Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I've seen alot of the member's Monti Cap and most of you have really interesting growth patterns. Specifically Billy and Karen. Mine just grows straight/flat out.

Are there any "grooming" secrets to get the spiral shapes? The one in the picture below is about 6-7" across.

I think alot of it has to do with water flow. At least, with mine, I've noticed that more direct water flow across the top they will plate and any whorling will also be flat, and less flow they tend to whirl upwards.

I wish I had known that when I placed that huge purple rimmed one I have.
I always wanted them to grow flat like yours. I'm hoping I can get that deep purple one to plate flat.

I would love to say that cap was mine, Hey Drew you can put it in our tank if you think it is taking up to much room in yours. We too hope ours grows like that Jeff. I put several colors all around what I call my Monti Rock, and hope to see them inner twine as they meet each other.

mine came like that.. i got them from scott and they all were cupping up like that, well the red ones anyway. The Purple and Purple rim Green one are slowly encrusting at this point. I hope mine do both in the long run.

I have a 20x turnover rate in my 65G reef... that might explain why mine is not growing vertically. My Monti Cap is also very thick; which I have read that coral branch thickness is significantly affected by currents.

I only have about 20x in my tank and they always whirl around. A lot of how they grow depends on how you mount them. I mounted an orange cap like you did and it just grew like a shelf. I broke it off that rock and mounted the shelf almost vertically and it started to tier and whirl then. The red cap that I used to have started off as a few small frags mounted to the top of a rock and it grew like a bowl until it got to fairly large and then started to spiral out.

Here is a picture of mine. You can see that the new growth is different from the original growth and all the new growth is spiraling. The bad thing is that this cap used to be very large before Ivan. Half of it receeded after Ivan but the rest of it recovered well.

I almost have to break it... it is about to grow into the glass. It is one of my best growins corals. I think I'll give it a try.

All that I have except one grows very fast. I have one that is pink or peach, depending on who is describing it that grows slow. I have had it for over two years and one tier is only maybe 5 inches in diameter and the other is slightly smaller.

Here's some pics of Drew's caps. They're not totally focused because they are towards the back of the tank and the camera wanted to focus more on the glass.

http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040028.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040029.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040030.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040031.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040032.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040035.jpg
http://students.uwf.edu/jih1/Drew/P4040061.jpg

Mine also grow flat, the more flow they will curl up, here's a shot of mine.

If I aimed a powerhead directly at my Monti cap, would it cause a weird growth pattern? Or would it just get thicker?

My Monti caps cup.