FRAG WORKSHOP - Jan 19th @ the GROUP MEETING

[Tim Marvin]

OK I'll come down for the meeting on the 19th. I am considering buying a bulk coral order of 25 corals for $500. We can frag them up and probably get around 80 frags. If ten people participate it would cost $50 for around 8 frags. that will work out to about $5-$6 a frag depending on how many we can make. Of course if more people want in it would cost less but you'd take home less, and vice versa. I would need to collect the cash as soon as possible so I can hold them for at least a week for good acclimation before fragging. For those of you interested in doing this workshop please post a reply! If we get a big response I can get more corals if we need to.
You can also bring in some of your own corals to cut up if you'd like, and we can do some trading as well.

[TexasState]

When you frag corals. There are criteria you should go by. For me, the most important criteria is how fast this particular corals will grow after it's been fragged. You can frag a certain coral all you want, but they might not be a fast grower. You can blame it on your system, blame it on the calcium, blame it on your lights, or you can blame that that certain corals is just a slow grower. I traded Merlin a small piece of my tri-color acropora (that's at least a fourth generation frags.) Seven months later, he said it's encrusted and growing into a big colony. There are other frags that I receive from other peoples, and it's hardly growing at all. If you find a good corals farmers, they'll have brood stock that's been with them for several years, and they know which are fast grower, which are slow grower. Many of the online corals frags these days are just chop shop. So, it's just a gamble with how well your frags can grow.

Enough of the doom days talk, for $50 I'll do it. You know I enjoy bargain hunting. The price is low enough for me. You might want to do a bulk order on AquaStik (aquarium cement.) And get a bunch of sprinkler plugs from Home Depot.

[Reefdude]

even though i got a little tank im interested in puttin in for some frags.

[Tim Marvin]

Well we need some more people committed to this so I can order an extra bulk coral order. Otherwise we will have to bring our own corals to frag up and share. I'm not sure why we haven't had better response at $6-$7 a frag?

[Chris]

Give it a few more days Tim. I'm sure not everyone from the board has seen this. Hopefully a few more people do though.

8)

[dow]

I've been wanting to learn how to do this! I held off adding corals to my system until I felt it was more mature. So far all I have are polyps, mushrooms, and some kind of soft coral that rode in on a rock.

Sounds like fun. :lol1:

[VGB]

I am in need of fresh stock without a road trip to Houston...I have not attended any meetings but have met a few of you. I would be interested in a few frags or even a nice colony....let me know.

[Reefdude]

tim,
what kind of corals are you looking into ordering for the frag party??? SPS im assuming??

[Tim Marvin]

Mostly SPS, but I will bring some softies as well. I need to collect the money from you guys as soon as possible. You can call with a CC # or paypal. Also if you'd like to mail a check that would be fine. At this point it will be $50 per person.

[Reefdude]

can you get any of those crazy blue or bright pink sps?? :-D

[Tim Marvin]

Pink is fairly common, but dark blue ones run $50-$100 for a 1 inch frag. I can gat blue tipped and tuff like that. At any rate you can't beat $50 for about 8 frags. Most frags even online will cost you about $15 each minimum.

[Tim Marvin]

I am going to get some of the dark blue and hopefully in a year we can get some frags off of it for those of you interested. Depending on how fast it grows I'll probably sells frags off of it for less than the $50-$100 going rate right now.

[savoy6]

i got some of the dark blue from upscales. 50.00 for about a 3/4 inch frag. soutas had the same thing for a hundred. They are both from bfe oregon so I'm figuring its the some of the same stuff. And they are right its friggin blue. Mine is the color of the surprised guy with his eyes open to the left there in the emoticons. doh you can only see the emoticons when making/editing a post.

[Reefdude]

:o ???????????

[TexasState]

Wow,
That was quick. If we can get the peoples who voted to commit, then we have the 10 peoples that we needed to get the frags workshop going. How do you want us to pay you Tim? You might want to get payment from me ASAP b4 I spend it all away. Do you have a Paypal address? I can pay you from my bank account to your bank account. I know you have a credit card machine, but I'd rather not charging up any more to my credit card.

[Tim Marvin]

Those of you wanting to be in on the frag workshop please post or send me your E-mail address so I can send you a request for payment through PayPal or you can give me a call and I can work out a different payment method for you. Either way I will need your name, phone number, and payment so I can assure proper credit to you.
Looking forward to the meeting with you all.

TAMCFA@HOTMAIL.COM

Please note Frag workshop in the subject box.

[Tim Marvin]

We can figure out a civilized way of doing it at the meeting. I was thinking about putting everyone's name in a hat and drawing them all out. That would put each person in line then take turns picking, until they are all gone. We could also frag them all out and bag them, then put them in a box, each person can reach in the box and grab one until they are gone this would keep it random. Then we can trade with each other.

[Derek B]

Tim, I'm in. However, I do not want to spend more than $50. You can charge my credit card. Send me a PM and I can give you the info.

[Janice]

I would love to particpate, but thus far have not recieved a reply to any of my emails sent to Tim M.

-Janice

[TexasState]

I'm going to double or quadriple the amount I received from Josh, and give it to Tim Marvin. Easy come, easy go. :cry:

[OrionN]

Hey guys and gals,
I think I will be able to come to this meeting. I will bring a bunch of frags for everybody to pick also. In return, I would love to pick up some coral frags that I don't have.
Xenia anybody? If no one request it I will not bring any. I have three types. Red Sea Pompom Xenia, X. elongata and the white tipped Xenia
Minh Nguyen

[Tim Marvin]

Janice,
Hmmm I didn't see the e-mails. Put something in the subject line like Coral frags.
Tamcfa@hotmail.com
Sorry It could have been filtered out also.

[OrionN]

Everybody bring something nice. We can trade while we are there.
Minh

[Tim Marvin]

We are going to need to bring some supplies with us for this meeting. Anything you can bring will be helpful. Sharp scissors or razor blades, needlenose pliers 2 pair, chisel, bridal veil, rubberbands, super glue GEL, reef epoxy small plastic tray or container to work in, small rock rubble, sprinkler head screens, and anything else you might think useful.

[OrionN]

I will bring enough rubble to attach 40+ frags.
I often tied SPS frags with fishing line. I will bring that too.
Minh Nguyen

[Tim Marvin]

Minh,
I would appreciate your help and experiences with propagating if you don't mind. I am not claiming to be an authority on this subject. I am doing this because of the interest people have expressed. I can only show the techniques that have worked for me, and hopefully we can learn a few more! I am looking forward to meeting you, sounds like you have some pretty nice stuff, it's too bad we didn't get to meet up awhile back when you were coming to Austin. I'll see you on the 19th.

[OrionN]

Tim,
Count me in on the coral frags. Somehow I can't vote here. Let me know how I can send money in.
I am happy to help if I can. There are a few ways to frags soft and hard corals that I find works well. I will show who ever interested.
Minh

[Janice]

Okay, I can commit to attending this workshop.

Tim, do I pay you before the workshop or can I pay the fee there? I can also bring a couple of shoesize plastic rubbermaid containers if needed.

Minh I would love frags of your Xenia if you decide to bring some.

[OrionN]

OK Janice. I will bring some of each of the Xenia species for you.
Minh Nguyen

[Jeff Post]

Minh,

I would like the xenia frags also.

Jeff

[Tim Marvin]

Janice, I'll re-send the request from Paypal. If you'd rather pay a different way just give me a call.

[OrionN]

Minh,

I would like the xenia frags also.

Jeff
OK
Minh

[Janice]

OK Janice. I will bring some of each of the Xenia species for you.
Minh Nguyen

Thanks Minh!

[Jeff Post]

Thanks Minh

Jeff

[Texreefer]

guys if you are interested and if i can make it to the meeting, i have had a lot of experience with fraging and propgating corals and will be happy to add anything i can to the group.

[Tim Marvin]

More opinions are always welcome! We could use all the different methods that work for each of us!

[Tim Marvin]

OK they are poor pictures, but it gives you an idea of the colors. I couldn't get very good pictures because the surge unit was running. I posted pictures in the image gallery of some of our fragging corals. The first 8 pictures on page one.

[Chris]

Tim those corals look great! This will definately be fun. :grin:

link to Tim's pictures (http://www.maast.org/modules.php?set_albumName=TimMarvin&op=modload&nam e=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php&page=1 )

[DeletedAccount]

Tim,
Those do look great! I cannot wait until next week!

[Tim Marvin]

I had to put it first otherwise it would have been a fuzzy picture on the folder. It is good that you noticed that though.

[TexasState]

Too bad Tim doesn't have any Macro shot. I just came back from Tim's house right now, he have some very colorful acropora, zooanthids, and leathers. I try to buy up all the coloful acropora, :twisted: but
Tim wanted to save them for the meeting. I didn't push him to hard to sale it b/c I would hate myself for killing such a colorful specimens anyway. Some of the color from the acro that he have, I haven't seen them available for sale at the fish stores.

[OrionN]

Tim,
I love to get a piece of the coral in picture 26. I will bring sme of my best coral to make it worthwhile fro you to bring a small frag of it for me. 1/2 inche frag is OK for me.

I am likely will be in San Antomio on Saturday evening. Is there anybody near the Medical Center Area where I can place my frags until the meeting at 4:00PM on Sunday? Please let me know ASAP
Phone 361-993-9883 or email minhnguyen@pol.net
Thanks,
Minh Nguyen

[TexasState]

I am going to get some of the dark blue and hopefully in a year

What's so special about blue SPS? If you need some frag, Ron got some frag of it last year from the workers at the Reef Store in North Austin for $15. I don't know if he still have it or not.

[TexasState]

I'm going to put a bucket and bags (for the frags) in my car right now so I won't forget to bring it to the meeting. Since the weather is cold, I would bring an insulated styrofoam box too if you have it.

[Tim Marvin]

So you don't need a ride then?

[TexasState]

Oops, I guess I'll put my bucket by the door, with my keys and my shoes on top of it.

[Janice]

General reminder to all fragging parties - Bring your SuperGlue gel/reef epoxy and bridal veil (or similiar product) if you have any.

Tim's estimation is (at least) 1 tube superglue per 8 frags.

[TexasState]

Mine last for several months, but that's b/c I have to stop using each time b/c my fingers are glued to each other.

[Janice]

Mine last for several months, but that's b/c I have to stop using each time b/c my fingers are glued to each other.



http://www.bullittzero.com/Vbb/images/smilies/crazy.gif

[TexasState]

Thanks Tim!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not, I liked my 8th round pick SPS the best. It didn't look much on the table, but it's a good tricolor in my tank. It was the bag with about 5 frags on it.

[Tim Marvin]

Good, glad to hear you liked it. I'm am sure many will be surprised when they get them home under some actinic and halides, for those that have halides. There were some really nice colors that did not show under my make shift set-up.

[Tim Marvin]

I'd like to thank all who attended our little meeting. I hope that you were able to learn what you needed to know from our presentation, but more importantly that you have some nice little frags to propagate on your own later on down the road. Thanks to Mihn for helping out and making the frags small enough so that everyone could get a good variety. Thank you Vihn for bringing supplies and most important the wire cutters! Thanks to Tina for loaning us her house and thank you to all those that brought things to help that I did not mention. I felt that we had a pretty good productive meeting. I hope that who ever won the door prize will have some use for it.
As some of you may know, almost all of the base colony from our frags went to Tina as appreciation for loaning us her space! So she receive probably 10-15 corals from those that were not completely fragged! I even brought one toadstool leather that stayed complete for her as well as a few smaller items. These things were from all of us, as they were financed out of the fragged corals paid for by the group. I really hope you were able to take home some knowledge and not just corals. Hopefully this will remove some of the fear you may have had about your corals, and if you have one that is dieing off you will be able to frag it and save at least a part. Again thank you all for making this meeting work!

[OrionN]

Thanks everybody. I was able to get back to our house at 11:30 last night. Too bad I got to run like that. I hope everybody got something out of our meeting, even if it was just a piece of coral or two.
It is nice to meet so many reefer in one place.
Minh Nguyen

[DeletedAccount]

Tim,
Ben won the door prize. Thank you very much for providing it!

Everyone,
Thanks for making this a great meeting! It was nice to have a good turnout this time and to put faces to the names on the site!

I know that my tanks look great after the productive evening last night! It'll be weeks before I get everything where I like it (and the coral likes it). This morning I was looking at all me great frags that are happy this morning and was happily surprised at some of the stuff I got home with.

[Janice]

Tim - Thank you so much for putting the coral order together, for relative coral beginners like us it was a good opportunity to be able to take several different species home. I also enjoyed learning how to frag, I have a reasonable amount of confidence in myself now. :)

It was wonderful meeting all of you, thanks to Tina for the hospitailty (and that culerpa as well!). My tank has never looked better than now with all of your frags and other donations. :grin: Next time I hope to be able to bring more to share than just supplies!

[VGB]

Was nice to meet many of you I haven`t met yet.
Thanks Tina for having the meeting in your lovely home.
Vic B.

[OrionN]

Chris,
I think the server is spastic because too many people sign on tonight (Monday 1/20/03)
Minh

[Chris]

Yeah it was running a little laggy for a while Minh... it seems better now though...

[REEFAHOLIC]

Just wanted to say thanks for everybody coming out to the meeting at my house. I am glad so many could come, I know I had a great time. Thanks to Mihn for coming and especially to Tim. Thank you.

Tina

[Brett Wilson]

Hi Tina,

How are those frags doing for you?

Thanks for hosting the meeting/party/small army. :)

-Brett

[REEFAHOLIC]

Hey Brett, my frags are doing well so far, tks. And it was my pleasure to have hosted the meeting :lol:

Tina