Help me ID this SPS?

[Jo P White]

I was given this giant 1.5 sps about a year ago from someone breaking down their tank. They never told me what it was, at the time I thought it was a monti, but the polyp extension seems wrong. It’s super hardy and grows well. It spirals, plates, and creates columns. Anyone have any ideas on what type it is? It’s a purple-blue color. It frags super easy and would love the chance to share or sell some, but don’t really know what type it is. Thanks for your help.

 

[minus9]

That doesn't look like an sps to me, kinda looks like heliopora, aka blue ridge coral, which is an octacoral or soft coral, not sps. But it's really hard to tell from the pic.

 

[Jo P White]

That doesn't look like an sps to me, kinda looks like heliopora, aka blue ridge coral, which is an octacoral or soft coral, not sps. But it's really hard to tell from the pic.

I’ve looked up blue ridge and it’s the closest thing to what it looks like. But the blue ridge photos I see online don’t seem to spiral or plate like this one does. It seems like a hard coral since when I pull dead pieces out they’re thin and brittle like a monti plate.

 

[Jo P White]

 

[minus9]

Can you get a daylight pic of the polyps (close up)?

 

[Rmckoy]

With most plating corals they will grow depending on the flow and light .
If they have a lot of flow generally the plates will curl with the flow of the water creating spirals , shelves or even straight out shelf like plates .

 

[minus9]

Also, heliopora does plate, but it's not common. Those polyps are what tell me it's heliopora.

 

[Jo P White]

Thanks a bunch!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Agree that it looks like heliopora. Nice specimen!

 

[Jo P White]

Agree that it looks like heliopora. Nice specimen!

Yeah it’s massive, it was an old school reefer that gave it to me. He was moving and giving it all away, I think he ended up trashing a lot of it