does acropora grow best upright or just the same sideways?

[living_waters]

I got a few acro frags 5 months ago for 5 bucks from a local reefer. I got it as a fairly large bleached colony that I gambled the 5 buckeroos on and ended up just fraging tips that were still alive.question is I glued some upright to the rock work and one sideways kind of like cliff like, and the ones upright seem to be growing like weeds but the sideways ones bleach underneath so what's the best way to place this coral upright or sideways?

 

[bravanc]

depends on what you want. some people lay them down in hopes of getting more sprouts to start. In my experience it take longer than standing them straight up. You also run into some frags that have no polyps on the bottom because of the way it grew in the tank it came from. in that case i would glue it flat on a plug.
In your case sounds like you answered it already, stand it straight up and let it grow!

 

[Bo0sted_Rafi]

get glued flat on the plug. they can grow better starting making base

 

[maikoa02]

If you have mh the branches will grow towards the direction of the light. If you have t5s they will grow more disperse.

 

[LoJack]

Upright is better unless its glued down. Like bravanc said … upright the coral will typically continue its current growth … when on its side, most of your polyps will start sprouting into their own branches and a more dense colony starts … this however, takes much longer in my experience.

I have frags that will maybe fork once, or into a 3way branch when mounted upright, I have a garf purple bonsai mounted on its side, and each polyp is trying to grow into its own upright branch, which I think will look great … but it is taking much longer than its companion frags which I cut at the same time and mounted in the upright position.

 

[Crna]

What would you guys do with a frag that was on its side on the colony? I recently got a mille from a friend, which I placed upright in my tank. Of course, the side that was facing down has almost no color or polyps. Will it do ok upright, or should I place it horizontal?

 

[living_waters]

Place it upright since I placed all mine upright they never looked better. Oh yeah thanks for all the advice guys!

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I'm enjoying the progress of a few different corals I have that I mounted on their side in a vertical rock face orientation tip up; I need to remember that, and do it more, I haven't done it that way for the last couple additions. Here's one of them, it's two hairy slimers that i just snapped a crappy ipod picture of,(the Xenia in back look neeet) I sited these in mid May, and they were both standard looking slimmer tips. One is mounted like I mentioned and the other flat. The larger piece did begin a wee bit bigger, and who knows it could have been from a more active growth part of the coral; the part that had its side glued to the rock has encrusted at least as well and is sprouting better, but the other is showing signs of taking off with more stems. Been kewl if I had had a third tip to mount standard cut glued down.

Of course if you are talking prop plugs the above mentioned meathod might be seem weird????

 

[Crna]

I like the tip up orientation, just wanted to make sure that it would be ok. I had considered placing it horizontal on a vertical rock face, but I'll keep it the way it is. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[kevin_e]

6 months, same mother colony.

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[living_waters]

Nice!

 

[philip_r5]

Nice comparison shots kevin.

I like to place mine on their sides and let them grow out more branches at a steady pace then having a longer one shooting up and possibly limiting light on the plug/base area that will grow out.

This is especially good to do if you have only a small lets say 1inch frag. Lay sideways, and shortly you will have several branches instead of one. I say shortly but like others have said it seems that it takes long for it to grow sideways. However, I think this is because you see the longitudinal growth versus the totality of the flat one combined.