Mariculture SPS colonies

[DakotahSteel]

Alright everyone,

Is it just me or do mariculture sps colonies just struggle? For reference I am a stick head with a ton of successful SPS, even some of the harder pieces I have doing well. Now whenever I pick up a maricultured colony as a "color them up" project they seem to do great for a couple of months and then just melt in what seems like over night. I'm talking high growth and high PE and then just poof gone.... Anyone else have this experience?

 

[Reefer Matt]

Alright everyone,

Is it just me or do mariculture sps colonies just struggle? For reference I am a stick head with a ton of successful SPS, even some of the harder pieces I have doing well. Now whenever I pick up a maricultured colony as a "color them up" project they seem to do great for a couple of months and then just melt in what seems like over night. I'm talking high growth and high PE and then just poof gone.... Anyone else have this experience?

Yup. Sounds about right.

 

[KrisReef]

Lots of folks don't buy mariculture because they have had similar experiences to what you describe.

The difficulty would seem to be the taking wild corals out of the ocean and getting them to survive long term in captivity. Some folks have good luck, and the rest of us report what you have described?

 

[CoralWealth]

I have had very good success with them, but maybe I am just lucky. I do not do anything specific besides keep parameters as stable as possible and once they're in a spot in my growout, I do not move it unless I can tell its ticked at either too much flow or too much light.

 

[DakotahSteel]

Ok sounds about right then.... Lame but it is what it is guess

 

[386reeftrader]

I’ve never had much issue with mariculture other than pests. Sometimes they can take a while to settle in but once they do they’re generally pretty hardy, ime.

Do you have photos of any of the corals?

 

[iFunnny]

interesting. i live in singapore and we get lots of maricultured bali stuff in and almost everyone buys those instead of tiny frags. thats more of the way the hobby works here. frags are traded between reefers but LFS all bring in large mini colonies fresh off the farms.

I cant speak to anything because my corals have at most been in my tank for 3 months but not seeing an issue yet. my fellow reefers here dont seem to have that issue either.

 

[slingfox]

Alright everyone,

Is it just me or do mariculture sps colonies just struggle? For reference I am a stick head with a ton of successful SPS, even some of the harder pieces I have doing well. Now whenever I pick up a maricultured colony as a "color them up" project they seem to do great for a couple of months and then just melt in what seems like over night. I'm talking high growth and high PE and then just poof gone.... Anyone else have this experience?

I purchased 3 marine ultra SPS and all survived without issue. For each I fragged the colony into smaller frags. Fragging greatly increased the chances of getting things to survive. Pretty much all the frags survived I had so many I ended up giving away or throwing some out

Marineculture colonies are what powering of the SPS hobby in the US. That is how the major SPS sellers come out with their new varieties (the only other way is to buy from other coral sellers and renaming the coral).

Note also that much of what is imported does not come straight from the ocean. The coral exporters in Indonesia and Australia have huge marineculture facilities where they grow brood stock in large systems plumbed into the ocean. This is why you can see the same SPS from different sellers with different names. The coral exports are doing what hobbiest are doing albeit at a much larger scale and with direct access to ocean water and occasional restocking from the ocean pursuant to local regulations.

 

[reefpanda]

Initially my survival rate with them was about 40% but that was due to my alkalinity swings of more than 1dkh. Once stabilized to around 7.7-8.3 daily swing range, I had less issues with them

 

[AB's reef]

I've been adding them to my tank for roughly a year, heard a lot of horror stories so just been taking it slow *touch wood* I've not lost any....I certainly wouldn't recommend moving them around all the time or making adjustments to your tank set up, but if mine don't look "happy" after a week or two in a certain spot I start making minor adjustments to their position... It really helps to know the species to help make decisions on where they might prefer in your tank.

Like @reefpanda says above, stable ALK is a huge part of the success, I keep mine as close to 7.5 with PH between 8.1 and 8.3....After reading what a lot of successful reefers on here have to say, I really think that the PH is every bit as important as the ALK with acro's and even more so with mariculture.