acropora encrusting problem

[M Woodhill]

i guess my acros are growin at a decent rate but very strange, they dont encrust at all.

what am i supposed to do to make'em encrust?

thanks in advance

 

[allsps40]

Nothing you really can do. If the coral feels it has a strong base it will just grow up and out. My scripps milli only encrusted for a good 6 months it is just now shooting up branches. You can try to increase flow but I dont think it will help much. Maybe there is someone out there that knows the trick to encrusting. Most of the time you see " My sps only encrust, how do I get them to branch?".

 

[fishguy597]

That's kinda odd IMO. mine usually encrust first then grow. how stable is your alk ? I finally have been able to keep mine really steady and everything is growing like crazy.

 

[M Woodhill]

That's kinda odd IMO. mine usually encrust first then grow. how stable is your alk ? I finally have been able to keep mine really steady and everything is growing like crazy.

alk ranges between 3.19 to 3.53, kinda stable.

they branch kinda fast but don't encrust.

 

[fishguy597]

Is that the measurement in dkh?

 

[M Woodhill]

Is that the measurement in dkh?

sorry, it's in meq/l

supposedly it's 8.9 to 9.9

 

[RynosReef]

That is strange.. Few questions: What growth rate do they have if they haven't encrusted? What kind of acros? For most acros the very first thing they do once they've settled into your system is build a base, then the vertical growth starts. Usually if they don't encrust they don't grow at all.

It's usually because something is off chemistry wise or light flow ect. But it could be the species too. I had an oregon tort that took FOREVER to encrust. What are your params like? Are they glued down? If not and they're constantly moved then they won't encrust.

 

[M Woodhill]

i'm tryin to take some pix tomorrow to make the growth comparison

the chemistry r kinda fine

temp=82.56
ph=8.22 to 8.24
alk=3.19 to 3.53
no3=0
ca=420 to 500
mg=1320 t0 1470
phos=0 to 0.15

don't know why there's a surge in phos level. probably because of fish food or time to replace elimi phos.

 

[MammothReefer]

glue them down side ways?

 

[M Woodhill]

glue them down side ways?

nope.

i'd like to present some pix. the grape milli is a fast grower but -- no encrustin.

grape milli 10 days ago

and now

the staghorn 10 days ago

and now, i guess the base is a little bit recessin

the only one that slowly encrusts is the purple with green polyp coral.

but i guess it encrusts very slowly.

 

[OneReef]

I wouldn't expect a lot in 10 days. I have found that some of mine don't encrust in the parts that are shaded by the coral.

 

[allsps40]

Oh yeah only 10 days. Give it some time. It is common is get some upward growth along with encrusting on happy healthy corals. I was expecting to see large colonies.

 

[MammothReefer]

I wouldn't expect any growth in 10 days.. if you see anything i'd be happy ^_^

 

[Neoferdina]

I find that if the frags aren't stable (as is they can move back and forth a bit in the current) it inhibits encrusting but in 10 days, you're not going to see much. I've only ever had one frag encrust that fast.

 

[M Woodhill]

thanks y'all

hopefully there'll be good results. finger cross me