Coral Shading

[gablett]

I run 250 watt Radium 20k halides on my 220 gallon sps dominated tank. As the colonies are getting much much bigger they are beginning to shade themselves out on the bottom. Some of the bottom branches are turning white. Is this normal and ok? Does anyone else have this problem? What do you guys do about it, cuz it is a bit of an eye sore. More of my corals seem to grow up rather than out. Should I selectively trim off branches to get it to grow out more?

 

[sminker]

You can do some trimming but that's the way of the land. Once they get so big parts start dying off. More flow helps but only so far. You should see mine, I've lost colonies that are below the big guys. It happens.

 

[gablett]

I see a lot of peoples tanks get far more horizontal growth than mine. Do you guys trim your corals to get wider colonies or is that just natural?