Trimming SPS

[svreef]

This is something I’ve never done but I have a birds nest that’s about to touch a purple stylo. Removing the rocks is not an option. How do you do it? Do you just go in there with the rusty bone cutters and hope for the best?

 

[JVU]

This is something I’ve never done but I have a birds nest that’s about to touch a purple stylo. Removing the rocks is not an option. How do you do it? Do you just go in there with the rusty bone cutters and hope for the best?

Yep

 

[Newjack]

yup that’s about it. Trim back the areas where they are gonna meet.

 

[jccaclimber]

You don’t use bone cutters an birdsnest, are you new? You use your eyes. You look at it, and chunks just break off on their own. If that doesn’t work, try doing any form of tank maintenance near it, tell your friends how nice it looks, or admire the nice sharp tips. I guarantee several chunks will break off .

Birdsnest I actually do like bone cutters, with care of course so that it doesn’t break the whole colony off at the base.
Stylo I’ll use cutters if it’s a small branch. If it’s a taller finger and the colony has a good solid trunk I’ll put a long screwdriver to the base of the finger and give it a really good twist. With some practice you can take just the branch or finger you want, although this works better on acros.
When the stylo branches get really thick and I can’t get it out of the tank I have resorted to tanking a diamond tool and hand sawing through the branch, but historically getting it out of the tank has been easier for the ones I kept, and then it gets a hammer and chisel or bandsaw.