Dan's RSR-S 850 Mixed Reef

[dandemeyere]

Here's the frag rack of fresh cut (and pissed off lol) corals:

And here's a pic of some of my favorite tank spawned torches – BLA Canary Grail & BLA Dragon Spawn – that are starting to grow out:

 

[Alexander1312]

I've gotten a few questions in the past about how often I frag and what my general approach is, so I figured I’d share a bit today since I just wrapped up a fragging session.

In the past, I definitely had times where I was fragging mainly to create pieces to sell. But right now, my focus is really on letting the tank grow out into a proper display. So I’d say about 90% of the frags I made this time were just where colonies were either growing into each other or starting to shade neighboring corals.

I also try to make cuts that result in nice, chunky frags while keeping the mother colony looking as natural as possible. There are definitely cases where I could take a frag from a big colony, but if it’s not causing issues—like shading or crowding—and there’s no clean way to cut without making it look hacked up, I just leave it alone.

This particular frag session took around 50 minutes that was timelapsed down to 20 seconds. Unfortunately, the time-lapse didn’t come out quite in focus, so it's a little blurry—but hopefully, it still gives a sense of the process:

I would love to watch the 50-minute original video.

 

[Coral reefer]

Looks like someone wants to host the next fragging workshop. Even if it’s virtual and not in person…

 

[dandemeyere]

I would love to watch the 50-minute original video.

I recorded it in timelapse mode. Next time I'll try to find a better setup for recording. Are you more interested in how I frag the colonies in my tank or my plug/gluing setup?

Looks like someone wants to host the next fragging workshop. Even if it’s virtual and not in person…

I don't think I do anything unique when it comes to fragging, but my setup is in the garage with a fair amount of space so I could definitely host something in the future!

 

[dandemeyere]

I had someone stop by last night to pick up a coral frag and they made a comment about how fast the corals in my tank are growing. Growth rates are so tricky because it's one of those things that's hard to notice when you're staring at the tank every day. I think my growth rate is good, but his comment made me want to dig up an old picture from a few months ago just to compare. I don’t take a lot of FTS photos, which is actually one of the reasons I’m trying to downsize my collection right now so I can get all the frag racks off the glass as I hate how that looks in FTSs, but I did find a photo from January and it was helpful to see how much the Bali Green Slimer and the ORA Blue Staghorn next to it have grown – probably doubled in size in 6 months.

Anyway, sometimes it takes someone else’s perspective to help you appreciate the progress. It’s easy to focus on what needs improvement when you’re looking at the tank every day, but that outside comment reminded me just how far things have come

January '25 FTS

July '25 FTS (yes I need to clean the glass and back wall!)