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

[This guy is extra salty]

 

Well ladies and gents 

my frag has to be the slowest grower, maybe got bummed out like you go to the gym and see everyone lifting heavyweights and you can barely lift the bar...I’m not going to bother with a measurement cause it has little to no encrustation and growth. I tip my hat to you @Cannedfish for your growth of this coral.

 

 

I think mine was scared cause of this bad boy, Making eye contact across the room...

 

[Christopher Marks]

Thanks to all who have participated in our first frag grow-out contest! This was a neat endeavor with some fun competition and camaraderie, I hope everyone enjoyed the journey!

 

Many thanks to @Cultivated Reef for their support! ❤️ We will convene to discuss the results and announce the winner soon! Stay tuned! 😛

 

[Cultivated Reef]

Good morning Ladies and Gentleman,

 

After many long grueling hours of debate and tedious hair pulling comparisons I believe the panel of judges has come to a unanimous decision.  Before I announce the winner I would like to thank all of you for participating in this first grow out contest here on nano reef.  I was very pleased to be asked to sponsor this event and I do appreciate all the good folks that make up this online community.  Nano Reef was one of my very first online forums that I signed up to sponsor and I have never regretted it.  Thank you @Nola Bear and @Christopher Marks for this experience.   But most importantly thanks be to all of you who participated.  

 

Alright so enough of that, lets get to it!  The winner of Upscales Microclados Acro Grow-Out Contest is ................................... @Cannedfish!    

 

@Polarcollision and @teenyreef were also forces to be reckoned with but did fall a bit short.  So I'm going to give both of you a $25 gift card to be used at your leisure while Cannedfish will get the big pot of $150.  If the three of you could email me at sales@cultivatedreef.com I will generate the gift cards and email them out.

 

Holly

 

[Cannedfish]

1 hour ago, Cultivated Reef said:

Good morning Ladies and Gentleman,

 

After many long grueling hours of debate and tedious hair pulling comparisons I believe the panel of judges has come to a unanimous decision.  Before I announce the winner I would like to thank all of you for participating in this first grow out contest here on nano reef.  I was very pleased to be asked to sponsor this event and I do appreciate all the good folks that make up this online community.  Nano Reef was one of my very first online forums that I signed up to sponsor and I have never regretted it.  Thank you @Nola Bear and @Christopher Marks for this experience.   But most importantly thanks be to all of you who participated.  

 

Alright so enough of that, lets get to it!  The winner of Upscales Microclados Acro Grow-Out Contest is ................................... @Cannedfish!    

 

@Polarcollision and @teenyreef were also forces to be reckoned with but did fall a bit short.  So I'm going to give both of you a $25 gift card to be used at your leisure while Cannedfish will get the big pot of $150.  If the three of you could email me at sales@cultivatedreef.com I will generate the gift cards and email them out.

 

Holly

 

Oh gosh!! This is such an honor! I'll keep this acceptance speech short, but... Oh gosh! I'm so excited! These are tears of joy I swear!! Where do I begin? I would like to first thank my mom and dad for giving me life. I would also like to thank the frag, despite trying my drunkin' hardest to end it's life, it lived and not only survived but grew...slightly... truly a team player. I would also like to thank Blenwood, I'm not sure if or how he help, but he would be pissed if I left him out. I would like to thank the Muppets, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Betty White, the guy who invented the washing machine, George T. Stagg, the color orange, the city of Livingston, ID, the LSU Marching Band Half-Time show, our toaster oven & hot pockets, people fighting to protect the Kakapo, Washboard Chaz...

 

But seriously, this was a lot of fun. Not just because I won all 1,118 Surinamese Dollars (whoop whoop!), but it was enjoyable to sh$t talk and check in with people weekly and monthly basis. I hope we can do something similar in the future. A big thanks goes out, for real, to @Cultivated Reef for sponsoring this event and to @Christopher Marks and @Nola Bear for putting it together. I also can't forget all the other competitors, y'all made this really fun!

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Congratulations @Cannedfish! Quite an impressive run, with impressive growth, branching, scary bleaching, and an amazing recovery, all in 6 months time! 👏👏👏

 

As I consider some possibilities for our next frag grow-out contest, I thought now would be a good time to get some feedback from participants in this one. I'd love your feedback and ideas for what to do next. I was thinking it might be fun to choose zoanthids for the next run, where everyone starts with similar 1 or 2 polyp frags, and we count new polyp growth for a winner. Let me know what you think! Suggest particular coral morphs too, if you have any in mind, just be sure they're not too rare 🤑

[mitten_reef]

8 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Congratulations @Cannedfish! Quite an impressive run, with impressive growth, branching, scary bleaching, and an amazing recovery, all in 6 months time! 👏👏👏

 

As I consider some possibilities for our next frag grow-out contest, I thought now would be a good time to get some feedback from participants in this one. I'd love your feedback and ideas for what to do next. I was thinking it might be fun to choose zoanthids for the next run, where everyone starts with similar 1 or 2 polyp frags, and we count new polyp growth for a winner. Let me know what you think! Suggest particular coral morphs too, if you have any in mind, just be sure they're not too rare 🤑

While zoas can grow like weeds in my tank - they also do in many others.  Likelihood of me participating in that one is slim.  I think the competition will be fierce, especially if the right strains are nominated for the grow-out.   And, maybe, the prize can be 2-3 higher-end polyps, as opposed to $.   

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

How about something like acans or blastos?? 

[Cannedfish]

I really like the idea of having the frags be "easier" corals for the nano tank crowd. I think the contest would be more fun and certainly more lively if there were a lot more contestants (who knows there might be more contestants even with an acro contest next time). I can't grow zoas for the life of me, nor do I have room for a random frag, but whatever it is count me in. That being said, the problem I see with many of the other corals is measurement issues. It's relatively easy to compare acro growth, and to count zoa polyps, but besides that, it gets tricky comparing similar growth for many corals (would we do a surface area analysis for montis? or count the number of frags a cyphastrea or echinata nukes? Dendros might be fun...). Maybe we should to a quick public poll to see what people would want and take a straw count of who would actually be in. I think if we can get 10 or so people to commit a bunch of others would jump on board.

 

With history being a guide, I obviously want another acro contest! Also with enough peer pressure (and maybe some beers) I bet we could get even @micoastreefing to join a zoa growing contest... 

[HookedOnAquariums]

I would love to try the zoas! Once i get the money to pay for this god forsaken light...

[HarryPotter]

Zoas would be sweet too, easy to judge based off of number of polyps!

[Porkpie5000]

Walking Dendro speed trials?

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I think blastos could be pretty easy to measure.

[Cannedfish]

1 hour ago, HarryPotter said:

Zoas would be sweet too, easy to judge based off of number of polyps!

Harry is only allowed to enter if everyone else gets a two month head start or he gets half the number of initial polyps and everyone else gets a one month head start. Otherwise this thing could be a bloodbath. 

 

53 minutes ago, Porkpie5000 said:

Walking Dendro speed trials?

Yes in every single way. This would be hilarious on so many levels. 

 

8 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I think blastos could be pretty easy to measure.

Depending on the blasto, I could be persuaded. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Another option that would be easy to measure is maybe a favia frag. One of my first corals was my favia and it's over grown the plug and onto the sand now. I've had it for 5ish months. Will see what other ideas are thrown out though.

[tanacharison]

Congrats to @Cannedfish  I have an extra prize coming your way!! 😉  My little guy never really took off but one day will grow up big and strong. Haha Thanks to everyone including our wonderful sponsor @Cultivated Reef I'm all in for the next contest!! 

[HookedOnAquariums]

21 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Harry is only allowed to enter if everyone else gets a two month head start or he gets half the number of initial polyps and everyone else gets a one month head start. Otherwise this thing could be a bloodbath. 

Does Harry Potter use... say... Magic? (I just had to)

[Cultivated Reef]

So here is my two cents. The two most popular corals these days seem to be acros and zoos. Selecting a popular and easy to keep coral like a zoanthid would likely result in greater participation and in the end a greater winners pot!  The growth can often be significantly influenced by feeding which could make for a more exciting contest.  Each moth people could report total polyp count along with the picture. 

[teenyreef]

Congratulations @Cannedfish! You did a great job, not only in growing the biggest frag, you made the whole contest so much fun for participants and spectators alike. 

 

I'd love to do either zoas or acros again. Since this is a nano tank forum, I think we should stick with things that don't need too much room to grow out but also show that little tanks can be just as good as little tanks. 

 

And I feel like a real winner for being part of the effort that got @Cannedfishto trumpet his success measured in millimeters 😂

 

Thanks to @Cultivated Reef and @Nola Bear for putting this together! 

[mitten_reef]

3 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

I bet we could get even @micoastreefing to join a zoa growing contest.

I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I said likelihood would be slim. But I will definitely have to go check out @Cultivated Reef‘s zoas selections, I got some good ones last time with the acro contest frag.   😬

[Christopher Marks]

Utter Chaos Palys? http://cultivatedreef.com/product/item-166/

[HookedOnAquariums]

8 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Utter Chaos Palys? http://cultivatedreef.com/product/item-166/

I would love that those are a bucket list coral for me

[Cultivated Reef]

6 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Utter Chaos Palys? http://cultivatedreef.com/product/item-166/

That’s a good choice because they seem to grow pretty quick when you start off with a single polyp.  It’s a trick I use actually to build up my numbers. 

[spectra]

I have the utters already but a zoa grow out.................well...................

 

And congrats @Cannedfish aka shittalker

[spectra]

Speaking of one polyp....................well I bought one polyp a long time ago............have sold a few over time but ell look at it now.............it could be a hallucination who knows

[Cannedfish]

Kapow! Boom! Here comes @spectra who is categorically against posting pics on his thread... then straight out of nowhere drops the people’s elbow on us, showing everybody what growth really means.   Neither he nor y’all know this, but for the next contest I’m going to pull some shenanigans and bankroll his entry only to laugh all the way to the back when he beats everyone including me. That plan is brilliant because it’s half cheating, half arbitrage, 100% fool

proof!!