The Secret to SPS!

[P3FE]

I decided to start this discussion because about a month ago I discovered something that no one has ever post or talked about in any forum I've ever read before. Reef keeping is always about consistency and husbandry, but I always wondered how can retailers and big dogs like ORA grow colonies, frag them in a consistent basis, and keep them growing at a healthy rate one will wish for? How do all these people stay in business selling corals out of mother colonies for years? I know the trade has a big part on it, but some of the guys I personally know have had mother colonies for years and make a lot of money off them! So I always ask what's the secret? There's got to be one right? You always ask those vendors on this site, What kind of lights you use? or What are your parameters? or the best one they always have on their sites, Where in the tank do you keep your corals? How much flow do you have? and on and on. If you are like me, you have done everything, read every book, follow every advice that makes sense, and neglected your family every time you see that extra polyp growing on your SPS to make sure you record the exact parameters at that time so you can keep them there and achieved success!! Well enough of that, here is my story. There's two LFS in my hometown, one I go all the time too because its only 10 minutes away and the other one that I go every once in a while because its an hour away. The one 1 hour away has the wider selection of corals but the one 10 min away gives me preferred customer discount and he always gets me what I ask for. Anyways, about two months ago I took a trip to the one hour away LFS and fell in love with one of his Bonsai acros, I ask if he had frags, he said no but he was glad to cut me a piece, I was like "Heck yea!!" I never experienced that from a vendor so I went with the flow and got it. Before I payed for it I ask him if he was going to glue it to a frag plug and he said, "no, you can do that if you want to but I would just glue it straight to the spot you want it to be". To me it was a little strange but I went with the flow, bought it and took the piece home. Before I left the LFS I ask him and made him throw a par meter where the mother acro was so I could have an idea since I run LEDs on my tank and I was about to glue this piece to a rock and never be able to move again. Armed with all that info, and everything I thought i needed to know, I glued the frag in the best spot I thought and waited. A week later it started to encrust and by week three it start it to grow faster than the frags I had in the tank. So I thought, what the heck? I'm an ORA freak and I love their stuff, so I have a lot of their SPS frags. I have had my frags for a long time with no progress, they never die or lost colors, but their growth was awful! About three weeks ago I was having a couple of drinks an I thought, maybe they need their own rock to grow? So I decided that I was going to pull half of my acros off their plugs and glue them to the rocks, and what do you know? They took off!!!! Started to encrust and growing like crazy, more that they ever did before! I thought that's awesome, but was that the cause? Look at the ones I left on the plugs, and they had not shown any signs of growth, so I took another one out of the plug and guess what? Yep encrusting and growing like crazy! Of course I don't have any scientific proof for this, and by any means I'm trying to tell anyone to start doing what I did, but I can tell you that it worked for me and after years of trying to figure out how they did it, in my own world I think I've found the formula!!

Have Fun and Keep Reefing!!!

Luis

 

[jackson6745]

Luis, this is was long paragraph to tell us that frags grow faster when taken off the plugs and mounted on a rock.:sad:

 

[MrDJeep123]

Luis, this is was long paragraph to tell us that frags grow faster when taken off the plugs and mounted on a rock.:sad:

:rofl: +1

This hobby creates thinkers.

 

[P3FE]

Luis, this is was long paragraph to tell us that frags grow faster when taken off the plugs and mounted on a rock.:sad:

Sorry about that! Didn't mean to waist anybody's time with my long paragraph, you're right I could've said that in two sentences, next time I make sure not to drink before sharing my thoughts in this site! LOL :flame:

 

[TwistedTiger]

Consistency is the key to a successful SPS tank. Keeping alk/Kalk/ph stable is more important than husbandry IMO and in my experience. Lighting which so many get hung up on is waaaaay down the list.

 

[cultivatedcoral]

FYI, ORA loses corals too. It happens to everyone and every vendor. ORA is unique that they pull their water directly from the ocean which they are right next to so that helps them keep consistent parameters.

 

[jackson6745]

Sorry about that! Didn't mean to waist anybody's time with my long paragraph, you're right I could've said that in two sentences, next time I make sure not to drink before sharing my thoughts in this site! LOL :flame:

All good bud! I appreciate the enthusiasm.

 

[Diesel]

Ugh........... If there was a secret and I knew I wouldn't tell.
Great thread to share your experience about keeping SPS.

I'll bite, stable # on ALK, CAL, MAG, K and PO4.
Regular WC, twice a week 15 gal.
Dosing Coral Crack and potassium, feeding my corals twice a week with a self make brew.
Plenty of random flow through 4 MP40's and 12 hour photo period by Radion Pro's with 4 hrs of that in high 70% intensity.
Oh, one more thing I talk to my corals, LOL!

 

[JMMJ13902]

Actually I appreciate the long writing as it made more sense than just reading 1-2 sentences. Thanks for sharing your tip and trick. I'm gonna be a copy cat and try that to see if whatever you said is true or not lol.

Good read btw. Thank you.

 

[mike007]

Great article but there are no secrets. In my opinion a frag would no be able to know if it was on a plug or a rock. The reason you are having good success with your corals is your parameters are all on par and your tank is doing great.

 

[DSP]

I experienced this many many times there's definitely gotta be something to it, I think one of the big reasons is once it starts encrusting the rock you have to leave it alone, A big factor in sps growth imo is finding a good spot and leaving it there, The more you touch it and move it around it basically puts a stop to growth until the pieces acclimated to the new spot, Thats the main reason I remove any plugs I can and try to get the acros to encrust right away, Frags just seem to encrust rock better then they do frag plugs ime, Btw I liked the long write up

 

[salttanklife]

I enjoyed reading, it wasn't to long for me, and thanks for the info. I'm still in the whole learning process and accept any info that might work. I know from my little experience, I got a little thing of star polyps once that was on a broken piece of rock, it never grew and was eventually mowed down my a decorator crab.(that crab was a learning experience). I got a piece of star polyps that was pulled from the lr and I just set it on top of one of my large pieces of rock and in a matter of 2 months, the rock was covered. I know you're referring to sps but it worked for me on soft coral as well

 

[ifarmer]

saltanklife.
soft corals and lps do not work like SPS.
with SPS, everything has to be right other wise they will turn brown or white

I enjoyed reading, it wasn't to long for me, and thanks for the info. I'm still in the whole learning process and accept any info that might work. I know from my little experience, I got a little thing of star polyps once that was on a broken piece of rock, it never grew and was eventually mowed down my a decorator crab.(that crab was a learning experience). I got a piece of star polyps that was pulled from the lr and I just set it on top of one of my large pieces of rock and in a matter of 2 months, the rock was covered. I know you're referring to sps but it worked for me on soft coral as well

 

[ReefMadScientist]

The three acro's I left on the plug and they have engulfed the plug and spread to the rock. One has stayed the same size. I have glued other pieces to LR and they are growing well. I do not think the plug really makes a difference rather than stability, good flo, and light. Oh and do not forget your fish poop! SPS love it.

Glad its working well for you.

 

[FLipp]

lol that was too funny.

 

[Dctrojan]

This kinda make sense to me because what I've experienced in my short year is that all my sps grew better after being slightly harmed ( razor blade scrape) . I noticed this after I broke or damaged a few birds best coral. After being damaged they started to grow faster . So removing frags from plugs could slightly harm them, which may start some growth. Not sure the science behind it but it's seems to work for me.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Maybe self preservation after it is slightly damaged? Trying to encrust to have as much real estate to grow in to before the next coral comes along to build it's condominium. *L* I've read about this in another article. Sorry I can not find it to pass along.

 

[TwistedTiger]

I've been keeping SPS for 16 years. I've glued a ton of corals onto frag plugs, frag disks, live rock and even glass. I've used store bought plugs, homemade plugs, cement based plugs as well as ceramic and acrylic plugs. I've been both buying and cutting frags for most of that 16 years. I haven't seen any noticeable difference in either growth rate or rate of entrusting. Not saying it isn't possible, I just highly doubt it.

 

[NeverlosT]

As an added benefit, if your coral is otherwise healthy, leaving the frag plug behind and even sometimes the very base of the coral will result in less nuisance algae coming into your tank and less potential for pests (many lay eggs around base of coral but not on living coral tissue).

Great comments, we should do experiments, cut up an acro, mount one to a plug and one to rock, beside each other, and see what is what!

 

[Lemony Lemons]

Sorry about that! Didn't mean to waist anybody's time with my long paragraph, you're right I could've said that in two sentences, next time I make sure not to drink before sharing my thoughts in this site! LOL :flame:

I didn't think of this as a waste of time, I appreciate when people take the time to tell their story - even if it has a simple point in the end. It lets us know we're not boring robots