Show off your before and after maricultured sps

Ds04384

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I will be selecting corals for my new tank soon and have been considering getting some mariculture pieces in addition to aquaculture frags. I’d love to see some of your success stories with mariculture, either ones that started off brown and colored up into something special or ones that retained their color particularly well. A lot of people have a hard time with these corals and stay away from them so this could be great inspiration.
 

29bonsaireef

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First one is a Mariculture second was a wild piece. If I can, I always rather just get frags off them instead of a whole colony for multiple reasons. More enjoyable watching the coral grow into a colony. Easy to check and dip for pests. Overall higher chance of survival. Colonies are much more difficult to acclimate. They really need their own system. Very stable params, lots of flow and quality lights.

On a new tank I would highly recommend against mariculture corals. Anything goes wrong they are the first to take a hit. I'd be cautious adding anything wild/mari during the first year or so of the tank.


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Ds04384

Ds04384

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First one is a Mariculture second was a wild piece. If I can, I always rather just get frags off them instead of a whole colony for multiple reasons. More enjoyable watching the coral grow into a colony. Easy to check and dip for pests. Overall higher chance of survival. Colonies are much more difficult to acclimate. They really need their own system. Very stable params, lots of flow and quality lights.

On a new tank I would highly recommend against mariculture corals. Anything goes wrong they are the first to take a hit. I'd be cautious adding anything wild/mari during the first year or so of the tank.


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That makes sense, I was mostly considering getting one or two so there is some structure early on while my tiny frags grow. Watching frags grow is absolutely my favorite part of the tank so I will mostly be doing that either way. Another reason I like mari corals is because they sometimes come with acro crabs like I see in your third pic. I live those guys! If there was an easy way for me to get some other than spending 20/crab online then aquaculture frags plus those guys is how I’d go.
 

Phelipe's Ocean

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Following along, im interested to see who has managed to get those brownouts to color up I always wanted to try some.
 

29bonsaireef

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Honestly, the only reason I purchased the larger brown piece. Never had any real expectation for it, just had 3 acro crabs in it so I couldn't resist. Now it's one of my favorite corals. If you have a LFS that brings in wild/mari pieces check with them. I know a shop by me that must get dozens as hitchhikers.
 

jda

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If you are going to be good with acropora, then the Mari stuff can do quite well. The only real challenge that I have ever had is that colonies do not always like their new surroundings, but this is true if they are wild, mari or captive grown. I think that Mari get a bad rap a lot of times because the people who get them do not really know how to keep them. Tom (tbd320reef) had a really nice tank full of Mari pieces that grew like crazy and got awesome color, but he knows what he is doing.

The places that farm the Mari pieces pick them to be hardy and easier in the home aquarium. Because of this, there are a lot of duplicates and not true one-of-a-kind corals like you might get with a wild shipment.. but this is good since they are chosen to succeed.
 
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Ds04384

Ds04384

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If you are going to be good with acropora, then the Mari stuff can do quite well. The only real challenge that I have ever had is that colonies do not always like their new surroundings, but this is true if they are wild, mari or captive grown. I think that Mari get a bad rap a lot of times because the people who get them do not really know how to keep them. Tom (tbd320reef) had a really nice tank full of Mari pieces that grew like crazy and got awesome color, but he knows what he is doing.

The places that farm the Mari pieces pick them to be hardy and easier in the home aquarium. Because of this, there are a lot of duplicates and not true one-of-a-kind corals like you might get with a wild shipment.. but this is good since they are chosen to succeed.

Makes sense, you don’t happen to have a link to Tom’s tank or a picture do you? I tried to search for it and had no luck.
 
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Ds04384

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This was probably a wild colony, not a mariculture. 1yr before/after
DSC_7802-2-ANIMATION.gif

That is an interesting transformation. Looks like you’ve had a lot of success with it, that’s a lot of growth
 

Daniel@R2R

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Cool!!
 

Phelipe's Ocean

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It's grown quite well. It's nothing special color-wise, mostly green, but I like the bright yellow tips.
DSC_7744.jpg

All of you with the really nice colonies that started from dull colors, do you ever think about naming them and put frags up for sale?
 

jda

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The Unicorn's Paradise is most likely a A. Microladous, or the like. They are quite common on Mari plugs, get really pretty, are super hardy and grow fast. Nearly anybody can keep them and they need no tricks to get pretty. Overall a great coral. I have one that is similar to that, but more blue. It looks like a cross between RR The Vihn and Gonzo's Blueberry Diesel, so I call it Vihn Diesel. I also have two others that look like a cross between Upscales Microladous and The Vihn. I give a lot of these frags away and people always love how well they do.
 
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Ds04384

Ds04384

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The Unicorn's Paradise is most likely a A. Microladous, or the like. They are quite common on Mari plugs, get really pretty, are super hardy and grow fast. Nearly anybody can keep them and they need no tricks to get pretty. Overall a great coral. I have one that is similar to that, but more blue. It looks like a cross between RR The Vihn and Gonzo's Blueberry Diesel, so I call it Vihn Diesel. I also have two others that look like a cross between Upscales Microladous and The Vihn. I give a lot of these frags away and people always love how well they do.

Have any pics of these???
 

DesertReefT4r

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If you are going to be good with acropora, then the Mari stuff can do quite well. The only real challenge that I have ever had is that colonies do not always like their new surroundings, but this is true if they are wild, mari or captive grown. I think that Mari get a bad rap a lot of times because the people who get them do not really know how to keep them. Tom (tbd320reef) had a really nice tank full of Mari pieces that grew like crazy and got awesome color, but he knows what he is doing.

The places that farm the Mari pieces pick them to be hardy and easier in the home aquarium. Because of this, there are a lot of duplicates and not true one-of-a-kind corals like you might get with a wild shipment.. but this is good since they are chosen to succeed.
Totally agree. I have found that if you get a lot of wild or mari sps the conditions you move them into play a large part of if they survive and do well. Some key tips to keeing wild and mari sps: Lots of flow, wild of coarse come from the natural reefs and many mari sps are grown near the reefs as well. The flow of the ocean can not be recreated in an aquarium, but we do our best. Water parameters, again most are coming from the ocean with NSW. Keeping your tank closer to NSW levels will help them transition to aquarium life. Alk 7, cal 390, mag 1300 is a good place to shoot for. Going into a tank with alk 11 cal 450 mag 1400 will not make most wild and mari sps happy. Lighting, MH is best for wild and mari sps with 10k being ideal but lets face it most of us like a blue 14-20k look and it works just fine. Going straight under LEDs can bleach, brown out or even kill wilds/maris. These corals have been growing under the tropical sun and so far 10k MH is the closest we have to replicate the sun. Basically doing all you can to simulate the environment they came from to increase survival rate. Once the coral(s) get settled in you can slowly acclimate to the higher alk and cal we run in a reef tank as well as to different light sources.
 
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