my first attempt at growth sequence

[reefdood]

Got this slimer on 11-11-04 and mounted it horizontal.



Moved it to my reef and it started to encrust like mad.
this is 02-24-05



And here it is now, still encrusting and looking sweet.

Not the best pics and def. not consistant but they work for me.

BTW, when is this gonna branch? It's worse than watching water boil.

[SeanT]

Originally posted by reefdood
[B]
Not the best pics and def. not consistant but they work for me.
B]

I like 'em.

[cj_basser]

why was it mounted horizontal.

looks Good!

[SeanT]

It is better to mount that way so the coral can encrust and lay down a much larger and more sturdy base.
In the long run the coral will grow a lot more quickly and naturally.

[reefdood]

Exactly. I hate the one stick look and wanted it to eventually make a colony. Since I only bought one small branch as my first SPS in this tank, kinda as a trial to see if it was ready for acros. It must have been ready cause with all baserock I was stocking this one month after starting.

[Bayliner]

Very nice... I just learned something as well.
I always thought that mounting a frag horizontally meant gluing the coral on to the rock vertically and then placing the rock on it's side. I did not know you were supposed to actually glue the coral on it's side to the rock. That makes perfect sense now that I see it in a picture... I have been doing it all wrong...

Thanks for sharing those pictures... I would love to see more as it continues to grow for you.

Cam

[reefdood]

Another way I wanna try one day is to split a branch by cutting it from top to bottom with a dremel and mounting both halves horizontal. I hate to think about the polyps I covered with superglue. I could have made two of these with the bananna split method.

The other horizontal mount as you described works too.

[Bayliner]

Oh that coral is beautiful....
That is the method I have always used. It does a good job at getting extra vertical growth, but I really like how your other method gets the coral to really encrust over the rock. I am going to try that next time I do some fragging.

Do you really think splitting the frag in half could work ?
I can see what you mean by the amount of polyps you have to cover with glue.
If you try it you have to post pictures and your results.

Thanks
Cam

[bigfishman]

I got a question for you. does it work for only slimer?? or all frags??

It seems to be pretty cool.

[Aqua Acro Bat]

umm...I have a question.

What time frame are we talking about inbetween pics? Thanks

[Jay Fortay]

The time frame is on the post 1 month apart each pic.

You can do it with any coral pretty much. I've also found it to be the quickest way to make SPS encrust. Its also true you get a much more substantial base this way

[kabboord]

Reefdood, I'm sorry if this is a little off topic, but your signature line officially takes the title fr the wittiest, funniest, and most original on reef central. I know I still grin everytime I read it.

[matt the fiddler]

in addition to the larger incrusted base... [this works on any sps i have found]

when ever i get a new small colony/ large frag that is mounted.. instead of cutting it up i always mount it flat for a good 2 months.. I finf this encourages new growth tip to form across the branch, and then put it in it's place. more growth tips= faster overall growth, aand then more frags when that time comes..

they say corals either are display or growout colonies.. i say why nto both.. plus more branches is a good thign in a tank...

now.. the larry jackson.. i have faster growth and larger encrusting mounting them like twigs, rather than sideways.... i recently mounted 15 branches various ways to get a start on a large colony..

[DtheDude]

thats awesome. I just learned something new...

[matt the fiddler]

I think the idea was originally Garfs.. one of the few ideas of theirs I have used.. keep in mind too, that an exposed cut or break will devolp MANY mroe branches on average, if it is pointing a completly different direction than where it originally grew.... usually if you frag and leave the colony you get ONE branch where you broke one off. if you turn the colony on it's side after fragging [assumign you can do this or want to in your tank] the breaks easily get 2 or 3 branches out of that.. though sometimes one, and sometimes in montis i have had all growth on the frag injury stop.... it is wierd...

on some montidigis, i have been successful in creating branches out of nonbranching bases.. by scraping the skin off, and putting a dap of superglue for it to grow over... if it only has a 4" area to grow in my tank behind other corlas, heck i want the DIGI part of it's name to come through...

[concept3]

Branches of coral colonies in the wild do get knocked off or broken off occasionally. When they land on a substrate that it can grab onto, it encrusts and starts its own little colony. It does not upright itself. This would technically be mother nature's way of "mounting" frags if you know what I mean. Most of us (myself included) mount a frag upright because we know what the actual adult colony looks like, and we are simply trying to replicate what we know and have seen.

If you guys really wanna see some weird stuff grow, mount a frag sideways and let it grow horizontally for about 2-3 months, you'll see it start growing upwards.....and then gradually flip it upside down (to acclimate the side that doesn't get bombarded by the lights)..........you'll probably get some weird U shaped growths after a while.....

Which I plan on doing with my Humilis.........ha ha ha stupid yellow looking fat stubby finger looking cactus growing boring coral.....sorry.

[z28cam]

Nice gowth shots, thanks for sharing.

[bigfishman]

Great idea!

But if the frag attachs to the rock like this way, the other side of the frag will be killed??

[kozmo02]

Great idea!

But if the frag attachs to the rock like this way, the other side of the frag will be killed??

believe it or not frags tend to encrust and grow faster when mounted this way

[reefdood]

Originally posted by Bayliner
Oh that coral is beautiful....
That is the method I have always used. It does a good job at getting extra vertical growth, but I really like how your other method gets the coral to really encrust over the rock. I am going to try that next time I do some fragging.

Do you really think splitting the frag in half could work ?
I can see what you mean by the amount of polyps you have to cover with glue.
If you try it you have to post pictures and your results.

Thanks
Cam

I'll post pics if I ever manage to do it.

Originally posted by kabboord
Reefdood, I'm sorry if this is a little off topic, but your signature line officially takes the title fr the wittiest, funniest, and most original on reef central. I know I still grin everytime I read it.

digitata digitata!!!

Originally posted by matt the fiddler
in addition to the larger incrusted base... [this works on any sps i have found]

when ever i get a new small colony/ large frag that is mounted.. instead of cutting it up i always mount it flat for a good 2 months.. I finf this encourages new growth tip to form across the branch, and then put it in it's place. more growth tips= faster overall growth, aand then more frags when that time comes..

they say corals either are display or growout colonies.. i say why nto both.. plus more branches is a good thign in a tank...

now.. the larry jackson.. i have faster growth and larger encrusting mounting them like twigs, rather than sideways.... i recently mounted 15 branches various ways to get a start on a large colony..

I plan to mount all frags I get for my tank like this if they are just a small branch tip like the slimer was. Can't beat turning a 1/2" tip into a full blown colony. Only thing is it takes way too long. But my hobby is watching coral grow, ya know.

Originally posted by matt the fiddler
I think the idea was originally Garfs.. one of the few ideas of theirs I have used..

Yeah I read it years ago on GARF.

Originally posted by bigfishman
Great idea!

But if the frag attachs to the rock like this way, the other side of the frag will be killed??

Which is the reason I want to try to split one down the middle. 2 for 1. But I'm not gonna experiment with my red/purple nana.

[matt the fiddler]

once a frag takes... you can even go further and cut several 1/4" and 1/2" and smaller pieces, and jsut superglue plant them around the rock you are hoping to encrust... [i use dead coral skeletons to encrust frequently] then even with a 70% survival on these itty bitty pieces, you get similiar growth as seen above, as well as a better chances at gettign brances fast.. if you can get a lot of brances.. youa re good



reefdood, i have thought about doing a banana split type cutfrags, but haven't figure out how to yet..... how would one do this? dremmel?

[reefdood]

I'd guess a dremel with a very very thin disk would be best. Maybe a band saw. idunno but it'd be cool.

[concept3]

I'm off today, so maybe I'll break off a branch and try the diamond tipped glass cutter. Let you guys know.

[matt the fiddler]

on my list of things to try in fragging

[reevs]

I need 5 month, Reefdood any suggestion for growing faster ?
the tank under 14KK
thanks