What I need to know about creating a mixed reef

jlcollins96 · Jan 19, 2024

I have a tank its cycled and ready for coral. Its a 32 biocube. I need to know how I know what coral can be placed near each other. Everything I have seen says to be careful because they can go to war with each other. Please help!!!

MoshJosh · Jan 19, 2024

As a general rule only corals of the same species can touch, and even then it's not a sure thing. . . I am sure there are exceptions, in-fact certain euphyllia are known to cohabitate well, though not uniformly across the genus or even amongst different localities (collection/origin locality.) Your best bet is to give all your corals enough space and or diligently research them to see which ones can safely cohabitate (keep in mind this is excluding the fact that corals can grow over the top of each other and shade each other out separate of any actual stinging/warfare.)

Probably worth noting a lot of the info you find will be anecdotal (much like the "evidence" I used to inform my above post ^^^ haha)

jlcollins96 · Jan 20, 2024

Thank you, I was more trying to get info like, where to put encrusting lps so that it’s not going to attack my euphyllia or Duncan’s or other encrusting. Is it just place it and winner takes all?

MoshJosh · Jan 20, 2024

jlcollins96 said:
Thank you, I was more trying to get info like, where to put encrusting lps so that it’s not going to attack my euphyllia or Duncan’s or other encrusting. Is it just place it and winner takes all?

Going to depend on the encrusting coral. What did you have in mind?

JD117 · Jan 20, 2024

Here are my experiences with different coral

A mistake I made with my first coral (red monti) was put it at the top of the aquscape. It grew and shaded everything underneath it

Mushroom corals and euphylia can have quite a large reach on stings

Finally - anemones and fungia can move so they will just 'walk'around and fight which can be annoying