Hard prune or tear down?

[Kevin Guthrie]

I am faced once again with pruning the coral in my 90 gallon tank. I let it go too long this time... the blue ridge has pretty much built a wall front to back, the galaxea is shading everything in half the tank and breached the surface long ago, and the monti is building huge dishes again in the other half that have reached the front glass. It looks great, the coral formations are beautiful, but it can't continue because they are past their peak.

After 16 years there is an awful lot of live rock and live coral in the tank. I was thinking how much better it would be without the live rock, not that I can remove it and put the coral back. But I could remove everything, clean it all out, and return only a 6 inch chunk of each coral. No rock. Then the coral would be free to grow for years without needed a prune. Has anyone done this before?

Not really concerned about cycling; two tangs and a pigmy angel, and the sump is shared with a 30 gallon that I don't need to tear down. Lighting is good all the way to the tank bottom, 400 mh on a light rail.

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

I decided to tear down. The Montipora hordes, having been cut off from circulation, were scaling the Great Wall of Heliopora.

Half the glass was uncleanable, and there was no place else to grow.

It did not go as planned. Plan was to remove everything. But I had three live rock boulders that absolutely would not come loose from the aquarium bottom. Some kind of thready white material, possibly sponge, seems to be holding everything together. Half the gravel petrified into a sheet and that too was glued down.

I saved nice specimens of each coral and dumped the rest, probable 200 pounds. Most of it was the Galaxea, with the Helio a distant second.

Also I did not prep enough water, all that dumped rock took up a lot of volume.

The new setup, and notice the pipe to ensure that the Galaxea will still get current after Great Wall II is built.

I also rebuilt the "hood" because the wood one was in bad shape. Used PVC from the big box - best "woodworking" material I've ever used. The hood this time is sealed to the aquarium top to avoid salt creep, another lesson learned.

 

[Reel North]

That's crazy

 

[saf1]

Interesting. Really when u think about it it is pretty incredible. How old.

 

[2_zoa]

This is the first time I've seen your thread. I've gotta say (not that you were in a rush before) you let this thread soak a bit before going all in.

The new scape looks great. Just crazy to have so much coral to frag and it just got tossed out. Now.......I have to ask.

What if anything do you attribute your success to? Any system details?
16 years running is a long while. I'm sure there is a story behind the tank....

 

[rt67ghy]

Amazing growth! I'd add a few very expensive corals for next time around and make a fortune selling frags.

 

[tzylak]

I agree with rt67ghy, next time consider selling the frags to a pet store. I do regular pruning every few months that covers all food expenses and new fish purchases for the last year.

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

The secret is not really secret - the corals that took over the tank are the easiest to grow. I probably bought 10 more that didn't thrive, so its process of elimination and survival of the fittest at work. Unfortunately the resale value of such coral is pretty low, and from past experience I know that massive frags don't do as well as small ones.

I don't buy a lot of fish - there are three in the tank and they live about 10 years. When I go to the LFS its usually to pick up salt and frozen food.

That and I keep paying the electric bills.

 

[rt67ghy]

This makes sense. I think most of us has had good and bad experiences with corals. Putting aside the failures from newbie errors, we find that for some inexplicable reason certain corals thrive in our tanks without needing any extra attention whereas others just shrink and die for no apparent reason. For example, I have a couple of goniporas which are doing very well and flourishing whereas two others are dying. Eventually though if we just avoid buying the ones that don't do well in our tanks and stick to those which thrive, given time, we can all end up with some great growth filling up the tank. That would resemble a little what we see in nature (especially in tidal pools) with some massive colonies of a particular species interspersed with single specimens of other corals.

 

[Dmorty217]

There are European tanks run just like you are saying (no rock, just corals) they are using Sera Siporax for surface area for bacteria.

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Well, I have to admit I did buy a frag today... first time I've had room in a very long time.

I suspect most of us, assuming no crash, follow the same pattern. Big empty tank, buy frags for a year or so until you find you have no place to put the new one, then stop. Some grow, some don't, some coral war winners have to be corralled... you prune and frag to keep the peace.

But eventually I figured it out - its the formations, the growth patterns that you only see when you let things grow naturally, that make the reef really stand out. After that I took it easy on the pruning work and let nature take it's course.

Personally I think a large tank with just one species, maybe Galaxea or Heliopora or Monti or whatever, would look better than what I ended up with.

 

[2_zoa]

This makes sense. I think most of us has had good and bad experiences with corals. Putting aside the failures from newbie errors, we find that for some inexplicable reason certain corals thrive in our tanks without needing any extra attention whereas others just shrink and die for no apparent reason. For example, I have a couple of goniporas which are doing very well and flourishing whereas two others are dying. Eventually though if we just avoid buying the ones that don't do well in our tanks and stick to those which thrive, given time, we can all end up with some great growth filling up the tank. That would resemble a little what we see in nature (especially in tidal pools) with some massive colonies of a particular species interspersed with single specimens of other corals.

I see what your saying. You are correct, no matter how much I try to keep the same water in my current tank. I can't keep some of the corals I once had in other tanks.
I was though, in reference to the fact that the tank didn't crash from old tank syndrome. A solid stuck in place sand bed tells me that regular siphoning wasn't done during the 16 years of enjoyment.

Well, I have to admit I did buy a frag today... first time I've had room in a very long time.

I suspect most of us, assuming no crash, follow the same pattern. Big empty tank, buy frags for a year or so until you find you have no place to put the new one, then stop. Some grow, some don't, some coral war winners have to be corralled... you prune and frag to keep the peace.

But eventually I figured it out - its the formations, the growth patterns that you only see when you let things grow naturally, that make the reef really stand out. After that I took it easy on the pruning work and let nature take it's course.

Personally I think a large tank with just one species, maybe Galaxea or Heliopora or Monti or whatever, would look better than what I ended up with.

I've not seen a large tank with one species. Though I've seen a couple smallish cubes with one type of coral. I thought they were pretty cool. One "note" so to speak, yet different from all the rest. Simple.

 

[rt67ghy]

'I suspect most of us, assuming no crash, follow the same pattern. Big empty tank, buy frags for a year or so until you find you have no place to put the new one, then stop.'

Very true.

'Some grow, some don't, some coral war winners have to be corralled... you prune and frag to keep the peace.'


I think this would be the better option than to try to reposition a particular coral in another part of the tank where it may not do so well. It would fill up not only the horizontal spaces in the tank but also the vertical spaces lending to a more natural look.

'But eventually I figured it out - its the formations, the growth patterns that you only see when you let things grow naturally, that make the reef really stand out. After that I took it easy on the pruning work and let nature take it's course.'

Thanks for sharing your insight and experience. I think if, those who desire a natural formation of coral growth, follow this method we could end up with amazing reefs that you see in nature without having to fill up our tanks with the most stunning (and usually the most expensive) corals we can find (although I have nothing against keeping rare or expensive corals).

'Personally I think a large tank with just one species, maybe Galaxea or Heliopora or Monti or whatever, would look better than what I ended up with.'


This would have its own beauty. I could imagine what a tank with a massive outcropping of a particular coral would look like. This would make it easier for us to provide the exact needs of that species and I think, thereby allow for more rapid growth without the problem of competition.

 

[rt67ghy]

A solid stuck in place sand bed tells me that regular siphoning wasn't done during the 16 years of enjoyment.

I imagine that this could happen over time and as the OP stated the rocks became stuck together probably from sponge growth. I expect it would continue to do its work of biological filtration with pathways having already being created by worms and such creatures throughout the sand bed. In your experience, was coral growth/health affected by not siphoning the sand?

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

I don't think I ever vacuumed the gravel. Maybe half of it was accessible when the tank was new and toward the end there wasn't much you could reach.

It was mostly polyps and Monti anyway. I think the bed got deeper over the years from the coralline algae scraped off the front glass.

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Two years later, almost to the day, I had to prune for the first time.

From 2 years ago:



2 days ago:


The big winner for some perverse reason was a small colony of what I'm pretty sure are Palythoa. They and some zoanthids are covering a lot of territory. The Heliopora is the reason for pruning - encroaching on all neighbors, including a frag of Turbinaria that grew into a medium sized colony.

I put a collar on the pipe in the center of the tank where I thought the Monti and the Helio would meet. Intent was to move it when they grew on it so as to break the skeleton and stop the growth, but I didn't do that and had some serious chipping to do to break the collar free. Before and after:

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Four and a half years later...

 

[JohnL]

Four and a half years later...
View attachment 32378013

Thanks for the update. Nice to see the tank is still going strong.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Blue ridge - I too had a great wall that grew out of the water and everywhere else.