How to Stop an Acropora base Spread

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

Maybe an unusual request, but one of my Acro’s is becoming a problem and taking up way more than its allocated space. I don’t want to kill it, but I need to find a way to restrict its base from spreading and killing its neighbors. I have fragged lots of vertical branches away from the other colonies, but its growth rate is extreme. Its base is now growing onto and over its neighbors.

Is there an appropriate technique to restrict its spread in certain directions. It’s got ample room to grow towards the back, but not the front. I’m having to pull frags off the rocks and move them to frag racks to keep them from being killed.

Blue circle was the original frag. Black circles are encroachments with other corals dying.

iseethruyou2 · Dec 11, 2023

Franks f-Aiptasia. It’s will burn the edges no problems. It also gets hard so you don’t have to worry about it going anywhere else.

xabo · Dec 11, 2023

Hydrogen Peroxide.............I found out by accident.

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

iseethruyou2 said:
Franks f-Aiptasia. It’s will burn the edges no problems. It also gets hard so you don’t have to worry about it going anywhere else.

Yeah, I’m thinking that might be a good temporary solution, but once it heals, I bet to will just grow over it and keep going.

billyocean · Dec 11, 2023

AKL1950 said:
Maybe an unusual request, but one of my Acro’s is becoming a problem and taking up way more than its allocated space. I don’t want to kill it, but I need to find a way to restrict its base from spreading and killing its neighbors. I have fragged lots of vertical branches away from the other colonies, but its growth rate is extreme. Its base is now growing onto and over its neighbors.

Is there an appropriate technique to restrict its spread in certain directions. It’s got ample room to grow towards the back, but not the front. I’m having to pull frags off the rocks and move them to frag racks to keep them from being killed.

Blue circle was the original frag. Black circles are encroachments with other corals dying.

billyocean · Dec 11, 2023

Sodium hydroxide solution works. It will be a never ending battle though most likely. Unless it decides to stop.

jackson6745 · Dec 11, 2023

Raise your alk to 10dkh, run a bunch of gfo to strip your po4 to 0, and have undetectable nitrate. You'll get base recession on everything and cyano will cover up everything else

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

billyocean said:

Perfect! Brute force technique. What I might do is just frag the entire colony off the rock. Epoxy the base to kill it without bothering its neighbors and then repopulate the rock with other corals. Sort of clean the canvas and start over. I didn’t realize how fast plating Acro’s could take over an area.

Lavey29 · Dec 11, 2023

AKL1950 said:
Maybe an unusual request, but one of my Acro’s is becoming a problem and taking up way more than its allocated space. I don’t want to kill it, but I need to find a way to restrict its base from spreading and killing its neighbors. I have fragged lots of vertical branches away from the other colonies, but its growth rate is extreme. Its base is now growing onto and over its neighbors.

Is there an appropriate technique to restrict its spread in certain directions. It’s got ample room to grow towards the back, but not the front. I’m having to pull frags off the rocks and move them to frag racks to keep them from being killed.

Blue circle was the original frag. Black circles are encroachments with other corals dying.

Mine do the same. I just let the corals figure it out themselves.

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Mine do the same. I just let the corals figure it out themselves.

Yeah, but I’m afraid the free acro is beating out the $200 acros. Pretty soon my entire tank will be one giant red Acro.

Lavey29 · Dec 11, 2023

AKL1950 said:
Yeah, but I’m afraid the free acro is beating out the $200 acros. Pretty soon my entire tank will be one giant red Acro.

Mine actually come together in various encrusting spots. They form a white looking bleach line eventually between them and claim their space. I have not had an acro out encrust another acro but some have shaded others out into decline.

fishyjoes · Dec 11, 2023

A tip I saw somewhere (once you get it back to a size you like) is to surround it with little rubble rock and once it starts covering them you remove them and replace them.
So the coral keeps growing but you can easily pull out the pieces that are going too far

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

You know, having just rethought this, maybe that’s not a bad idea To let it have the entire rock. That’s the top rock and it has 11 Acro colonies on it. As the red one grows, just remove the others and let it have the rock. It is a beautiful color and would look awesome covering the entire space as a giant plating Acro colony. Just have to find spots for the others.

stephj03 · Dec 11, 2023

fishyjoes said:
A tip I saw somewhere (once you get it back to a size you like) is to surround it with little rubble rock and once it starts covering them you remove them and replace them.
So the coral keeps growing but you can easily pull out the pieces that are going too far

Can also do with epoxy. I've had success putting and epoxy margin around an aggressive grower, and then popping the epoxy off when the base grows on to it. Lightly press the epoxy down so it's easier to pop off when the time comes.hth

stephj03 · Dec 11, 2023

Some of the tables are as bad as encrusting montis imo. Anymore I try to mount on a tile or piece of rubble in case they can't be responsible.

exnisstech · Dec 11, 2023

I'm looking forward to the day too much growth is a concern

I get it tho.

AKL1950 · Dec 11, 2023

exnisstech said:
I'm looking forward to the day too much growth is a concern I get it tho.

It’s exciting but scary at the same time. You tend to become attached to all of them and hate to see any get bullied and die. I guess if own desire is to emulate nature, we have to accept that some will succumb to the battle for space and light.