Chemical warfare??
 

Sorry, I'm kinda new to this world, just had a question to ask the experts :)
I just read a thread about mixing softies and sps in and aquarium. I have a 120G with gsp, xenia, zoas, kenya trees... all doing great but wanted to branch out into some prettier coral. Should I not add sps to my tank??
I'm a little confused, Ive never heard of this before...

I was going to buy a candycane from a member but maybe I shouldn't add it??
thanks in advance for the advise guys!

While I'm not an expert I'll put in my 2 cents.

There are tons of mixed reef tanks out there with LPS and SPS. It's all about water flow, placement and lighting. To combat the so called chemical warfare that corals have with each other, run some decent carbon. Corals like SPS can fight with each other so the carbon takes these chemicals out of the water.

candy cane or trumpet coral is an lps not an sps coral.

mixing the 2 isnt so much a problem , its just that leathers and other softies can shed and give off a mucus that would irritate some sps, like montioned carbon will help with this. alot of softies also like low flow while sps love a very high flow that would kill off alot of soft coral. soft coral also like a b it of nutrients that can brown out sps.

doing a mixed reef is actually easy i have sps, lps and softies in my tank like anything there are things to watch out for but def nothing to steer against completely:)

cheers:)

Wow, that was quick, thanks for the advise...

I do run carbon and chemipure (just fought off cyano outbreak) and like I said i'm pretty new to the hobby, about a year. :) I have three PH's in and my current corals are very happy! Now I'm nervous about adding the candy cane... maybe I need to research more.
I wanted to add an anemone for my clowns, and dreaming about a clam addition.. should be ok right??

you can add candys no problems, same with clams provided your tank can maintain them. nems and sps are a hard mix as nems walk and sting sps:) still though lots of people with nems and sps so youll be fine:)

ok, scared me when I read that, didn't want to it to crash on me. lol
So,... as long as i keep running carbon and keep up on wc's I should be ok?
thanks!
Love the advise you guys have to give!!

What would I need to maintain a clam??

I definitely noticed that SPS doesnt seem to do well in tanks with large leathers or large amounts of leathers.....leathers are amongst the worst for "chemical warfare"...carbon can and will help with this......if you want to dable in sps I would start of with a couple frags of montipora or birdsnest(quite forgiving as far as sps goes) and see how they do.....

like coolhand said....the other issues with mixing the two can be lighting and flow....

a truely mixed reef is doable, you just need to keep all these things in mind when placing your corals

for clams.....good lighting and a mature, stable tank.....I would steer you away from one if your tank is less than 6 monthes old....

Tank is about a yr old... has MH fixture (2x175w) with 2pc's (10000k)