Leathers + SPS in nanos?

[Deimos]

Okay,

 

So I was reading through Borneman the other day and he mentions that leathers are notoriously nasty producters of terpenes and other allelopathic chemicals and then I looked at my tank and the mix of leathers and sps and wondered if that could be what is causing some slightly "stunted" (compared to the tanks the mother colonies came out of) growth of my acros and montis. Anyone else maintain leathers and sps in their nanos together..and if so..what about the results?

 

Just wondering...

[Physh1]

I did on my old 20 nano before I moved. I did fairly frequent water changes since I ran no skimmer but I never noticed a problem with mixing them. I may have had a problem when the leathers "slimed" but I alway keep water change water handy for a quick change when they did it.

 

Cameron

[brandon429]

I agree, each of my picos has had leathers/asst'd softs with montipora digitata and pocillopora with no obvious irritation. But then again, my SPS grow relatively slow and maybe this is why. Everyone still sends out fully-extended polyps and looks fine, so it appears to reach some sort of balance eventually. Ditto on the water changes.

 

I even rip off shrooms in the pico from time to time, releasing red clouds of slime but I think the instant water changes does all the real work.

[Crakeur]

just keep the corals well separated and you shouldn't have much issues with chemical warefare.

[technoshaman]

It depends on the corals too - some leathers seem really noxious and others a little less so. If you are looking for growth then optimally I'd leave the leathers out but you can get away with it if like previous posters mentioned you do water changes, keep them spaced adequately and also run carbon occasionally.

 

In my experience LPS/Softies seem to mix slightly better than SPS/Softies - in my current nano I have just zoos, shrooms and one colt frag - giving up on mixed garden approaches.

[kennerd]

I noticed remarkably better growth and color after removing my large leather from my 65 tank, which is now primarily SPS. I also have read that the toxins released by some leathers also cause the SPS to stay more toward the brown end of the spectrum.

 

Remember: most of the coloring in SPS is actually the coral using the pigment to block out ultraviolet rays, which is one of the reasons that acros, etc. tend to color up more or differently under very strong halides vs PC's. The "browning-up" may be more of a defense against the leathers.