SPS Green Monti Digi, Growing Weird w/pics now

jeeptp75 · #1 02/10/2007, 04:17 PM

I bought my first and only SPS coral about 6 to 8 months ago. Its a green monti digi (I have no idea if thats it real name) I did learn that the white tips on the end are new growth which made me happy since I found out that I could keep SPS corals successfully. My question now is that it seems to be growing weird. Instead of growing like a tree with long branches it seem to be growing clumps with many tips on the ends of all the origional branch's. It looks as if it would be getting very top heavy. I have no idea if im explaining this well enough or not but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

xenon · #2 02/10/2007, 04:22 PM

You wouldin't need to explain in detail if you had pics.

Sounds fairly normal to me for a digi thou.

jeeptp75 · #3 02/10/2007, 04:25 PM

I have actually been sitting here trying to take a picture of it since I posted that, but im having issues with getting it to come out clear. I'll keep working on it though.

jeeptp75 · #4 02/10/2007, 04:45 PM

Here is a pic. Its the best I can do as far as picture quality. It just seems odd to me how its growing tons of new branch's on to top of the main one or two branches.

jeeptp75 · #5 02/10/2007, 04:48 PM

Just to give everyone an idea of the growth difference, here is a picture from a while back before I started noticing it's weird growing habbits.

xenon · #6 02/10/2007, 05:52 PM

Do run a wavemaker?

It almost looks like you have a powerhead directly on it.

When the water flow is constant in one direction the coral usually only grows in one direction.

jeeptp75 · #7 02/10/2007, 09:12 PM

No no wavemaker and yes there is a powerhead very close to it definatly hitting it with some flow.

highquality · #8 02/10/2007, 09:20 PM

You want random flow and not direct flow from a powerhead. Water bouncing of of glass or off of another powerhead. That seems pretty normal for a monti digi.

Mariner · #9 02/10/2007, 09:29 PM

That looks like a pretty healthy coral to me. Wish I could get mine to branch like that. Digitata have A LOT of different growth forms -- water flow and light make a big difference.
FWIW,
Mariner

reefkoi · #10 02/11/2007, 12:36 AM

your first pic is just a frag, corals look so much different when they mature. Sometimes I see a frag and think its just another blue sps, then i see a huge 2 foot mature colony of the same coral and then I want that coral badly!
Chris

Chaotic Reefer4u · #11 02/11/2007, 02:10 AM

nice...

jeeptp75 · #12 02/12/2007, 09:31 AM

Ok thanks for all the info, definatly makes me feel a lot better about it and I will be adressing my flow issues immediatly.

RichConley · #13 02/12/2007, 11:13 AM

Constant flow is not an issue. People just think wavemakers are cool.

fishysteve · #14 02/12/2007, 12:01 PM

I thought constant flow, if the pump is too close will erode the tissue.

RichConley · #15 02/12/2007, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fishysteve
I thought constant flow, if the pump is too close will erode the tissue.

Yes, high velocity concentrated flow will rip off tissue. Anything from a Tunze to an MJ will do that, and IME, if its close enough to rip off tissue, it doesnt matter if its alternating or not.

THere have actually been studies that show corals grow faster in unidirectional flow than in alternating flow.

jeeptp75 · #16 02/13/2007, 10:01 AM

I did move the power head and hope to even change to something like Tunze or Seio very soon, even then I'll make sure its not direct.

Poorcollegereef · #17 02/13/2007, 10:34 AM

interresting growth and I like it a lot. digi's have always been my bane as far as sps for some reason although my orange frag is doing very well. Anyways I wondering if that style of growth is related to the t5 since the light is evenly distributed across the tank causing evenly distributed growth. Just an idea