Red Dragon Encrusting?

h3dgehog

Member
I have a fairly sizable red dragon colony that has been growing very well with excellent polyp extension. However, I can't seem to get the thing to encrust on my rockwork...My colony is lopsided so it is small/narrow on the bottom stem and has bushes that branch outwards, making it had to glue down either...

Does anyone else have trouble getting their red dragons to encrust or am I missing something here?

I don't think params could be an issue since the red dragon has been growing well and all my other acros are growing and encrusting like normal. But for those of you who will still ask...

Cal: 430
Alk: 8.5
Mag: 1400
Phos: 0.03
Nitrate: 0-2
Temp: 78-79.5
 
I had a big colony that I fragged and got rid of becuse of this exact problem. Once it got to a certian size it would just get to heavy and fall off the rocks.
 
There are quite a few different types of red dragon out there.
The Red Dragon that most people have (red with thin, small branches), they just don't encrust that much at all. I had another Red Dragon that has thicker branches than normal Red Dragon and those encrust quite a bit but their color isn't as great.
 
I glue down multiple frags next to each other to get it to encrust more. Works good at producing a strong base.
 
I pound mine with decent flow and it encrusted a little more, plus the branches are a little thicker. It's very fragile, I swear, if I walk by the tank too fast, a piece falls off. I keep making frags.
 
I glue down multiple frags next to each other to get it to encrust more. Works good at producing a strong base.

That's what I was thinking might work. If you made a little forest of teeny frags you'd probably get some encrusted and heavily entwined acro growing out of it.
 
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