Flow effects on growth forms of SPS

Punchanello · Aug 4, 2024

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or examples on the effects of flow on the growth patterns of SPS. I have noticed that between tanks, the same species of acropora might grow in tight branching formations and in others it might be a bit more "leggy" with long, sporadic branching.

If there is some truth to high flow encouraging tighter growth forms, it might be a factor in positioning corals?

corosato · Aug 4, 2024

All I know is my Birdsnest grew so much towards the flow that it released its glue and fell over, had to rethink the flow so the other side could grow too lol.

Yanir34 · Aug 5, 2024

Punchanello said:
I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or examples on the effects of flow on the growth patterns of SPS. I have noticed that between tanks, the same species of acropora might grow in tight branching formations and in others it might be a bit more "leggy" with long, sporadic branching.

If there is some truth to high flow encouraging tighter growth forms, it might be a factor in positioning corals?

In my personal experience ,yes there is powerful effect to high flow in reef tank especially on SPS corals.
over the years I have experienced with low ,medium and high flow tanks.
In my current system, that is mostly SPS and some other LPS , I'm running 4 MP40's pumps , 2 jebao pump's.
my display tank is 500 liters volume , so it's TON of flow for this size.
I can see defently that most of the SPS grew from the beginning with thick crust, Thick trunk and thick branches.
I'm also using T5 lighting, that spread the light in even way , so I'm guessing that's another factor that should be considered

aumwantanai · Aug 5, 2024

Yanir34 said:
In my personal experience ,yes there is powerful effect to high flow in reef tank especially on SPS corals.
over the years I have experienced with low ,medium and high flow tanks.
In my current system, that is mostly SPS and some other LPS , I'm running 4 MP40's pumps , 2 jebao pump's.
my display tank is 500 liters volume , so it's TON of flow for this size.
I can see defently that most of the SPS grew from the beginning with thick crust, Thick trunk and thick branches.
I'm also using T5 lighting, that spread the light in even way , so I'm guessing that's another factor that should be considered

How much No3 ?