Horizontal vs Vertical branching coral placement

[Greg Goby]

It's late and my imagination is wandering. If you place a branching coral so that the stem faces the front glass, rather than straight up (with space beneath for water to flow), does that encourage more healthy growth from the lower heads seeking light? I was discussing torch growth in another thread and it had me thinking about this. My dragon soul torch is wedged into the rocks horizontally rather than vertically. The heads growing that are shadowed from above definitely grow faster and have longer polyps, but I'm not sure at what sacrifice. The lower polyps all have proper color when they do get light. Some of the new heads have polyps longer than the fully mature ones.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

interesting question. I've done it with acros, and of course, the new growth was always toward the light. I'm not sure how that would work with euphylia, but I'd imagine it would do the same since it's photosynthetic.