badxgillen

Well, I have come crawling out of my shell and back on to the PNWMAS yet again. Thanks to my good friend Andy B. I have acquired a frag for this grow out competition. The first picture is probably the most accurate being out of the water and I am getting a reading/measurement of I would say, 1 inch even... And yes, in case you don't believe your eyes, my fingers really are that fat!

My frag is an anomaly as it was numbered #99, even though there were not that many cuts to begin with... Almost as if it is from another time line, or even the Future!

I dipped it for a long time so it has yet to be happy with me and shown me it's polyps, but I am optimistic over time she will give me a peak of her pink Cadillac loveliness.

 I stuck this in a 120 gallon grow out lagoon of mine.

hand dosing B-Ionic 2 part solution daily.

old school koralia swirl this shallow tank at about 6000 gallons an hour.

lighting is a hodge podge of black box, AI prime HDs, and Daniels BOMB Reefi Uno's!

parameters generally fall into the KH-7, PH-8ish,Calc-420-460, NO3-5-, and I haven't checked phosphate in over a year probably.

not only does this tank have no controller, doser, or any timers whatsoever, it also has no heater, so only the strong survive!... Actually, there are tons and tons of beautiful healthy corals growing in there but I have a knack for flying by the seat of my pants as many people will a test to.

Oh yeah, Thank you all for having me aboard, much appreciated! And sorry about the bad cell phone pics and blue saturation, I was running a bit late to the deadline here.

Probably a Dadanus Megistos, the breaker of reef worlds, stripping all life from the very rocks beneath its feet.

Want your tank to start from scratch all over again? This is your ticket.

Very cool looking though, I have seen bright oranges and yellows out there.

So with Coral Reef Tankers going from 5 to 10 polyps and Snappy growing 6 from 3 means we have two contestants who made a doubling growth rate for their frag. Basically we have two winners and I cannot think of a tie breaker, so...

Prize corals for all!

I will see what frag packs we can offer these Acan Farmers here. You two have preferences between SPS, LPS, Zoas, or softies, maybe an assortment?

I hate to say it folks, but this is the last month of the grow out...

I also regret to inform my Acan looks like poo. I will send some terrible cell phone shots but ultimately I went from 2.5 polyps to 5 sickly looking heads.

Needles to say that after the competition I will be moving these corals out and into a different system... That is unless Coral reefTankers and Snappy will divulge his secrets to success.

Dang Man!!! I gotta take some Acan growing lessons from you, those look Great!

It is the last day for Acan updates! So far it is looking like some nice competition growing in, lets keep it up.

I apologize about the late reminder but life has been a bit "off" for me lately... That being said, we need to see some continuing contestants if possible. I am about up to 5 polyps as of now. AAAWWWwww Yeah!

Ahhh... The Oscar throws a wrench in things per say. Usually they leave the Plecos alone but if the cichlid wants to hound the catfish it may be just as bad as having a larger substitute. I didnt realize you already had a large aggresive cichlid in tank already.

That being said, I have a few medium sized Ancistrus that might work if you have aquarium coverage, but nothing large per say.

I can certainly get some started corals out your way but I am in Corvallis. You pay shipping and the frags are free.

I have a source for some amazing recesive albino gene Ancistrus Placostomus that dont get large and look great. But I might take Andrew up on his home grown bristle nose plecos.

Everyones frags look great!

Dont forget this is the last day of the month to post up you update photos, which is quite often the means of disqualification.

And just so you all know, the pot is sweet with a LPS frag pack for the winner. I will see if I can get some photos of the prizes as it sounds like a sweet batch of corals.

So it is that time again, you know what I mean, post it up time...

Nothing to see here folks, just a few heads of acans, slow growing LPS. They have definately healed up and increased in size, but not numbers.

Well fiddle sticks! Looks like a small group of contestants made it through the recent worldly issues. Let's see were we all stand now...

A little late to my update but here is my little frag doing just dandy.

Well it looks like 5 out of the 13 contestants have already dropped out! This leaves a small group of players to compete for the final prize. So get those Acans hunkered down and ready to grow because this $hit just got real!

PS, I have confirmation on a first place prize of beautiful LPS frags... But be sure there is more as time goes by, things only get better from here on out.

Last day for entrees folks.

And I talked to Exodus yesterday and unfortunately he is bowing out, he is moving and temporarily breaking down his tank.

Well I wish I got your frag CRTanker, that is "Money"!..

BUT, I got this!

2.5 polyps of my beautiful rainbow Acan... Don't be jealous.

The system I am keeping them in is a 40 breeder all glass aquarium with minimum filtration. I have a HOB Aqua Clear filter with carbon.

A HOB Remora protein skimmer.

No name Black box LED lighting.

3 part and HRD carbon dosing.

And maybe 5 gallon monthly water changes with Fritz blue box salt.

Very low flow , maybe 700GPH, and very little bio load, just a clown pair and cardinals. I only feed Omega one marine pellets everyday, and then frozen brine shrimp or Mysis shrimp once a week.

On your mark, get set, GO!!!

We now have from today until the 27th to enter a submission to participate in this little grow out competition, so snap a couple pictures and type up some aquarium system details to get you started.

Well Contestants this is the official thread to post your Premium Aquarium Acan Grow Out entries! If you post your entry in another thread it will not count. Contest begins March 20th!You have a week before and a week after to post up your picture. This competition will run 4 months!

For those of you who grabbed more than one of the Acan varieties offered we request that you choose one, either Acan A or Acan B. Also these were fresh relatively fresh cuts so new polyp growth will be slow. And if anyone has an issue with their frag before the first deadline let me know and I will see what I can do within reason.

Ground Rules: The goal of this competition is to be both educational and fun. I am hopeful the winners will be able to share their "secrets" and truly see how different lighting, supplements, dosing, and tank parameters can make a difference in growth.

Rules and Guidelines for The TPA Acan Grow Out Competition. 

1.Your first post must include a quick write up of your system in this competition thread. Including tank size, flow, lighting, placement of the frag, frag measurement, equipment (ie calcium reactor, dosing, etc), feeding regiment, etc.

2. You will be required to post photo updates. The contest will start March 20th. You will be required to post a photo update once a month. I will remind you of this when the time is soon to post. I know life gets busy and people go out of town so you have a 2 week window to post.You will have 7 days before the 20th and 7 days after to post your update. If you do not post within the allotted time frame you will be disqualified. 

3. Please no cheating. This competition is meant to be fun and for bragging rights. Cheaters will be disqualified and banned from any future competitions.

4. The frags must remain on the original plug. You may modify the plug if needed example cutting off the stem for placement. You may place the frag anywhere you want in your tank and you may move it to a different spot during the competition but it is frowned upon. You cannot move it to a new tank as the point is to see how the frag does over time in different systems.

5. Initial photos of frags need to have a top down as well as side shot so we can all see the frag and what you are starting with. No hiding polyps in your photos. Not following the rules will cause you to be disqualified, I know that sounds harsh but it is out of fairness to the rest of the group. Remember a lot can happen in 4 months. During the last growout many were DQ'd due to not posting. It's really simple. JUST DO IT. Length of competition: The competition will run for 4 months. This will give us enough time for       the frag to grow. A lot can happen in 4 months and a lot of people could drop out, so if you are persistent, you have a chance to win the grand prize. This will give EVERYONE the same advantage\disadvantage with acclimation and so on. Pictures will be required frequently for updates. Final post will be July 20th 2020 for the winner. 

Judging a winner: Should be pretty straight forward this grow out. The most polyps gained after the initial count at the end wins.

But the Grand Prize is... Not going to spoil it yet, you have to play our little game here.

Our Standing List of Fine PNWMAS Contestants are...

Badxgillen,

DuckHead,

CoralReefTankers,

Snappy,

Tandor69,

Obrien,

No more spots on the Acan Group buy, thanks to those who have participated in this and to those who attended the meeting, it was a blast!

Okay so we have...

AlbertaReef for Acan A and B,

Optimus Prime for Acan A and B,

BigDan for Acan A and B,

Duck Head for Acan A,

Badxgillen for Acan A and B,

ReefSoup for Acan B,

Bear for Acan B,

Coral reef Tankers for Acan A,

Snappy for Acan A,

Exodus for Acan A and B,

Deuce for Acan B,

Tandor69 for Acan B,

Leaving 1 of Acan A and 0 frags of Acan B. If we get more bites I will relinquish one of the cuts I reserved so someone else can participate.

So it is looking like there will be a 9 spot buy in on each of these acans, at $20.00 each for 2+polyp frags.

AND, to make things interesting,  we plan on starting a grow out contest for those who get a chance to snag a frag of these bad boys.

Garret just got back into the states from a trip to the Caribbean and said that he had two awesome Acan colonies set aside for us. I will see if I can get out there tomorrow so I can get them cut up.

Nice shot of that Pine apple sponge.