Upscales Microlados Acro Grow-Out Contest sp. by Cultivated Reef

[mitten_reef]

On 6/9/2018 at 2:45 AM, This guy is extra salty said:

 

sorry I had to with that old as$ frag rack there was your $h!7 talk Friday lol 

 

Yes it's an old corner frag rack by eshopp that I cut down, and broke it in the process ?‍♂️.  If you think that's bad, you'll probably laugh at what I do for frag racks at times when I had more frags. I pretty much just glued egg crates with lying-around hydor Koralia magnets.  I'm too cheap too spend $$ on the pretty frag rack - they all get covered in $hit anyway.  Unless you're @HarryPotter, who can turn a frag rack into an acro colony (look at his classified, you'll see what I mean). 

These 4 frags shouldn't even be on a rack any more, only if it weren't because I ran out of space on the scape. 

[Figster]

Man oh man where have I been, missing out on all these “Friday” conversations, well there’s always next Friday, can’t sulk in the past now can we. I’m a present time sort of guy and here I present you now something amazing:

 

 

I FINALLY HAVE POLYP EXTENSION!

 

sorry for overdoing that but I thought I was lagging behind because almost everyone had awesome PE and I well, had none. The thing has been encrusting like mad though. 

 

On a sad note, my starry Blenny affectionately named “Groucho” has passed away after four years. He was a cool fish with a bad attitude. The tank felt empty with only two fish in there so I decided to try my hand with a goby, never had one before but Im not too fond of very small fish, the scissortail goby though seemed like a good sized fish so I thought I take the plunge.

 

[teenyreef]

That encrustation is awesome! I think you may way ahead of the rest of us based on that.

[Polarcollision]

it’s not update time, but look at my little guy finally settling in. Look at it! 🙂

[Figster]

14 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

it’s not update time, but look at my little guy finally settling in. Look at it! 🙂

That is one happy acro 👍

 

[HarryPotter]

Mine would be a watermelon-size colony by now! Y’all are slowpokes! Are you even reefing, bro? Did you remember the water?! 

 

#TrashTalkTuesday

[Cannedfish]

Welp, you know what time is it? That’s right, time for bad tv and sweatpants! Yup, after traveling for the last few weekend I’m going full pre-cigarettes and Diet Coke diet Karl Lagerfeld and letting myself go. I apologize for missing last week, but I was too busy taking advantage of free distillery tasting and wearing cowboy boots in Nash-Vegas while moonlighting for work. By too busy,  I mean I was an idiot and forgot to take a picture. But never mind, it’s Sh$t Talk Friday!

 

I don’t know what y’all have been doing, but y’all should be afraid y’all.  Not only did I get my hands on a shirt that says Y’ALL in big letters across the front last weekend (now wherever I go people will automatically know I can’t read or count above nine and a half) but my alk has been rock solid for 3 weeks now. Never mind that my phosphate is hanging at .29 ppm, but whatever, we can’t all be a Gwenyth Paltrow. I really don’t know what everyone else has been doing (besides @teenyreef (aka teenychef aka teenyreefarole) who has been busy filling my thread and stomach with delicious casserole recipes) because the N-R has been dead the last couple weeks    (Let’s hope it’s just the summertime).  Anyways here are two pictures comparing two weeks ago to today... y’all. 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

The second picture looked like it's been messed with...it looks a bit pinched in from the sides, just to make the branch looks a tad bit longer than it really is...

 

Whatever, nice growth man!

 

@Nola Bear, I think this contest needs longer than 6 months.  Just so my frag has a chance to catch up with this ridiculous growth spurt @Cannedfish's frag is having.  Like @This guy is extra salty said, he's definitely juicing. 

[Figster]

June update! Not too much branching growth going on, but plenty of encrusting and color! 

[This guy is extra salty]

I’m not going to bother with my embarrassing “growth” photo 

the only thing that is notable is that I have regained color.

 

i had an algae outbreak after finding out my tank sitter (now fired) fed the fish too much “cause they kept swimming towards them” 😭 Now my fuge is running 18hrs a day.. chaeto anyone?

[Figster]

2 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

I’m not going to bother with my embarrassing “growth” photo 

the only thing that is notable is that I have regained color.

 

i had an algae outbreak after finding out my tank sitter (now fired) fed the fish too much “cause they kept swimming towards them” 😭 Now my fuge is running 18hrs a day.. chaeto anyone?

That happened to me once too, when I came back after a week my tank was on the verge of crashing because a months worth of food was dumped in a week. Needless to say I now let my fish go hungry for a week, I just feed them really well a few weeks before I go anywhere. Sorry for your troubles, I feel your pain 🤕

[mitten_reef]

IT'S MY FRIDAY!!! WOOT WOOT!  

 

That's all I got for my version of shit talke Friday.

 

Nothing to report as far as growth in the last month.  the frag had been building on some mass and encrusting, it may even be getting ready to throw out a branch - yeah, whoa.  But it still hadn't had any growth spurt worth tooting any horn - unlike certain contestant (cough cough @Cannedfish).  I'm convinced he's documenting photos of a frag that's not even an upscale microlados just to win the contest based on his growth compared to everyone else.   😝

 

Been working way too much the last 2 wks, so no time for pics.  Going on vacay til next wednesday.  Things in the tank had been moving along just fine.  If the tank survives the long wknd, there'll be some pics update.  I haven't had any time to work with the doser - which just arrived yesterday 🤬.  

[Cannedfish]

8 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

IT'S MY FRIDAY!!! WOOT WOOT!  

 

That's all I got for my version of shit talke Friday.

 

Nothing to report as far as growth in the last month.  the frag had been building on some mass and encrusting, it may even be getting ready to throw out a branch - yeah, whoa.  But it still hadn't had any growth spurt worth tooting any horn - unlike certain contestant (cough cough @Cannedfish).  I'm convinced he's documenting photos of a frag that's not even an upscale microlados just to win the contest based on his growth compared to everyone else.   😝

 

Been working way too much the last 2 wks, so no time for pics.  Going on vacay til next wednesday.  Things in the tank had been moving along just fine.  If the tank survives the long wknd, there'll be some pics update.  I haven't had any time to work with the doser - which just arrived yesterday 🤬.  

Oh snap! It’s on!

[tanacharison]

I need to update a picture by Sunday.  Sadly no really new upward growth to brag about and I'm just now starting to see some encrusting after mounting it. My window for taking 1st place is shrinking. On a very positive direction I have other corals growing like gangbusters and still holding great color. The temptation to change things around just to beat @teenyreef at this contest is hard. I feel the urge for my pico contest revenge. However I just continue to remind myself his TOTM was not because he chased after making one corals growth. Maybe my Microlados is on vaction with @Cannedfish Speaking of TOTM... the way your last updates on insta are looking you have my votes. I'm going to count us all as winners this holiday weekend just for joining in on the contest fun. Note.. If you want me to win next contest should be Psammacora, Leptastrea or Favia 😉

[Cannedfish]

Welp, y’all know what time it is, that’s right: Sh$t Talk Friday: The Saturday Edition! I know, I know before y’all start bustin’ my balls about ‘how dat don’t make no kinda sense,’ I have an excuse. And that excuse is that I made the ill-informed decision to go visit a friend in the French Quarter, and before I knew it was 3:30AM and I was ripping flaming Dr. Pepper shots and attempting to prove to people that I actually could ‘busta move” (I can’t). Pretty much anything after that has been lost to history. I know, someone’s probably ask “whether I’m too old to be making those kind of sophomoric decisions,” and to that I would say “I have no idea what sophomoric means and for all I know it could mean awesome.” With that half-assed explanation behind us let’s move on to the disclaimer. Due to the as fore mentioned awesome decisions, I am currently sitting in a sauna with a raging headache, drinking pedialyte, while doing my best to sweat out Satan’s nectar. Needless to say, I’m not bringing my “A game” this Friday. That boat has sailed. Also I’m not entirely sure I have an “A game,” so you should probably hold off on expecting that in the future as well. Oi vey, I need a beer. 

 

Alright, on to my frag. Surprisingly, it’s not nearly the flaming train wreck that could otherwise describe my current status. The problem is the fact that instead of focusing all it’s power on growing in one general direction (per our agreed upon legally executed plan) it ripped up the playbook and is growing in two directions. Normally a nice bushy acro is great, it’s not only pleasing to the eye but also really adds to the tank’s over all feng shui (side note: it’s funny that Apple wants to auto-correct that to “fang slut”). But these aren’t  “normal” times! There’s nearly 5,691 Paraguayan Guaranis on the line! That’s almost 181 pounds of lean pork according Friday’s closing commodity prices. Damnit, this little piggy needs to bring home the bacon! I haven’t read many books that aren’t technically considered coloring books (or if your fancy “colouring books”), but I’m pretty sure no has ever written the phase “desperate times call for desperate bushy acro growth!” No one has uttered that ever. That being said it really getting to the point where I need to formulate and implement “Dastardly cheat scheme #1.”

 

Anyways, I’m glad that @Figster frag misread read the memo where it explicitly said that this is a ‘grow out’ contest and not an ‘encrusting’ contest. Key words being not encrusting. And that @micoastreefing is too busy screwing off on vacation, probably drinking something fancy like a Bellini or anytype beer that doesn’t misspell the word “Lite.” And lastly, I see what @tanacharison is doing: trying to feed my ego so I take my hands off the wheel. Well that’s not going to work buddy, because I ride the bus!

 

———-

 

Alright, now that this hooch is about sweated out, it’s time to start drinking! And with that, here’s this week’s “poorly framed, not quite focused, crappy, colored, cell pic.” Enjoy. 

 

 

  

[Ebn]

Hmm, didn't even know that this piece was in a grow out contest. Just picked up this piece from Maximus earlier this month. Tagging along to see how much growth you guys get in comparison to mine, which isn't part of this contest. About 3 weeks in and already starting to see it encrusting. 

[spectra]

Mine still looks better and I even knocked it off the rock.................

[Cannedfish]

Monthly growth picture. I would write more and possibly something witty if I wasn’t so pissed that I broke a tiny part off the growth tip attempting to get this picture. On a positive note it looks like it’s grown to little over 3.5 cm!

 

 

End of month: June 2018

 

End of month: May 2018

[teenyreef]

5 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Monthly growth picture. I would write more and possibly something witty if I wasn’t so pissed that I broke a tiny part off the growth tip attempting to get this picture. On a positive note it looks like it’s grown to little over 3.5 cm!

 

 

End of month: June 2018

 

End of month: May 2018

Holy crap you are kicking buttski! I'm pretty sure mine looks exactly the same as last month. But I was out of town until last night, so I'm hoping that while I was gone it did something wonderful. Like not dying.

[mitten_reef]

Ok, tank survived the long weekend, without dosing. 

Here’s the frag this afternoon. The tips are still stunted, no extension/growth to be seen - yet, I’m still hopeful that there’ll be progress soon. 

 

 

[Polarcollision]

I’m 4 days late on my June growth update, but there was actually GROWTH last month!!!! The branch closest to camera added about 4mm to bring it level with the rear branch. PLUS! the 3rd branch forming at the base has turned into a fat little nubbin. As you can see I also grew a bunch of hair algae in the last 2 weeks. Can we have a consolation prize for growing hair algae? Especially considering the only way to catch up to cannedfish now is to wish him tank troubles.

[Cannedfish]

1 hour ago, Polarcollision said:

I’m 4 days late on my June growth update, but there was actually GROWTH last month!!!! The branch closest to camera added about 4mm to bring it level with the rear branch. PLUS! the 3rd branch forming at the base has turned into a fat little nubbin. As you can see I also grew a bunch of hair algae in the last 2 weeks. Can we have a consolation prize for growing hair algae? Especially considering the only way to catch up to cannedfish now is to wish him tank troubles.

Awesome job!! I mean *cough* terrible job!!l For a second there I almost forgot my manners and that this is a competition! There’s no crying in baseball and certainly no niceties in coral growth combat!

 

I wouldn’t be too worried about my lead. Y’all are forgetting about the ace up y’all’s sleeves that y’all didn’t even know y’all had (that’s a four y’all sentence!), and that is the fact that I’m leaving the continent for over a week right at the beginning of next month. And if that isn’t enough, I would analogize our house keepers fish husbandry skills to Stevie Wonders heart surgery skills. Sure he can tickle the keys and sing with soul but I wouldn’t trust him with a scalpel. I am just trying to build enough of a lead, so that when he inevitably kills everything in my take I can coast to the finish line. Using all of my legal skills, I’m pretty sure I didn’t read any thing in the fine print saying the coral had to be alive to win... With that being said, @tanacharison my dreams of TOTM, end right around August 7th. 

 

Also I’m pretty sure @teenyreef is sandbagging, so there’s that.

 

[Cannedfish]

Welp, it’s that time again, post Independence Day American hangover. I have so much patriotism running through my blood right now, if you cut me I would literally bleed midwestern 7-layer salad, poorly decorated sheet cake, roadside fireworks, and your Aunt Karan’s family drama. Ahh, outside of Jean shorts and overzealous views of college sports, this is what it truly means to feel American. *High-fives Francis Scott Key*

 

Anyway, on to Sh$t Talk Friday. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to sh$t talk right now, because 1) things have been so quiet around NR lately I am starting to become concerned there’s a zombie outbreak happening somewhere that I don’t, but should, know about, 2) things are kinda in a holding pattern, 3) I haven’t really started the weekend festivities yet. So I hope y’all have a great weekend and I hope someone does some regrettable while naked, like punch a cop car (disclaimer: I hope that person isn’t me this weekend). 

 

Here your weekly growth pic:

 

 

 

 

[teenyreef]

2 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Welp, it’s that time again, post Independence Day American hangover. I have so much patriotism running through my blood right now, if you cut me I would literally bleed midwestern 7-layer salad, poorly decorated sheet cake, roadside fireworks, and your Aunt Karan’s family drama. Ahh, outside of Jean shorts and overzealous views of college sports, this is what it truly means to feel American. *High-fives Francis Scott Key*

 

Anyway, on to Sh$t Talk Friday. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to sh$t talk right now, because 1) things have been so quiet around NR lately I am starting to become concerned there’s a zombie outbreak happening somewhere that I don’t, but should, know about, 2) things are kinda in a holding pattern, 3) I haven’t really started the weekend festivities yet. So I hope y’all have a great weekend and I hope someone does some regrettable while naked, like punch a cop car (disclaimer: I hope that person isn’t me this weekend). 

 

Here your weekly growth pic:

 

 

 

 

Maybe it's me, but I'm pretty sure the only difference in the last month is you cropped this month's picture tighter to make the frag look bigger 

 

Speaking of no change in the last month, I forgot to post my updates the other day. The bryopsis is clearing out now, but I think things really slowed down last month when it started taking over. There might be a tiny bit more encrustation, but its still checking in at exactly 19mm 

 

 

[Cannedfish]

25 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Maybe it's me, but I'm pretty sure the only difference in the last month is you cropped this month's picture tighter to make the frag look bigger 

Umm, there’s no business like show business.