jda's 240g Acropora Rebuild

[jda]

I have to reboot about every three years and I am going to document this time. In about May, I took out all of my large SPS and started over with frags from .5 to 1.5 inches, or so. I removed some colonies the size of dinner plates, cantaloupes and stags that were 12 by 16 inches. I left the clams and some of my slower growing frags. Some of the old colonies started to grow again from the base.

After spending about a month getting rid of some algae, apitasia and sponge that was hidden deep beneath colonies, I mounted some stuff in June and some has really taken off and some is going slower.

These photos are under 14k Phoenix on m80 with no supplemental lighting and no editing. This is the way that they came out of my phone - for better or worse.

I got a waterproof iPhone case just for this and I don't have a lot of good photos from before. Here is an example of what I took out...




Here are some of the new ones.

RR Pink Cadillac


BC Skinny Love - Yes, this is the real color


JKR Rainbow


AV99 Orange Crush


RR Wolverine - this is more purple and yellow in real life


My Two Blue Squamosas - my pride and joys... the little one is about three inches if you need some scale



BC Set for Stun - this one is more teal in real life and is one of the nicest pieces


ORA Pearlberry - did not mean to take this one out, but another colony fell on it and destroyed it


RMF Red Gecko - might be worst photo of them all, this one is more white and red but will show growth I guess


Efflo


JF Homewrecker


Westside Rainbow Tort


Tyree Superman


Fast Growing Deepwater


BC Space Laser


Electric Red Millepora -this one shines and really is this red in real life without any tricks


...more to come.

 

[User1]

Looks great. I was wondering at first why every three years but I guess that is how you are managing growth maybe?

Great job all around! Keep up the great work and hope all is well!

 

[jda]

It takes about three years, give or take, for frags to grow to wall-to-wall acropora where I need to start to tear them out.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I have to ask....if you started over with typical frag sizes, what did you do with the rest of the colony(s)?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Interesting
Did you have a colony of the JF Homewrecker or is that just a newly acquired frags?? I just don’t remember you ever mentioning you had a the HW

 

[SeaDweller]

It takes about three years, give or take, for frags to grow to wall-to-wall acropora where I need to start to tear them out.

Why not just trim them down, Doug? Instead of ripping out and starting new? I’d hate to see mature colonies get replaced by tiny frags, but I guess you’re bored?

 

[jda]

Because I get sick of them and are ready for some new ones. Not all of them come out of the tank and some get to stay.

I have HW, SC OP, WWC Pink Panther, WD (really don't know why on this one) and have Lucky Charms and Cherry Bomb coming... that covers those well enough. I had a 3" HW but sold it for a price I could not refuse and just got a 1/2 piece back and it has about doubled, but still not huge...they grow fast enough.

I tell people all of the time that you don't really know reefing until you have gone the full cycle of having to pick and choose when the stuff takes up all of your room. I am not into LPS too much anymore since it hurts me more to destroy a nice scan, chalice or lobo when acros are much easier to frag without getting mad. There are always people who want chunky frags.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Any pics of your HW colony before you sold it?

 

[Shaka_Reefer]

@Battlecorals Skinny Love is one of my favorite acros of all time! I need one in my peninsula

Any FTS of your current layout?

 

[jda]

The HW was under the center brace, so I doubt that I have any photos, but you can look in my Flickr album. This is one reason why I got the waterproof case so that I could do more than top down stuff. It had redeeming qualities that WD does not under my lights... it still got the pink, green and purple/blue and it was still worth keeping around since frags were worth something commanding good prices - lots of people kill it.

Once I get everything mounted and scrape off about 10 pounds of coralline, then I will get a FTS. I still have about 1/3 of the tank to mount and stock.

Don't sleep on the JKR Rainbow - this is a masterpiece under any lighting if you can keep it alive.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

The HW was under the center brace, so I doubt that I have any photos, but you can look in my Flickr album. This is one reason why I got the waterproof case so that I could do more than top down stuff. It had redeeming qualities that WD does not under my lights... it still got the pink, green and purple/blue and it was still worth keeping around since frags were worth something commanding good prices - lots of people kill it.

Once I get everything mounted and scrape off about 10 pounds of coralline, then I will get a FTS. I still have about 1/3 of the tank to mount and stock.

Don't sleep on the JKR Rainbow - this is a masterpiece under any lighting if you can keep it alive.

Ok

 

[fuelman]

Following, I love acro growth progression threads.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Beautiful! Definitely following along! Still new to acros but def have the bug!

 

[Laurens]

very nice corals! The growth on you corals look more natural to me then most get with leds (the colours as well). Do you still have the icefire echinata (or speciosa)?

 

[jda]

One of the ones that left... G Carroll Ultimate Stag (or battlestag) after about 6x 4-6" hunks given away. This one will likely end up at the public aquarium, but they only take corals to QT on their own schedule. That rock is 8.5 inches across and I have 10.875 inch hands (for those of you into NFL Combine metrics). I had to uncover the base rock and you can see the lack of coralline and lots of the cryptic sponge. It will no go into the frag tank where the peppermints will clean it of any aiptasia and the angelfish should eat the sponge (sometimes they do and sometimes they don't).

The Wet Thumbs Tierra Del Fuego went in tact to a local hospital aquarium. That is the red coral in the first photo. I am not going to have a frag of it in this iteration of the tank - shades too much below it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Let’s see all the Tenuis. You know I love me some tenuis

 

[Abhishek]

Amazing Doug ! Have stopped following most threads but was waiting for yours ...

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Amazing Doug ! Have stopped following most threads but was waiting for yours ...

Makes me want to start a build thread

 

[jda]

Does rebuild count? Internet was on 14.4k modem when I first built this tank. I have moved it a few states, but still set it up the way that it was before. ...everybody knows what a badge ***** that I am.

 

[Abhishek]

Makes me want to start a build thread

Will follow if you keep tenuis out of the thread