Largest Sun Coral Colony (?)

[MarineSniper]

I was rotating my largest sun coral colony yesterday, as it's hard to evenly feed all the heads without doing so once a month and decided to count how many heads it now has. I bought it from a local club member in October, with about 60 heads. It's now up to 147 and was curious to hear of others' experiences. I expect the growth to slow, since many of the new ones are growing in the midst of the colony, filling in; where there's room and I assume the outer areas will expand slower due to skeletal growth

Wondering what the largest ones everyone has seen might be and if there are any tips for helping its further growth. I keep my Ca at 460, Kh 9.5 and Mg 1350, assuming it's enough and welcome any advice. I imagine their skeletal growth requires a lot and don't want to overlook anything

Thanks, in advance!

[Aquabacs]

Originally Posted by MarineSniper

I was rotating my largest sun coral colony yesterday, as it's hard to evenly feed all the heads without doing so once a month and decided to count how many heads it now has. I bought it from a local club member in October, with about 60 heads. It's now up to 147 and was curious to hear of others' experiences. I expect the growth to slow, since many of the new ones are growing in the midst of the colony, filling in; where there's room and I assume the outer areas will expand slower due to skeletal growth

Wondering what the largest ones everyone has seen might be and if there are any tips for helping its further growth. I keep my Ca at 460, Kh 9.5 and Mg 1350, assuming it's enough and welcome any advice. I imagine their skeletal growth requires a lot and don't want to overlook anything

Thanks, in advance!

For largest single colony seen sold in the aquarium trade to the public...skeleton the size of volleyball. Actually IIRC there is a picture of it in this forum.

Now onto growth. For a colony to develope double the amount of polyps is not uncommon or growing over polyp skeleton that previously died away either. This is refering to the fleshy polyps you see, including babies. Now doubling the amount of fully developed skeletal cups (3/8" plus size cups) is less common.

As long as you continue to see development to the colony, personally I would not worry about adjusting anything. When it comes a time where growth has become stagnant, colony is starting to show recession or polyps are not expanding well on a regular basis then there needs to review the husbandry practices. Keep it simple.




Mike

[MarineSniper]

Thank you. I couldn't think of anything else but I haven't met anyone with very large colonies, as yet and I was curious, primarily about ca. I know it has to be using quite a lot, as large as their skeletons are. I was a bit concerned about so much growth, so fast, as well. I could see that depleting certain elements thus threatening itself and everything else in the tank