Allelopathy by soft corals?

[duberii]

Does anybody have any experience with soft corals slowing the growth od their LPS BIG TIME? I've had this Blastomussa for about two years and its growth has been pretty underwhelming. The one polyp that I have is probably 2.5" in diameter, but that is accompanied by very little skeleton growth and one possible new head growth. I've added a ton of LPS since then and really haven't seen any skeletal growth in them either. I test about every other week, and I haven't seen any digression from natural seawater levels, which makes me think it has more to do with the larger softie colonies I have in there. I have a huge patch of xenias, some green star polyps, a Kenya tree, a devil's hand, anthelias, and clove polyps.

I do water changes about once every week and a half, and whenever my test results show calcium/alk/etc lower than it should be. The corals all seem to be beyond happy, and I feed them about once or twice a week, but the growth is what's tripping me up. That makes me think one of the above corals could be halting my growth. Does anybody have any experience/recommendations?

 

[Retro Reefer]

Do you run carbon? It’s been my experience that softies can potentially have negative effects on other corals.. running high grade carbon and changing frequently will help a lot. As far as blasto’s growth mine are also painfully slow, I have one that’s about a year and a half old and has only grown one head but other corals introduced at the same time have grown 10x their initial size.

 

[duberii]

Do you run carbon? It’s been my experience that softies can potentially have negative effects on other corals.. running high grade carbon and changing frequently will help a lot. As far as blasto’s growth mine are also painfully slow, I have one that’s about a year and a half old and has only grown one head but other corals introduced at the same time have grown 10x their initial size.

The lack of skeleton growth is what concerns me- the blasto is huge and it looks like it's held up by a stick. I do run carbon, but I'll be the first to admit I don't change it very often. How often would you recommend?

 

[John3]

Blasto type seems to matter. I bought a single head of a red/green one and it took about 6 months and it exploded and is now a ball shape of maybe 10-15 heads.

I have a wild colony of blue/pink that was severely recessed when I got them. I have had them for over 2 years now. The tissue came back fully on each polyp well over a year ago but I have never got any new heads to grow from these. They look healthy but just don’t grow skeleton or new heads.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

My friend had a softie dominated tank, much like mine, but he had a MASSIVE (dinner plate size) neon green leather that grew like crazy while everything was stunted, never grew, or died. Once he removed it everything took off and now his tank is better looking than mine! :mad:
I would run carbon and see if it makes a difference to test your hypothesis that allelopathy is the cause of the growth issue like my friend's tank. If you don't see any change in skeletal growth in 3 months then the issue must be else where (PAR, trace elements, temp, flow, etc).

 

[Retro Reefer]

The lack of skeleton growth is what concerns me- the blasto is huge and it looks like it's held up by a stick. I do run carbon, but I'll be the first to admit I don't change it very often. How often would you recommend?

Of Course it depends on how dirty your water is but carbon is most effective the first 3-4 days, I only typically run it if I’m trying to correct a problem and I will change it every 3 days. Probably normal maintenance if your running it full time is every couple weeks.

 

[duberii]

Of Course it depends on how dirty your water is but carbon is most effective the first 3-4 days, I only typically run it if I’m trying to correct a problem and I will change it every 3 days. Probably normal maintenance if your running it full time is every couple weeks.

Just threw some in- we'll see if I see a drastic difference in the next few months

 

[fermentedhiker]

I do water changes about once every week and a half, and whenever my test results show calcium/alk/etc lower than it should be.

Fixing this, along with keep to a schedule for replacing your carbon would be my first steps.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I did some research on this a little while back (not scientific research- combing through other forums etc) and the general consensus seemed to be that blastos don't really start growing until you start feeding them. I looked into this because in the 4-5 months I've had mine pretty much nothing changed, I fed it some Vitalis lps pellets last week and it seems to be making a difference but I've only fed once so far, need a few more weeks to be more sure.