SPS Frag System

[o2manyfish]

Upper Tank North End

[o2manyfish]

Upper Tank South End

[Reefland]

Hi o2manyfish!

Any updates you can share with us on your fragging system? I would love to hear how things are progressing.

[o2manyfish]

Hi Scott,

It's been a busy summer. I will try to get you some current photos this week. I am however hosting an all Southern Cal frag swap on Sat (Oct 11th) and am trying to get things ready for that. If anyone is interested in coming - It's open to everyone. We are expecting 80 to 100 people.

I hosted another frag swap back in May, and at that time the frag system had over 500 frags and about 20 full colonies.

Then within days after the frag swap the summer heat came. The system went up to 90 deg. I spent a couple of days trying to insulate and chill, but to no avail, so I had to put a tent up over the system to block the sunlight.

Within a few days of the heat the frags started to die, I lost all my humilis frags, tricolor frags, and some others. In the end I lost over 100 frags and about 3 colonies.

I was really surprised how much more stable the colonies were than the frags. So I have started making an attempt to keep mother colonies rather than frags. Now I only make frags when someone specifically wants something, or when a colony is in failing health.

To combat the heat issue I buried a 340g water tank 6 feet down in the yard. I have had some major issues with keeping the tank sealed. But the theory of geothermal cooling is working. The total system volume is not about 1400g with 340g in the ground. The system hits a high of 83 even when the temp out here hit a 115.

So after the heat issue, and then a couple of weeks of tented sunlight the system was not very impressive..... Lots of browns.

Things are currently recovering nicely. I now have about 250 frags and about 60 colonies growing outdoors. I got into the stags, since I didn't loose a single stag in the heat. So I have an assortment of about 20+ different stags.

So now that the summer heat issue has been resolved I think I would say things are doing very well. If I get a chance to take and post some photos this week I will.

If you happen to get over to Reef Central, there are some photos in the gallery there that might be more recent.

Thanks for the interest Scott, I will update here shortly.

Dave B

Hi o2manyfish!

Any updates you can share with us on your fragging system? I would love to hear how things are progressing.

[o2manyfish]

The following photos were taken in the last couple of days, I added a new lighting tower over the system. I only use it for working in the evening, showing off, and taking photos.

The system is still lit only by sunshine.

For closer pics of the frags some of them are on frags.org and I have a new website going up this week with photos of frags and colonies.

Dave B

[Reefland]

Thanks for updating us Dave!

I thinks it's interesting that stags had a better survival rate during your troubles, this is also my experience throughout some of the troubles I have encountered in the past. Thanks for sharing those details!

How much water are you evaporating each day and what do you do about rainfall?

[o2manyfish]

Scott,

I have setup a waterfall/fountain in the upper frag tank which is doing awesome for current movement through the tank. The polpys sway back and forth as if they corals were in the ocean.

This method though has increased my evaporation to around 20g a day. However, since I got my 9g Kalk reactor tuned up, I don't mind the evaporation at all. My pH is in the mid to high 8's and the corals seem to be quite happy.

Rainfall --- I live in Southern California - HA HA HA

Given the surface area of the tanks, If I were to get 2" of rain in 24 hours I think I would add about 12g of water to the system. 12g in 1400 is nothing to fret about.

Dave B

Thanks for updating us Dave!

I thinks it's interesting that stags had a better survival rate during your troubles, this is also my experience throughout some of the troubles I have encountered in the past. Thanks for sharing those details!

How much water are you evaporating each day and what do you do about rainfall?

[Reefland]

Dave,

I would worry about the rain from a water quality standpoint, I've never tested the "TDS" of rain or other pertinent conditions but it sure seems it could propose a problem.

I thought I could see some sort of fountain or something in the center of one of the tanks; that's pretty cool. You have a very interesting project there, please do keep me updated.

[o2manyfish]

Scott,

I am not sure what the TDS of the rain is either. But the system went up last winter and has gotten almost a years worth of rain with no noticeable issues after the rain fall.

Maybe the rain has mystery trace elements.... who knows. Again though, the numbers I cited are for 2" rain. We never get 2" of straight rain in Los Angeles. So in the .5" increments whatever might be in the rain is pretty negligible when dissolved into the system size.

Dave B

[Reefland]

Agree. I know nothing about rain (other than it's wet and typically cold) but it seems it would really affect the PH of the water which may be why it is in teh mid to high 8's. What kind of water changes are you performing?

[o2manyfish]

Agree. I know nothing about rain (other than it's wet and typically cold) but it seems it would really affect the PH of the water which may be why it is in teh mid to high 8's. What kind of water changes are you performing?

Scott we haven't had rain in months - So I doubt that's the issue with the high pH.

For water changes I do 50g every couple of weeks. And then every 6 weeks I change a couple of hundred gallons.

Dave B