Christian's Overstocked AP 24

[fab1971]

Great looking tank and an amazing responsability + gift to give a 4 yr old. By the way, will you adopt me :bigsmile:. I wish I had a tank that looked like that. Kudos to you and your little man!

 

[Appaloosa1224]

Christian,
Your tank is way cool, but I think your dad might be cooler! Can't wait to see your 45g all filled up!

 

[reefer916]

Thanks guys, Christian is an awesome kid and I try my best as a Dad:)

My hands are cracked and a few fingers are swollen from bristle worms, but we moved over all of the livestock from Christian's 24 gallon and some of the corals from my 95 gallon over the weekend. Christian helped acclimate the corals with his little cup and mix the Coral Rx in the bucket before we made the transfer. He also helped decide placement of where he wanted his corals. Granted I had to make a few executive decisions because he wanted to put some chalices next to the acros..lol

We decided to trade the 24 gallon for some sweet ATL and a few ORA colonies. It was tough for Christian to let go of his 24 gallon, but after we had his 45 gallon all setup he was extremely happy. We also picked out 3 nice anthias for his tank on Sunday morning from one of our LFS's. The problem now is that we don't have a place to put the 7 mini colonies we got in the trade:) Right now they're sitting on the frag rack waiting for us to figure out which ones to replace them with. Some of the acros did lose a little color from the transfer, but over the last few days are beginning to color back up. I took some pics yesterday and will post them later tonight. I'll share your comments with Christian tonight when we post the pics. He's very excited and the tank is literally filled from top to bottom. Thanks again for all of the encouragement for my little reefer:) Pics coming soon!!

Chris

 

[skinz78]

Awesome, can't wait to see the pic's!

 

[reefer916]

WOW that is awesome what you are doing with your son. I don't have kids yet, and won't have them for a while (Hopefully, I'm 17, haha), but when I do I am definitely going to do this with my kids. The tanks look great, and the corals are awesome as well. One suggestion with the 45 tech is that I'd change up the aquascaping. It seems to be just a wall of rocks. I think if you went with a nice pillar, or two or three small bommies, or some type of minimalistic aquascape would open up the tank. It would also give you more viewing areas and places to put corals IMHO.

Thanks HomeSlizzice,

Yeah, we tried to reaquascape and do the two bommies with a pillar, but we couldn't figure out how we'd fit all of the corals. We just built up starting from the sandbed all the way to the back top sides of the overflow. We even had to stick a Tyree Robokaki colony in the top back corner because we ran out of room..lol Appreciate the suggestions and I hope everyone likes our new aquascape after we post pics tonight. There's going to be some rearranging, but I've created many frags over the weekend with my knuckles.. Christian was getting a little frustrated with me and gave me a hard time for breaking some branches off of the acros.. He gets that from his mother:)

 

[reefer916]

Alright guys, here are a few pics of Christian's 45 gallon with all of his corals moved over. Unfortunately, some of the sps lost a lot of their color after the move, but these pics were taken on Saturday and the colors already coming back:) Christian went to bed before I could read him the posts, but I'll be sure to share them with him tomorrow. Let us know what you think and maybe some input on where we should put the mini colonies of Purple Plasma, Chips, ATL Strawberry Fields, 30k Leagues Lokani, ATL Strawberry Shortcake, Oregon Tort, and ATL Shades of Fall. We'll probably sell a few of the more common pieces like the birdsnest to put the nicer pieces in their place. Hope you enjoy Christian new little Oceanic wonderland:)

Thanks
Chris

 

[reefer916]

Alright guys, here are a few pics of Christian's 45 gallon with all of his corals moved over. Unfortunately, some of the sps lost a lot of their color after the move, but these pics were taken on Saturday and the colors already coming back:) Christian went to bed before I could read him the posts, but I'll be sure to share them with him tomorrow. Let us know what you think and maybe some input on where we should put the mini colonies of Purple Plasma, Chips, ATL Strawberry Fields, 30k Leagues Lokani, ATL Strawberry Shortcake, Oregon Tort, and ATL Shades of Fall. We'll probably sell a few of the more common pieces like the birdsnest to put the nicer pieces in their place. Hope you enjoy Christian new little Oceanic wonderland:)

Thanks
Chris

 

[reefer916]

Oops, double posted one of the same pics. We'll update posts as the corals colors comeback and as the tank matures. Here's the bottom right with some of the Tyree Bubblegum Monster, Tyree Area 51, Bazooka Joe's, Tyree Red Watermelon, Vivid Pink Enchino, Tyree Emerald Mummy Eye, Miami Hurricane, and a few others.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Haha it looks great man, Christian is a lucky kid. I think you have enough corals for a 90-120 gallon tank, haha and you just upgraded. It looks good though, so much color it's crazy.

 

[reefer916]

Haha it looks great man, Christian is a lucky kid. I think you have enough corals for a 90-120 gallon tank, haha and you just upgraded. It looks good though, so much color it's crazy.

Thanks bro,

Yeah, we just upgraded his tank and we could probably stock a 100 gallon with his corals..lol Can't wait till we put some of the nice acros we got on Sunday on some of the rocks to change up the color scheme. It sucks because we're just waiting now to get the colors back and can't wait until it fills in. Don't think there will be much more coral shopping in the near future:) Christian's the reefer and I'm just the guy who he hires to help take care of it..lol

 

[aaronlovesshel]

wow, great tanks and very cool teaching tools, I think I have underestimated the abilities of my young kiddos. I wanted to find out what the names of the two big chalices are in this pic (bazooka joe?)

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv202/newbie916/IMG_1123.jpg

thx in advance

 

[butts182]

wow...so your 4 yr old loves the positive feedback?!?!?! Love that statement, and the tank is SICK!

 

[subdrive]

Sick tank...just sick!!!!

 

[reefer916]

Thanks guys,

Yeah, Christian loves it when I read him the posts. He's such a good little reefer and reminds me sometimes about our dosing and feeding regiment when I get home from work:) The kid has his Mom's personality..haha I'll have to explain to him what "Sick" means because he may take it literally and ask what kind of medication or supplements we need..lol Kid's are funny that way and take things literally:) Sick=Awesome=Cool=Nice=:) Appreciate it guys because I think all of us enjoy positive feedback and for kids it's very encouraging.

 

[reefer916]

wow, great tanks and very cool teaching tools, I think I have underestimated the abilities of my young kiddos. I wanted to find out what the names of the two big chalices are in this pic (bazooka joe?)

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv202/newbie916/IMG_1123.jpg

thx in advance

Hi aaron,

The one on the left is a Your Reef Norcal Watermelon and the bright pink one is actually a Tyree Bubblegum Monster. It changes colors depending on the lighting conditions. It was almost double that size, but we had to frag it to fit it in the new tank:)

 

[aaronlovesshel]

Thx so much

Didn't know that about the bubble gum monster, congrats on some amazing success w/ coral ANNNDDD, your kids, success to you and yours

 

[reefer916]

Thx so much

Didn't know that about the bubble gum monster, congrats on some amazing success w/ coral ANNNDDD, your kids, success to you and yours

Yeah, the BGM definitely changed colors on me. When it's shaded it looks normal, but I left it open to the MH's and it's lightened up on me. Still eating and the frags I made looked just like the BGM's that everyone else has when I put them in the shade. The downside is that I don't have anymore room to move it. Just have to wait until the Jedi Mind Trick colony and the acros grow out to provide the shade..lol Thanks and we can't wait till the corals growout:)

 

[BigFeesh]

HOw much did "christian" pay for his bubblegum monster? Haha if you don't want to relieve price pm me please. And if you frag it please let me know! Thanks I wish my dad would help me like that , 17 yr olds don't have alot of funds if they want to have some what of a social life haha!

Awesome thank christian! From jack
P.s I think youre making some adults jealous!

 

[reefer916]

HOw much did "christian" pay for his bubblegum monster? Haha if you don't want to relieve price pm me please. And if you frag it please let me know! Thanks I wish my dad would help me like that , 17 yr olds don't have alot of funds if they want to have some what of a social life haha!

Awesome thank christian! From jack
P.s I think youre making some adults jealous!

Hi Jack,

I read your post to Christian this morning before I left to work and he just had a big smile. Funny little guy..lol

Well the BGM colony is a long story and one of those lessons for Christian of integrity and being honest. Also, making good financial decisions... We just got into chalices about 8 months ago after getting board with zoas, so we delved into sps and chalices after seeing a friends tank.

I was looking around on Craigslist one day and saw a local reefers post of getting out. He posted that he had a 40+eye Tyree BGM, 40+eye YR Norcal, 40+ eye Tyree Emerald Mummy Eye, 15 eye Tyree Bazooka Joe, and a bunch of other nice corals for sale with no price listed. He was trying to sell his entire 120 Tech system for $2500.

I shot him an e-mail asking him what he'd want for the chalice collection and he mentioned $700 minus the Bazooka Joe because another reefer had already wanted it. He had been in the hobby for 5 years, but didn't have time anymore due to just having a new baby. So Christian and I swung by his house over the following weekend. Needless to say the pics he posted were 2 years old and his BGM colony was more like 85 eyes and the others were more like 60-80 eye colonies.

I told him he's asking way too little for those colonies and he could definitely frag them up and make 5x what he asked me to pay for them. He mentioned that the tank was coming down the following week and he had 6 guys no show and we were the first to follow our word. The guy didn't even pickup the Bazooka Joe colony for $200!!!

I felt bad and we could tell that he was very attached to his corals and grew all of them out from small frags over the years. By the time we left we gave him more than what he asked a $1000 for the BGM colony, YR Norcal, EME, Jedi Mind Trick colony, and he pulled every chalice out of his tank and gave us some of his prized sps's that survived after a recent move. The freebie's included another 12 eye BGM, 14 & 9 eye EME mini colonies, and a bunch of other chalices he couldn't remember the names on. He even through in the Bazooka Joe colony:) Lineage all went back to Your Reef, which is one of our LFS's who actually originated the Tyree Bazooka Joe.

It's hard to say exactly what we paid for the BGM colony, but my estimate is that we paid less than $200 for it. I told Aaron(Reefer who sold us the collection) that when he decides to get back in the hobby to call us and we will have frags for him to grow out his collection again.

We ended up selling the mini colonies and fragging about 37 eyes from the main BGM colony and sold them for for $10-$20 per eye, which paid for the collection plus the Inland saw we had to purchase to frag the corals. Christian also made a lot of happy reefers out there by passing on the good fortune. All in all we didn't really make any money out of it, but we ended up getting a large collection that technically didn't actually cost us anything except for time. It's one of those 1 in a million stories:)

I don't mind sharing the story because I thought it was a good lesson. On the other hand coming home telling the wife we spent $1000, instead of the budgeted $700 because I wanted to be honest and sleep at night was a little different. However, she trusts my judgement and the values we're trying to teach our boys, so she stopped complaining after we got our money back..haha

Sorry about the long answer..

Chris

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Thanks for spending some time with your kid. If it something that he is legitimately interested in, that is a great passion that the two of you will be able to share for a very long time. He is a lucky kid in that case, and you a lucky father.

I have to agree with what others are saying, some crazy chalices, even if they arent real sizeable yet. I dont think there is a single one of us that wouldnt take that collection off your hands if you asked us to.