I'm married--I can't just keep buying bigger tanks.

Gyr

Gyr

New member
I am curious what other SPS keepers do when their tanks mature. Due to the great advice I have gotten from this forum, I have been blessed with a successful SPS-dominant reef. My last upgrade was to a 125 gallon tank 2 years ago. My SPS colonies have matured nicely, and are now getting so large that I have lost the 'open look' to my tank that I prefer. Not only that, but overcrowding is starting to cause flow/overgrowth problems.

I have been fragging and selling back to my LFS's for store credit, but my supply is exceding their demands. It has gotten to the point that I am debulking colonies and throwing the pieces out. While throwing out large pieces of a coral I spent >$50 for a 1 inch frag for years ago stings a bit, my main problem is that I have come to love these beautiful living creatures and it just feels wrong.

The idea of selling frags on-line seems very daunting to me. Packaging for survival must be complicated and the cost of shipping must be prohibitive for small operations.

Should I just get over my squeamishness and look at it as if I am pruning bonsai trees (sacrifice living parts to achieve a desired aesthetic effect), or is there another option? I have cut down my lighting cycle to try to decrease growth, but that has only helped a little. The bigger the colonies get, the faster they grow. I wouldn't have believed this would be a problem for me years ago when I first tried my hand at SPS....
 
get a couple of angels or an Idol, will take care of fragging for you.

or set up a frag tank, and advertise online for pick up ...

one of the best problems to have :)

OR. ppl love LARGE colonies, so sell them all, and keep frags for yourself, and start over from frags again ! could be fun !
 
Allmost said:
get a couple of angels or an Idol, will take care of fragging for you.

or set up a frag tank, and advertise online for pick up ...

one of the best problems to have :)

OR. ppl love LARGE colonies, so sell them all, and keep frags for yourself, and start over from frags again ! could be fun !
Click to expand...

Advertising for local pick up only is a great idea. Especially since I like the idea of selling large colonies....

Think I'll get my camera out, post some pics in the 'Livestock selling thread.'

You're right, its a great 'problem' to have.

Thanks for the advice,

Kurt
 
Hello fellow 916'er. You have what my wife and I refer to as "white girl problems" :lol:

Have you visited the MARS subforum on reef central? You could probably sell larger frags/colonies to locals available for pickup pretty easily. If you're going to end up throwing them away, better to at least offer them to people for a reduced price first. Nobody can resist cheap SPS.
 
silentscream said:
Hello fellow 916'er. You have what my wife and I refer to as "white girl problems" :lol:

Have you visited the MARS subforum on reef central? You could probably sell larger frags/colonies to locals available for pickup pretty easily. If you're going to end up throwing them away, better to at least offer them to people for a reduced price first. Nobody can resist cheap SPS.
Click to expand...

"white girl problems" That's hilarious.
MARS...cool. I had no idea. I'll give it a try.

Thanks
 
you could always give them to fellow reefers here since you said they got you to the point of zen with your corals pay it forward.
 
Like others side just post in your local forum. I also check out bareefers.org I believe that's where most of the local trading/selling happens

Other options is to set up a frag tank it's what I did. You don't have to worry about rock work etc so you have more room keep it very utilitarian. That way you can keep fragging the DT then sell/trade/give away bigger nicer pieces

Another option is to sell off a few of the quicker growers sell like 90% of it and keep a frag for yourself.

With that said shipping really is not a big deal at all. You'll do it once and wonder what all the hub-bub was about all this time. Just double bag them, styrofoam box, some packing peanuts, and a heat pack. Most stuff ships just fine, let things encrust before you ship/sell and you will have some happy campers.

or if are more in the "I need a challenge" sort of mode. I can send you some AEFW, Red Bugs, or Monti Nudis ;)
 
bump.........

bump.........

i would like to "WELCOME"... you kurt to the Mars forum....in the west coast forums....my name is Mike and im the President of Mars....we would love to meet and greet you to attend our monthly meeting on Friday March 16th at the roundtable pizza madison/greenback in folsom,if you post on the forum maybe you will be able to trade/sell/ or swap corals...maybe we can see you there.....mike:wave:
 
dvanacker said:
Pictures or it didnt happen. :)
Click to expand...

So true...

picture.php


Kind of a mess, huh?
 
Last edited:
nonstopfishies said:
Wow. It's a forest!

Do you have a full tank shot?
Click to expand...

No matter how I try to adjust my camera, my front-view FTS shots always turn out cruddy. The coral looks bleached out. The best I can do is a side-view:

picture.php



I spent about an hour today taking some close ups of the individual corals that I'd like to de-bulk and the frags I've already cut. I gotta put the kids to bed now, but I hope to post a few of those shots to the "livestock for sale" and MARS forums tonight. If I can't get back to it tonight, they should be there in a couple of days (I work a 12-hour shift tomorrow so I won't be able to get to it until then).

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone.
 
Gyr said:
No matter how I try to adjust my camera, my front-view FTS shots always turn out cruddy. The coral looks bleached out. The best I can do is a side-view:

picture.php



I spent about an hour today taking some close ups of the individual corals that I'd like to de-bulk and the frags I've already cut. I gotta put the kids to bed now, but I hope to post a few of those shots to the "livestock for sale" and MARS forums tonight. If I can't get back to it tonight, they should be there in a couple of days (I work a 12-hour shift tomorrow so I won't be able to get to it until then).

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone.
Click to expand...

how long was your tank running?
this is incredible
 
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