I didn't cut it myself. I purchased them used from someone online and he did it to make the flow more widely disbursed. I purchase 2 and only ended up using one, the other isn't modified but I really like this one better this way. Thanks for the compliments guys, i'm addicted I just purchased another colony of blastos, a really small acan frag and 2 other sps corals. I'll post tomorrow when they all fluff up.