Penn State University reef

[ccCapt]

I don't know if anyone is familiar with Sanjay Joshi from PSU. He is one of the top experts on reef lighting. He's written tons of article on lighting and has a nice site for metal halide lighting comparisons.

To make a long story short, Sanjay was looking for some pink zoa's for the 500 gallon Penn State reef tank from members of NCPARS (North Central PA Aquarium Reef Society). I happened to have what he was looking for and he offered me a trade. I am giving him a piece of rubble with about 30 pink zoa's and in return, this was his offer: "I can get you frags of 4 different color morphs of acropora millipora - pink, blue, pink with blue tips, and green. The frags will be 1.5-2"."

Needless to say I am totally thrilled. Not only to meet Sanjay, but to get coral out of that awesome tank, AND have my coral in there. I'm meeting him next Sat. I can't wait!

 

[Sadielynn]

Wow that is heavenly ... that would be awsome ...

 

[An t-iasg]

Congrats - that is a great opportunity for you! I attended one of Mr. Joshi's talks at MACNA XIX.

 

[rkilling1]

Congrats!! This hobby pays off in MANY more ways then just one. You gotta love what a hobbiest will do for another hobbiest.

 

[Ziggy953]

That is totally awesome!!!!! I wanna be first in line when you are able to frag your frags of those!!!!!!!!!! wink wink

 

[cmor1701d]

Congrats on this opportunity. That is an awesome tank at PSU. Put me second in line for frags when you're ready

 

[roka64]

Wow, congrats!

 

[beachbumin]

That tank is insane! I need to mop the floor now from all the drool that has spilled......

 

[cmor1701d]

I sent that photo to a colleage who is PSU alum. He sent me back a photo he has of the tank and then sent me a photo of the 3,000 circular tank at his vet's. I'll post that later (I need to resize it).

 

[ccCapt]

Just a quick update. We had a bad ice storm all day Friday and not knowing road conditions we pushed back our meeting until tomorrow (2-3) at 11 AM. I can wait another day.

 

[MT79]

That is pretty cool, not to mention a great trade. Congratulations. Now let's see some pics of those milles lol.

 

[ccCapt]

I met Sanjay today. When I talked to him last nite, we decided only on a general area to meet on I-80 about 1/2 way. So when I got to the general vicinity, there was nothing but farmlands. So I called him and we discovered we were only about 20 miles from each other head towards each other. Now the central part of PA is pretty mountainous and of course when I got to the next exit, I had no cell service and this exit wasn't even really an exit...lol. It was some kind of service road or something. I figured he had to have gone past this and is still heading towards me, which is now behind me. So back on the Interstate heading towards home I finally get cell service back and Sanjay is calling. Now he's about 3 miles ahead of me. So we finally find a Holiday Inn and meet.

What a great guy. While driving there I was thinking of all kinds of stuff to ask him, but I didn't want it to seem like an interview. We just started talking about LFS's and it just lead into all kinds of reef related stuff. It was like talking to an old friend instead of someone you just meet.

On to the pics....fresh out of the PSU 500g reef
Right now they are sitting in my sump, still in the little bags until I finish acclimating them and mount them. I just wanted to post a quick pic. I'll try to get better pics when they are in my tank. The colors really are amazing!

 

[ccCapt]

The frags are mounted and in the tank. You can see in the background pink zoa's. I traded a piece of rubble with about 30 polyps for these. My camera doesn't do these justice color-wise.

no flash

w/flash

 

[cmor1701d]

Wow, those are really nice frags. Take good care of them as we all want frags of your frags as they grow <g>.

 

[MT79]

Nice looking frags. Those are going to make some really nice colonies. Any idea what species the light colored piece in the back, left is? Kind of looks like a "deepwater" SPS piece.

 

[ccCapt]

Any idea what species the light colored piece in the back, left is?

I noticed that 1 was a little different than the others also. I asked Sanjay about it. This was his reply. "That is the pink millie with blue tips. That is what I was told when I got it. Could be a prostrata or a similar cousin of the millie. I don't go over board trying to ID them."

These frags are really amazing. I've never seen anything like them in any LFS's I've been in. The colors are so deep and after being in my tank 24 hrs the polyp extension is unreal. If you ever heard the phrase "hairy millepora", these are them.

 

[lando]

Very nice...what a great opportunity. I love the frags and pink zoas are pretty awesome too. Keep us posted on the growth.

 

[ccCapt]

Time for a little update.
The blue polyp millie on the far left and green millie on the far right of the original pics have hardly grown at all. They encrusted the base good, but no real growth.

Here's the rose millie on the left (right center old pic) and blue tipped millie on the right (center left old pic).

 

[melosu58]

They look very nice Larry.

 

[Fluff]

Milli's are my favorites. They look great!