Too many corals?

[jennln]

During the course of trying to figure out a problem I was having with my tanks, one of the questions my lfs asked me was if I had overcrowded with corals in my tank. Now I really don't have too much in there...it's a fairly new tank and nowhere near where I want it to be yet.
That being said, it of course still made me wonder, is there such a thing as too many corals? I mean besides the obvious room/touching issues? I didn't think that corals contributed to the bioload in the same manner that fish did, so I didn't think that there was a rule of thumb per se in how many corals you could place, say, per gallon. I've seen tanks that are absolutely cramped to the max with corals that are not only doing well, but seem to be thriving. This question has kind of thrown me now. Did lfs just have no idea what they were talking about or is there some truth, some system, in determining a safe amount of corals per tank.

 

[jerryatrick]

In a small tank packed with hard corals you could have issues with alkalinity. Even if you do weekly water changes you still might have issues. Larger tanks obvisouly have more water volume so the hard corals don't deplete the alk as fast.

 

[socal57che]

from wet web media...
"...Under the best of circumstances, water quality in the aquarium after one month typically strays unfavorably downward in pH. It certainly increases in dissolved organics. Water clarity from discoloration becomes darker, however inconspicuous that might be to the

[hr]
eye during casual daily inspection. In heavily stocked reef displays – allelopathic compounds (chemical warfare) between corals, plants and algae amplify. Phosphorous and nitrogenous compounds inevitably accumulate too. The list of challenges to water quality goes on. Now instead of allowing these dynamics to crescendo before reducing them abruptly with a large monthly (or less often) water change, the smaller, more frequent water changes will dull the peaks and valleys of such swings in water quality to minimize the stress on the tanks inhabitants..."
Not necessarily coral stinging one another, but many corals (and seaweed) emit chemicals that other coral does not like in order to keep it at bay.

 

[mudplayerx]

Keep a hefty supply of activated carbon around and you have no worries. Just make sure to replace it every week.
I literally keep sps and softies in the same 10 gallon tanks this way. (fragging)