why the puddle effect
 

why is all my sps growing like a puddle effect in stead of growing up and out.
the base is huge the tops arent that great.
150 gal 35 gal sump
170 lb of mixed rock
phos ban reactor
Bubble king mini 200
3 x250 Lumenarc's 2x 12K reef flux 1 14K sun aquatic's
CAL 400-420
ALk 8.8-9.0 DKH
Mag 1300
NO3, NO2, Ammonia all at 0
I change 5 gal per week. the lights are about 15" from the top of the water all corals are sitting around the 18" mark in the tank
flow is a tunze 6000 and 6080 soon to have a 6212 wave box in there
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05882.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05770.jpg

Some corals like growing up, some like to encrust before they get massive. Just think of it as a good thing, now when they grow huge they won't fall off their mount :wink:

ya see and I thought that I had retarded corals.:lol:

well it could be that too :razz:

I believe that the politically correct term is "vertically challenged corals"....

I have exactly the same "problem" and I was just about ready to ask if there was any parameter I could manipulate to facilitate more branching and vertical growth instead. All my SPS seem more interested in developing a wide base or thickening their branches than growing vertically - they must be the offspring of siblings like yours ;)

I also have the same apparent lack of coraline growing and any other algae that you do. The corals expand at their bases and add mass at a decent rate but I don't really have any algae growing (including coraline). And before anybody asks - yes my Mg, Ca, Alk, pH, temp, PO4, NO3, SG are within optimal ranges (with the exception of NO3 being 0 with testing using Elos and Salifert kits).

Ive found through experience that newly added corals are some times stunted by the new conditions and never recover.Only by encrusting and growing from the sides they regrow.But I have had lots of success by clipping all the tips.They regenerate from there and look really good after awhile.Ive done that about 10 times,worked every time.It may look ugly at first but youll thank me in 3 months. That is if you try it. just do it

Nothing wrong with those corals. They grew up here. :lol:

I wonder if when you see larger colonies of someones acro, the base is not larger than one thinks. I thought I once read that a healthy acro is one that encrusts a good base first? If the coral just grew vertical and not horizontal, I doubt it would last for long in the wild.

I think the one your most concerned about Mike, has decent vertical growth also, at least, IMO

Mike you have anice clean looking tank good job

flow
 

Flow can also have an effect on the stucture of stony corals, not sure what yours flow is like, but that could explain it.

that Josh the tank has been staying pretty clean I don't know why thou..:mrgreen:

the flow is pretty good in there with the tunze's and the wave box that i'm going th have in there .

I've got SPS that have formed HUGE colonies (12" high) that grew down from the original frag...out...then up. Right in the middle of the mass of coral is the original frag, which has not grown even a bit.

I would expect flow is probably the largest contributing factor but if starting off as frags, sometimes they just encrust out first to establish a solid foundation before growing upwards. A lot of folks mount their frags horizontally to establish more base at first to even encourage more encrusting first. :)

ahhhhhhhhhh, but i have soem sps that are colonies and still soem are pretty skinny thou.

Patience, Mr. bubbleking. Your corals all look great. Just think, one day you can say every sps in that tank was grown from frags. :mrgreen: Even the colonies you got from me, were tiny frags I once got from you. :smile:

lol
ya i forgot, most of them are from me from the beginning

Here I wish my frags grew wide then vertical, instead of vertical. You can always get some frags from Snappy, 4 of the six I picked up didn't even start branching out till 1.5+ inch size. They are long and skinny. I was also told that by adding more calcium and alk the branches would grow more thin then stubby, and from what I have witnessed in my sps growth this has been true (went on vacation for 3 weeks in the summer so no calcium or alk was added and you can actually notice that part of the coral to be a little thicker then below and above the noted section).

Maybe...but I think it is specific to the coral. I have slow, tabling corals...tall spindly corals...thick ball-shaped coral...slow growing, thick branching type...and they are all growing in the same tank conditions.

In my old tank I had the same concern. One day I looked and every single coral was a very large colony. Just be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a coral reef ;)