Article: Coral of the Week - the Toadstool Leather

[melev]

You can view the page at http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...dstool-Leather

[VitalApparatuz]

I thought it was a carpet nem too!I turned down a couple of these from club members when I first joined as I thought I would try to raise SPS,LPS only , not wanting the chemical warfare.But obviously it can be done with great success.Thanks for the write up!

[johnbanks]

nice, you know if it was a nem and it got hungry you could feed it a neighbours annoying yappy dog. Chiwawa's are no longer safe

[seapug]

I have an enormous long polyped white toadstool in my tank that grew from a 1" cutting to a 1 ft. monster in about two years. It grows so fast and big I have take a pair of utility scissors and trim the head a couple times/year. I do have to disagree with the notion these corals aren't active feeders. While I never see my big white one actively capture food, I have a couple of the neon green ones in my refugium that I regularly see capturing minute pieces of plankton and retracting back into the polyp head. It's definitely a capture response, not a reaction disturbance. It's easier to see in a lower flow environment. I have a little hand held HD camera that I'll try to get some video with. It's really an interesting thing to watch.

[mark.wittig]

Awesome! You guys inspire me as a newcomer to the hobby. I will be setting up a 90 gal reef tank. I am wondering by your comments if a mixed coral tank is ok and what should I avoid initially. Are there any general rules concerning flow and lighting for a mixed reef? I plan on taking my time and evolving very deliberately. Any comments or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[NightShade]

Awesome! You guys inspire me as a newcomer to the hobby. I will be setting up a 90 gal reef tank. I am wondering by your comments if a mixed coral tank is ok and what should I avoid initially. Are there any general rules concerning flow and lighting for a mixed reef? I plan on taking my time and evolving very deliberately. Any comments or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Mark the best advice I know is take things slow. Don't go out and buy a tank set it up and start buying livestock the same day. . . if you do that you are setting yourself up for failure.

And I don't remember exactly where I read it but I believe that Melev has said that a mixed reef is something that doesn't happen in nature. Generally the area between soft corrals and hard corrals are fairly large because they each secrete a toxin that fights the other off, so you will have to do a lot of work to try and keep the water quality good to make it all work.