How much is to much

[duke62]

There are ways to determine how many fish can be in a aquarium by the size of the tank and often is discussed so is there a limit on how many pieces of SPS can go into the auarium? I know you can load up your system with many frags and as long as you can provide the right water chemistry you will be good to go but what happens when those frags grow out to colonys. Will there be to much warfare to have a healthy system? What about rock work will there be to little space on the rocks for the corals to encrust. We can see if a corals branches are touching and can trim down the corals but when the frags are large there will be no room at the base for your corals to keep encrusting. Just some questions to keep in mind when you start adding frags.

 

[Coralreefer1]

Though when most people think of a coral reef or replicate it in a closed system biotope, they tend to think of these reef areas a just a beautiful oasis filled with vibrant color, life and diversity. However, a coral reef is really a world of chemical warfare, destruction and violence between corals of different genera. Not all corals are created equally, so the ones that pack the strongest sting via nematocysts in their sweeper tentacles, or produce the strongest toxins such as Xenia and Sinularia sp. tend to gain a strong foothold in the reefs often injuring and killing neighboring corals allowing these corals to reproduce and grow and spread at the expense of the coral it is killing. Millipora is another potent coral often attacking Gonipora where it literally consumes it and grows over the rind of the deceased gorgonian.
It is a case of survival of the fittest, but you can help aidin this warfare by prunning your corals, or moving them to even just adding corals that are compatible with others like various forms of zoanthids together produce a beautiful aqua scape without destruction being carried out.