SPS Growth Question...

[cleverbs]

Long story but right now I am working on replacing my 220g and before I had to replace it I was gathering sps frags for it. Right now they are all in my frag tank with a 175w MH over it. The tank is a 24x24x12 tank.

My color on my sps are great and always get way better when I put them in my tank. I however havent seen much of any growth other then them growing their base. When will they have enough base to start growing up?

I have heard you can flip the tip of the coral and it will start growing and stop basing. however I am just wondering if this is happening because of the to high of light so they are growing out instead of up? the MH is just 4-5" off the water surface.

For example these two corals have almost covered their frag plug in the last 2 weeks. but are still the exact same hight.

 

[Wazzel]

Most SPS will encrust before they grow out. If they are encrusting all is well, they will start to grow out in time.

 

[hlaalu]

Doesn't flow have something to do with the way they grow? If they have a lot of flow, they grow a larger base and thicker branches, and with little flow they grow thinner and taller. I read that in another thread, I'm going to try and find it.

 

[cleverbs]

Most SPS will encrust before they grow out. If they are encrusting all is well, they will start to grow out in time.

Well good, I have good PE and am seeing growth in the base on all my corals, some more then others. I just figure some corals have faster growth then others.

 

[Wazzel]

Well good, I have good PE and am seeing growth in the base on all my corals, some more then others. I just figure some corals have faster growth then others.

It does vary. I had a few grow and encrust at the same time from the get go and others that encrusted for several inches before even thinking about growing out. Most of what I have seen is that they will encrust a bit then start growing and continue encrusting. If I had to guess, I would not expect growth until the head of the plug was fully covered, again just a guess.

 

[Tweaked]

Must grow down/out before they grow up. And most of my colonies I can still see the original frag with very little growth even after a year.