Once they know they are going to Maries house I think they start growing in the bag on the way. :razz:

I measured the growth of a birdsnest for an online course I took through reefs.org. I had 2" of growth on it in 12 weeks, which I thought was pretty darn good. That was just a single branch though, the rest of it was also filling in. Thats about the fastest growing coral I've ever had. Slowest was a pink stylophora. They're pretty dense corals so they're putting down a lot of calcium during growth.


+1 for Snappy (CoralMaster) great frags and great service. Theres a link to him in the vendor forum :biggrin:

can coral growth be helped along by pinching the tips or trimming?

I have heard about this as well

but marie your growth is insane for that short of a period of time

Maybe...my 3 angels keep my corals pinched back

My "Purple Plasma" which is my most brightly coloured sps has grown several new nubs about 1cm in length from a once smooth surface since Thanksgiving. It was smooth in that part of the coral when I came back from Powell River, Oct. 11th & there are now 39-40 new stubbies sticking out of that part & several of the longest stubbies are 1cm plus in length already. I have fragged several pieces off that in October, so there may be some truth to the snip & grow theory.

I use Kalk (dosed from a 2L juice jug) and some Mg & Ca, along with the occasional drops of Lugol's solution.

I'm extremely pleased with this development since usually its the less colourful stuff that grows well & the really colourful ones that seem to take forever.

I believe its a form of A. valida. Purple with green polyps.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...y/IMG_3170.jpg

This was taken 2 weeks ago by Franklin (fkshiu) after the stubbies started popping up.

Anthony

I'm not so sure there is such a thing as "normal" :-) I have frags that have grown into colonies pretty "quick" (1-4 months), and I have frags that have done nothing in 4 months!

Here's a tri-colour I ordered online back in June of this year. It was a 1 branch 1" frag.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1257426033

Today it is a nice little mini colony.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/...fcf6da2fcc.jpg

Here's a 1.5" christmas millepora frag I got back in August 2009. This picture was taken August 29th.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/...7cc96dbf8a.jpg

Today (just 8 weeks (ish) ), it is a nice colony.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2433/...5277d87de4.jpg

All of my bird's nest frags tend to be quick growers like this too but I also have a few frags I got back in late spring (june ish) that haven't grown a millimeter :-)

I find it's really species dependant. My old tank had Marie style growth, one piece put on about 4 inches on each branch in 2 months. Other pieces I had grew an inch in 6 months.
Besides lighting, make sure you have strong flow (although not direct flow on coral), and great water quality. This means proper alk, Ca and some people measure Mg as well. Mg has just been a recent concern in the last few years, so I couldn't tell you what my levels were when I had my "steroid tank". I do know I had to throw frags in the garden because I couldn't give enough away.

WOW.....I must be doing something wrong, I'm only getting a fraction of the growth that you guys are getting.

feel free to throw them in my garden anytime:biggrin: