What is your strategy (if any) for shaping corals and influencing their growth patterns?

[SFREEF3R]

I like to think of our reef tanks as little bonsai gardens. In the wild these coral colonies grow to huge proportions, but in even the largest tanks the colonies are miniature versions of what we see in the wild. In the most beautiful tanks, the corals have been positioned and grown in patterns that not only look natural but give a striking aesthetic.

I'm curious to what extent folks in our hobbies employ similar techniques to bonsai to purposefully achieve a desired look. Do you let your corals grow wild? Or have you learned from experience how trimming and positioning with respect to flow and light influence coral growth patterns? And do you use this knowledge to achieve a desired shape?

 

[blaxsun]

I say let Poseidon sort it out!

 

[SFREEF3R]

My SPS collection is starting to grow out to the point to where I'lll need to start trimming to prevent touching. Meaningful growth takes so long though that I'm pretty nervous about doing more than that.

I don't have a lot of experience observing the impacts of trimming and so don't have a lot of confidence in cutting back more to to try to alter the overall shape or growth pattern.

 

[SFREEF3R]

Flow is another interesting one - I have read that higher flow yields thicker growth, but I haven't heard much about other ways flow impacts growth patterns. Do you observe that your corals grow into the flow? away from the flow? How have you seen flow impact the shape of your corals?

In my tank I don't know that I've observed any specific impacts that I can attribute to flow by I am waiting to see as if that changes as things continue to grow out.

 

[SFREEF3R]

Also - I probably should have worded my poll differently, but I'm imaging by "using flow to shape corals" I really mean position powerhead etc. to create flow that I think will yield desirable formations.

For light, we know that corals are going to grow towards the light, but you might mount a frag in a particular orientation in anticipation of that growth.

 

[fish farmer]

I snip my hammer corals when they get to close to the glass or reposition them so they fill out certain areas.

This looks like one solid colony, at one point it was. Then I had some polyp loss and I broke it apart. I had some of it mounted where the main colony was growing directly up and there were two lower polyps on the right by themselves. I repositioned the big piece so it filled in next to the right polyps.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

0

 

[lubeck]

Following. I’m at the same point and have already let nature take its course. Will take some pics soon to share.

 

[vlangel]

I pretty much just let nature do its thing but try to allow enough room when I place a coral for that to happen. I will say that my display is a bit wild and woolly!

 

[lubeck]

Here are a few pics of the corals battling.