Sps placement.

fishmaster818 · Mar 19, 2015

How close is too close to place sps next to another sps

NanaReefer · Mar 19, 2015

If you research a particular coral, it'll generally tell you if the coral is aggressive or not. This could mean it either puts out sweepers that may sting or it's an encrusting coral.

ReefBum · Mar 20, 2015

Give SPS plenty of room to grow even if they are not aggressive growers. Placing them too tight together will reduce the flow they receive, which is obviously not good.

maroun.c · Mar 23, 2015

It also depends on the final look you want for your tank. Try to imagine the corals after some growth and space them based on the volume you want them to fill. I'd rather have less and larger colonies .

Mr V · Mar 23, 2015

His question is "how lose is too lose"?
I have some concern: how much is "plenty of room" and how lose is "too lose"?

Sangheili · Mar 23, 2015

Interested in this discussion myself.

Anyone who has a 3-10yr old SPS system care to chime in on spacing?

joekool · Mar 23, 2015

TJ's Reef Todd can help you out. todd has some mixed colonies. I'm growing some different STYLOPHORAs together.

TJ's Reef · Mar 24, 2015

In my VERY FULL Mixed Reef there was a great need to mix like Coral species together. I have several mixed colonies of Seriatopora (Birdsnest), Acropora millepora, Pocillopora, Stylophora and even a few of the other Acros like Torts together doing fine. I've shown these pics below many times but does give good appreciation for how crowded you can go in placement if you are careful or cognizant of what's down flow/current of one another.

Cheers, Todd

Sangheili · Mar 24, 2015

TJ's Reef said:
In my VERY FULL Mixed Reef there was a great need to mix like Coral species together. I have several mixed colonies of Seriatopora (Birdsnest), Acropora millepora, Pocillopora, Stylophora and even a few of the other Acros like Torts together doing fine. I've shown these pics below many times but does give good appreciation for how crowded you can go in placement if you are careful or cognizant of what's down flow/current of one another.

Cheers, Todd

What happens when they touch? Do you find yourself pruning them back constantly to keep them from touching or is it a non-issue if they do?

Beautiful tank by the way :wink:

TJ's Reef · Mar 24, 2015

I typically only prune back competing or non compatible species, from causing each other harm and leave same species intermingle. The Birdsnests (Seriatopora) will fuse together, even different morphs as will the Milli's and Stylophora's. Much harder to properly ID but most all same specie Acropora will mix well plus Euphyllia, Acans, Blastos, Favia etc..

The most difficult thing in the beginning of keeping Corals is to imagine what all your frags will become a year or so down the road and make proper space/plans for them ahead of time. I'll show what just 6 months of growth for Birdsnest, Milli and a few random colonies that can be seen in images looked like in my system back in 2012.

4/12/2012