Getting Rid of Fast Growers?

[fishguy242]

hope you find some homes for these...
@Mschmidt ??

 

[bakbay]

Sounds like a First World’s problem to me. Look at the bright side: you now have several reasons to get a bigger tank, start a frag tank(s), QT tank, etc….

 

[DanyL]

Sounds like a First World’s problem to me. Look at the bright side: you now have several reasons to get a bigger tank, start a frag tank(s), QT tank, etc….

Haha I guess you have never seen or experienced an overgrown reef tank before, it's an actual problem.
A bigger tank means even more overgrown corals, and even more frags to get rid of - I fell for this twice already
A frag tank is a temporary solution, I have a large section of my sump dedicated for frags, larger than most home frag tanks and yet it is 120% full most of the time.

That being said, I'll soon setup another standalone system as a dedicated frag tank in an attempt to somewhat balance the rate of growth in my main system to the rate of me getting rid of them.
Let's see how that goes..

 

[bakbay]

Haha I guess you have never seen or experienced an overgrown reef tank before, it's an actual problem.
A bigger tank means even more overgrown corals, and even more frags to get rid of - I fell for this twice already
A frag tank is a temporary solution, I have a large section of my sump dedicated for frags, larger than most home frag tanks and yet it is 120% full most of the time.

That being said, I'll soon setup another standalone system as a dedicated frag tank in an attempt to somewhat balance the rate of growth in my main system to the rate of me getting rid of them.
Let's see how that goes..

My 150g cube is nearly full and can’t add anymore. I spent 4+hrs getting rid of red & green monti cap (oh, it just grew back) so I do feel your pain if you’re dealing with a much larger system.

I have a few “high-end” SPS frags that I can’t wait to see them take off. However, they are expensive for a reason — very slow grower. Hence I’m just after color nowadays.

Good luck and again, good problem to have!

 

[DanyL]

My 150g cube is nearly full and can’t add anymore. I spent 4+hrs getting rid of red & green monti cap (oh, it just grew back) so I do feel your pain if you’re dealing with a much larger system.

I have a few “high-end” SPS frags that I can’t wait to see them take off. However, they are expensive for a reason — very slow grower. Hence I’m just after color nowadays.

Good luck and again, good problem to have!

It's not a lot bigger than yours is, it is a 206 gal system full of corals my father and I collected for 15 years, including both slow and fast growers, as well as "high end" acros.

The thing with high end corals is that while they may initially grow slower, once they take off they can too get out of hand, but unlike the fast growers they are harder to get rid of in large quantities due to the higher standards required to keep them healthy, as well as their higher value which may not suite everybody's budget, even though it's a lot less than what they'd pay in the store.

I am aware that its a First World's problem though, no doubt!

 

[Mschmidt]

hope you find some homes for these...
@Mschmidt ??

thanks for the tag.

@chipmunkofdoom2 first, awesome name, big fan. second, historically I have had bad luck with montis but would be willing to give more a try.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Good problem to have, but a problem for sure! Hope you find a good solution. I'm thinking a supply relationship with an LFS could be fruitful even at that distance if 1) they compensate fairly and 2) you can limit trips to when you have a significant supply built up.

 

[QuickrdenU]

We should probably work on a better way to connect those in the hobby for situations like this. I would think it would help drive prices down and it helps everyone. Except for those trying to get rich… And when I’m ready for SPS, I would gladly drive several hours for some killer deals!

 

[Laith]

It's interesting how finding takers for SPS frags has become so difficult. Am I wrong or was the situation for years such that it was so hard to find nice SPS that anyone that had frags could easily get rid of them, usually selling them to other reefers or to the LFS?

I think what has changed is it seems that growing SPS is much less of a difficulty now than it used to be. Technology and better knowledge has led to a much higher success rate in growing SPS. So nobody wants to take extra SPS because most people also have full tanks!

I remember when I first started in reef tanks back in 2009 it took me two or three years before I could keep any SPS alive for more than a week or two. So I was constantly buying frags.

Now after a couple of years of trying to find homes for my SPS I've given up and I just throw them away. They seem to grow faster than I can keep up with (every two or three months I have to spend half a day "pruning"). It's a good problem to have though .

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I think what has changed is it seems that growing SPS is much less of a difficulty now than it used to be. Technology and better knowledge has led to a much higher success rate in growing SPS. So nobody wants to take extra SPS because most people also have full tanks!

I think this is most of the issue. It used to be if you wanted SPS, you had to import wild-caught colonies. This process was expensive, slow, and prone to loss. After chopping up wild colony, there was a good chance many of the frags wouldn't make it, wouldn't grow, or wouldn't look good.

Now, whether it's technology, knowledge, or both, almost anyone can grow SPS at home. They grow fast, they're hardy, and they look great. Lots of enterprising hobbyists have taken their skills and decided to grow corals at a large scale for retail sale. So there's never been more supply of good SPS.

At the same time, I don't think corals have ever been more expensive. Sure, you can find a cheap frag here or there. But people are more than willing to pay $300+ for 2cm of some Acropora, $500 for a rhodactis mushrooms that look hideous without blue light ("bounce mushrooms) or $700 for what I believe is a genuinely ugly Lobophyllia.

I don't think people want simple corals anymore. They want exotic and flashy. And Montipora unfortunately are neither of those things to the average hobbyist.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

We should probably work on a better way to connect those in the hobby for situations like this. I would think it would help drive prices down and it helps everyone. Except for those trying to get rich… And when I’m ready for SPS, I would gladly drive several hours for some killer deals!

Yeah this would be nice.

I've been wondering lately if shipping has been setting the price of corals in the hobby. If you're shipping $600 worth of high-end Acropora, then $50 for shipping and packing supplies isn't too expensive. But it effectively means there's no way to get rid of cheaper corals except locally. You can't even make up your shipping and packing costs if you're shipping only a few $20 Montipora frags. So it's basically made shipping cheap corals impossible. Maybe vendors are selling $250 1" frags because that's the only way they can make a living if it costs $50 to even send a box to someone. And that's before counting DOAs and operating costs.

I'm hoping in the next few years there's a resurgence in local trading, LFS activity and club frag swaps. That would help both people like me, who have fast growers to get rid of, and people like you, who want to try some hardy corals to test if their tank is ready for more corals.

 

[Reefing102]

Just a thought, could offer them for free in the marketplace and offer shipping a buyer expense with no guarantee or local pick up. If you use a shipping site like pirateship (there’s others too just can’t think of them) you can usually get discounted rates (haven’t checked recently what they are).

 

[exnisstech]

Its pruning your garden

This. Fish and inverts are animals. Corals are my underwater garden. JMO

 

[DanyL]

This. Fish and inverts are animals. Corals are my underwater garden. JMO

Corals are inverts as well, by definition.

 

[exnisstech]

Corals are inverts as well, by definition.

Technically but I still treat them as plants and prune as needed

 

[DanyL]

Technically but I still treat them as plants and prune as needed

Haha No worries, as much as I try to keep everything alive and pass it on to others, I do find myself throwing some frags to the trash from time to time.

Sometimes it's just inevitable, usually happens with unplanned fragging though, otherwise I make sure I have the space before proceeding.

 

[exnisstech]

Haha No worries, as much as I try to keep everything alive and pass it on to others, I do find myself throwing some frags to the trash from time to time.

Sometimes it's just inevitable, usually happens with unplanned fragging though, otherwise I make sure I have the space before proceeding.

I really hate doing it but I can only have so many orange monti caps in my frag section Lol
Oh and I do unplanned fragging almost every time I put my hands in my sps tank that is young and mostly frags. I have nubs that are not even 1/4 of an inch glued to plugs. I did some fragging yesterday when I moved the tank my level fell in

 

[DanyL]

I really hate doing it but I can only have so many orange monti caps in my frag section Lol
Oh and I do unplanned fragging almost every time I put my hands in my sps tank that is young and mostly frags. I have nubs that are not even 1/4 of an inch glued to plugs. I did some fragging yesterday when I moved the tank my level fell in

Heh when you have really large colonies you'll be twice as carful
Any colony I accidentally break would instantly equal to 10-30 mid size frags I'll have to find place for, which is quite difficult when my "frag tank" chamber in the sump (which isn't even that small) is fully occupied already.

It's First World's problem as someone here said, but it is a very real one too.

 

[QuickrdenU]

So this is a mostly fast growing/cheap SPS problem it seems like?

Because if it’s an LPS and zoa problem for some… hit me up and I’ll happily pay shipping and then some!

 

[Just started reefing]

How does everyone get rid of fast growing SPS? I have a ton of Montipora that I literally can't give away for free (locally). I've been trying for weeks and only had 3 people take me up on the offer. Still a ton of coral left. No interest.

I considered shipping, but at the very least, I'd need boxes, packing supplies, and then on top of that, pay $40 - $50 to ship them. So we're looking at $60+ per package just to ship them out. I'd be surprised if people are willing to pay much more than $60 for a 3-pack of Montipora, so I'd basically be breaking even.

Does anyone else have issues getting rid of some of these faster growers? How do you do it?

Where are you located?