Continued SPS growth rate ??

[eskymick]

About 18 months ago, I purchased a number of “LE” frags online from a RC member. Since that time, I’ve been getting reasonably good growth and color from them.

From one to two inch frags, I now have 4 to 5 inch colonies. In essence, they’ve increased in size (at a minimum) by threefold. All things being equal (water parameters and flow), is it reasonable to expect that these colonies will increase in size threefold over the course of the next 18 months, as well? Of course, at that point, these colonies would be huge!

[Reefer1225]

I hear once you get colony size growth is exponentially fast then when it was just a frag. Hope it's true

[dzhuo]

You should probably expect similar grow rate in the next 18 months assuming condition remains the same. Once coral reach maturity, however, grow will slow down (and sometimes drastically). There are certain corals which are estimated to grow as much as 4x faster when they were juvenile compare to mature colonies. Having said that, most of us measure growth visually so a colony which multiple grow points will appear to grow much faster than a small frag. It's not uncommon to see a very small frag double or triple in size in week (say from .5" to 1") but you never see a 12" colony double to 24" in a week.

This isn't really a surprise given how life evolved: The juvenile stage is normally the most vulnerable so it makes sense to get out of it as soon as possible.

[Prince916]

From my experience, the bigger the sps gets the faster the growth.

[MHG]

You should probably expect similar grow rate in the next 18 months assuming condition remains the same. Once coral reach maturity, however, grow will slow down (and sometimes drastically). There are certain corals which are estimated to grow as much as 4x faster when they were juvenile compare to mature colonies. Having said that, most of us measure growth visually so a colony which multiple grow points will appear to grow much faster than a small frag. It's not uncommon to see a very small frag double or triple in size in week (say from .5" to 1") but you never see a 12" colony double to 24" in a week.

This isn't really a surprise given how life evolved: The juvenile stage is normally the most vulnerable so it makes sense to get out of it as soon as possible.

I wish I would get that kind of speed....If I am lucky I will see one new polyp every week or two...

[smalltime]

1 becomes 2... 2 becomes 4... 4 becomes 8 and so on

[reefinder]

Every tank is soo difrent with respect to individual coral growth. It's very hard to predict growth rate for your corals. In my experience corals do grow in waves and cycles. One thing is for certain correct water chemistry and placement of corals makes all the difrence for growth to evolve.

[rogerwilco357]

have you been documenting the growth with pics would be nice to see some sounds amazing..

[orcus]

1 becomes 2... 2 becomes 4... 4 becomes 8 and so on

And eventually it consumes all matter in the Universe?

[eskymick]

Not to "wish my life away", I look forward to seeing the progress in 18 more months time. To me, there is nothing more amazing than a mature SPS reef. I'll do my best to maintain optimum conditions.

Thanks to all for your input.