My Microfragging sps experiment.

[Baxterdawg1974]

While browsing through some video posts from fellow reefers, i watched the video from the Mote Coral Restoration facility in Florida where they discuss micro-fragging as part of their strategy to get frags ready for reef ‘re-planting’. So i thought, i have several frags that are ‘stuck’, meaning slow encrusting, trips are not growing, but color is good and nice PE at night.

I thought i would share my experience here and see what difference, if anything, can be observed with a Strawberry Shortcake acro and a Rasberry acro. The second acro may not be the generally accepted name, but thats what i think it is.

Strawberry shortcake initially received on May 12th 2018.

This is frag today, 5 months later, Oct 27, 2018. Micro frag is to the right and placed on its side. You can see the cut location on the original frag. You can also see that in 5 months i was not getting alot of growth.

Raspberry acro
Original frag received on July 12 2018.

Ten days later on rock, July 23rd

Today, 3 months later. Micro frag to left of main frag. Cut site on right.

Side angle view. Micro frag behind the main frag

Ultimately i wanted to see if i could accelerate the growth into a colony, which is why i wanted to put the micro frag near the main frag. This way the flow and lightning would be similar.

Lights
6 x 39 watt ATI T5 bulbs (3 blue+, 1 aquablue special, 1 coral+, 1 true actinic); blue+ on 11am to 8pm, with others on from noon to 6pm

1 x 24 inch Reef Bright actinic blue XHO strip, on from 10 am to 9 pm

1 x AI Prime, programmed to ramp up at 6 am, peak at noon to 6, ramp down until 9.

PAR at corals is 250 measured with a PAR meter.

Parameters in May
SG 1.025, temp 79, dKH 8, nitrates 3-5, phos 0 (hanna LR), Mg 1200 (low), K+ 350 (low)

Parameters in July
SG 1.025, temp 80, dKH 7.1, nitrates 5, phos 0.05-0.15(hanna LR), Mg 1330, K+ 400

Parameters this week, will be confirmed by Triton results in a couple of weeks.
SG 1.025, temp 79.6, dKH 11.5, nitrates 8-10, phos 0.07 hanna LR), Mg 1350, K+ 410, Ca 380.
Ak is higher since i started dosing Alk 1 month age in addition to regular use of kalk in my ato.

Will be interesting to see if there is any difference.

I will post updated pics since i take progress pics about once a month and include recent parameters.

Did i miss anything that is worth tracking?

 

[Alfrareef]

If you’re interested in micro-fraga you should shearch for Mr. Machado de Castro, a Portuguese reefer that grow acros from just one polip!

 

[maroun.c]

If you’re interested in micro-fraga you should shearch for Mr. Machado de Castro, a Portuguese reefer that grow acros from just one polip!

That would be De Suza not De Castro

 

[KrisReef]

Great investigation.
For photo documentation and later comparisons, it would be nice if you had a plastic ruler in the photos to help keep track of the growth/spread over time.

 

[Alfrareef]

That would be De Suza not De Castro

Exactly ! Mr. Sousa. Thks

 

[BigJohnny]

Well unfortunately the fact that you raised your alk from 8-11.5 kind of skews results you will get faster growth from that alone if there are no other stressors as a result. Still, curious.

 

[BoomCorals]

I watched the same video from the Coral Restoration facility and was surprised to hear their findings of increased growth from very small frags. I have not observed the same in my tanks. I've made "oops" frags many times and glued them to plugs only for them to stay very small for a long time. Colonies for me grow much faster than frags. I always figured it was from the increased surface area. Curious to see your results!

 

[rossco]

I watched the same video from the Coral Restoration facility and was surprised to hear their findings of increased growth from very small frags. I have not observed the same in my tanks. I've made "oops" frags many times and glued them to plugs only for them to stay very small for a long time. Colonies for me grow much faster than frags. I always figured it was from the increased surface area. Curious to see your results!

Same here

 

[BigJohnny]

Same here

Me 3. Nubs dont grow for ****. Bigger they are the faster they grow. All hes seeing in the video is that frags grow faster than spawned corals. The micro part is just so they can get as many as possible everytime they frag, therefore exponentially increasing their stock.

 

[CNDReef]

From my understanding , dr desuza isn’t trying to make quick sales but trying to find a way to plant the reefs again. I agree small nubs take forever to start growing.

 

[dantimdad]

Not sure, I actually hope this has a positive outcome.

To me, it would seem the smaller the frag, the greater the relative damage and longer time it would take to recover from said damage.

If you get a cut that is 1" long on you, it doesn't look or cause nearly the damage long term as the same cut on a baby would.

Just a thought.

 

[Fishfinder]

They call it "micro fragging" so it sounds interesting to the general public. They are actually cutting frags that are bigger than what we buy. He is just relaying the concept that a cut coral grows faster than a spawned coral. The pieces that they are cutting are pretty big compared to our "frags".

It is a misunderstanding of in terminology. Compared to a coral colony growing on a natural reef a 1-2" piece is a micro frag.

 

[CNDReef]

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Wow that birdsnest in the video looks like it's in a tank with very low flow, the branches are sooooo long and twisty it's not really natural looking. How long has he been doing this? I remember someone putting iodine in those plastic things and using them to hold frags back maybe ten years ago. The corals look like they are in a very low nutrient tank with a ton of light which not many people are doing these days.

 

[BigJohnny]

They call it "micro fragging" so it sounds interesting to the general public. They are actually cutting frags that are bigger than what we buy. He is just relaying the concept that a cut coral grows faster than a spawned coral. The pieces that they are cutting are pretty big compared to our "frags".

It is a misunderstanding of in terminology. Compared to a coral colony growing on a natural reef a 1-2" piece is a micro frag.

Nah he said hes cutting 1 polyp frags.

 

[Fishfinder]

Nah he said hes cutting 1 polyp frags.

I saw 1 video of the place in the keys and the pieces he's cutting on the band saw are pretty large

 

[dantimdad]

We used bud vases with iodine solution years ago. Things come back around.

 

[BigJohnny]

I saw 1 video of the place in the keys and the pieces he's cutting on the band saw are pretty large

I have no idea what video or place you are talking about. The mote coral restoration video where he talks about micro fragging he says they cut one polyp frags. Maybe your thinking of another project, there are several.

 

[29bonsaireef]

I think people are confused by the video. There is no accelerated growth in the frags from cutting them smaller. Instead of waiting for a single frag to grow into a 10" colony they are placing 10 tiny frags close together that will encrust into each other. They can place 100 frags of say Montastraea over a portion of the reef and within a year those frags will have fused together and will appear to be one large colony that may have taken 50 years to grow from an egg or a single frag.

 

[Donavon]

Different acropora species react in different ways to being fragged, the size of the cut piece sometimes depends on the growth rate, and the position it is left in after being cut makes a big difference as well.
I am far from an expert but here is an old school link from Garf.org that discusses different techniques. I hope you find it useful.
http://www.garf.org/FRUGALREEFER/sps2/SPS2.shtml