why do my sps do this?

[xcorallusx]

lol dkerns
what kind of flow do you have in the tank? I have noticed that in lower flow you tend to get more branching and with better flow you get more plating. If it continues to grow I wouldnt be worried, but if it hasnt grown in a few months I would move it to another spot in the tank.

 

[chort55]

As mentioned it is completely normal, and quite honestly be glad it is encrusting good before starting to grow up and out..... if it didn't have a good base and grew into a nice big colony how ticked would you be if it couldn't support itself and toppled over shattering into 1000 pieces after taking years to grow into a nice fat colony!

But yeah it is believed to be true too that often times if you crowd corals they will not encrust as much because they sense they don't have the room to play around they need to start occupying the water column more as well and take up as much space there too. Chemical warfare 101... go 1st or get choked out! lol

Another thing that sometimes works to stimulate growth is to frag the tip/top off (even like 1/8") as it basically becomes an "injured spot" and it not only wants to heal itself but to grow stronger to prevent future "injuries" in a sense..... worst case, you get enough little snips off enough corals and you now have an excuse for a frag tank ;)