Randy's Red Sea Reefer 250

[RandyC]

Pictures really are the only way I actually realize how things are growing over the long term. I wish all my acros did this! Here's a progression of BC Aquatic-Man Table that I got back in April 2019.

BC Aquatic-Man Table (4/27/2019)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (6/9/2019)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (7/26/2019)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (8/7/2019)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (9/23/2019)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (2/12/2020)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (4/4/2020)

BC Aquatic-Man Table (6/25/2020)

 

[Coral reefer]

That really started taking off

 

[tankguy]

Do you feed your corals ?

 

[Flagg37]

So amazing. I’ve wanted to set up a camera for like a year and take 1 picture a day and make a video.

 

[RandyC]

Do you feed your corals ?

Not directly, but I broadcast feed a bit. I make a mix in a squeeze bottle that will last around 3-4 days (in the fridge) that gets fed to the tanks twice a day (around 8am & 5pm). It's made up of:
- LRS Reef Frenzy
- BRS freeze dried Mysis
- BRS freeze dried Calanus
- Reef Nutrition ROE
- Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast
- BRS Reef Chili
- Nori

I also load my auto feeders with New Life Spectrum pellets and Reef Chili and that gets fed twice a day as well. (11am & 3pm)

 

[ofzakaria]

Not directly, but I broadcast feed a bit. I make a mix in a squeeze bottle that will last around 3-4 days (in the fridge) that gets fed to the tanks twice a day (around 8am & 5pm). It's made up of:
- LRS Reef Frenzy
- BRS freeze dried Mysis
- BRS freeze dried Calanus
- Reef Nutrition ROE
- Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast
- BRS Reef Chili
- Nori

I also load my auto feeders with New Life Spectrum pellets and Reef Chili and that gets fed twice a day as well. (11am & 3pm)

Wow, lots of feeding...this is awesome

 

[max_nano]

Looks like the growth really took off after August, I don’t get why more vendors don’t offer mini colony frags closer to that size. I would pay a premium to have a piece that won’t be a nub for months before teal growth starts. But I am probably just too impatient...

 

[Flagg37]

Looks like the growth really took off after August, I don’t get why more vendors don’t offer mini colony frags closer to that size. I would pay a premium to have a piece that won’t be a nub for months before teal growth starts. But I am probably just too impatient...

Would you be willing to pay 10 times as much?

I think most businesses have found its easier to find 10 buyers for 10 frags than 1 buyer who is willing to pay 10 times as much for the whole colony.

 

[max_nano]

Would you be willing to pay 10 times as much?

I think most businesses have found its easier to find 10 buyers for 10 frags than 1 buyer who is willing to pay 10 times as much for the whole colony.

Good point, I think the problem is that people are buying .75”-1” nubs which enables vendors to chop pieces up that much. I just think there’s got to be a more optimal size to frag that wouldn’t result in drastically slower growth following the fragging. If I eventually have enough growth I want to experiment with cutting different size frags and placing them in similar locations to compare the recovery and growth. If anyone’s seen someone do that before I’d love to read about it.
Randy, your progress pics are just so interesting to me!

 

[ashburn2k]

also paying for $10 nub frag instead of $100 is easier to swallow if that dies on me.

 

[Rostato]

also paying for $10 nub frag instead of $100 is easier to swallow if that dies on me.

Well, don’t kill it!

 

[RandyC]

Seems to happen a lot nowadays, but I have one of those named acros that just came and went never to be heard or seen from ever again. I can't find reference to it anywhere anymore on Cornbred's site or barely anywhere on this interwebs-thingy. I actually got this piece back in Oct 2018 from one of Cornbred's eBay auctions. If I remember correctly, it didn't do too well initially and started to die, but I left it alone and it just lingered around for a while doing nothing. Now, for whatever reason, it seems to be growing well and developing some nice colors.

Only picture I seem to have of the frag before 2020 is after it had its bad start, lost some tissue and then seemed to be in survival mode for a long while.

Cornbred Wonderland Acro (2/26/2019)

Cornbred Wonderland Acro (2/12/2020)

Cornbred Wonderland Acro (7/10/2020)

For reference this was the picture that was on the original eBay auction.

 

[ashburn2k]

That’s a nice comeback.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Flagg37]

That is such a tiny frag that you started with. What is that, like 3 polyps? It does look pretty amazing though. It doesn’t really look like the eBay picture; I think it looks better.

 

[RandyC]

That is such a tiny frag that you started with. What is that, like 3 polyps? It does look pretty amazing though. It doesn’t really look like the eBay picture; I think it looks better.

Take Cornbred’s pictures with a grain of salt - they're heavy on the blues and probably uses in camera white balancing which is not very close to what the naked eye sees.

I wouldn’t actually be surprised if that is what cornbred shipped to me (no joke!), but in this case, I think the frag was actually bigger and some of it had died.

 

[tankguy]

Ive grabbed a few CB corals over the years. Some of it looks close to the pics and some are nowhere close

 

[Coral reefer]

But they ARE all small though

 

[sfsuphysics]

Probably because they typically grow so slow, and much like a LFS they don't want to hold onto livestock any longer than necessary, the only corals they care about growing are the mother colonies. I can imagine if they had to wait 9 months just to give you a 1.5" frag because it decided to puddle onto the frag plug instead of just growing vertically.

 

[tankguy]

But they ARE all small though

pretty much yeah

 

[RandyC]

Up close & personal macro shot of some random no name chalice.