Over stocking coral
 

Anyone have a general rule about stocking limits on coral. I do realize that the larger the colonies grow the more big 3 they will take up. Which leads to faster depletion.
But I am wondering about water volume vs coral.

I am overstocked and have a hard time parting with some

My philosophy is if the corals are covered in water, it's all good :) Pruning to prevent fighting is about all that's needed.

How far apart do they (SPS) need to be to prevent fighting? I know LPS needs to be further apart, as I have already had some wounds and one casualty.

SPS generally need to touch to cause damage. Or really really close. They will often avoid each other on their own though, pretty smart for fuzzy stick animals.

What about at the bases, where they like to spread? How do you trim that when on the live rock?

Agreed. :D

I don't usually. They will come close, but usually they will avoid each other. If one is particularly aggressive I will use boiling water in a syringe to kill the leading edge.

Once the base is sufficiently attached, they don't tend to grow much more. I have seen some overly encrust, but that, IMO, is not typical. My largest colonies have less than a 2" base.

Ok thanks I was just wondering about water displacment and weather ther was a gallon per inch ratio

Yeah, that seems to be the case with the longer sticks, but I also have some Cyphastrea Japonica and a Sunset Monti that is spreading pretty good.

make sure u have a good skimmer lol....
and don't ever make them all slime at once.

Monti's are spreaders. I have red cap all over my tank cause once it starts, short of kalk pasting it, it'll keep growing.