Poll: How long did it take for you reef to look full?

[dave171]

How long did it take until your reef looked full and great. Did you use frags or buy whole colonies if so how much time for each . And what do you do for the sides of verticle rocks? Curious and want to learn how to make my reef look full and beautuful.

 

[gcrawford]

3 years for me....but be careful what you wish for. Now I've got corals fighting for space and stinging each other. I guess it's time to frag!

 

[dave171]

Could you post a picture ?

 

[Sangheili]

My tank is only 4 months old so I can't speak to it but from what i've seen most SPS tanks take 3-4 yrs to really become grown in if your growing from frags. Take a look at the tank "Reef in the sky" for a pretty well documented timeline.

 

[thejuggernaut]

3 years for me....but be careful what you wish for. Now I've got corals fighting for space and stinging each other. I guess it's time to frag!

Don't be ridiculous. Don't frag, buy a bigger tank! LOL Or maybe frag and use that to pay for the bigger tank!

 

[gcrawford]

Approx 3 years ago to present....

 

[gcrawford]

Today.....

 

[dave171]

Wow that's truly amazing I can't wait for mine to get like that I have a long way to go lol.

 

[gcrawford]

Thanks! Funny thing is I've been studying like crazy for IT certifications since January and haven't really done much to the tank. Everything is now growing like weeds.

 

[dave171]

Welcome! And frag them or start a Nano there is a lot of potential there!

 

[PapaDragon]

Its been five years of pain for this. :tongue:

 

[dave171]

Wow that looks great good job!!

 

[macscale]

I can't speak to it either as I haven't grown up an sps reef quite yet.
However i have found that unless you get nice sized frags like "A Reef in The Sky" creator did, it will take a very long while.

 

[PapaDragon]

Wow that looks great good job!!

Thank you.

 

[MattL22]

Great question I often wonder if the truth is stretched a tad with growth pics I can say that I had a few tiny 1/4" frags that took 2 yrs just to encrust and look like a decent size frag now I'm hoping if growth is exponential with sps which I've heard mentioned b4 then in another 2 yrs I'd hopefully have a few colony's I'd guess 4 yrs but no first hand exp there will be guys saying 6 months ....

 

[hybridazn]

Mine took about 2 years for my sps pieces to grow from frags. Here is my build thread if you want to check it out

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189795

 

[NanaReefer]

3yrs for my last tank.

 

[Oscaror]

Mine still doesn't
I just can't get it to look right, ya know?
I hate waiting!!!

 

[4FordFamily]

Depends on types of coral and husbandry. A watched tank doesn't grow! It happens over the course of a couple years for me. I always buy people's tanks leaving the hobby full of established coral because it's cheaper and they're hardy, and I'm impatient.

You'll never be happy if you're anything like me, but in looking at past pics you'll think to yourself "wow how awful does that look" even every few months

 

[3dees]

not quite two years. the only frags were a very small hammer and frogspawn. now about 4x the size. I don't have the patience for frags.