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Trevor 07/27/03 3:00
Leroy's prize 300 gallon tank has an interesting
history. It used to be a holding tank for Maine
lobsters in one of Boise's fanciest restaurants. The
restaurant was going to throw the tank away, but
fortunately, a GARF supporter noticed the tank and
rescued it from a dumpster.
Now, the tank grows corals, lots and lots of corals.
Filled to the brim with aragocrete rock, there is
space for our many varieties of acropora, xenia,
montipora, pocillopora and others.
However after a season of excellent coral growth, even
this 300 gallon system begins to experience a problem
with overcrowding. Some corals will shade others, and
some will become too top heavy and fall off into the
bottom.

This gorgeous purple acropora grew so heavy, that the
slightest bump from a pair of tweezers sent it
tumbling down to the bottom of the tank. Clearly, it
was time to propagate!
We took the coral out of the tank, and placed it into
a shallow tray of water.
The coral is then broken down into pieces and glued
onto plugs.
At this point, we'd usually place the plugs into our
cutting unit in order to send them out to our
customers.
However, this coral is extremely beautiful with bright
purple and green coloration. I decided that we needed
to save the pieces as broodstock, in order to increase
our production of this coral.

While a single plug will develop into a full head of
Acropora in a relatively short time, there are more
efficient ways to grow brood stock.
The advantage of GARF aragocrete plugs is that they
can function like building blocks, and fit together in
novel combinations.
Plugs are easy to glue together; I just use a tube of
SallyJo's reef glue.
Put the plugs in several different shapes. The goals
should be to have all the pieces glued together in as
small a shape as possible, and to have the coral
pieces pointed in all sorts of different directions.
The odd currents created by the varied positions will
cause the corals to grow faster than just a single
plug.
Additionally, once a single piece on a plug grows
enough to touch another piece, there will be a boost
of growth as the corals join together.
Finally, I have glued all the plugs together in one
shape, a coral-growing behemoth.
Not only will this grow faster than the original head
of Acropora, it is more stable and less likely to
cause an miniature avalanche in the tank.
I also glue the base plate from the original Acropora piece back into the tank. Waste not, want not! Eventually this base plate will regrow. In a couple of months, we will have many of these beautiful purple acropora!
You can try some glue and plugs of your own, this week
we are having a special with our coral sets: order a
set and get 1 free tube of SallyJo's reef glue and 12
plugs.
REMEMBER - SAVE A REEF - GROW YOUR OWN
FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS WE HAVE WORKED VERY HARD TO PURCHASE, TRADE, AND SAVE AS MANY TYPES OF CORALS AS WE CAN.
We are having a special on all of the coral cuttings. WHEN YOU PURCHASE 5 AT THE REGULAR PRICE OF $100 WE WILL GIVE YOU TWO FREE CORALS!.
We will continue to provide the most current data on reef farming for both education and profit.
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