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Author Topic: LazyLivin's growout tank  (Read 12567 times)

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Offline lazylivin

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LazyLivin's growout tank
« on: January 25, 2009, 22:40:23 »
Although the grow out tank is sharing the same water as the display tank thought I would create a new thread a different thread. Hope you enjoy.

The original purpose of the tank was to have a place to put broken coral fragments or purposeful grooming.  An additional goal while planning the build was to have a place that was comfortable to test, log and dose chemicals.

Now that it has been up and running for the past couple of months I found it to be much more gratifying than expected.... aquaculture is really fun. It is neat to take small cuttings and watch them grow, experiment with placement (lighting and flow) and see how corals respond to different conditions such as color and polyp extension.

One experiment I did is take one single polyp from a few SPS corals to see if they would survive which is tuff to cut on some species. Having some interesting results that I will write about later.

Some of the things that I have planned for the future:

  • See what different species of SPS corals respond to feeding. For example take a couple of cloned corals and target feed one but not the other by placing an empty water bottle over the coral and pouring in foods such as oyster eggs or coral frenzy.

  • Glue some SPS corals from same family together to see if they grow together or kill each other. Seen some pretty neat stuff on RC with caps


Tank Parameters
  • 33 gallon.48Lx12Dx12H
  • 400w Metal Halide
  • Dimable Coralvue Ballast
  • About 1” of sand
  • 650gph return from sump
  • Koralina 4
  • Protien Skimmer in tank for additional flow and keeping it out of sump for easy access.

Live Stock
  • 4 Chromsis
  • Fork Tail Blenny (to reduce pods)
  • About 75 snails and 50 crabs

Some of you have probably already seen the pictures but there are a couple of newer ones as well.



Some Red Acans



ORA Pearlbeery frags



Moon Coral



Have had the Zoanthids in the back for about 4 years. Got from Fishdoody when they were in biz on 5street



Some sort of brain coral



My favorite Zoanthids. (orange ones in the front)



SuperMan



Some Singular frags



Dosing Jugs….Calcium, Mag and Alk

« Last Edit: February 08, 2009, 06:24:44 by Lazylivin »

Offline Riderc82

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2009, 22:52:38 »
You have some nice stuff, nice writeup.  Them Orange zoanthids are nice.

Offline jake

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2009, 04:20:21 »
looks good man

Offline ohioreef

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2009, 06:05:57 »
Very nice!

Lost Floridian

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2009, 06:16:55 »
that is a nice set up!

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2009, 06:19:18 »
A cespitularia sp. Sometimes called Blue Xenia. Just got this about a week ago so has not fully developed the florescence they are known for when kept under intense Metal Halide lighting.

Took these pictures at night, only light is from the flash of the camera.





Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2009, 22:19:24 »
Weather was pretty nice today so got the saw out and built a cabinet and installed a light mover I got from Midwest Express. It works really good.
Plan to add doors and raise the light about another 5". The light was about 16" away from the water before so have it dimmed all the way down to acclimate the corals.

I will take a video soon so you can see it in action.




Offline Riderc82

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2009, 22:23:36 »
Looks like your ready to open up shop.

Offline aquavista99

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2009, 09:21:26 »
Looks, geat, Lazylivin!

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2009, 22:57:03 »
Not sure what kind of coral this is but thought it had a neat shape to it so could not resist picking it up. Kinda of looks like Odie  :D



Blue Xenia starting to get some nice color to it.

« Last Edit: March 04, 2009, 23:03:48 by Lazylivin »

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2009, 23:04:14 »
Couple more pics




Offline Riderc82

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2009, 23:06:21 »
Do you have any pink birdsnest in there?

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2009, 23:10:12 »
Do you have any pink birdsnest in there?

Got about 8-10 of them. Thick branch style have decent color but the thin branched ones are pretty brown. Going to try and reduce nutrient levels to see if that helps. All those brown corals you see should be pink or blue :crybaby

Offline Amstar

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #13 on: March 04, 2009, 23:20:00 »
Do you sell anything out of your frag tank? Or is it just for
Personal use?


Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #14 on: March 04, 2009, 23:37:00 »
Do you sell anything out of your frag tank? Or is it just for
Personal use?



It is mainly just for fun and experimenting but I do occasionaly post stuff for sale or trade with other club members in the For Sale Forums.

I have a couple of corals that I grew from a single polyp. Here's two that I cut about 1/8" off the tip of a coral to get just one polyp from. I am surprised that they survived. This is about three months of growth. They  are very small, the plug they are on is only 1/2"

« Last Edit: March 04, 2009, 23:44:23 by Lazylivin »

Offline aquavista99

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #15 on: March 04, 2009, 23:43:20 »
Your frag tank is very nice, Lazy! That superman will be a show piece coral in no time!

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #16 on: March 05, 2009, 00:00:37 »
Your frag tank is very nice, Lazy! That superman will be a show piece coral in no time!

Thanks for the compliment but that superman......It is complety brown now. It only took about two weeks to go from what you see in the first picture to 100% brown. Not sure if it is due to the chronically low PH or nutrient levels. PH will straighten itself out as it is getting warmer and furnace not running. Nutrients are undeticatable but what I hear is that does not mean much. Maybe you will see a issue with something when you are out this weekend. I am hopeful  ;D

Offline aquavista99

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #17 on: March 05, 2009, 17:52:50 »
Thanks for the compliment but that superman......It is complety brown now. It only took about two weeks to go from what you see in the first picture to 100% brown. Not sure if it is due to the chronically low PH or nutrient levels. PH will straighten itself out as it is getting warmer and furnace not running. Nutrients are undeticatable but what I hear is that does not mean much. Maybe you will see a issue with something when you are out this weekend. I am hopeful  ;D

Looking forward to the visit, Lazy! One solution is to give the superman to me....just kidding! I am sure once you figure out what is going on, the coral will return to its original amazing color.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #18 on: March 30, 2009, 21:29:14 »
I picked up this Gorgonian last week. Rich (Coral Ranch) said he thinks it is photosynthetic. I sure hope so because it is very nice color and I would hate to loose it. Here are some pictures. If anyone has seen one like this before and has any information on it please let me know.






MechanicalEngineer

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #19 on: March 30, 2009, 21:46:25 »
Absolutely gorgeous!  I think the purple ones are usually photosynthetic.  Not 100% sure though.  If it thrives, I'm down for a piece!

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #20 on: March 30, 2009, 21:53:11 »
I sure hope so. Going to post up on RC to see if someone chimes in that has one.
It was a bit linky looking and was to tall to fit in the shallow tank so the top picture is after I fragged it! So will have plenty to go around.

Offline JoeAyers

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #21 on: March 31, 2009, 09:03:56 »
Sweet. Still the nicest frag tank around. How did you mount the gorg frags? They look so soft to me that I always thought they would be hard to mount.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #22 on: March 31, 2009, 09:48:14 »
Sweet. Still the nicest frag tank around. How did you mount the gorg frags? They look so soft to me that I always thought they would be hard to mount.

Thanks Joe, To mount I drilled  small holes in the frag plugs with 1/8" drill bit and just stuck them in there with a drop of super glue. To prepare the frag I used a surgical stainless steel scapel and cut off the skin about a 1/4" up the frag to reduce the risk of getting a bacterial infection from rotting in the hole.

Offline buckeyereefer

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #23 on: March 31, 2009, 16:36:36 »
  i am interested in a frag if they do well.

Offline micki

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Re: LazyLivin's growout tank
« Reply #24 on: March 31, 2009, 16:42:02 »
  i am interested in a frag if they do well.
Me too!  :)

 

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