Cyphastrea skull experiment

[Kingsley_Reef]

So I’m sure we’ve all seen the cyphastrea covered status and skulls right? Ex.

Well I got a ceramic skull yesterday From salty ceramics and a cyphastrea from Philly splash yesterday and I wanna try it

has anyone had any luck? Tips ? Advice?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Following

 

[Purplelobst92]

just keep that alk and cal stable, cyphastrea grows like a weed when it is happy, it will even grow on areas of a structure that receive very little to no light.

 

[Greenreef75]

Good luck following. I have been wanting to do something like this also.

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

just keep that alk and cal stable, cyphastrea grows like a weed when it is happy, it will even grow on areas of a structure that receive very little to no light.

Okay great this is the kinda advice I’m looking for !!!
so I have and always had high calcium would that be a issue?
My dkh is usually always 7 should I raise it?
I’ve recently had pretty good growth in a jackolantern lepto kinda the reason I got the cyphastrea

 

[Purplelobst92]

Okay great this is the kinda advice I’m looking for !!!
so I have and always had high calcium would that be a issue?
My dkh is usually always 7 should I raise it?
I’ve recently had pretty good growth in a jackolantern lepto kinda the reason I got the cyphastrea

high calcium if fine, the alk at 7 is a little low but fine, i like to keep mine at 11 just so if it drops a bit it wont go into the danger zone, but alk swings are most detrimental so just keep it stable wherever you keep it at. once the corals start to take off you will see the calcium begin to drop along with the alkalinity so monitor it and dose accordingly and make sure you dont dose alk and cal at the same time as it will precipitate, you may also want to invest in a cheap auto doser like the chinese jebao DP-4 which is what i use.

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

high calcium if fine, the alk at 7 is a little low but fine, i like to keep mine at 11 just so if it drops a bit it wont go into the danger zone, but alk swings are most detrimental so just keep it stable wherever you keep it at. once the corals start to take off you will see the calcium begin to drop along with the alkalinity so monitor it and dose accordingly and make sure you dont dose alk and cal at the same time as it will precipitate, you may also want to invest in a cheap auto doser like the chinese jebao DP-4 which is what i use.

Great feeling confident now thanks
I test weekly using Red Sea kits
have seachem reef fusion A and B would that be effective to dose when needed

 

[Purplelobst92]

Great feeling confident now thanks
I test weekly using Red Sea kits
have seachem reef fusion A and B would that be effective to dose when needed

yeah thats the 2 part that i use, just make sure you figure out the daily alk consumption of the tank which can be difficult at first, i dosed by hand until i knew how much my consumption was then i calibrated my auto doser and set it up, also bear in mind that consumption will increase with time as the colonies get larger. another trick i learned is when doing water changes test the salt mix to see if it is low in alk, if so dose the salt water with the alk solution and bring it to the same as the tank this will prevent swings when you do a water change, these small swings in alk may not seem like much but corals are very similar to plants in the aspect that if they get slightly stressed they will cut consumption until they are happy again.

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

We've done this with several different corals such as encrusting montipora, cyphastrea, and lepto's. I prefer to glue the frag to the rear of the skull and let it go from there, provides for a smoother coverage of the face. Besides that it's just maintain your parameters and wait. Hope that helps

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

We've done this with several different corals such as encrusting montipora, cyphastrea, and lepto's. I prefer to glue the frag to the rear of the skull and let it go from there, provides for a smoother coverage of the face. Besides that it's just maintain your parameters and wait. Hope that helps

Right on! Thanks for the response

 

[Retro Reefer]

I’m trying to do one with Leptastrea, originally just mounted the frag on top of my skull and thought I would remove it after it got started.. kinda looks like a hat now so think I’ll leave it alone ;)

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

I’m trying to do one with Leptastrea, originally just mounted the frag on top of my skull and thought I would remove it after it got started.. kinda looks like a hat now so think I’ll leave it alone ;)

Haha nice!! I like it you should put some zoas in the eyes;)

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Well it’s been about two months skull really looks different seeing questionable growth of the cyphastrea to the the reef rock behind the skull not really sure though

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

almost 4 month update I’ve been testing alk with a Hanna checker regularly And dosing kent dkh to keep my dkh around 8-9 and target feeding reef roids once a week....It’s happening! I’ve seen large improvement over the last month

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

wow, that is awesome, great job. you think you can do that for my hair? ;Woot

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Hi,

wow, that is awesome, great job. you think you can do that for my hair? ;Woot

Thank you ;Hilarious

 

[vicefire17]

I bought skull shot glasses online. Attached a round plug, it didn’t take long. Lepto didn’t encrust as well. It started to encrusted then plated outward.

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

I bought skull shot glasses online. Attached a round plug, it didn’t take long. Lepto didn’t encrust as well. It started to encrusted then plated outward.

That’s awesome

 

[Bryce M.]

WOW! looks lovely man!

 

[yan2pr]

Wow thats really cool, are those skulls ceramic or are you guys using some other material?