby, or will coral skirmishes keep it at bay? Should I place a more aggressive coral next to it, such as an acan, which I suspect would win a territory war like the British? I also have another GSP variety which has a different color and slower growth rate. Has any one experienced a GSP merger?. What happens when two varieties meet? Should I completely avoid a coral war due to ammonia spikes or other concerns? I have plans on how to keep the growth limited to that one rock, and in the future I would anticipate a lot of GSP freebies to anyone interested, especially with how that thing has grown over the last few months.
Right now I have two frogspawns, one blue/green, and one more muted, 2 hammers, white green, and muted, a photosynthetic gorgonian, an acan or two, not sure what exactly the second one is, a pair of montis, a walking dendro, a paly, and another coral I'm not too sure of. I'll probably post some ID threads once I'm confident I'll be able to keep some of those new corals. I supposedly got a tri-color valida, but I haven't been able to positively ID it yet. Everything there will need permanent placements after I'm confident they won't die after gluing them in. Since I have a vivid hammer and vivid frogspawn, I plan on placing them at opposite ends of the tank to keep one side from looking too bland while the other half looks incredible. So I'll combo the blue/green frogspawn, and the muted hammer together on one half of the tank, with the white green hammer, and muted frogspawn on the opposite end.
Also should I avoid placing the acans in high traffic areas? In my opinion corals come first, but not at the expense of fish happiness. I'd love to see a large colony of acans at some point on one of my lower rocks, so what growth rates do people get with them?
I've gotten vigorous growth out of the vivid GSP, as mentioned above, and also a finger leather coral. What else should I expect vigorous growth from at this stage? My tank is about 9 months old, and six months since adding livestock. Params are mostly ideal. I had a spike in nitrates recently that has facilitated a number of water changes. Mg and Ca have been slowly declining more and more between water changes so that is telling me that something is consuming them in their growth, but I have not had to resort to supplemental dosing of those minerals. All other tested compounds read as follows; PH : 8.2; alkalinity : 3.2meq/L / 8.96 dKH; ammonia : 0; nitrite 0
Right now I have two frogspawns, one blue/green, and one more muted, 2 hammers, white green, and muted, a photosynthetic gorgonian, an acan or two, not sure what exactly the second one is, a pair of montis, a walking dendro, a paly, and another coral I'm not too sure of. I'll probably post some ID threads once I'm confident I'll be able to keep some of those new corals. I supposedly got a tri-color valida, but I haven't been able to positively ID it yet. Everything there will need permanent placements after I'm confident they won't die after gluing them in. Since I have a vivid hammer and vivid frogspawn, I plan on placing them at opposite ends of the tank to keep one side from looking too bland while the other half looks incredible. So I'll combo the blue/green frogspawn, and the muted hammer together on one half of the tank, with the white green hammer, and muted frogspawn on the opposite end.
Also should I avoid placing the acans in high traffic areas? In my opinion corals come first, but not at the expense of fish happiness. I'd love to see a large colony of acans at some point on one of my lower rocks, so what growth rates do people get with them?
I've gotten vigorous growth out of the vivid GSP, as mentioned above, and also a finger leather coral. What else should I expect vigorous growth from at this stage? My tank is about 9 months old, and six months since adding livestock. Params are mostly ideal. I had a spike in nitrates recently that has facilitated a number of water changes. Mg and Ca have been slowly declining more and more between water changes so that is telling me that something is consuming them in their growth, but I have not had to resort to supplemental dosing of those minerals. All other tested compounds read as follows; PH : 8.2; alkalinity : 3.2meq/L / 8.96 dKH; ammonia : 0; nitrite 0