ashish
New member
After removing a staghorn that had grown heavily over the LR under it, I noticed some die of on the underside. When SPS corals are small it is a lot easier to give them adequate flow and lighting. Eventually they start overshadowing each others polyps and under-branches. What should I do with this staghorn?
I took this picture today and the picture is a bit deceiving. The entire colony is not equal; some parts are full while some are not full, some parts have been exposed to very little to no light (show no polyp extension). Ultimately half the branch side is alive while the other half is not:debi: - seems a little to white for my liking.
What should one do when it becomes impossible to provide certain sections adequate lighting? Notice in the picture the bottom branch are very thick since they where growing into each other. The top section was free to grow up and out but still have inconsistency. In the early phase do these under section have any chance to regenerate given better flow and lighting?
Should I (A, B, C)
A. Leave it in it's new spot (which has better flow and light), see how it responds. Monitor it for a few weeks (adjust accordingly).
B. Don't waste time - chop him up and get rid of the under sides?
C. Don't do anything until the die-off spreads to the healthy sections (bleaching). Frag to save the colony as last resort.
I know this is a issue reef tanks with larger SPS colonies run into over time. I can't find anything on RC that has this topic covered so would love to hear others experiences. Simply saying "You colonies dead" or "frag immediatel" when you have never had this these problems is wrong. I have had people tell me last year "your coral is dead" and it's still sitting pretty. If I was going by my own instinct I would not start cutting frags until I see the healthy sections die off. I think it should be fine but in this hobby nothing is fine:spin1:
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png" border="0" alt=" photo acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png"/></a>
I took this picture today and the picture is a bit deceiving. The entire colony is not equal; some parts are full while some are not full, some parts have been exposed to very little to no light (show no polyp extension). Ultimately half the branch side is alive while the other half is not:debi: - seems a little to white for my liking.
What should one do when it becomes impossible to provide certain sections adequate lighting? Notice in the picture the bottom branch are very thick since they where growing into each other. The top section was free to grow up and out but still have inconsistency. In the early phase do these under section have any chance to regenerate given better flow and lighting?
Should I (A, B, C)
A. Leave it in it's new spot (which has better flow and light), see how it responds. Monitor it for a few weeks (adjust accordingly).
B. Don't waste time - chop him up and get rid of the under sides?
C. Don't do anything until the die-off spreads to the healthy sections (bleaching). Frag to save the colony as last resort.
I know this is a issue reef tanks with larger SPS colonies run into over time. I can't find anything on RC that has this topic covered so would love to hear others experiences. Simply saying "You colonies dead" or "frag immediatel" when you have never had this these problems is wrong. I have had people tell me last year "your coral is dead" and it's still sitting pretty. If I was going by my own instinct I would not start cutting frags until I see the healthy sections die off. I think it should be fine but in this hobby nothing is fine:spin1:
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png" border="0" alt=" photo acrobase_zpsbf109a09.png"/></a>