Will corals grow upside down? Yes they will!

[sydneyreefing]

Hey all! Finally joined this awesome community and apologies in advance if i have posted in the wrong thread etc.
A few of you may have been following along on this build but it recently hit the 12 month mark and i was reflecting on this little experiment.
I wanted to see if coral would grow upside down (towards a light that was mounted underneath the tank). I am a post doctoral researcher and one of my areas of focus is the photophysiology of plants/algae/corals so i was excited that this was something i could test out at home. Whilst it has only been 12 months i have seen substantial growth in most of my corals (Both SPS and LPS) with many of them showing natural/normal growth morphologies. So i guess gravity has little effect on the growth of corals? :)

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Oooh I.do believe I have seen your tank on IG! Amazing reef and I love how you’re thinking “outside” the box! Welcome!

 

[Nordy]

That’s good stuff. I once fragged an Acro that might have been a 3/4” long, and mistakenly glued it upside down. I was curious if it could survive, however I believe a large Trochus snail bulldozed it, and I never found it below in the following weeks. I was thinking the polyps might reorient themselves, kinda like plants growing towards a light source with there growth and needs. Is there a tropism characteristic with the growth in your corals?

 

[sydneyreefing]

Oooh I.do believe I have seen your tank on IG! Amazing reef and I love how you’re thinking “outside” the box! Welcome!

Cheers mate! Glad to be here :)
I feel like I have missed out on so much by only just joining now haha

 

[sydneyreefing]

That’s good stuff. I once fragged an Acro that might have been a 3/4” long, and mistakenly glued it upside down. I was curious if it could survive, however I believe a large Trochus snail bulldozed it, and I never found it below in the following weeks. I was thinking the polyps might reorient themselves, kinda like plants growing towards a light source with there growth and needs. Is there a tropism characteristic with the growth in your corals?

Interesting! And typical of the trochus
I think the polyps remain fairly consistent, I was more interested in the colony morphology. We all know that corals can shuffle/change symbionts around their skeleton to recieve more/less light but do the corals grow their skeletons in the direction of where the light is coming from? I guess the next question would be what are the cues that the host is receiving to grow in which direction?

 

[Tahoe61]

Hey all! Finally joined this awesome community and apologies in advance if i have posted in the wrong thread etc.
A few of you may have been following along on this build but it recently hit the 12 month mark and i was reflecting on this little experiment.
I wanted to see if coral would grow upside down (towards a light that was mounted underneath the tank). I am a post doctoral researcher and one of my areas of focus is the photophysiology of plants/algae/corals so i was excited that this was something i could test out at home. Whilst it has only been 12 months i have seen substantial growth in most of my corals (Both SPS and LPS) with many of them showing natural/normal growth morphologies. So i guess gravity has little effect on the growth of corals? :)

Let me say first, I LOVE this!!!!
With regard to lighting, did you anticipate that the reflection of light from the bottom pane would be enough to sustain photosynthetic corals?

 

[Aquadude1]

I might be mis remembering from your videos but there is a light underneath too right?

Either way its a super cool tank

 

[kevgib67]

One of the cooler things I’ve seen on R2R, welcome!

 

[sydneyreefing]

One of the cooler things I’ve seen on R2R, welcome!

Cheers mate!

 

[sydneyreefing]

I might be mis remembering from your videos but there is a light underneath too right?

Either way its a super cool tank

There are lights underneath! Two AI blades :)

 

[sydneyreefing]

Hey all! Finally joined this awesome community and apologies in advance if i have posted in the wrong thread etc.
A few of you may have been following along on this build but it recently hit the 12 month mark and i was reflecting on this little experiment.
I wanted to see if coral would grow upside down (towards a light that was mounted underneath the tank). I am a post doctoral researcher and one of my areas of focus is the photophysiology of plants/algae/corals so i was excited that this was something i could test out at home. Whilst it has only been 12 months i have seen substantial growth in most of my corals (Both SPS and LPS) with many of them showing natural/normal growth morphologies. So i guess gravity has little effect on the growth of corals? :)

Let me say first, I LOVE this!!!!
With regard to lighting, did you anticipate that the reflection of light from the bottom pane would be enough to sustain photosynthetic corals?

Cheers mate, no there are lights underneath the tank that shine up at the rockwork :)

 

[zheka757]

At first! Your pictures where messing with my brain! It took me couple minutes to figure out what was happening! Well done

 

[tREEFarm]

So THAT'S what they mean by barebottom!