How fast is fast in growth for SPS?
 

Just curious when people say "oh, this grows really fast"....how fast is normal? Specifically for birdsnest/digitata and misc acropora varieties...under let's say 2X250 10K MH and 4X54Watt T5 (2 10K and 2 03 actinic bulbs) in a 135 gallon tank (standard dimensions)? Water parameters are ideal. What kind of growth should one get in a certain timespan? If people could give me ideas, like pics/details of growth and how long, that'd be great!

Also...one more question: When you put a new piece in your tank, is there like a "getting used to the new environment" period before any growth starts? I'd assume so...as they need to acclimate. About how long should that take? My assumption is that the new coral will take some time before it wants to grow, then the growth takes off "fast."

According to popular opinion I seem to have fast growth
A. convexa pic taken feb
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...feb2709011.jpg

Pic taken aug (7 months growth)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...aug0209007.jpg

Montipora, Superman digitata ( I was told this is a slow grower)
pic taken in March
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rch2509009.jpg

Pic taken in june (3 months growth)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...une1909014.jpg

As far as when a new coral starts growing, it depends on where it came from. Corals I get from Snappy (even with 2 day shipping) seem to start growing right away...others can take up to a month before there is visible signs of growth

With some of my pieces it takes them a month to even establish a good base (I usually buy frags) then there is others that I get 0.5 - 0.7" a month out of them. My 1 birdnest and 1 acropora I got from Doug grow the fastest but my 3 monti caps put on some serious growth every week as well. Man I love these sticks... never though I would say that.

Holy jeebus Marie, what steroids are your tanks on? I need me some of those!

In my nano, I get about .5" growth in some of my millies in a month or so, but most are a lot slower. Sometimes corals are really quick to encrust (I have had new frags encrust a frag plug in like 2 weeks), but many are a lot slower to start growing upwards/outwards.

For me bout an inch a year :redface:

Thanks for everyone's input so far, it's very helpful.

Marie....wow...what type of lighting do you have? Tank size? The growth is so awesome. I have maybe a silly question, as I know the answer I'm sure...but the white tips on sps in your pics is for new growth, right? That is the process...they put down the skeleton, then it colors up, then polyps? I just have never heard anyone confirm this... Also, who's this "Snappy?" He ships too? Might be good to see if he has frags for sale.


It's too bad we don't have a pocket-sized reef scientists to ask anything at anytime!

Murminator...I hope I don't have that slow of growth.

Yes, the light coloured tips are the new growth, there is tissue over the new skeleton it is just usually a different colour from the rest of the coral.

Snappy is one of the sponsers on canreef, aka coral master. I highly recommend his corals
http://www.coralmaster.com/

+1 Always arrive in great shape and nice colour.

Once they know they are going to Maries house I think they start growing in the bag on the way. :razz:

I measured the growth of a birdsnest for an online course I took through reefs.org. I had 2" of growth on it in 12 weeks, which I thought was pretty darn good. That was just a single branch though, the rest of it was also filling in. Thats about the fastest growing coral I've ever had. Slowest was a pink stylophora. They're pretty dense corals so they're putting down a lot of calcium during growth.


+1 for Snappy (CoralMaster) great frags and great service. Theres a link to him in the vendor forum :biggrin:

can coral growth be helped along by pinching the tips or trimming?

I have heard about this as well

but marie your growth is insane for that short of a period of time

Maybe...my 3 angels keep my corals pinched back

My "Purple Plasma" which is my most brightly coloured sps has grown several new nubs about 1cm in length from a once smooth surface since Thanksgiving. It was smooth in that part of the coral when I came back from Powell River, Oct. 11th & there are now 39-40 new stubbies sticking out of that part & several of the longest stubbies are 1cm plus in length already. I have fragged several pieces off that in October, so there may be some truth to the snip & grow theory.

I use Kalk (dosed from a 2L juice jug) and some Mg & Ca, along with the occasional drops of Lugol's solution.

I'm extremely pleased with this development since usually its the less colourful stuff that grows well & the really colourful ones that seem to take forever.

I believe its a form of A. valida. Purple with green polyps.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...y/IMG_3170.jpg

This was taken 2 weeks ago by Franklin (fkshiu) after the stubbies started popping up.

Anthony

I'm not so sure there is such a thing as "normal" :-) I have frags that have grown into colonies pretty "quick" (1-4 months), and I have frags that have done nothing in 4 months!

Here's a tri-colour I ordered online back in June of this year. It was a 1 branch 1" frag.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1257426033

Today it is a nice little mini colony.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/...fcf6da2fcc.jpg

Here's a 1.5" christmas millepora frag I got back in August 2009. This picture was taken August 29th.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/...7cc96dbf8a.jpg

Today (just 8 weeks (ish) ), it is a nice colony.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2433/...5277d87de4.jpg

All of my bird's nest frags tend to be quick growers like this too but I also have a few frags I got back in late spring (june ish) that haven't grown a millimeter :-)

I find it's really species dependant. My old tank had Marie style growth, one piece put on about 4 inches on each branch in 2 months. Other pieces I had grew an inch in 6 months.
Besides lighting, make sure you have strong flow (although not direct flow on coral), and great water quality. This means proper alk, Ca and some people measure Mg as well. Mg has just been a recent concern in the last few years, so I couldn't tell you what my levels were when I had my "steroid tank". I do know I had to throw frags in the garden because I couldn't give enough away.

WOW.....I must be doing something wrong, I'm only getting a fraction of the growth that you guys are getting.

feel free to throw them in my garden anytime:biggrin: