Allelopathy

[RandyFolds]

I kinda snuck this one into chemistry. Probably should be livestock, but I am talking about chemicals.

In the 125, there are now two colonies of galaxia, a gorgonian that is putting on decent growth, some neon green sinularia, and this mornings new addition, a sarcophyton, courtesy of jake. All are looking happy as all heck, but they are the four most toxic corals you could put together.

We will see how it goes. I have yet to put carbon in, but will probably hit it today or this weekend. I need to find a media sock.

There are a couple of Pocilloporas, a Pavona, and some zoas that are all looking happy. I am wondering how toxic of a soup this will become, so I am keeping you posted here.

[psykokid]

dude, i had everything except the gorgonian in my tank and every thing was fine..

Plus I have half the water volume that you do.. I actually had 3 different types of leathers, the sinulara, the galaxia, and some xenia in there as well. Throw some carbon in if you are worried about it..

[Bergy]

i say no problem too...

as long as there is no contact it should be ok.... gotta remember the oceans of the world are one big body of water too

[RandyFolds]

You cannot compare the oceans to a closed system. At all.

The touching has nothing to do with it either....allelopathy. google it, homes.

I am more concerned for the more finicky species, SPS, clams, etc. They are the ones that suffer when aggressive corals compete.

[psykokid]

kind of like when an anemone gets sucked into a power head and everything suffers.. :)  I'm not sure what kind of chemical warfare you'll have going on to be honest. Try to give them as much physical distance as you can from each other (not like that will do a whole lot, but still) and keep an eye on stuff until everything settles in..  Not much more you can do other than sit, watch and observe.

[Bergy]

oh, i know what alleopathy is, and i did google it again for you..

and i know it can happen without any touching or interaction, but, that interaction usually causes corals to generate or expel or howe ver they do it, the chemicals MORE then they would do it on thier own.

and yea, hard to compare the ocean and a closed system, but the point and issue is the same... imho

[Just_Greg]

this is a bit late in the game (Jake's Ca usage thread is what shows up on the index as active), but IME, sometimes it makes a difference as to what is 'downstream' from what.  i have played with this a bit back in my reef daze, and found that if my colt was upstream from my other leathers, the leathers suffered, but if i switched the flow, they were fine.  the corals were separated on either end of a 4' long tank.

JME

[Bergy]

i know colt leathers are infamously aggressive, but have to ask this..

do or was your colt upset first, or was it just sitting all happy and pretty and otehr corals down stream were just upset???

or was the colt stressing and sending out some messages of chemical distress???

[Just_Greg]

i'd say the colt was engaging in "water warfare" (allelopathy)...this was a HUGE coral that took up about 1/4 of my 55 gal setup.

[Bergy]

so my question is if the colt is upstream then what triggered it's response, (and yes lanny, i know greg is confirming what you were saying)

[Just_Greg]

since the colt was growing so fast (you know how they are), i suspect that it was simply making space, regardless, but that's a WAG.

[Bergy]

yea, i understand... Lanny believes or was telling me / us that it natural communication.  (if i understand him correctly)

maybe lanny can add something something??