Throwing coral away....say it isn't so!

Have you ever had to throw away coral clippings? Read the thread for more.

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andrewkw

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Other then a few lose polyps or something infected I got rid of to prevent future coral deaths no. I live in the middle of no where too. I sell very few frags but at least try and pass them on to someone even if I have to go out of my way to deliver them for a few bucks. Or I just hoard them. I use an old 55 gallon which is the absolute worst possible size for a frag tank. I don't really consider this a frag tank as much as a coral overflow tank. A cheapo black box that I bought on amazon with credit card points, and a really old t5 fixture. It's not pretty but along with some old powerheads and heaters it works for what I need it. Under the racks I have lower light corals like kenya trees. Most of the frags on plugs were started as small as possible. In my case it's better to make 5 tiny frags that are even too small to give away then make one that I could sell right away with limited buyers.

I can sell enough to make it somewhat worth it, or if I do make a trip out to a shop I can bring them tons of stuff and even a few bucks in credit is better then nothing. Having this tank gives me somewhere to experiment, somewhere I can closely watch tiny frags grow, and I can qt new corals as well. The tank is actually super super full now but I'll plumb in another tank, or use one of my 10g fish qt tanks or find some random container to put corals in. There was a time when I wasn't out in the middle of no where and I enjoyed trading frags, or selling. At least growing them out I still get half the fun.

I don't think I could bring myself to throw out any corals even if it inconveniences me. With seemingly no end in sight to the Indo ban corals are a lot harder to come by now then they were 1 year ago. New sources appear to be slowly appearing but diversity is still going to remain way down for some time. Sure there are no shortages of these random softies and other non high end things in my coral overflow tank, but the thought that many corals are in short supply has me hanging onto these guys. Also the fact that I just love corals be it pom pom xenia, or a super high end acro.

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This tank is an eye sore, but it's in my spare room where I keep all my fish stuff and barely costs any money to maintain. It doesn't even have an auto top off, I hook a dosing pump up with RO water when I'm away. It works for what it is and most of the corals thrive in it. Either way they are better off in this tank then the garbage.
 

Geebs19

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Sadly, I have thrown out a lot over the years. I used to try to sell stuff... but then only to get either scammed by someone who turned around....fragged the piece and then resold it for stupid prices.... or in a couple of cases... offered to sell it to someone... but then the person demanded "free shipping".... I kid you not. I have even stopped giving stuff away...again. I saw some pieces being resold. I had one guy ask me to drive an hour to "drop off the corals to him and place it in his tank"....otherwise he didnt want it. Again.... I kid you not.

Perhaps as you get your new marketplace running here on R2R... we will have the opportunity to trade and sell amongst ourselves a bit more / better. I hate throwing stuff away....

The entitlement instilled in people these days drives me crazy.
 

alan defa

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I have yet to throw anything away but if anyone wants to get rid of anything I’d be willing to take it I live in the sandy Utah area
 

alan defa

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I haven’t thrown anything away yet but I’d be willing to take anything i live in the sandy Utah area
 

CarChase

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Uggh hate to hear these stories! If anyone in the LI New York area is tossing frags let me know!!!
 

CarChase

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Uggh hate to hear these stories! If anyone in the LI New York area is tossing frags let me know!!!
 

CarChase

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Ugghhh, hate to hear these stories! If anyone is throwing away frags in the LI New York area let me know !
 

MTBake

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I have plans to chop up my forest fire digi this weekend before it grows into other coral. Not sure what I'll do with the frags I make. Probably give them away if anyone wants to come pick them up. I've fragged and ultimately thrown away an orange monti cap before. No one wanted any back when I fragged it.
 

phil bevilacqua

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Yes you will end up throwing away Coral if your tank is growing successfully at some point in time… Sometimes people will buy them sometimes you can give them away but I think that you will definitely throw them away at some point in time and when I through mine away it bothers me to my core Lol. It’s like I nurtured you and fed you and provided you with an excellent environment and now… You die Ugh ....
 

malacoda

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Some that are really, really common and really difficult to give away ... such as plain ol' red monti cap or red digitata ... yes. I have a 24g tank with doesn't have a lot of room for anything more than a very small frag rack. And do have the time, space or desire to run a dedicated frag tank.

So yeah, sometimes I will toss out frags when I trim the back. Do I feel bad about it? A little, but not that much. Do you feel guilty when you throw away tree limbs and shrub branches from yard pruning? I see it as pretty much the same thing.
 

rkpetersen

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Yes, constantly. Various kinds of xenia and gsp, through cap montis and a hollywood stunner that would take over the entire tank if they had their way, through a couple of large pocillopora colonies that metastasized all over the tank like cancer, to a green slimer yongei that grows like a ridiculous weed compared to all other acros (except for the purple slimer right next to it, which also is an insane grower.) I mostly frag pieces off when shadowing gets extreme, or they start to touch each other and somebody gets hurt, or when the growth gets too close to the front glass and I get concerned that one day I will bash into a colony with the magnetic algae scraper and do some serious damage. Some of these would be hard to give away locally. Others I could probably sell or exchange for store credit, I suppose. I have taken a few to LFSs, but mostly not. The fragging usually happens pretty spontaneously and I really don't have much spare real estate in my sand for temporary frag housing.

I don't feel sad. Unlike even fish, corals don't feel fear or any comprehension.
Instead, I'm happy that growing corals captively has become so easy to do. :)
 
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