Reach for the Sky...or not (M. Capricornis)

[JSB]

Ok, so I have a purple M. Capriconis from H@rry that is growing well, but... Mine is tending to bend downward like a dome as opposed to upward like a bowl, and I am wondering why.

Here is mine:

And here is the parent (Pic borrowed from H@rry):

What is the difference? Lighting? Does the upward reach indicate a reach for more light? Or less? Or neither? I am just guessing here, so any help would be appreciated. Not that it bothers me, but would like to understand why.

This was about a 1.5" frag back in March, and now is 4-5". It is ~22" directly below a Radion.

 

[rajkovich207]

Different flow patterns give them their shape

 

[JSB]

Thanks. I guess that makes sense.

 

[Dowtish]

Both flow and light will will cause it to grow different ways. Most tanks that i have seen with metal halides they seem to grow upwards. I had one that was just growing flat, and i broke off small edge pieces, and that caused it to start growing in swirly layers.

Typed from my phone, because I have nothing better to do.

 

[H@rry]

That's the Alabama Grape. I don't really think it's a cap. I don't know what it is but from the texture it does not look like a cap to me. I've had that one in three tanks under a variety of flow conditions and it always grew in a bowl/vase shape. I would suspect it is the change of lighting.

 

[JSB]

Wow! I always thought that was a cap. Oh well, I've been wrong so many times in this hobby, it is my normal state. Assuming it is the light, would you think it is receiving too much? I believe you keep it back in a corner, while I have it just about dead center. Or too little as my LED are not performing to the MH standard (which this fixture is supposed to be a 250W equiv)?

 

[H@rry]

Well, you could say that if it was growing in a vase shape it was "reaching" for light. Or if it was flattening out you could say it was "spreading" the "solar panels" to get more light. I don't know since I've never seen it do that. I'd say just move it to different light and see what it does.

 

[JSB]

Well, I don't mind how it is growing, I was just curious as to why. I will need to frag it soon, so we will see if that changes it shape. I have recently increased the light and reduced the flow and most everything in the tank seems to be responding well to that. We will see what this guy does.

 

[H@rry]

Not to really derail your thread but when you say you increased your light, how much? Do you have a way to tell the percentage of full power that you are running? From what percentage to what percentage? Do you run different intensities for different colors?

 

[JSB]

I added the new TIR lenses to my Radion which purports a ~23% increase in overall output, and 45% increase in peak output. I have adjusted some of the individual colors downward to give a more 20kk look, thereby reducing the maximum output at 100% overall, but in general, it should turn out to be 10-20% more light in the tank.

So I was running 100% overall when I added the TIR lenses. I backed it down to 75% and gradually began raising back to 100% over the last few weeks.