How do you deal with fast growing SPS?

Waters · Mar 24, 2018

When your SPS colonies start to grow together, do you let them fight it out or carefully prune them to keep them separated? What do you do when SPS starts to reach the glass.....let it grow or frag it? I have both plating and branching montis that are overtaking my tank. I have been breaking off pieces to keep them from overtaking other (more expensive) colonies (which often ruins their appearance...I much prefer the rounded plates rather than jagged edges where I broke it off). Would you just let them grow together and see which one wins or continue to frag? I can't really tell how aggressive they are since I haven't let them grow together too much yet. They did grow around some zoas to the point where there is just a small hole in the monti where the zoa pops up through when the lights come on lol.

Bpb · Mar 24, 2018

You can get surgical with bone cutters and try to trim them smooth on the edges where you’re breaking them. But that’s just the name of the game with montipora. Once they get big they just grow and grow and grow. I have found kalk paste to be somewhat effective. A super healthy montipora will repopulate that dead tissue in a couple weeks though. I’ve kalk pasted my spongodes and purple cap colonies probably a dozen times and they grow back insanely fast. Within a week it’s like nothing happened

Waters · Mar 24, 2018

Bpb said:
You can get surgical with bone cutters and try to trim them smooth on the edges where you’re breaking them. But that’s just the name of the game with montipora. Once they get big they just grow and grow and grow. I have found kalk paste to be somewhat effective. A super healthy montipora will repopulate that dead tissue in a couple weeks though. I’ve kalk pasted my spongodes and purple cap colonies probably a dozen times and they grow back insanely fast. Within a week it’s like nothing happened

Yeah, that is what I am experiencing. When I first started fragging them, I thought it would be a good idea to spread the frags around....not such a good idea anymore lol.