Spongodes and Digitata warfare

[Gk5321]

I have a pretty small tank (7-8 gallons of water volume) and my montipora spongodes and montipora digitata are contacting one another. I can’t really do much to separate them, is this something I should really worry about? I’m about to add a few more digitatas in this general area but I’m not sure if they’ll fight one another.

Also please excuse the algae. I’m trying my best to get rid of it. The green planet in the foreground isn’t colored up yet either.

Oh and I guess one more thing. I added my first mille’s at the top of the tank. They are fairly new and opening up well but should I be concerned once they start growing? I read they can release toxins if they start fighting. Honestly if it gets to that point I’ll be proud I even got them to grow.

 

[BranchingHammer]

I would not worry about it too much, both of these are fairly hardy and fast growing species and won't be negatively impacted to much by warfare IMO. You may end up with one winning decisively and growing over the other, or the two going back and forth and never really winning. Here is my montipora island with spongodes and capricornis intertwining, stinging, and growing over each other to form this cool collage. In the second picture, you can actually see where the spongodes grew up through the cap and the cap grew around it, leaving a small spire of spongodes in the middle of some intertwined caps. I think it's pretty cool and natural looking...

 

[BranchingHammer]

I will note that 7 gallons of water volume is pretty small, and you'll likely be needing to trim the digitata and spongodes pretty frequently to avoid warfare with other corals as they grow very quickly. Some SPS seem like they grow slowly at first, and then I swear they just double in size behind your back sometimes...

Congrats on the great SPS growth and health in such a small water volume tank btw!

 

[Gk5321]

I would not worry about it too much, both of these are fairly hardy and fast growing species and won't be negatively impacted to much by warfare IMO. You may end up with one winning decisively and growing over the other, or the two going back and forth and never really winning. Here is my montipora island with spongodes and capricornis intertwining, stinging, and growing over each other to form this cool collage. In the second picture, you can actually see where the spongodes grew up through the cap and the cap grew around it, leaving a small spire of spongodes in the middle of some intertwined caps. I think it's pretty cool and natural looking...

That looks amazing! I’d love to try and pull something like that off but don’t think I could fit much more in here. I’m about to start making use of the back wall to put more stuff.

 

[Gk5321]

I will note that 7 gallons of water volume is pretty small, and you'll likely be needing to trim the digitata and spongodes pretty frequently to avoid warfare with other corals as they grow very quickly. Some SPS seem like they grow slowly at first, and then I swear they just double in size behind your back sometimes...

Congrats on the great SPS growth and health in such a small water volume tank btw!

Thank you so much! It’s been a major challenge and I think I finally understand how to do things right. Now I’m just fighting the small water volume and nutrients. I finally learned that I need to stop running a skimmer otherwise everything drops to zero within a few hours.