I wanted to post an observation I made with both a few frags as well as a large colony piece I have in my tank to see if anyone else seems to observe similar behavior.
Starting with the frags... I have a few frags that were cut and subsequently glued onto brand new frag disks for growing it out. Over time, the disk would get discolored with the growth of coralline algae, other algaes, bio film, etc. However, there has always been a 1~1.5cm radius of pure white disk around the acro itself. I didn't think much of it at first.
Now onto the colony... I notice every so often that my strawberry shortcake acropora colony would send out these stringy masses that look like very loose cotton. At first I thought it was irritated but there have been no pests and I haven't fed the tank at that point. The stringy mass seemed to be aimed towards the live rock that a branch was very close to (probably <0.5cm apart).
Adding the two together... I have a growing suspicion that my acros are "sanitizing" the area around them to varying extents in order to lay down more skeleton. This makes sense because the frags I observed this with were starting to "take off" by laying down a ton of base on the frag disks. Similarly the colony piece seems to be sending out these filaments to sanitize the live rock nearby in order to lay down more skeletal structure.
If this observation holds true, does that mean that there may be something growing on the surface area in my tank (live rock or frag disk) that is a direct competitor with acros? If so, would this also explain those nearly inexplainable situations where acropora seem to STN from the base even when light, flow and chemistry have been very good?
Anyone else have these experiences? Thoughts?
Starting with the frags... I have a few frags that were cut and subsequently glued onto brand new frag disks for growing it out. Over time, the disk would get discolored with the growth of coralline algae, other algaes, bio film, etc. However, there has always been a 1~1.5cm radius of pure white disk around the acro itself. I didn't think much of it at first.
Now onto the colony... I notice every so often that my strawberry shortcake acropora colony would send out these stringy masses that look like very loose cotton. At first I thought it was irritated but there have been no pests and I haven't fed the tank at that point. The stringy mass seemed to be aimed towards the live rock that a branch was very close to (probably <0.5cm apart).
Adding the two together... I have a growing suspicion that my acros are "sanitizing" the area around them to varying extents in order to lay down more skeleton. This makes sense because the frags I observed this with were starting to "take off" by laying down a ton of base on the frag disks. Similarly the colony piece seems to be sending out these filaments to sanitize the live rock nearby in order to lay down more skeletal structure.
If this observation holds true, does that mean that there may be something growing on the surface area in my tank (live rock or frag disk) that is a direct competitor with acros? If so, would this also explain those nearly inexplainable situations where acropora seem to STN from the base even when light, flow and chemistry have been very good?
Anyone else have these experiences? Thoughts?
