Too many mushrooms!

[Sregnar]

I'm looking to add some diversity to my aquarium. But I've got soo many mushroom corals to contend with.I'd love to get rid of about half of them! I'd like to add a few nice LPS, any suggestions on some LPS corals that will hold their own surrounded by shrooms? I know most have tentacles for defense, but I'd just like some recommendations, thank you.

[mandy21]

what size tank is that?

You have some substrate room you could utilize for brain corals, you couls also remove some of the mushrooms in a few different ways.

[Sregnar]

Tank is a 75g. I'd consider another brain coral, I had one that didn't make it because my power compact bulbs were over a year old, and I don't think they had enough juice to support the brain. I got lazy and paid the price on that account. Every time I try to remove mushrooms from the rocks my eel tries to remove fingers from my hand!

[FtwayneFish]

ouch! try and feed him first?

[mandy21]

ouch! try and feed him first?

Yea I'd feed him or get one of those specimen traps depending on his size and try to temporarily capture him until you are done working in the tank.

Any possibility of a lighting upgrade at all? Kinda limited in what you can do with the lights other than what you have or gettign them towards the top of the tank which is pretty much already taken up.

[Sregnar]

Feeding him only makes him more aggressive, I can try putting the net over his main cave and keep him at bay that way. My lights are 260w in a 17 inch deep tank, so they are not too bad. I'm not at this time willing to spend $400 on halides, some day maybe.

[Sregnar]

Well I just bought a plate coral at my lfs to try and add some color and diversity to the left side of my reef. I know it won't help crop the mushroom population, but it will add some color and character. I'll post a pic as soon as it's acclimated.

[Sregnar]

Here's the plate, just put it in, can't wait to see it open.

[Ace25]

Hopefully that long tentacle plate opens up. I see A LOT of skeleton ripping through, which to me doesn't look good. When I had a plate, it was shrunk up for a day or so when I put it in, but there was still flesh covering the entire outter area of the plate. You could see ridges of the skeleton, but you couldn't actually see the skeleton ripped through like I see in your pic. Here is a pic I took about a week after I put it in my tank.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/2286642984_43fee1bb53.jpg

And here it is right before it died. As soon as the flesh ripped on the skeleton it was downhill very fast, within a week, it was dead.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2285852615_53cfca392c.jpg

[Sregnar]

Wow, yeah I hope so too. When I saw it in the lfs it was pretty well covered with sand, and I didn't really notice the skeleton coming through til I got home. But isn't that how it always seems to work out...