How long does it take to propagate coral?

Question

I understand there are different corals and methods so I guess I’m asking on various methods and coral species. Like what’s one of the fastest corals to propagate? And what’s one of the easiest?

Answer 1

You are correct in that there are a lot of corals, and you have several methods to use.

Before you worry about propagation, though, you need to have the right tank conditions to keep them. Corals have a photosynthetic bacteria (called zooxanthelae) that live inside their cells and these provide some of the coral's food. A standard light hood isn't enough to keep them alive, you'll need at the minimum a compact fluorescent lighting system, up to a metal halide system for some of the corals that need more intense light. And corals need very good water quality, with low nutrient levels, so you should also have a saltwater testing kit that will allow you to test pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. You want to keep these at pH 8.2-8.4, ammonia and nitrite = 0, and nitrate as low as possible, suggested to be less than 10ppm.

Some of the easiest to start with are mushrooms, zooanthids, clove polyps, and Xenia - these will literally propagate themselves by dividing, although you can also do some cutting to propagate them.

Here are some websites with info on prpagating corals:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/ac/feature/index.php
http://www.athiel.com/lib10/sps6.htm
http://www.aquariumdomain.com/guideCoralPropagation.asp

Answer 2

i would agree with copperhead other than my own personal curse with keeping xenia alive. i have spoke to many people and found that they have either no problems with this type of coral or it is disaster. i feel zoathids are the easiest to start with. you can even go as simple as breaking off a piece of like rock where a decent sized colony of zoa's are on move the other piece to the other side of your tank and more zoanthids will grow. So when you say how long to propagate coral it really depends on the type of coral and how quickly it grows. the time to actually make a cutting is not a very long process but the time it takes to grow that cutting to a big enough piece to take another cutting from it depends on the coral.

Answer 3

I find one of the easiest is a leather finger coral.
Just cut off a stalk at a joint and attach it to a small piece of rock with an elastic.
It will look dead but after about 1 to 2 weeks it should be opened and attached to the rock.
You can now remove the elastic.
I sell or trade the new ones for other corals or equipment.

Answer 4

garf.org has alot of info too, the very easiest are hairy mushrooms, but they wont go for much. ricordia, and zoas are simple as well. mushrooms will propogate very quickly, just be sure to include some of the central mouth in each cut, a 1/2 or 1/4 is good to start, they are also the easiest. work on a few cheap ricordias or hairy muchrroms for under 20-30 and try a few of those to get your feet wet and then try a few of the mpore expensive varieties. ok a few tips, go with a 6500K or 10000k bulbs for growing, 6500k recommendded, they will grow faster, add an actinic bulb for better color, the frags can be set in a shallow bowl with some plugs or gravel and tie some netting over the bowl, i have never tried gluing them to plugs but that should be possible too, eggcrate from lowes works well to set the plugs in. email for any more questions