Superman vs Sunset (A Growth Thread)

[aquawolf]

I should have started this as a growth thread last year, when I furst put the rock together, but did not really think about it. Luckily I do have pictures of the encrusting monti collection rock I tried to create, so I can make up for it now.

In this case you will see, that for me in my system, the superman is the stronger of the two.

I glued the frags to this rock in November of 2008, but neglected to take a picture of the entire rock until 12-07-2008:



As you can see I tried to place a (from left to right) Christmas, Sunset, Superman, Supernatural, Rainbow, and another Superman all on the same rock. The hope was to have each of these corals encrust the rock and live in harmony together. One can dream, can't they?

[aquawolf]

I took this picture on 02-07-2009:



You can see some decent growth so far.

This picture was taken on 03-08-2009, so about 1 month later (that was actually dumb luck on my part):



So you can see some more growth during that month.

Then this picture was taken about a month later on 04-10-09:



As you can see, the center Superman has grown tremendously well and was beginning to encroach on the Sunset. I had no idea as to what was going to happen, and was sort of hoping for some type of strange new hybrid.

[aquawolf]

I ended up having to pull the rock out and remove the Sunset in order to save it.

This is what the rock looked like on 05-01-2009:



Here is a close up of the battle of the Superman vs the Sunset:



The next interesting thing to see what is going to happen in this experiment is the large Superman and the small Superman meeting:



I will get some pictures of what the rock looks like today, along with the rescued Sunset monti.

[jackers]

Thanks for the pictures. I am very new to the reef world and threads like these help me out a ton.

[aquawolf]

Glad to be of assistance.

[Xler8n]

Frag me some of that tyree superman aquawolf!!

[aquawolf]

I have strategically placed a frag plug and a couple of tiles to allow it to grow over. At the rate it is growing it should not take too long. Once it encrusts those I plan on breaking them off and putting a fresh piece back down for it to grow over. Kind of like a little Supserman farm.

I will try to post pictures of what the rock looks like right now, later on tonight.

[crvz]

great shots, pretty cool to follow along. I'm surprised at the growth rate of that superman.

[Ratpack]

Nice growth on that superman, mine is just now starting to grow. If you get any frags of that sunset, I would like to place an order.

[quick_murdoc]

Wow that is awesome what type of lighting do you have?

[aquawolf]

Thanks Chris, it is growing much faster than I ever expected. That is why I put them all on the same rock, I thought I had plenty of time for each of them to grow.

Hey Ratpack! Good to see you out here. I still owe you some frags, so that will not be a problem at all.

Murdoc, these are actually located at the bottom of my 75 gallon with dual 150 watt metal halides 10K and dual 96 watt power compact actinics.

[aquawolf]

Here are the latest pictures of the rock and my plan for some easy bake frags.




Here is a close up of the battle zone after my intervention.



I also picked up a new encrusting monti, but I am not sure what type it is yet:



I am thinking about cutting a few of these and placing the frags in the 54 gallon tank since I now have the 250 watt halide over it to see what happens with their growth as well.

[YLChik]

very nice pieces! ans as always I love the pictures

[aquawolf]

Thanks Amy.

I have been really smitten by the encrusting montipora bug now. There are a few more that I am looking to add to my collection as well.

[motorslave]

Wow, the growth on that thing is crazy! I wish I could get half that out of any of my coral!