SPS question...

[Dez]

Just wondering out of curiosity why all the sps colonies at the LFS's are always so spherical and "perfect" looking and then when you get them home and they start growing it becomes all chaotic looking and doesn't remain "spherical and perfect." It almost seems as if all the stems and branches are growing at different rates and directions. Anyway, I've always wondered. I assume it's a flow/lighting thing.

[lorenz0]

Flow is the biggest thing. depending on your direction and how much flow you have is the variable that determines how thick your branches will be and the direction they will grow

[kien]

Yup, my colonies look a little crazy because they either lean into the current or with the current. Some also stretch towards the light that they favour. I'm thinking of turning those colonies around :-)

[fencer]

It is that Krazy magnesium growth hormone your using Dez

[lobsterboy]

I wondered the same thing.

my thoughts were that the mariculture ones dont get that long of a period between ocean to holding tank to LFS to home so they would stay pretty round, and wouldnt have a chance to start new growth.

another thought was, that they use a wave action in holding tanks to replicate nature conditions.

[Dez]

You would think that the maricultured colonies wouldn't be so "perfect." Since they are growing them out from frags right? I know when my corals are growing without even looking at pictures when the shape is "uneven". When I buy a colony it's usually perfectly shaped, then a couple of weeks later it's all uneven because some tips are growing faster than others. Some of my frags haven't shown much "growth" but they have definitely become super thick but not growing in length. Wasn't it Lastlight or someone that said girth was more important than length? I guess my corals have the best of both worlds so I don't have to worry. Anyway, I'm still confused as to how to culture perfectly spherical mini colonies before they go into the aquarium trade.

[JDigital]

Sunlight is much more natural as well... Corals get uniformly lit by the sun as it crosses the sky during the day. Pretty hard to do that with our current tank lighting systems, unless your willing do a motorized system, so you get hot spots or dead spots of light which directly affect coral growth.

Can't forget, Mariculture facilities may also "prune" corals as they grow to give them uniform growth pattern. That's just a guess though.

[imcosmokramer]

yes, flow and light are the main reasons for even growth.
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