Finally someone noticed!!! I am trying to get information on the growth rates of different species of coral, even if parameters are not the same which is always going to be the case.
Lookin for people to tell about their experiance in the growth of their corals in general. Not eveything starts with exact science. For example an Oak tree will grow at a different rate in different climates, but if you look into how fast an Oak tree will grow, you will be able to find a general answer.
Please look at posting your experiance regarding a corals growth. I will worry about the data being placed into a list (or data base/ excell sheet). No admin needed if I get enough information, which so far everyone is saying it can't be done and the internet does not have available in any way.
It is hard to believe no one wants to look at getting this going!
Let's see what happens............................
there is far less variability in the growth rate of oak trees than their are of corals...
coral growth is mediated by so many more factors, they are much more sensitive to a wider variety of environmental conditions than say an oak tree is.
just even the amount/direction of water flow can dramatically change a coral's growth rate.
lighting position, color spectrum, intensity, type, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, iodine, strontium, molybdenum, presence of allelopathic chemicals produced by other corals, presence of heavy metals, microfauna, microflora (bacteria, zoo&phytoplankton, copepods, amphipods) what food you feed your FISH with, what kind of fish you have, all effect grwoth.
this is an incredibly short list of variables that all have direct and significant impact on coral growth rates.
then even among the same species/variety, different color morphs will have incredibly different growth rates.
whenvever a hobbyist buys a coral, he cannot in any way really predict how fast it will grow... for example, many have noticed that if you put a chalice coral on a slope it will grow much faster than if it is placed on the top of a rock surface.
this question is really just impossible to answer.
also coral growth is just going to be too difficult for the average hobbyist to measure... marine scientists measure coral growth in reefs primarily by calcium carbonate deposition... which really only applies to stony corals anyways... it would be very difficult for a hobbyist to measure every dimension of his growing corals to accurately measure growth.
and referring to the guy who was talking about that monti cap that exploded in his tank, put it in his friends tank and it pretty much stopped. well this happens too, any time something changes, corals will kind of "stress out" and stop growing, and many changes such as increased lighting or increased feedings can take months to show results, then suddenly you wake up and your corals are growing 10x faster than before.