Could you help w/ Frag donations to UM marine Science 90 Gal

[morepunkthanewe]

Hi, I just set up my old 90 gallon tank in the marine science lab at the University of Miami. I'm going abroad next semester to study marine biology at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia on the Great Barrier Reef . I set it up about 6 weeks ago and got it filled with Ocean Dreams (formally Sea Critters) aquacultured live rock (150 lbs). The rock is awesome by the way way better than any of that pacific crap. (sorry my opinion, but I can easily say that there is at least 50 species of inverts on these rocks, and no less than 3 species of hard corals, you can't say that very often about pacific "dead" live rock.) Anyway, originally the head of the marine science department said that we'd have a liberal budget, but after we bought the rock and a few corals and clams they rescinded on us and it doesn't look like we are going to get much money to buy livestock. Luckily Roy Herndon at Ocean Dreams gave us great prices on the rock and donated some of his aquacultured corals.
The whole idea behind the tank is to fill it up with as much aquacultured marine life as possible. This tank is much more than just a showpiece though for the lab, believe me. When I brought up the plan for a reef tank I heard the wrath from more than a few professors that think that our hobby is destructive and importations of coral should be stopped. In fact my academic advisor was on the board that shut down the live rock harvest from Florida waters. So I convinced them that we were going to be using mostly aquacultured product and patiently had to explain to them our position on reef keeping (highly educational, scientifically useful, and all the other things that we all know but they apparently don't. I can go on and on about how stubborn and hypocritical these folks can be (ahhh, and I'm planning on being one...). So hopefully this tank will change their opinions a bit towards our favor. And its also so great to have them ask me all these questions that we consider so elementary.
So basically I'm asking for donations to our tank, even if they are little frags or whatever. Luckily our department has an account with FedEx, so we can pick up shipping on our end no problem. If you live in the south florida area I could come pick them up, or you could come down and check it out. My self and the other kid taking care of the tank have plenty of experience with reefkeeping, so don't think that we are just going to kill the little guys out of ignorance. I have 2 x 175 watts 10k MH and 2 x 96 watt PC actinic for lighting along with a Top Fathom 220 skimmer. I plan on plumbing in a 45 gallon refugium above the tank which I plan on having about an 8" sand bed with mangroves and seagrasses.
Thanks for the help, sorry I babbled on so long. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
p.s. I also posted this in the "want to buy/trade forum"

 

[SPC]

Do you have a web address for Ocean Dreams, I can't seem to find it with a search :?
Steve

 

[morepunkthanewe]

unfortunately Ocean Dreams only sells to Seagrest Farms, which is a big wholesaler in Tampa, FL. They also sell to stores if SeaGrest isn't able to supply them with their products. When they were Se Critters they used to sell direct to fish stores across the country, but they have really upped their production by supplying Seagrest farms. I happen to be friends with Roy and he was able to help us out. They also have 3 huge greenhouses for coral aquaculture now and looking to expand. I guess the best you can do is go to your LFS and ask if they can get livestock through Seagrest Farms (Its a huge supplier) and ask for their aquacultured liverock, you won't regret it. The rock is awesome because it is covered with all types of inverts that aren't usually for sale in LFS's and online like tunicates (I can probably count at least 10-15 different), bryozoans, sponges (at least 10 species), and the unique gulf coast corals like Cladocora, oculina, manicina (rose), and tooth corals. The Coralline coverage is amazing and they use a honeycomb limestone base rock which has tons of nooks and crannies for coral placement and surface area for water exchange.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.oceandreams.biz/

http://www.segrestfarms.com/index.ihtml?skipintro=1

 

[Anonymous]

i just fragged out a toadstool leather. I will gladly send you a frag if they take.-it's my first time fragging the guy. I should know in a few weeks.

Brett

 

[Anonymous]

That is my question, are you looking for a "garden" of aquacultured corals or does anything work? Do you want shrooms,leathers, stonies? A little more concise definition of what you are looking for? I have some of the above I am willing to donate, just don't know what you are looking for.

 

[morepunkthanewe]

yeah, I guess we are looking primarily into stonies and also bright colored zoanthids, polyps and mushrooms for the darker reaches of the tank. I'm into SPS corals and my parter is interested in LPS corals, obviously the SPS are easier to come by as frags. We decided together basically to stay away from the leathers and the likes. Right now we have a good start with frags of seriatopora, acropora (basically brown staghorn type), blasstomussa, galaxia, and euphylia frogspawn. I'm also going to be donating all the corals from my 13 gallon CPR MRT tank that has collected various small frags over the months from the local store I work at. I'm going to be touring ORA with my aquaculture class on Dec. 6th so I'm going to see if they could donate some frags also. We also have several baby tridacna clams (1/2"-1") that I got from Ocean Dreams. It sounds like we already have a lot, but most are small colonies at its a 90 gallon tank. Like I said we are going to be adding a 45 gallon deep sand bed refugium planted with seagrass and mangorves, so this tank should be kept at the highest degree of health. We may have access to a stable supply of live greenwater and rotifers from our hatchery, and in which case we are going to maybe try our luck with some of the ahermatypic corals.
I truly appreciate the input so far, and I'm sorry I keep writing these long posts.