what can be next to what?

[Milad]

is there some kind of rule to what can be next to what in terms of corals?
seems like everyone is knowledgeable about this but me! did i miss a matrix somewhere showing this?

[reefwars]

Most corals react differently around some coral , I think it's easier to find out which ones are harmful. Alot of times you just needto observe the coral in the night to get ts full size or it's sweepers. Alot of times Size will be a factor especially in coral that doesn't frag well so if you don't see yourself fragging it probably should leave enough room for a full grown specimen. I know there alot of different kinds of chemical warfare that happens with sps so might be good to specify what kind of corals your thinking of. Read up on the coral you plan to purchase before you buy I've bought some bad ass pieces I shouldn't have lots of times lol

[tlo]

As a general guideline
-sps is usually okay next to other sps.
-most lps have sweeper tenticles that extend, stinging other corals, so lps need quite a bit of room around each coral. Depending on the species, some can be several inches longer than the tenticles.
-mushrooms/ricordia/yuma often release chemicals that are damaging to lps and sps especially - so you need to run carbon and not have them too close to the other corals

[daniella3d]

Most sps will burn each other nastily. I had a few falling over and toutching another sps and burning in that area. It did regrow but they are aggressive.

I have a kenya tree that is toutching my montipora cap and the poor monti is just receiding in that area, leaving the room for the kenya tree. Strangly the montipora cap usualy produce a lot of slime when I toutch it or when micro algae toutch it but it does not do that with the kenya tree.

General rule, don't let any coral toutch any coral except for zoanthids, palythoas, mushrooms and ricordeas. Ricordeas actuanly love to toutch each other and they do much better when they can feel the others around them.

If you take 2 zoanthids of the same specie and put them side by side, they may even hybridize and create a new variety of a mix of both

When you buy a sps, leave it enough room to grown. Some really aggresive coral like elegance, torch, frogspawn, hammer, can also have sweeper tentacles that come out at night and some can be very long and burn other coral nearby.

Usualy coral of the same specie can toutch each other. I have a few birdnest toutching each other and no harm done.

Originally Posted by Milad

is there some kind of rule to what can be next to what in terms of corals?
seems like everyone is knowledgeable about this but me! did i miss a matrix somewhere showing this?

[Cubeman]

The suggestion of watching the tank at night and observing for sweeper tentacles is a good one. As the corals get bigger and closer you will often see the sweepers during the day as well.

If you are looking for 'general guidelines' on the relative agressiveness of different types of coral then J Sprung has a book with a 1-10 rating for each coral listed. Sorry I don't own the book so I can't give you the title.