Okay, so on to more updates. btw, the convention is officially over right now, and I'm trying to best enjoy my last night in Houston.
Saturday morning's first speaker was Julian Sprung whom spoke on Nano-Reefs. He did THE coolest things with nano-reefs including single coral polyps in this as small as mason jars (which was weird...but he made it work!). Here are a few key points of his.
-He used all homemade filtration, even showed us some of his homemade protein skimmer pictures.
-Uses no filtration but skimmers in nano tanks.
-Temperature is very important in a nano due to O2 content.
-Heating pads are a good way to heat a nano.
-Water changes important.
-Corals that need to be fed alot are good for nanos.
-Candy basslet and gobies are good fish selections.
-Acropora not a good selection for nano tanks.
He showed so many pictures of his small tanks...even ones that were WAAAAAAAY too overstocked. Everyone got a chuckle out of it.
Next up was Anthony Calfo, and if you've never gotten a chance to see Anthony, it's definitley worth the trip to MACNA just for that. He is a great informative speaker. He spoke on coral farming, and how to make money from our tanks, let alone helping to repopulate reefs with coral farming. A few key points of his:
-Soft corals and macroalgaes are where the want is.
-LPS and anemones is where the reef need is.
-Trade magazines are a good way to sell corals.
-Always frag outside of your aquarium, never in it.
-A pond sponge fitler is great for a frag tank.
-Airlift tubes rock!
-Ozone in tanks help with coral chemical warfare.
-And the coolest thing of all that I did not know... If you have LPS and you look on the skeleton. If you see little polyp things, that is the coral trying to branch, but can't. He said you can take a paring knife and carve off the polyp as well as a bit of skeleton, glue it to a plug, and you can grow a whole other LPS coral. Pretty cool!
Afterwards Anthony did a coral fragging workshop. It was standing room only, and Hara and I got a seat right in the front.
Anyways, here are a few key points from that.
-Always wear gloves and eyewear, he went through a number of nasties that he as contracted...and they don't sound fun.
With anemones (yes, he fragged a sebae!)
-Don't try and frag a white sebae...it's bleached. Normal color for them is chocolate brown.
-Anemones move around our tanks mainly becuase of chemicals in the tank from other corals. Another reason why he says mixing anemones and corals is not a good idea.
-Sebaes usually have a 1-4 month harvest time.
-They can be fragged at around 2-4 months.
-Most all anemones can be fragged, save for the ritteri.
-One good way to remove aipstasia or any anemone you want to get off rock or glass, it with an icecube.
-Leather corals are best kept alone with other leathers, or xenia.
-Some instruments used for fragging are:
Wood chisel
Scalpels (are best)
Wet Saw (used to cut hard corals)
Dremel
When packaging corals for shipment:
- A needle and thread are sometimes good ways to attach them to plugs, tile, rubble, etc.
-Use as little water as possible. Usually 1/3 water, 2/3 air.
-Don't pack anemones in water!
-When shipping, tape the corners of bags, or use bags with rounded corners/flat bottom.
-Always ship bags laying sideways.
-Powder on latex gloves are completely safe.
Think it would work?
