Heater Failure

[lukeg1981]

I had a heater failure that bleached out most of my corals 45 days ago. Remarkably, since then, all the corals that I had came back except a leather toad stool. My montipora and birds nest have sustained large sections that have remain bleached, but everything else looks great.
My question is do you frag pieces from the montipora and birds nest and start anew with those two corals or will even more come back. Even if the dead pieces don't come back, will new growth eventually grow over the dead sections?

 

[bang guy]

Sometimes SPS will encrust over skeleton. More often coralline gets to it first and prevents the coral from doing it.

If it were me I would start fragging.

 

[lukeg1981]

On the birds nest, it's just the last half inch or so of the branches that are alive and the whole piece was the size of a softball. So there are probably a hundred pieces that could be fragged. Any advice on how to frag the birds nest?

 

[bang guy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lukeg1981 http:///t/397716/heater-failure#post_3545994
On the birds nest, it's just the last half inch or so of the branches that are alive and the whole piece was the size of a softball. So there are probably a hundred pieces that could be fragged. Any advice on how to frag the birds nest?

The ends will break off easily, very easily with just your fingers. I always recommend wearing gloves...

If the ends are still alive with a dead ******** that's not so bad. You could just continue to let it grow out that way. It still wouldn't hurt to snap off a few branches and start new frags.

Most people I've seen stand a new frag upright on a rock or a plug. For Birdsnest and M. digitata it actually gives a much better end result to glue the frag on its side with as much surface area touching the plug as possible.

 

[lukeg1981]

Bang Guy really helpful advice. Appreciate the help.
Also, getting ready to try seahorses again. I lost the first pair to tail rot and GBD. I have a chiller this time.The chiller has a two degree swing. So if I set the chiller for 74, it waits until the tank is 76 before turning on, then chills the tank to 74. I've heard that running the tank under 74 really cuts down on the bacteria. Currently, in my coral only tank I have the chiller set for 74 so the tank stays between 74 and 76, and all the corals look good. I have eagle eye, montipora, birds nest, mushrooms, kenya tree, yellow polyps, and glove polyps.

Any suggestion on what temperature to keep the tank for the seahorses and coral?

 

[bang guy]

You'll need advice from someone else for Seahorses. For coral I'd look at the average ocean surface temps for the species you wish to keep thrives in the wild and try to maintain something within a couple degrees of those averages.

Yes, I just gave you a homework assignment. I hope you share your answers with the class.