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Originally Posted by marie
You can have both, lots of people do. Its just that there are easy/hardy corals in both softies and stonies and it is easier if you decide at the begining which way you want to go.
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That's partly true.. There are two reasons to consider not mixing. One is that the conditions each type tend to like are somewhat incompatible, and it's easier on the hobbiest to focus on "getting it right" for just one or other other, rather than trying to find some middle ground. But another consideration is that allelopathy can, and does sometimes, come into play as well. SPS will not do as well as it can in the presence of several things, such as leathers, some other softeys, caulerpa ... Generally speaking the "mixed reef garden" that has a little bit of everything does have all kinds of things going on that we can't see, thus leading up to that some subset of the creatures within the habitat not doing as well as they "ought" to be doing. That's not to say it's "wrong" to mix things, like you say lots of people do it and they're nice tanks, but just be forewarned that there can be issues with this arrangement. Even in nature, leathers and other soft corals tend to inhabit their own reefs whereas the stoneys occupy others and they are definitely distinct zones (mostly because of the differing preferences for the various different conditions).