Low flow and shapes of corals

[Ssteve]

I know that usually sps thrive in higher flow environments, and I usually hear people stating how they will grow a certain way depending on the flow of the tank.

So my question is, how would lower flow affect sps growth?

The reason I ask is cause my LFS has a display tank with no powerheads in it, just a single return with a decent turn over, and all the sps seem to be growing different than I normally see. Very flat, the monti caps are growing around the rocks as opposed to up and out.

 

[rovster]

Birdsnest grow out more rather than tightly bunched. I got a freebie. Brown birdsnest from a low flow tank s while back, it grew very open and spread out. In my tank with high flow and light it turned hot pink and grew much tighter thicker branches.

I also am housing a SSC colony for a friend and the growth form is totally different in mine. In his lower flow rankcorallites were more rounded and spread out, with mine branches are much thicker, corsllites are more squared off and overall looks tighter.

 

[ajcanale]

In my experience I've seen thicker branching and increased tabling tendencies as flow increases.

 

[shih87]

Interested topic. Anyone has low flow coral pictures?

 

[rovster]

Interested topic. Anyone has low flow coral pictures?

This is by no means low flow.....but I'll play.

SSC in a friends tank

He chopped up the colony and gave it to me to rehab. here you can appreciate the spread if the coralites and the rounded tips (you can also see on the first pic)

Healing under stronger flow. Look at the more squared off and slightly thicker coralites and how tightly packed they are growing...

If I took a pic today they are even more tightly clustered.

 

[shih87]

Thanks for sharing... I now got better idea of the shape of growing... Appreciate it....