Soft Coral Chemical Warfare

[Table1234]

So, over the past couple of hours, I've been reading about chemical warfare and how some softies can attribute to LPS not growing. That leads me to wonder, are the softies I have in my tank causing my LPS not grow because growth has been stagnant for them.

Soft Corals

• Green Star Polyps
• Kenya Tree
• Xenia
• Finger Leather Coral

LPS Corals

• Blasstomussa
• Platygyra
• Torch Coral

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

if you run carbon I wouldn't worry about chemical warfare. I do beleive tho kenya trees are pretty good at stopping lps growth. But after some carbon you should be okay!

 

[shred5]

if you run carbon I wouldn't worry about chemical warfare. I do beleive tho kenya trees are pretty good at stopping lps growth. But after some carbon you should be okay!

I run carbon and polyfilters just incase but it has never been proven anywhere that I have seen that carbon can actually remove these chemicals from coral or algae Allelopathy. Another reason I believe in water changes. Be nice if there was actually some hard evidence.

Another thing in this hobby that needs to be studied.
Also which corals and Algae produce more toxins with Allelopathy. People think they know and it keeps being passed down like it is fact but I have seen very few studies on individual species of coral or algae, there are some but not allot.

 

[anthonys51]

i have seen too many tanks with softies and lps to think this is the reason your lps arent growing. i can not give you any scientific proof.

i would double check all your parametors and check them every week and alk every 3 days.
test often when your tank isnt going the way you like and see if you can find a trend.

 

[Table1234]

Okay, well I do run carbon in my tank. Also, just wanted to ask if maybe I should start feeding my corals because it is not just the LPS corals which are not growing, the softies used to grow quite a lot but have stopped for the past couple of months. If so, what foods would you recommend?

 

[anthonys51]

before you feed

what are your nitrates and phosphates at

 

[Table1234]

Both are at undetectable amounts

 

[Rockytop_Reefer]

If they’re both undetectable I would suggest feeding your corals. While high nitrate/phosphate is bad. Having them at zero can stunt their growth. They need a small amount of phosphate In order to grow.

 

[anthonys51]

What test kits are you using

In reef make sure your using low range test kits for Phosphates and nitrates
If your using api that isn’t good imo
Also yes spot feeding a little ones a week can’t hurt

 

[Table1234]

I do have the API kits but that's all that I have at this time. So since they can't measure the low range I will stick with spot feeding once or twice a week with reef roids.