SPS Growth Challenge - Anyone?

dre_jcsutton · Mar 11, 2012

Would anyone want to participate in an SPS growth challenge? Frags from an identical colony, a 3 month grow out and users vote on the winners? Measure before and after with pics.

Kudos to Fragster from MichiganReefers for seeding this idea. Anyone local to Michigan should definitely enter that!

Sounds like we're leaning towards water displacement before and after as the primary method to assess growth. I think its safe to assume the buy-in would be between $30-$40 to account for shipping of the frag (assuming a colony is split and shipped to each person independantly), displacement cup, and ruler.

Battlecorals has expressed interest in providing the colony for the contest. No planned prizes from other vendors as of yet.

Okay, lets cap it to this list - it might get a little hard to ensure comparable frags from the same colony if we grow the list any more.

ca2or
chestnud
KLR
Tropboi561
luvmyacans
boxer
ebushrow
SteezySPS
bct15
turbo21
swannyson7
cdness
pitt
bonomo53
brahm
dkerns06
Crusader
nater
forrealb50
eaze333
kscweer
emartin
kschweer

ca2or · Mar 11, 2012

I would be and I have ran these before so can shed some insight

dre_jcsutton · Mar 11, 2012

Cool, hoping we get quite a few people.

revhtree · Mar 11, 2012

This sounds like a cool idea!

chestnud · Mar 11, 2012

i'd be down.

Tropboi561 · Mar 11, 2012

I would like to do it. Just need to know what sps and the price. LMK

Sent from my iPhone

KLR · Mar 11, 2012

One of my local forums was looking into this type of contest.

Sounds interesting, I might would take a shot at it.

thewackyreefer · Mar 11, 2012

Count me in!

kschweer · Mar 11, 2012

i may be interested pending further details

boxer · Mar 11, 2012

im also interested.

ebushrow · Mar 11, 2012

I would be interested in trying it...working on another one but have plenty of room

dre_jcsutton · Mar 11, 2012

I think the goal should be to make it affordable - at the same time using a good looking colony. I was thinking about buying a colony from a supplier at wholesale cost and splitting it up for everyone. That way, we can keep the frags cheap - like $10-$15 or so.

kschweer · Mar 11, 2012

if its relatively cheap im definitely in.

boxer · Mar 11, 2012

kschweer said:
if its relatively cheap im definitely in.

+++1

KLR · Mar 11, 2012

Another place to look at would be LA. They get in fairly nice colonies that some are priced at like $70 for a 3-4 inch colony. More expensive than a wholesaler, but just throwing out another idea.

Aquaph8 · Mar 12, 2012

Sounds like fun

bige · Mar 12, 2012

I think a light a difference would also be interesting. T5, MH, LED.

SunnyX · Mar 12, 2012

Sounds like a good idea. But, in order to remove any inconsistency, the coral in question would need to be a known aquacultured frag such as ORA. A wild or maricultured acro would not be the best coral to use in a contest, as the results would be skewed. "Fresh" acros take time to acclimate to captivity, and will react and have varied growth rates based on the aquarium. Some reefers with the greatest of setups have a hard time with "fresh" corals.

A wholesaler normally would not have a large named acro available, as there is a higher demand for frags than large colonies. A local reefer or LFS may be the best option.

A Bali Green Slimer would be perfect for this contest. It has a proven track record, is relativity easy to find, and inexpensive. Many reefers give them away as they quickly outgrow a system. Any reefer with stable parameters, from the extreme to the novice, can keep this coral alive. It would be the perfect benchmark in order to measure growth.

Pictures of the Bali Green Slimer: Bali green Slimer - Google Search