Battlecorals Vivid's Rainbow Acropora - Contest Discussion Thread

[bubbaque]

Sounds awesome to me. I follow your build thread so I look forward to see how your growth compares to everyone else.

Andre, I seen you ask about par in the other thread. I wish I knew what my par was but don't have a meter but plan to get one in the future.

 

[PSXerholic]

Sounds awesome to me. I follow your build thread so I look forward to see how your growth compares to everyone else.

Andre, I seen you ask about par in the other thread. I wish I knew what my par was but don't have a meter but plan to get one in the future.

Yes, I was trying to find that dang thing :-(
Will keep looking for it in the next days.
When I received all my frags the other day I did not have it and had to place corals by thumb assumption ;-)

Soon I get the frag I will open every box until I find the meter ........

 

[bubbaque]

You can't just mention "thumb assumption" and not go into details, lol.

 

[leahfiish]

I would like to chime into the contest, will get my Frag next week from Adam ;-)
For me it's just fun and like to join the contest to compare myself against other folks from a growth perspective.

So that said, I don't want to win anything, just occasionally post progress, discuss with you guys what issues we battle, improvements with this coral etc.
Is that OK ???

-Andre

Sorry, I missed this post but I just want to say I would be more than happy to have you contribute. I just ask that you try to keep discussion to this thread, the other thread is for official entry pictures only to help keep everything organized.

 

[leahfiish]

I've tallied up everyone's entries so far. Here is a list of everyone in the contest and the date(s) that they've posted entries for, and any issues.
In case anyone missed it, everyone will have 6 full months to grow their coral in their tank. That's why the initial date is important, so if you got your frag (for example) on Jan 13th, then you post a picture each calendar month for 6 months (6 entries total), so Jan, Feb, March, April, May, June, and then 1 pic at the end on/before July 13th. The last pic between July 1st and 13th will be the picture that is compared to all other contestants last entries. The people who get their corals in February must continue into August. Also please make sure your official entry picture for each month has a ruler to compare.
Finally, remember that this thread is for discussion, anyone is welcome. The official entry thread is only for entry pictures to keep things more organized.
Please let me know if you see any mistakes or issues or if anything is unclear. I did this very late and I'm very tired so there very well may be mistakes.


We have 1 person who hasn't received their coral yet and 2 people that are technically out although I am PMing them just to confirm.

Ergodyne Jan 7
newbreefer316 Jan 30
jason.kennedy.98478 Jan 11
MTBake Jan 10
Shameless_Dood Jan 9
ksfulk Jan 25
TonapahNorth Jan 13 Feb 9
Waalker Jan 12
Da Ghost Jan 31
rlman41299 Jan 12 Feb 2
alten78 Jan 12
aarbutina Jan 8
Zaven D Feb 5 - late
stylaster Jan 13
jerrad Jan 14
wopadobop Jan 24 Feb 5 no ruler
domination2580 - hasn't received coral yet
ptpablo Jan 14
Chac317 Jan 9
Clownman727 Jan 13
Crimsonvice Jan 25
SaltySteve Jan 14
RUNVS Jan 11
aandfsoccr04 Jan 14 Feb 3 no ruler
kdino Jan 11
bubbaque Jan 23
Swayne_07 Jan 5
Mykesocalreef Jan 10
Tcup25 Jan 10
Josh Kraft Jan 11 Feb 11
SWSooner Jan 12
drawman Jan 13
snakejacques Jan 24
Tphill Feb 7
Nola Bear Jan 31
nashorn - frags died
Dmw913 Jan 30
Caravanshaka Jan 25
Karl M Jan 24
servo Jan 25
leahfiish Jan 13
drblakjak55 Jan 13

 

[leahfiish]

Nashorn has got new frags since his died due ti a shipping delay, so he's back in!

 

[domination2580]

Just got coral in. Here's a pic. If it doesn't work let me know app I can try to take another.

 

[PSXerholic]

You can't just mention "thumb assumption" and not go into details, lol.

Dang it. Forgot to reply ;-)

Well, I have on the new tank the same fixture and bulbs and kind of have good feel how much PAR I get under the light in certain spots from the previous tank PAR mapping.

So that kind of gave me at least an idea what the expected par levels may be when I placed my recent load of frags ;-)
The Vivid Rainbow I likely put into the 350-400 par range for this contest.
That should give me reasonable growth and decent colorization I expect.

Since the tank is considered fully cycled with 4/5 weeks of age only with my method I applied, the tank is still not close to be a matured tank which may a disadvantage a bit.

Was thinking to put it on the Frag rack, however corals don't like to be moved around, getting light from a variety of positions since you never really put it back as it was before, you move the rack around etc. I will make an epoxy hole on the rock where I can put the plug in for relocation if needed ;-)

 

[PSXerholic]

Frag will arrive tomorrow, means I have to do some Water testing as well to report the start conditions ;-)

 

[PSXerholic]

Let the games begin ;-)
Just posted this in the entry thread.
I did glue the piece on a plug and glued the plug on the rockwork, so the plan is not to move it actually.

Entry Picture 02/15/18
Size from Plug surface is 22mm
Estimated PAR 450
Medium flow
No3 1.5-2
Po4 0.06
ALK 8.5
CA 430
MG 1400
K 410
SR 8

-Andre​

 

[bubbaque]

Did you remove it from the original plug?

 

[PSXerholic]

Did you remove it from the original plug?

Adam just threw in a fresh cut with my order.
However, I always re-plug independent of vendor.
I use ceramic plugs only.

 

[bubbaque]

If your was fresh cut, yours must have some color that ours don't have!

 

[PSXerholic]

If your was fresh cut, yours must have some color that ours don't have!

Nah, I wouldn't say so.
It does not have a lot of color, but a healthy thick tissue so far.
Adam I believe took this from the frag colony in his farming tank as the others too.
He keeps the frags then close to the main colony from what I recall from the past.

Typically there is not much difference, I would even say a healed frag on a plug does better than a fresh cut, but very minor. I have done fresh cuts a lot from @Diesel and never had negative experience. Well, that being said, fresh cuts can get infected faster in case a flu is going around in one of the tanks the corals travels through, but in my case that may happened once in years a long time ago.

 

[PSXerholic]

Normally I would have glued this frag in horizontal position for faster colony growout, but for the purpose of this contest I did the same as the others.

 

[bubbaque]

Nah, I wouldn't say so.
It does not have a lot of color, but a healthy thick tissue so far.
Adam I believe took this from the frag colony in his farming tank as the others too.
He keeps the frags then close to the main colony from what I recall from the past.

Typically there is not much difference, I would even say a healed frag on a plug does better than a fresh cut, but very minor. I have done fresh cuts a lot from @Diesel and never had negative experience. Well, that being said, fresh cuts can get infected faster in case a flu is going around in one of the tanks the corals travels through, but in my case that may happened once in years a long time ago.

I was meaning usually the colony stays colorful and once you cut a frag and glue it, the frag starts losing color, like all our frags browned out. I figured yours being fresh cut, it didn't have time to lose color.

 

[PSXerholic]

I was meaning usually the colony stays colorful and once you cut a frag and glue it, the frag starts losing color, like all our frags browned out. I figured yours being fresh cut, it didn't have time to lose color.

Well, if that is the case, my frag will have to go through the "browning" phase as well.
Honestly I do not believe in that theory a lot ;-)

Browning is simply too much nutrients/insufficient light/high iron then for the particular species, maybe that's why this Acro has a reputation of more difficult to keep!?

Will see how it looks in a few days then.

 

[bubbaque]

Well, if that is the case, my frag will have to go through the "browning" phase as well.
Honestly I do not believe in that theory a lot ;-)

Browning is simply too much nutrients/insufficient light/high iron then for the particular species, maybe that's why this Acro has a reputation of more difficult to keep!?

Will see how it looks in a few days then.

I generally agree with you on sps that have been in the tank a while. If you look back over the pics that were posted on the day we received the frag, they are ALL brown and they haven't been in our systems long enough to effect color of the coral yet since it's been less than a day. We know Adams corals are not brown in his tanks but I believe it's from the frag being cut. I'm curious to see how your turns out.

 

[Diesel]

Nah, I wouldn't say so.
It does not have a lot of color, but a healthy thick tissue so far.
Adam I believe took this from the frag colony in his farming tank as the others too.
He keeps the frags then close to the main colony from what I recall from the past.

Typically there is not much difference, I would even say a healed frag on a plug does better than a fresh cut, but very minor. I have done fresh cuts a lot from @Diesel and never had negative experience. Well, that being said, fresh cuts can get infected faster in case a flu is going around in one of the tanks the corals travels through, but in my case that may happened once in years a long time ago.

Adam @Battlecorals and I had long discussions on the trick to master the growth and color on SPS.
We both apply many different applications to do so as results we have some amazing colors.
Although Adam has as I don't have SPS anymore.
We both used a brew as Adam has the Battlebrew and myself the Dieselbrew with great success.
We shared the same mind on nutrient levels and light applications.
Balance was the word of conversation every time we shared ideas and findings.
We're born to do that what can't be done.
Do what you can't.

 

[bubbaque]

Adam @Battlecorals and I had long discussions on the trick to master the growth and color on SPS.
We both apply many different applications to do so as results we have some amazing colors.
Although Adam has as I don't have SPS anymore.
We both used a brew as Adam has the Battlebrew and myself the Dieselbrew with great success.
We shared the same mind on nutrient levels and light applications.
Balance was the word of conversation every time we shared ideas and findings.
We're born to do that what can't be done.
Do what you can't.

Battlebrew and dieselbrew? Please continue...tell us what this is.