Coral Wars, Placement, future growth

norfolkgarden

New Member
New to salt water, 1 yr+. fresh water for a few decades.

I started my coral selection with a gardeners mentality. Buy a bunch of tiny frags and see what does well and grow more of that.

So far, everything is growing well. Now I just need a bigger tank to put it all in...

I'm looking for more info on possible coral interactions.

If I place a Blasto and a bunch of zoas a few inches apart, will they eventually come to a draw? I know (so far anyway) the zoa's growth leaps compared to the Blasto's slow growth. I'm afraid the zoa's will ignore the Blasto's short sweepers and overrun it completely?

If I place zoa's a few inches from the base of some 1/8" diameter staghorn coral frags, will they climb the staghorn and overrun it, or will they just form the perfect "annual's around a shrub" look that I'm hoping for?
Same question with orange Monti Setosa, and several varieties of Birdsnest SPS.

I'm hoping the Zoa's ability to slowly adjust to highly variable light levels will keep it healthy a few years down the road, when the branching corals have begun to really grow out.

We also have a few tiny clove/glove frags that I would like to use similar to the zoa's.

What about Clove/Glove vs Zoa? Just a draw wherever they meet?

The several anthelia's and several types of GSP are on 2 large vertical rocks, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
The GSP takes up most of the top halves of these 2 rocks. It is doing well. (lol) So far it is only interested in expanding upwards, toward the light.
I just added some of the anthelia, 4 inches down from the bottom edge of the GSP. I'm hoping the anthelia will fill in the base of the rock and the GSP will continue to just grow upwards. Is this likely?

I've read that various monti's will most likely fight each other.
According to what I've read so far the winning order is;
forest green is strongest/most deadly then
orange morph then
purple morph then
lowly brown morph

We have some quarter sized frags of Monti Cap in red(a brownish red), orange, green haze with a light orange background (sold as solid green at LFS), orange with obvious green polyps, bright purple and a bright neon acid green Le...something that has similar growth to the Monti Cap.
The Le...something was growing entwined with a reddish Monti Cap at the LFS and it didn't look like they were fighting. Need to go back for some pics later this week.

Also an awesome neon pink chalice and a purple with many green eyes chalice. The LFS said the purple with green eyes grows fast. I know they are both pretty aggressive. Any ideas on how long it will take them to expand to about 5" diameter?

And last but not least, Favites in a pastel green and purple, war coral, and a new one in neon green with a true red center. it should definately have some fancy Christmas name attached to it.

Zoa's or Clove/Glove vs any of these are my main concern.

I plan on keeping most of the aggressive stuff separated from each other on separate, fist sized rocks. I 'll still have options a few years down the road.
I'm hoping I can add the zoa's and clove/glove's here and there around the other aggressive stuff.

Thank you for any suggestions!
Matt
 

norfolkgarden

New Member
Cool, Thank you! haven't read that before. They are currently separated, but now I will make sure they stay that way.

As we have added lighting, the shrooms and Ricordea all dove for the bottom of the tank.

Any idea on Zoa's and Chalice?
 
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