I wouldn't be worried about paying off the rest of the system, but at least pay for the coral I buy and quickly. Like I just bought my first couple pieces of coral so I don't know how quickly the stuff grows.

That's what I do, the first time I fragged a coral it was a colony of RDE and Eagle Eyes I bought at the store for $45 over about two months I cut 1/4 of the colonies into 15 frags to pay for that coral I bought and then get some more. Basically it depends on what you buy, if you buy small frags of common zoas don't expect to be fragging and selling much, but if you find something a big piece of something nice you could get lucky and propagate and frag it to back for the price of the coral. For me it has worked out great, fragging allows me to pay for some nice corals might not otherwise be able to justify and pass on the deal to others.

Well for instance, if you want to get a nice sized colony to keep some in your display and then frag off the rest, how many polyps do you aim for? (Talkin about zoas here)

For zoas I try to buy a nice 150-200 polyp colony for about $45 to $60 then I let it settle in for a few weeks, I then frag anywhere from 6-9 5 polyp frags, grow them out until they get to 10-20 polyps, and sell them for $1 a polyp. So I end up with around a 100+ polyps usually. But keep in mind you shouldn't just pick any zoa colony I try to get in the store right when they get new colonies in so that I can cherry pick a few nice ones.

Right. Down here all the LFS' sell brown whack polyps. If they have nice ones, they sell them for $5+/polyp. I just got a badass deal from a shop that is closing down for $0.80/polyp for some purple and green and orange and yellow polyps. I only got 25 of the purples and 15ish of the oranges though.

If there were decent colony of polyps that had 100-120 of them it would sell for $100-200 unless they were those micro sized polyps.

Thanks for the input though man

No problem, try out the Live Aquaria Diver's Den, they have great colonies of all nice stuff. It might cost a bit extra initially to get them but they could pay for themselves after a bit of fragging.

Ey Brian, check out these Paly's I got today:


They are so awesome.

Wow! Awesome find!!! Palys with a "structure" and colorationare what I always look for. LMK when you're gonna frag them and maybe we could do a trade. I want them!Did you get them at the LFS?

Yep, got them at the LFS. I think I grossly underpaid though. Paid ~$2.50/polyp and got a couple of cool polyp hitchhikers on it too. Any idea what these are normally worth?

Never seen them before so I couldn't tell you how much they're worth. So pretty much they're worth what people are going to pay for them. Try a zoa id forum like Reef2reef and if they are unnamed you couldprobably name them whatever you want. I th.ink they are real nice and so will alot of other people will too.

My paly/zoa frag pack arrived!!! I'm temp acclimating right now, the bags are a chilly 69 degrees!!! So I'm a little worried about them making it. But I have some confidence in the resilience of zoas and palys.

Pics when I'm done

69F is nothing dude, they will be fine!

Thanks that's good to hear! I usually never check the temperature on stuff when it comes in, so when I did check it I was a little surprised.

Oh dude, check out these zoas I got the other day:


The ones front and center.

Building up a pretty nice collection.

Nice greens ones, they look like a little like Radioactive Dragon Eyes but with a different skirt and really nice colors.

NEED FRAGS!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hahah wait another month or two and I'll have some frags for you. In two weeks I'm getting another pack in the mail, to give you a preview it has Green People Eaters

Ahhhhhhhhh want. MY bday is in 9 days I want to buy myself a frag pack

Any updates on the frag pack?

By the way, quick side question. Those paly's I've got has 14 heads and about 5-6 babies starting to poke out. I'm wondering, in your experience, how quick do the little babies turn into full fledged adults?

Well some of the stuff has opened and are looking well, but the Mohawk palys are a little mad. We'll see how it turns out. As for growth rate of new palys, it depends on the type but I noticed it takes around two weeks for most of my palys new growths to go from bumps to full polyps. They take a little longer to reach full adult size, spot feeding mysis shrimp to each polyp should also increase growth.

Will the polyps close up to eat? The other day I used some tweezers to put a piece of mysis ontop of one of the paly's. It cupped the mysis (probably because I touched it and it got scared). I kept the pumps off for a while to ensure the piece didn't float away. I watched for a good 5-10 minutes and didn't really notice it doing anything. I turned the pumps back on and checked back about 20 minutes later and it was gone. Not sure if the clown took it or the paly ate it.

The palys I have engulf the food just like when they close, they usually have a bit of mysis sticking out. When I come back in about twenty minutes they are open with a tiny bit of mysis sticking out of their green mouths. Feeding responses depend on the paly type some eat some might not, I'd say try feeding them again.

Thanks dude, I'll try and feed them again tomorrow.

Are duncans worth getting? Do they grow fast enough to warrant the space in a frag tank?

I don't keep duncans because I don't like them as much as palys, and after looking into it a few people pointed out that the market has become oversaturated with duncans and prices have really dropped.

Gotcha, thanks for the help, I'm sure I'll come up with more questions sooner or later (probably sooner).

Edit: Wow that was fast.. When shipping frags, what is usually the policy on specimens that die during shipping? I'm sure it varies from seller to seller but what is the norm? I haven't ever bought anything living (save for chaeto) online.

I've had frags shipped to me a couple of times, I always pay the extra 20 or 30 bucks for overnight and make sure they have some kind of live arrival policy, the guy I just bought from said if the Mohawks perish he has more to send to, some people will replace them, others refund the purchase without shipping included, as you said it varies a bit. But don't worry about shipping as long as you're dealing with a reputable seller.

I'm actually more worried about when the time comes to ship mine out!

Oh well if I were you I'd check out the how to ship threads, get the heat packs, bags, and styrofoam together. It isn't hard to do if you pack the corals right and send it express or overnight. For a guarantee I would say try shipping once see how it goes before sending a bunch out and risking it, but I would do a money back live arrive guarantee with pics of the dead coral and only valid on the 1 day shipping.

Gotcha man, thanks for bien a champ and answering muh questions

no problem anytime

Nuke Greens and purple deaths opened up! Damn they are small, they are about the size of your average zoa polyp, but I'll grow them big and strong by feeding them mysis . The Stardust People Eaters are my new favorites I got about 11 polyps and they are nice!!! The "rainbow" (palys or zoas) are just a little dissapointing and I don't think they are palys they are a little smaller than expected and don't look much like rainbow palys in pics. Mohawks haven't opened yet and are looking a little flat and sick, not gonna be too worried if they die as there was a guarantee but I'd still be a little dissapointed.

I've decided I'm going to be mostly collecting nice People Eaters or similar size palys, not because of the fact that they are rare. I like bigger palys because they always have great colors and size, they grow fast for me and they are easy to frag.

Anyone have a favorite People Eater Paly? I'm looking to find some more nice ones

As for future plans for the tank,

I'm a little mixed on whether to go into a display tank or frag tank, I'll figure out what I want to do with it right now I'm 50/50 split on frag v. Display. I think once I get a nice collection going I'll end up going into a display tank.

FRAG TANK!
No but really I guess it depends on what size you're talkin about. If it were me, I'd use it as a frag tank for 6mos to a year and then you've got a badass collection going, turn it into a DT!

Yeah that's basically my plan. I think I like having a frag tank better than a normal tank any way . I'll probably keep the frag tank going for a while and like you said build up a nice collection of my favorite palys.

As for a display tank in the coming months I'm thinking a 3g picotope, to kind of serve as an "ark" for my collection in case of a tank crash and for college so I can cram it as full as I can with my collection and bring it with me. No fish just some one polyps frags of all my nice stuff set on the rocks and left to grow. Only worry would be lighting, I don't know if 36 watts of CF would give nice coloration compared to the 20k on my frag tank.

My list of palys to get
-Er1c’s Palys
-Darth Mauls
-Magicians
-KO’s Nightmares
-Pyro’s Envy
-Orange People Eaters
-Any PE's except RPE, PEoA's, GPE, or Stardust PE (already have or am getting them)

I'm planning on aquiring most of these over few months but it could take longer, depending on how hard to find them, cash availabilty, and getting distracted by palys I like more.

You should add Rabbit Holes to your list!

I don't know of any small wattage, high kelvin lights. I mean you could always go with a 20w 50/50, or even two of the 20w 50/50's. Just one would be more then enough lighting in a 3g for polyps though.

The Current dual 18W Satellite is about your best bet for PCs. The dual actinics make all the difference in the world compared to the Coralife dual 18W.

Or, you could always go LED (nudge, nudge, wink, wink )

Btw, evilc... Do you have a page somewhere with a list of all the materials needed to do a LED setup? I mean I wanna do one for my 20L but it's a bit daunting.

You already know I want those! Now frag them!


Thanks, I'll have to remember to get the Current Dual 18w. I would so do LED, you know the stock picotope light? Could you put like three or four 3 watt LEDs on a custom heat sink and make something like that? My engineering class has a CNC machine and a Laser Cutter. Would 3 or 4 3 watt leds work for something like I'd like to do?

I wanna be in the LED club

Wait a second. You've got a CNC machine and a laser cutter (for acrylic?) at your disposal and you haven't built anything? Dude, what?

Well for the first two terms we had to design and build dumb project stuff on the laser cutter, but now we're finishing up with that stuff in a few weeks and I want to make a couple of my own remora skimmers and whatever else I want. Any ideas?

The laser cutter can cut lots of stuff, it cuts acrylic better than anything I've seen! Just make something on Autocad and put the file along with the material in the machine and presto.

MORE PICTURES B!

Sure I'll go take some, not of the new pack though. I need to grow it out and its not open fully

Yeah I have a great idea: MAKE ONE FOR ME TOO!!!

I don't have a page, but I am trying to finish up an article to post on NR as a kind of "Idiots Guid to LEDs", if you'll pardon the phrase. Keep an eye out in the lighting forum.



You might be able to make something that is about the same size as the stock light, but not something that will fit in it and work. You won't have any way to get airflow to it. With only 3 or 4 LEDs, you may not need a fan if the heatsink is desinged right. You could probably canabalize the stock light for the arm and the clamp.

3 or 4 LEDs will be a little on the light side for power for a pico. I'd say it would be equivalent to somewhere between the single and the dual 18W Satellite. The fixtures I build have 10 LEDs and 3 times the PAR of the dual Satellite.

I'll have to look into doing something like in a month or two, I'll probably start designing it in cad and solidworks, than buy the stuff later. I'll aim for something equivalent to or a little better than the current dual, I can't figure out all the bells and whistles like putting in a dimmer . By the way if a pico was my main tank I would so have already bought your fixture it is awesome!!! Looks very proffesional like you'd buy it at the store

Pics in 30 minutes

Been way more than 30 minutes dude

yeah I took the pics and added them to my photobucket but when I copy the the image link and try to paste it the computer freezes I tried to do it on all three of my computers I'll try again.

My first corals mushrooms and anthelia




Fire in The Skys, I'd like to know what everyone thinks of these. I like them but don't know if frags would sell if I made them. I bought it for $60

Eagle Eyes are growing well


Frag of Fire in the Skys and Radioactive Dragon Eyes and some orangier zoas? maybe just more fire in the skys can't wait for it to grow out and cover the SPS skeleton


Top Down


As you can see I like top down because my hanging MH pendant lets me snap some decent pics and zoas and palys really should be fewed from the topdown for the full effect. Do I hear a top down tank build?

The new stuff is still adjusting to the light, except they PD's and NG they are open but the guy sent me dissapointing little baby polyps

Wow I totally missed taking any pictures of my Palys, the lights are off so I'll try to get some pics of those tomorrow. They are kinda hard to get a good shot of but I'll try.

IMO The Fire in the Sky's are AWESOME. TBH Probably my favorite in that pack. There's like 5 or 6 different morphs on that rock. Dude, very cool. The green ones make it just that much more badass IMO.

Thanks!, I saw them at the lfs and they looked a little drab and brown but the it showed potential with the red skirts. After a few weeks under my lights it started looking way better. I have to say the closest lfs to me sucks it has brown zoas for high prices but I managed to find a good one in Boston wher i got these, It's worth the trip to find a good lfs. Are there any decent lfs in Florida.

There's one down here I love. it's where I got the yellow zoos, hammer, xenia and those paly's. Awesome prices. In fact I think I'ma go pick something new up tomorrow.