Maricultured Pieces care and plug treatment

[trueblackpercula]

ok So I am looking for some advice and guidance on caring for Maricultured Sps. I have access to unlimited supply of Maricultured from a friend who imports them for amazing prices I mean so cheap there is no need to ever go to a store again LOL

I would like to know
1) do you remove the plugs they come on Yes or No?
2) How do you acclimate them to your lights?
3) do you Dip them and for how long? I did this but still trying to get answers for others as well.
4) what was you survival rate ?
5) what flow? high, medium or low?
6) how much lighting a day?
7) what are you levels water quality ?

Below are a few pictures and a cool video. Please post pictures of yours As i would love to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_oy5ZLsBbA


Any help would be greatly appreciated. I recievded them yesterday and thay look amazing all nine of them LOl

 

[chuckbuc]

Looks good bro ,,,i have a few marcultured peices that made it .

 

[Dapg8gt]

In my opinion it's a no no to put the mariculture plugs in the tank. Just for the simple fact of aefw eggs, no dip or treatment eradicates them so it's a gamble imo adding them.

I have frags of wild colonies/mariculture as back ups from friends but I only have one that was a mariculture mini coloy that I bought and it was a Bali slimer about a year ago from a unique corals order. It was super healthy and didn't skip a beat on acclimation, although not known for being really picky so not much help on acclimation lol. Actually thinking of getting rid of it along with a lot of other stuff as the tank is way overcrowded

..
Crappy picture of it top right of the tank..

 

[trueblackpercula]

Yes i completely understand about the eggs, Believe me I looked at each one under a maginifying glass and took close up pictures of them and looked again. I didnt see anything at all but who knows only time will tell. I didn't even see any aefw on the bottom of the container and i dipped them three times 15 minutes each time. I hope they make it as they are all amazing and the size of them are really nice.

don't take out your sps as they look amazing. How much light are you giving them a day?

Michael

 

[Dapg8gt]

Thanks for the compliment =).I've lurked on threads watching your progression also and I think your tank is doing great. Now with the mariculture hook up you have I forsee some good things in the future .

It's about 11hrs total on the t5's with a 2hr offset for each dusk/dawn as of now..

I'm really not planning on ditching to much just a good bit of the large common pieces the Bali being one of them.. I'll probably keep a frag and start over with it along the back or something . The Tank was started in October of 2013 it's already overgrown/overcrowded so it's a must to thin it out for coral health .. .

My future mariculture colonies are going to be going into a 4'x5' cube I have so I look forward to seeing what others post about their experiences..

 

[LEOx]

did you get them in NY? because they look like the pieces ralph and nelson brought to their store on sunday I picked up 6 pieces drip acclimated, bayer dipped n cut off the base and glued them to new plugs and keeping them on the sand bed going to slowly moved them up each week.

 

[trueblackpercula]

did you get them in NY? because they look like the pieces ralph and nelson brought to their store on sunday I picked up 6 pieces drip acclimated, bayer dipped n cut off the base and glued them to new plugs and keeping them on the sand bed going to slowly moved them up each week.

Yes I did get them In NY and I did pick them up on Sunday at about 1:00pm they are so nice I hope they make it. Did you see any aefw eggs or worms?
By the way post some pictures

 

[LEOx]

ill try to take some in the morning but worms did come off but didn't see any eggs. Is just best to cut off the base imo. Ill prob dip them again in a few days.

 

[trueblackpercula]

ill try to take some in the morning but worms did come off but didn't see any eggs. Is just best to cut off the base imo. Ill prob dip them again in a few days.

You seen aefw flat worms ???

 

[LEOx]

not aefw flat worms just several bristle worms. i wouldn't add them in my tank if i did see aefw flat worms

 

[trueblackpercula]

Oh ok I got worried for a second. I seen a lot of bristle worms as well and three gorilla crabs. I also see one more o. My blue piece and will deal with him tomorrow way to late right now.

 

[ZON]

is better unplug them..but.. we arrive only corals like that or wild big colony.. (because fragment is forbidden to sell)

i ever put mariculture plug in tank with no problem..the only problems can have are algae or some pests but is enougha dip in H202 to erase them..

 

[trueblackpercula]

is better unplug them..but.. we arrive only corals like that or wild big colony.. (because fragment is forbidden to sell)

i ever put mariculture plug in tank with no problem..the only problems can have are algae or some pests but is enougha dip in H202 to erase them..

Thank you so much for your kind Advice. I see you guys and gals in Italy have some amazing tanks. Please post a picture or two as I always enjoy seeing reef keepers tanks from other parts of the world.

 

[CleverD]

How do you safely remove them from the plugs and why are they called mark?

 

[PaleHorse]

cut and glue

 

[jda]

As stated, I would never put the plugs in the tank. They are known to have issues with MEN, AEFW and all other kinds of nastiness. I guess (not for sure) that the issue is that they are raised not on the reef where the natural predators will take care of the pests? No dips kill the eggs, so look really hard for them.

Some people dip the plugs in N times the strength dip as the corals and leave the SPS in the air for a while.

Also, some of them just won't look the same in captivity... some of them will color up better under our bluer lights. It is a crapshoot, but a worthwhile one.

 

[trueblackpercula]

As stated, I would never put the plugs in the tank. They are known to have issues with MEN, AEFW and all other kinds of nastiness. I guess (not for sure) that the issue is that they are raised not on the reef where the natural predators will take care of the pests? No dips kill the eggs, so look really hard for them.

Some people dip the plugs in N times the strength dip as the corals and leave the SPS in the air for a while.

Also, some of them just won't look the same in captivity... some of them will color up better under our bluer lights. It is a crapshoot, but a worthwhile one.

I know what you mean and I have been checking for AEFW everyday since I received them. I did use a high powered magnifier glass to look at them before placing them in the main display and the base of them for a long Time.

I hope that I did well and yes I have placed them on the bottom of the tank to acclimate them to my mitras and they already seem to look better then when I received them.
They do look a lot better under the bluer light and have full PE again tonight. My friend who picked up 15 pieces says his look good as well but he did loose one of them, but all in all they look good.

I do no that some people have stated that the plugs and the acros don't keep there colors but I don't see why this happens as we now have seem high powered equipment and with LEDs I can't see why we can't keep them going. I hope I am able to keep them and most of all I hope I don't have the dreaded AEFW.

 

[trueblackpercula]

here are a few close ups.

 

[Rob N Gab]

high flow, high to MEd light depending on type of acro. Strong flow mainly not direct.

Dip 8Minutes in Coral Rx .

Pick all gorilla crabs out.

if you have a band saw. Cut each base off (meaning the Bottom stem of the Acro)

Remount to Disk Or rock work for new growth promotion and fresh start for the acro.


Depending on getting straight from the box, you buy 10 maybe 7-8 survive .


water PARs is always 100% needed. Good water quality and stable conditions is KEY to holding acro . Lighting is just 25% of the cause. But you do need good fixtures and bulb combos to bring out certain colors.
]


Mind me asking How much you paid for each one ? Cause you did mention that SPS is starting to get more expensive.

 

[trueblackpercula]

high flow, high to MEd light depending on type of acro. Strong flow mainly not direct.

Dip 8Minutes in Coral Rx .

Pick all gorilla crabs out.

if you have a band saw. Cut each base off (meaning the Bottom stem of the Acro)
Remount to Disk Or rock work for new growth promotion and fresh start for the acro.
Depending on getting straight from the box, you buy 10 maybe 7-8 survive .
water PARs is always 100% needed. Good water quality and stable conditions is KEY to holding acro . Lighting is just 25% of the cause. But you do need good fixtures and bulb combos to bring out certain colors.
] Mind me asking How much you paid for each one ? Cause you did mention that SPS is starting to get more expensive.

Thanks for the advice, It almost seems like you guys from R2R are following my every post. But I will entertain it for now. The acroporas cost me for 8 pieces $200 but Anthony charges $30 to $35 each.

Now that that's out of the way thanks for the advice and I have actually lowered my intensity to 65% as I have one of the best leds fixtures on the market and plan on raising it 1% once a week until i get to where i want to be. I Will also say as of today all are doing very well under medium to high flow and I have actually target fed them.

I really don't think I am going to remove the bases on them as i need to be ably to move them around until i find the spot they like to be. I also don't see why i should remove the bases as I did dip them in RX coral dip three times at 15 minutes each dip and placed back in tank water in separate holding containers.

You are correct about the gorilla crabs as I removed three of them and the dip did not kill them but manual removal did. I did not see any AEFW or any eggs and I used a high powered magnifying glass. the plugs look really good and are really covered in several types of Coraline algae so I kept them for that reason and also being able to have the flexibility to move them around if needed.

I may even take them all out of the tank again and dip them three more times but I don't think that is necessary. I think that me being able to pick the sps right out of the box straight from the aqua cultured facility it kind of is better then buying them from a wholesaler holding tank and being around aefw and redbugs is less likely in my opinion.

As for the colors the maricultured pieces that we got me and my friend were all dripping in color and I don't understand what everyone is talking about. they don't seem any harder to keep then me buying wild collected aussie or fiji pieces. well the only difference is the price as they are dirt cheap and I could care less about the name brand sps out there with the exception of four or five that I need for my collection. Not because they are rare but I like they colors of them


thanks again keep in touch and please share some of your mari pieces as i would love to see them.

Michael