I love my wild acro collection!

[Graffiti Spot]

I have been collecting wilds for a while. Almost everything I have is wild except for a few frags I have always wanted. Figured I would post a few pics I took a while ago. Finally have time to share here. I am upgrading my tank to a somewhat bigger version of a 40 breeder so the fish and corals have a little more room to grow until we move next year. So here is what it looks like now.

FTS


Back


Side shot


Some of the wild corals.

I love the colors on this tricolor




This is by far my favorite, ideas on its subspecies? Its like a super Millie branches are short and almost an inch thick at the base.




Another favorite that everyone always wants a piece of. It is PINK!

I think this is an abrolhosensis, I have another that's green with red polyps I need to take a shot of.


I call this my Prizm acro because it changes color under different lighting so well.


I love thick nubby stuff like monticulosa


I grew this from a hitchhiker polyp on the base of a colony I got in. Its branching so long and skinny I thought it was a Nana but its obviously something different.


Ohhh you are yummy... A new piece I can't wait til it grows out.


Another Nubby one, a humulis. I love them as well.


I call this my bad ***, been growing it out for years. Bad shot, I need to retake a new one.

 

[hatfielj]

VERY nice! How about some system details and more pictures!?

 

[sealbeach1]

I agree a very nice display.. The way I see it all of the named (reef raft, cornbred) were once wild colonies before they were named and prices went through the roof.

 

[nova65ss]

Nice! Love the hitchiker piece and stubbies are some of my favorites as well.

 

[DFW]

Thanks for sharing! Where is Estomago? Portugal?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Haha my user name was a joke my friend played on me when he signed me up. I just kept it because i was wanting to post and see pics. I live in northern va just under DC

 

[Graffiti Spot]

VERY nice! How about some system details and more pictures!?

Thanks! Going to take more pictures today hopefully. I will post a little bit about the tank here soon.

I agree a very nice display.. The way I see it all of the named (reef raft, cornbred) were once wild colonies before they were named and prices went through the roof.

Yea I think all of reefraft stuff comes to them wild. You just have to have an eye for what the coral is going to be and you can find very nice stuff. Also having a good coral hookup helps. Something besides the basic maricultures pieces that come in to shops that try to flip a 20 dollar colony for 100 bucks. Most every true wild coral coming off the reef are beautiful once they settle in.

Nice! Love the hitchiker piece and stubbies are some of my favorites as well.

For sure, I am infatuated with thick branched Nubby corals. I got a weird one from dd which is a cross between an abrohl and monticulosa basically. I forget what the species was. It is tan but I don't care because the growth form and coralites make me smile

 

[Confuse]

How do you feel about the survival rate and color potential of wild pieces? Never had much luck with maricultured corals.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Choosing a healthy wild coral with potential takes practice and a keen eye. I don't buy large colonies ever. They are hard to keep from rtning. I normally buy very small cuts from wild corals. Most of the time if a wild piece was cut that means that it was nice enough to spread around to a few suppliers. I also like to buy frags that were saved from colonies that had rtned or cut up from local shops mainly because they have already been through a stressful phase and proved they have potential to live. I stay away from thick tabling colonies that are pale. I will buy them if they have browned out because again its proved its going to live and normally is passed the point where it will randomly rtn. I have helped a number of shops in my area and my fiaonce has worked at a few as well so that has helped me find nice pieces in the past.

Maricultures corals are much easier to keep alive for me. Again choosing one with potential is key. Understanding signs of stress from shipping and signs of a healthy piece with potential are as well. Learning how mari's will color is another part of picking good ones. Colors change on them almost every time. But once they do and you get the piece stable and untouched in a good placement, high light high flow for most, the piece will color up very well. I stay away from common types that have brown bases like validia and Nana's but other than that most won't stay brown if in good conditions. I do have one that's staying brown but its a weird thin stag coral with light blue tips. I am intrigued as to how it will grow and color because it is more finicky than others.

Also having a good stable proper qt area is key to keeping them alive. Any stressors on them after shipping will not be a good thing. Avoiding pests is also something that needs to be top priority. On the whole there are a lot of common maricultures and common wild picked corals. I like to weed through thoes and find the odd piece, normally these are unique and or colorful.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

VERY nice! How about some system details and more pictures!?

This tank is ran off a 40 breeder sump full of live rock and I use a customized lifereef skimmer which is half lifereef and half skims 181. I use a korillia 8 to keep ditritus off the bottom of the sump and clean the live rock twice a year if possible. I use the skims body to help the water transfer to the 3" neck better. I use a mag 7 to supply it and a iwaki 55rlt for the recirculation pump through the mazzie injector. I clean the injector and cup every other day. I have 3 other tank connected to the system so total gallons is about 250 or something. The 90 tall is for chalices and zoanthids, another 40 breeder for LPS and nems, and another 40 breeder for random corals and frags we don't have room for.
I pulled the refugium a while back and now use vodka and vinegar to help keep nitrates around 5. I use a kalk stirrer and calcium reactor, I tried the dosing pumps but went back to a calcium reactor a year later. I will always use one from now on. I do 25 gallon waterchanges weekly and run all the tanks bare bottom. I swap out almost 2 cups of rox carbon using mesh bags every 2 weeks. I use two bags so I leave one in the tank when I change the other. Then two weeks later I change the older one.
Alk 8.5
Calcium 400 I don't test this much, if alk is good this should be.
Phosphates are not detecting but I have so much algae in the tanks I doubt it will. Surprising it used to register but the vodka seems to keep it down.
Nitrates I keep under 5 for now. Not sure if I will get them down to .02 like I normally run tanks because everything is doing fine.
Mag is just under 1300 and hard to keep up because I haven't got zeomag for my calcium reactor yet. I just dump some in as much as I can remember to.

I will have the new tank setup next weekend. Its painful to watch it sit. Glass cages sent it out 3 days after siliconing it so I have to wait for it to dry. I got a nice glass holes overflow which has a nice baffle inside of it. I will keep the gyre and mp40 for this tank when I set it up.
I will be using a different light fixture on this tank. The icecap ballast isn't pushing as much par as I would have hoped. Now I am using 6t5 bulbs and 36 3w blue LEDs. I am switching to an 8 bulb powermodule and am not sure if I will run LEDs with it or not. Time will tell. I am sure the new light will give me a better reading than 420 at the top of the water. I like to run almost all white bulbs with blue LEDs though so we will see if I can take only t5s on the tank or not

Here are some pics of the sump...

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Here is the sump, skimmer and new tank! Woohoo!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

This is my favorite so far. A great Aussie piece, blue, green, gold, and pink. The branches are so fat, maybe an inch thick and only an inch tall. Anyone know what species it is?



Merry Christmas everyone! I will try to get some more pics up tomorrow.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Anyone have guesses on the id of pics 3, 7 and 9? I am stumped.

 

[truetricia]

Pink tip abrohlsensis. My friend Paul has this exact same coral and picture

 

[truetricia]

Bc you are Paul.... lol. Just read the first page of this post. Lol.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Muahaha... Come on there has to be someone who is good with ids here!

 

[SeaDweller]

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[tnyr5]

Yes, I require pictures of wild corals.

 

[Reefer40b]

Thanks for sharing, nice SPS you have! Happy Reefing!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Wow I forgot all about this thread. I miss the tanks I had back then. I need to break out the cannon again. Man I miss that acro in the last pic so bad now. It was amazing.
I still have mostly wilds but recently got a number of named pieces I have wanted to try for a while just to fill in some missing colors and to see what I could get them to look like.