SPS Frag System

[o2manyfish]

My system is up and running so I thought I would post some photos to share.





The second photo is the racks in the first tank with frags. I just got the second tank up and running today, and put in black racks. I will frag the colonies I have for it tomorrow and try to post some more.

Dave

[MtnDewMan]

Very cool stuff

[o2manyfish]

Wow,

Getting a compliment from Mr. Dew..... too cool. Having seen so many of your incredible photos and the incredible corals in your tank, I appreciate your comments.

It was photos of tanks like yours that kicked me into gear about 6 months ago to revitalize my reef (14 years old) and make an attempt at SPS.

Of course, I never take the easy simple path.

Thanks Again,

Dave

PS - Let me know when you want to send reds and pinks down south.

[reefhead]

can you post some specs on your water quality?

[o2manyfish]

Reefhead,

I don't test alot of water params, but here is what I do have

Nitrates / Nitrites - Bottom of scale or 0
Calcium 450+
kH - 11 to 13
pH - Use to be 8.3 - fell to 8.0 about 6 weeks ago - As of yesterdary is back to 8.0
ORP - 350 to 450 on Average

Temperature - 75 ish
pH of Calcium reactor effluent - 6.56

I use tap water for my water changes, And tap water to fill up the system (build it) for the last couple of weeks. I currently have a diatom algae issue but it is primarily in the outside tanks.

I have an auto-topoff system that is designed to top-off RO during the day and Kalk at night. Since the pH drop I top off with Kalk 24/7.

Any thing else?

Dave

[MtnDewMan]

Dave ... I am sure it will all work out great for you ... and you are definately too kind with your words.

Good Luck

[Pineapple House]

That looks really nice, Dave!!

I'm just curious,
Are you willing to sell any of those fragments? I'm also in the LA area, and would be very interested in possibly purchasing some frags

Graham

[o2manyfish]

Pineapple:

I only have about 150 frags at the moment -- I know only - but this is an experiment.

At the moment, I am not interested in selling. I am interested in trading for other frags to expand the types of frags.

Also please think about coming by the April 26th Frag Swap which is at my home, and there will be lots of frags available there. And at that point I may be more inclined to share, as hopefully I will be getting alot more different frags at that time.

Dave B
Dave@TheBotwins.com

[golfish]

Dave,
Where did these frags come from?

[scubadude]

Coming along quite nicely! Man I love to see others get involved like this! You have me confused again Dave....your using tapwater or RO water as your topoff? And also I know we have been bouncing back and forth between RC and here but the mangroves are submerged....dont you think they would do better if you had the tips out of the water?

[o2manyfish]

Golfish,

I have access to the wholesalers at LAX. So I have started with full colonies and then broken them down. (Yesterday (Wed Apr 16) I picked up 5 more colonies, 2 of which are amazing tricolor and the third which I think is an Acro Horrida -- It's Purple Monster Purple with white polyps.

Scubadude,

The system was initially filled using tap water. I have been using tap for my water changes on my 2 salt tanks for 14 years. In January when I built my outdoor filtration system I install an RO system with an Auto Topoff. I have been fighting maintaining a high pH so currently I top off 24/7 using a Nilsen Kalk Reactor (9g).

After initially filling the system, I had an outbreak of a gold diatom algae, but it is gradually balancing out.

The mangroves are submerged. They had been freefloating in my sump since Jan. And I didn't have a place for them. Even though submerged, now that they have finally rooted, they are sending up new shoots, and lots of new red roots out the bottom. I have about a dozen of them. I am not sure what effect they will have on 850g of water. But they have plenty of room to grow.

[Pineapple House]

Hey o2manyfish,
What kinds of frags are you looking for (IE:, Soft Corals, Hard Corals, etc.)?

FWIW,
I would be interested in trading you a 1" frag of a Heliopora for one of your frags

Graham

[o2manyfish]

Hey All,

Pineapple -

I am interested in diversity of SPS for this experiment. So trades are welcome. Please email me directly: Dave@TheBotwins.com

Everyone else, I got some bad photos of some new colonies I hope to frag this weekend. Sadly today it was grey skies here, so the colors are not very nice but I think you will get the idea:

Okay I can't get the photos to post -- Let Me Work on that

[o2manyfish]

Second attempt to Load the photos

[o2manyfish]

Okay Now I am getting the hang of this

[Pineapple House]

Originally posted by o2manyfish

I am interested in diversity of SPS for this experiment.

FWIW,
The Heliopora is not a true Scleractinia. It's actually a soft coral which produces a calcium carbonate based skeleton. True soft corals, according to the definition, all belong to the subclass Octocorallia, which includes the H. coerulea. This coral is often times counted as an SPS coral.

If you're still interested, i'll give you an email tomorrow morning. This coral is a very fast grower.

I would really love a frag of the Acropora Tri-Color. I've been trying to aquire some, but for some reason I don't see them around too often. If you wanted to trade a small frag (I don't care how large it is- it could be 1/2" or 3", I don't care...as long as it's a nice specimin ) of your Tri-Color for a nice 1-2" frag of the H. coerulea, I would be extremely interested! ....or I could just pay you $50.00 for the whole colony if you want ;) As said above, i'll email you tomorrow morning.

Graham

[o2manyfish]

Okay,

So it rained here in So Cal last night. Rain seemed to be everyone's worry, so I thought I would take some post rain photos to quell everyone's doubts.

[o2manyfish]

Acro Tri Color Frag

Bad colors, cause it is overcast and grey out today. But you can get a hint of the electric Green I am getting without the use any lighting -- And no Actinic.

Dave

[o2manyfish]

Lower Tank North End

[o2manyfish]

Lower South End