90 Day Maricultured Sps Challenge

[nbooks]

yeah ive gotta get a par meter in. just caught another thread where someone found like a 20% par reduction on my light using the same diffuser i am...might explain why some corals seem dormant...

in other news, my two pieces that havent really shown polyps yet are showing mesenteral filaments when i feed reef chili, so ill take that as a good sign for now.

its been a struggle, but this has been my most careful, stuck to the plan acclimation to date lol. just wishing my skimmer hadnt died last month.

 

[Zhubbell]

Well that’s the idea.
Alright, so I’m really far behind where I was hoping to be at this point, but to people participating, I will get some info up as to my plan, as well as initial levels, readings etc for my frags I’m going to track, but work has been swamped for me and my wife, so it’s been a challenge.
Just thought I’d post this picture - Mag Plug Frag I made of what I’ve been calling the Rainbow Tenuis.
Still not blowing my mind color wise, the the hues of different colors that are starting to form suggest it’s going to be a really cool one. Can’t wait to see this one at the end of it!

 

[fishface NJ]

Nice frags! Just seeing this . Wish I had seen the thread last month

 

[Zhubbell]

Nice frags! Just seeing this . Wish I had seen the thread last month

I can ship out to you tomorrow if you want in! I am anxious to get more people involved, so let me know how I can help!

 

[Joe462]

Well that’s the idea.
Alright, so I’m really far behind where I was hoping to be at this point, but to people participating, I will get some info up as to my plan, as well as initial levels, readings etc for my frags I’m going to track, but work has been swamped for me and my wife, so it’s been a challenge.
Just thought I’d post this picture - Mag Plug Frag I made of what I’ve been calling the Rainbow Tenuis.
Still not blowing my mind color wise, the the hues of different colors that are starting to form suggest it’s going to be a really cool one. Can’t wait to see this one at the end of it!

did you keep track of what you sent us? just wondering if we can compare progress with frags from the same colony. and wondering if i got a frag of that one, looks cool and its hard to tell for sure.

 

[Zhubbell]

did you keep track of what you sent us? just wondering if we can compare progress with frags from the same colony. and wondering if i got a frag of that one, looks cool and its hard to tell for sure.

Joe - you would be the one person that I didn't take notes too much on what I sent you actually....sorry! I packed it based on what frags looked cool on shipping day.
But I definitely believe I will be able to id with you to original mothers, and my frags.

 

[Zhubbell]

did you keep track of what you sent us? just wondering if we can compare progress with frags from the same colony. and wondering if i got a frag of that one, looks cool and its hard to tell for sure.

And yes - you 100% got one of these!

 

[Joe462]

And yes - you 100% got one of these!

awesome, i need to work on the polyp extension then. yours is looking good

 

[Zhubbell]

awesome, i need to work on the polyp extension then. yours is looking good

to be fair, mine hasn't shipped in what? like, 3-4 weeks now? and yours just shipped.

 

[Bigdaddy05]

This sounds interesting

 

[Zhubbell]

This sounds interesting

Happy to get you a pack out, I’m shipping tomorrow.
Shoot me a message if you’re interested!

 

[LaxFrags]

So what will be in apack?

 

[Zhubbell]

So what will be in apack?

Depends, everyone’s is custom!
Frags if the Maricultured sps and then everyone is going to compare the growth rates and color development in each of our tanks.
Shoot me your zip code and I can give you some options!

 

[Zhubbell]

I’m leaving two spots blank for now, as I’ll be getting in two brand new mariculture imports tomorrow. I’m mostly getting in LPS, and it’s just a small order but I couldn’t resist adding in 2 brand new ones for comparison, since I’m not sure these really constitute fresh imports anymore.
Getting 1 Acropora Millepora, and 1 Acropora Microclados.
I’ll have if there volume displacement measurements, and a full battery of tank parameters up late tonight….
I hope . Very busy day! Only exception will be calcium - didnt realize I was out of reagants, and it’ll be a couple days to get them shipped…. Sorry!

 

[Bigdaddy05]

14048

 

[keifferhubbell]

Zach's brother here-
I am representing the nano reefers in this color up challenge! I have a marine x 35.
This morning my dkh was 8.1, my calcium was 408, and my magnesium was 1400.
my ph sits around 8.3-8.1

I run a temp of 78.7 pretty consistently. I have one kessil a360 n-e over the tank intensity and color at 100% for 12 hours a day.
I run 1/2 cup of carbon- changed every two weeks.
weekly 5-10% water changes
I test and dose alk-calcium-mag mostly daily and nitrates/phosphates once a week. Sometimes I test trace elements but usually come up with untraceable levels on red sea over the counter test kits.
I use a icecap 2k gyre for flow in display and a big sicce return pump with Random flow nozzle to keep things moving.
I run filter socks in back wall changed once a week floss every other day.
I have macro algea in the sump along with miracle mud and harvest a fistful weekly(during water changes).
I also run the smallest tunze nano skimmer although I don't really ever get much in the skimmate cup it produces a ton of tiny bubbles so that's why I keep running it.
midas blenny
2 ocelaris
Green coral goby
3 banghii cardinals
And a 6 line wrasse
Peppermint shrimp
Cleaner shrimp
Porcelain crab
One acro crab(on the new tenuis mini colony)
And lots of hermits and snails
Rock urchin
conch snail
Sand sifting starfish
I feed phyto oyster ovum and Arctic pods daily one cube and a pinch of dry food every day and sometime and extra cube or algae wafer. I don't do much of any sort of dry coral foods like reef roids.
I am dosing using brightwells aquatic products
I am using trop Marin salt
I am carbon dosing
Here are the corals I got for the challenge.

 

[keifferhubbell]

Zach's brother here-
I am representing the nano reefers in this color up challenge! I have a marine x 35.
This morning my dkh was 8.1, my calcium was 408, and my magnesium was 1400.
my ph sits around 8.3-8.1

I run a temp of 78.7 pretty consistently. I have one kessil a360 n-e over the tank intensity and color at 100% for 12 hours a day.
I run 1/2 cup of carbon- changed every two weeks.
weekly 5-10% water changes
I test and dose alk-calcium-mag mostly daily and nitrates/phosphates once a week. Sometimes I test trace elements but usually come up with untraceable levels on red sea over the counter test kits.
I use a icecap 2k gyre for flow in display and a big sicce return pump with Random flow nozzle to keep things moving.
I run filter socks in back wall changed once a week floss every other day.
I have macro algea in the sump along with miracle mud and harvest a fistful weekly(during water changes).
I also run the smallest tunze nano skimmer although I don't really ever get much in the skimmate cup it produces a ton of tiny bubbles so that's why I keep running it.
midas blenny
2 ocelaris
Green coral goby
3 banghii cardinals
And a 6 line wrasse
Peppermint shrimp
Cleaner shrimp
Porcelain crab
One acro crab(on the new tenuis mini colony)
And lots of hermits and snails
Rock urchin
conch snail
Sand sifting starfish
I feed phyto oyster ovum and Arctic pods daily one cube and a pinch of dry food every day and sometime and extra cube or algae wafer. I don't do much of any sort of dry coral foods like reef roids.
I am dosing using brightwells aquatic products
I am using trop Marin salt
I am carbon dosing
Here are the corals I got for the challenge.

Here are a couple of my other tank inhabitants who were already established. The tank has been running for about 7 months.

 

[Zhubbell]

Alright, here we go…

Here are my tank parameters
Calcium hasn’t been tested, but reagants will be here soon, I am pretty comfortable with my dosing/consumption rate, so I think I’m handling it pretty well in this interim.
My mag did get to high, I’m currently running 16g water changes every 2 days or so to try and help bring this down, but at probably 300g of water volume in the system, I’m just gradually bringing it down, which is the goal anyway.
I should for dosing A to bring calcium up to a target of 450, and try not to dip below ~410 in the process, not always successful, but more often the. Not.
For B I target 8.5 and try and not dip past 8.1
Mag I target 1400
I need to update my trace tests big time. That’s on my list for this week.
I am getting in 2 Maricultured Kupang acros fresh off of a super long transship tonight, so I’ll update you on those.
I tried to establish measurements in my vessels with water displacement, but here’s the problem, the frags are tall enough that I need a 60mL graduated cylinder, but at that size the different in the frags is not very destinguishable… like, they just all looked like they displaced about 5mL….
Any bright ideas on how I can get data outside of just pictures?

 

[Zhubbell]

Alright on topic:
Millepora came in totally runs in brown water, the other Acropora was fairly bleached, I will get pictures once I have that in a decent spot for a picture.
Off topic: lps in the shipment was pretty awesome, there is a teal gonipora (more blue than green even), with bright gold/yellow centers that looks like it’ll be awesome couple nice chalices and a ton of awesome euphyllia. I dipped 50% of them in KoralMD, seeing what difference in rebound/recovery & survival I notice.
Kind of on topic, got an okay pic of my frag tank inhabitant, the blue stripe pipefish. I’ve had him since January, and he has a spotted mandarin and a bunch of inverts as tank mates. That’s the tank I’ll be keeping my grows out in for this experiment.

 

[LaxFrags]

Where do you get these imports from? Do you know what you are getting or is it random?