Origami October 31, 2011 Share October 31, 2011 In today's edition of Advanced Aquarist, there's a video of extreme fragging. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/fragging-acropora-extreme-edition-video Some of you may recognize this system as being from a guy in Portugal who propagates thousands of corals from single polyps in a large propagation system that he's built in his garage. As I recall, his lighting (when I first read about him a couple of years ago) is supplied by ATI T5's (mostly Aquablue Specials and Blue Plus lamps). In the accompanying video, he shows his coral propagation technique using floral picks, bone cutters, split-ring pliers, and Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt bills October 31, 2011 Share October 31, 2011 That is small Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind October 31, 2011 Share October 31, 2011 I've always liked his systems. I have made one polyp frags with the small pieces that sometimes break off during fragging. I still think that super glue is faster to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad November 1, 2011 Share November 1, 2011 I wonder if he sees a higher success rate by using an iodine solution that makes up for the slower method. Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k November 1, 2011 Share November 1, 2011 So why not use a bigger frag and the iodine filled tube? It seems like you'll have larger frags that much quicker... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami November 1, 2011 Author Share November 1, 2011 So why not use a bigger frag and the iodine filled tube? It seems like you'll have larger frags that much quicker... I'm sure that you can. As mentioned in the article, growth is exponential. To me, it would be pretty cool to say that you grew a colony out from a single polyp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem December 9, 2011 Share December 9, 2011 (edited) So i gave this a try. Dont have what it looked like when I fragged it, but it was about 3/4 this size. As you can see, it's encrusting nicely... Fragged a day or two after this thread was started, so this is a little over a month of growth... just like a article said, one month it'll start to encrust... lets see if it'll exponentially take off. Edited December 9, 2011 by hlem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad December 9, 2011 Share December 9, 2011 That's cool! Thanks for the update! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind December 10, 2011 Share December 10, 2011 Very cool. Did you use the iodine solution for the inside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem December 10, 2011 Share December 10, 2011 Very cool. Did you use the iodine solution for the inside? yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onux20 December 10, 2011 Share December 10, 2011 That is beyond cool! Great job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefoholic December 10, 2011 Share December 10, 2011 Very interesting article. It looked like a candy store in his place. I have a question tho... can someone please explain to me what iodine does exactly? I know it protects against infections and helps with healing but other than that? I am about to frag some SPS and I wanted to find out about iodine as well as what the tubes and plastic covers are... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami December 10, 2011 Author Share December 10, 2011 Very interesting article. It looked like a candy store in his place. I have a question tho... can someone please explain to me what iodine does exactly? I know it protects against infections and helps with healing but other than that? I am about to frag some SPS and I wanted to find out about iodine as well as what the tubes and plastic covers are... Thanks! I think that the iodine does just what you repeated: Protects against infections and keeps inside of the tube, which contains stagnant water, from becoming a bacterial soup. The iodine is probably Lugol's solution. The tubes are called floral picks or water tubes. Here are some here: http://www.afloral.com/Floral-Supplies/Water-Tubes-and-Picks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefoholic December 11, 2011 Share December 11, 2011 ^ Thanks for your reply, Tom! Does one ever change that iodine water at all (solution I believe is RODI water + Iodine)? Also, when should one remove the tube from the cap/coral-frag? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami December 11, 2011 Author Share December 11, 2011 ^ Thanks for your reply, Tom! Does one ever change that iodine water at all (solution I believe is RODI water + Iodine)? Also, when should one remove the tube from the cap/coral-frag? Thanks! I don't know the answer to the first question. I suspect that you can leave it as is, without changing it, until the frag is removed. As for the second question, remove it after it encrusts the cap and when you want to move it to another surface. As I recall, the cap is flexible enough that you can just glue it directly to the rock or other substrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem February 7, 2012 Share February 7, 2012 pic few minutes ago. check a few posts up for dec's pic. 2 months of growth. not as fast growing as i thought it would be. maybe it's just my tank... but definitely encrusting surely but slowly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind February 7, 2012 Share February 7, 2012 It looks like some nice growth to me. Thanks for keeping us updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami February 7, 2012 Author Share February 7, 2012 Looks like some very nice growth to me. It should be very interesting what it does over the next couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad February 7, 2012 Share February 7, 2012 ^Agree! I am still not sure what my conclusion is (whether it is worth it or not), but this is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing your growth results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem March 25, 2012 Share March 25, 2012 Last shot was 2/6 just taken today 3/24 almost two months, and it has fully covered the cap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite March 26, 2012 Share March 26, 2012 I accidentally fragged a single polyp tip from a tort several weeks ago and it is encrusting and has 2 more polyps on it. Have also kept very tiny pieces of corals that later grew into good sized frags. No iodine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 hlem, can we get an update on the frag? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 hlem, can we get an update on the frag? Oh sure. I'll get a pic when I get home tonight. Thought no one is interested anymore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami July 9, 2012 Author Share July 9, 2012 Oh sure. I'll get a pic when I get home tonight. Thought no one is interested anymore We're interested! Please post an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I think there are a bunch of folks are interested, this is cool!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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