Question for the long term reefers

[Robbie Gibbins]

once your tank is so overgrown that stuff is growing put the top and you have more frags than you know what to do with or can get rid of, What do you guys do?

I'm not to that point yet. but a few of my more established corals are headed in that direction. I want to upgrade to a 300 gal buuuut the cost of the new glass and stand aren't in the budget any time soon. Just curious, any of you guys say screw it break down the reef, sell the corals and start over, or just keep fragging along?

 

[nereefpat]

What you can't sell or give away, through out. For those that use calcium reactors, you can reuse the coral skeletons there.

Edit: IDK why I spelled "throw" like that

 

[rapid]

ship me the coral ill take them

 

[homer1475]

Frag away, and throw away, remove entire colonies and throw away(to make room for more frags), upgrade, resell to the LFS, or did I mention upgrade?

I'm in that boat right now with a massive frogspawn. LFS won't take it, so I will just end up tossing about 25 or so heads.

 

[jda]

I start over with frags about every three years. I stopped keeping some types of LPS since they are so hard to frag and killing them breaks my heart. Some of the colonies that get torn down get a chance to stay and regrow - sometimes, I replace them with new pieces to try.

You can sell, trade and give away on the local market, but it gets saturated quickly. If you have the patience and stomach, then you can sell and ship, but this is not all that it is cracked up to be unless you can get a good amount of money for your time and expense.

If you are in a populated area, then commercial accounts for some of your good LFS might trade you some things. I have gotten some gift certificates to a steakhouse, some passes to the local aquarium and some offers for discounted dental work for a few of my larger colonies. See if you can get a relationship with some good local stores.

Sometimes, you just have to throw them away.

 

[ca1ore]

Trade, give away or throw out ..... in that order. Reality is that once colonies get large, much of the underbranch structure is mostly dead anyhow and becomes future media for the CaRx.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have three tanks and spread the love

 

[ScottB]

It is a valid question. The resale market on a lot of fast growing, common stuff is, well, stuffed. It ends up in my CaRx. This saved my butt when Reborn was out of stock for 4 months.

Like @jda I am doing a restart. It is a little painful tbh. How do I find a home for this? Not many folks have the space. And that would be too many frags to channel stuff around here.

 

[jeffrey750750]

Plenty of room in my two tanks

 

[Robbie Gibbins]

Thanks for the amazing answers. As for the upgrade. Hahah. I wish I could find a 300 (6ft x 36”) or a 400-500 8 foot that someone wants to get rid of. I just don’t foresee spending 3-8k on a tank and stand combo. Lol. All the stuff running my 125 is rated to run a 300. I did that on purpose lol

 

[Robbie Gibbins]

Plenty of room in my two tanks

I’m down if you’re not across the country from me. Ahah.

 

[ca1ore]

It is a valid question. The resale market on a lot of fast growing, common stuff is, well, stuffed. It ends up in my CaRx. This saved my butt when Reborn was out of stock for 4 months.

Seems like it’s still mostly OOS.

 

[stanlalee]

Never been there may never happen but watched Melevsreef video were he (and a group of reefer friends) basically pulled out large colonies of corals allowing more room for fish to swim and less shading where corals weren't getting light. Everything taken out was fragged and shared. Looked so bare afterward but I guess you start the grow out process over again.

 

[ScottB]

Seems like it’s still mostly OOS.

Again? There was a month or so there... late August maybe... when I was able to get one bag from here, one from there, one from Amazon and so on. Only small bags though.

I found Middle Keys stuff easier to source and I feel like the quality is as good as or better than ReBorn. Slightly larger pieces and fewer shells.

 

[ScottB]

I’m down if you’re not across the country from me. Ahah.

Same coast but pretty different latitude. I can't picture packaging this thing properly for shipping. And they shipping is going these days, it would arrive in 100 pieces and 60 degree water.

 

[ca1ore]

Again? There was a month or so there... late August maybe... when I was able to get one bag from here, one from there, one from Amazon and so on. Only small bags though.

I found Middle Keys stuff easier to source and I feel like the quality is as good as or better than ReBorn. Slightly larger pieces and fewer shells.

Interesting, I just placed an order for a 20 lb bag of middle keys.

 

[laverda]

With the crazy price of frags these days it would be such a waste to trash your corals. There are lots of hobbiest that would love inexpensive frags of that and other corals. A friend sells frags well below market when his get to large and includes other nice frags free with each purchase.

 

[ScottB]

Interesting, I just placed an order for a 20 lb bag of middle keys.

I should have included something in the photo for scale but the pieces are larger than the large Reborn. The shells are much larger, but I would say the rejected volume was the same between the two proportionally.