A Splash of Color - My SPS Peninsula Reef

[seeweed]

Looks great keep up good work

 

[reefmutt]

I have noticed the similarity Matt and i don't think it's a coincidence but who knows lol. I have a 40 min drive or 90 min drive to the only two LFS's worth visiting for SPS. I stopped going to Reeflections Aquarium though which is the one 90 mins away because for some ridiculous reason they started keeping the corals in 1.0235 which shuts them down and it takes them a long time to recover when i was putting them in water with the correct salinity.

That's an odd practice.. Wonder what's the rationale..
90min is quite a drive there and back... Either reason is a good one.. Although if they had crazy nice stuff, either reason could be ignored..

 

[biggles]

Looks great keep up good work

Thanks mate

That's an odd practice.. Wonder what's the rationale..
90min is quite a drive there and back... Either reason is a good one.. Although if they had crazy nice stuff, either reason could be ignored..

It's stupid not odd Matt but as you say, real SPS nuts like you and i would crawl over broken glass to get to good acros lol.

Say goodbye to Barry the naughty sump flame, he's finally leaving the skimmer section. Here he is with his head out of the water as usual begging for food.

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey Biggs, make sure you document your Acro shopping trip with pics.
The only reason that I could think of for keeping the salinity that low is to save salt

 

[biggles]

Okay i'm back from my LFS trip to Williamstown Aquarium and this time i made it out of there without a poly box full of fish and corals, i'm trying to be a more eco friendly reefer so i requested the eight bags go into a bio degradable cardboard box - next thing you know i'll be scrubbing oil off baby harp seals so the killer whales don't get tummy aches....... :thumbsup:

One of the acro tanks has a bad outbreak of scollyitus. These things are notorious for taking attention away from acros and very hard to control. I asked Jack the owner how he kept their numbers down and he simply took a $100- bill from my wallet and said 'now look at the tank again'.

I looked with stunned amazement to see that one of the scolly pests had vanished from the tank as if by magic !

Now i may be an idiot but one thing i am not and that is an idiot ! I wanted to know how Jack did the magic trick so i kept throwing money at him and he kept making stuff disappear from the tanks while i tried to spot how he did it - he even made fish and acros disappear and he didn't just use $100- bills, he can do the same bloody trick with $50- bills. :fun4:

I know you're all thinking like i was that the cash Jack was using was trick money so i decided to really put him to the test for you guys. I slyly handed over a plastic credit card instead of cash and got ready to take a pic of Jack's epic reef magic fail..... i still can't believe i'm saying this but somehow he was able to make multiple corals disappear all at once from these tanks just by waving my credit card over some magic box thingy that sits on the counter beside the cash register.

Abracadabra and suddenly 5 SPS had just gone from these tanks....... vanished into thin air......

Apparently there was a rare Trollus sp. fish in this tank but neither Jack nor i could figure out where it might be hiding so no pic of that fish - maybe next visit

I took a lot of pics of a lot of stuff i wish i had the money to buy lol. Wait until you see the clams i couldn't afford to get

 

[Fishy 1]

Biggles, my LFS knows the same magic trick and I'm still puzzled at how they do it. Those are some nice scolly's, have you got a pic of the one you got.

 

[biggles]

It's magic Rory........... no other explanation. :reading:

Here's the scolly and a teal blue acro frag i grabbed.

 

[Fishy 1]

I'm pretty sure they hypnotize you when you walk through the doors as well:eek1:.

Wow that is a nice scolly, I'm guessing it was three digits. Nice Acro as well, I'm sure you'll have it glowing in no time. Is that a pink/red scolly ing the background?

Hey mate when is this tank arriving?

 

[Oldude]

28/10/14

27/11/14

Those are a couple of sexy looking acros!!
Subscribed - looking forward to the new build.

 

[biggles]

I'm pretty sure they hypnotize you when you walk through the doors as well:eek1:.

Wow that is a nice scolly, I'm guessing it was three digits. Nice Acro as well, I'm sure you'll have it glowing in no time. Is that a pink/red scolly ing the background?

Hey mate when is this tank arriving?

Well you tell me Rory. Jack looks like your typical LFS owner, certainly nothing to suggest he's capable of magic or hypnotism.

That scolly was $110- and i said to Jack ' i really like scolly's but they're so bloody expensive ' as i gazed down at them. They look a lot nicer in person under those kessils than the pic shows.

' I'll knock $20 off and still give you ten percent off everything at the end, don't worry i'll look after you. '

I have no idea what that gibberish means, it sounds a lot like a spell or something but before i knew it that scolly was in a bag in my cardboard box and i had a sudden urge to purchase four more acros..........

The frags are made by one of the guys who works there and i have a pink milli frag coloring up nicely that i bought as a test if you like. It was light tan but Keith said it was bright pink in his tank so i went for it and it looks like it will be very pretty as long as i don't kill it. I'm very lucky being able to ask the actual frag supplier what stuff really looks like when it's colored up well in his system.

That's a red Cynarina mate. They have translucent tissue so you're looking through red water filled bubbles at a white skeleton that's tinted pink :crazy1: If you see a red one for sale buy it Rory. They light up after a couple of weeks under SPS conditions which is exactly what you run buddy.
I asked Jack for a quote today on the peninsula but i need to save up a bit before i can order it.

This fish just stands out whenever i see one.

And yes i did ask Jack if i could keep one in the new tank and the party pooper said no. I then asked if having a broken pot in the peninsula would let me keep one and Jack just turned away....... no idea if that's a yes or no tbh.

 

[biggles]

Those are a couple of sexy looking acros!!
Subscribed - looking forward to the new build.

Thanks Greg, they look nice beside each other now the blue one is coloring up. Thanks for following along mate, i still can't get over the growth you have on that green dragon you're going to prune. I love all the acros with thickety growth and thin branches such as yours and the echis, speciosa's etc. The more delicate they look the prettier they are for me.

'Tuka' Anthias which looked amazing but hard to keep so i left them.

See the flame price Rory, it sucks they're so expensive where you are mate

This Anthias was stunning

Who doesn't love a tank full of clowns, it's like a big glass bucket of happy.

 

[markalot]

The stores down there really make me angry. So many great corals and fish and so well taken care of. We just don't have the market up here in around Cincinnati to support that kind of store.

I passed up a $25 fire shrimp the other day, perhaps I should have bought it just so I could use it on occasions such as these. :bounce1:

 

[Fishy 1]

Yes that's what they want you to think Biggles, but really you have no control over your plastic card as soon as you walk through those doors:crazy:. Wow those are some nice fish, but we're being ripped off over here. Like that flame angle, add another $100 dollars onto the price:hammer:.

So what your saying is because you spent so much today on corals, you were unable to order the tank?!:facepalm:

 

[biggles]

The stores down there really make me angry. So many great corals and fish and so well taken care of. We just don't have the market up here in around Cincinnati to support that kind of store.

I passed up a $25 fire shrimp the other day, perhaps I should have bought it just so I could use it on occasions such as these. :bounce1:

Hey Mark, yes i have to say the fish are all very healthy and vibrant looking, the tanks are spotless and i see the same fish at times for months so i know the water must be A1. I think the guy that handles the fish is Cameron and he certainly knows his stuff.
I bought a Banana Wrasse and a Lubbock's Fairy Wrasse today, both about two inches long. I saw them for 30 seconds and then they were gone. Just before lights out i tried some cyclopseeze in the water and the fairy wrasse came out from under the green and pink chalice thingy and ate like a pig for 10 mins Then he disappeared again lol.

Yes that's what they want you to think Biggles, but really you have no control over your plastic card as soon as you walk through those doors:crazy:. Wow those are some nice fish, but we're being ripped off over here. Like that flame angle, add another $100 dollars onto the price:hammer:.

So what your saying is because you spent so much today on corals, you were unable to order the tank?!:facepalm:

You must remember that your LFS's are not dealing in the volumes of sales and turnover that high end specialty marine stores such as Reeflections and Williamstown are. Aus caught flames go from $100 to $150 at times which will be what you're looking at Rory. The $65 flames are imported in large numbers and sold at bulk prices if you buy enough. I can assure you that i can pick a flame from the GBR over the imported ones from ten feet away, the Aus ones almost glow so you do get what you pay for.

Lol i always spend heaps. The new tank is going to cost a lot more than what i dropped today mate.

Here's a small intact colony a bit smaller than a tennis ball i bought. I know this species pretty well and expect it to turn either blue or purple tipped with fluoro green polyps likely. I bought it hoping it would be purple because i have several blue with green polyp acros already. If anyone knows the species please let me know

Couple of hours after putting it on the bottom.

Everything goes on the bottom for the first few days at a minimum. I think it's best to get them used to your water before you worry about colors and light levels needed to bring them out but that's just my take on new corals going into an SPS tank.
The main thing i look for before thinking about where the acro should go is polyp extension - PE. I want to see good PE at night which tells me the acro is actively seeking to feed and not unhappy about the water it's in. I never move an acro up if it has zero PE and instead try different spots on the bottom with varying flow. Some acros take 30 seconds to extend polyps after hitting the water and others take up to a week or more depending on the stress they've been through i guess.

Here it is tonight a couple of hours after lights out and it has what i would call poor to ok PE for night time - it's great for the first night though so i'm very happy. The polyps are extended about 1/16" in the pic and this species typically has 1/4" long polyps once settled in and growing so hopefully that gives you an idea what i mean when i say the PE in the night pic would mean the acro was upset probably about the water if i'd had it for a few months and it showed that poor PE a few nights in a row.

Both the acros behind it have PE about half the length they will after a few more hours of darkness, they both have ok PE compared to what i expect to see when they're fully extended. If i add roids etc to the water they will have full PE within 10-15 mins.

Sorry for the long ramble about PE. I know most of you already know all this stuff but i like to talk about the little things that most of us take for granted which must be confusing for those trying to keep SPS for the first time. I don't express myself well because i tend to just blurt this stuff out at random lol but i really don't mean to sound knowitally - that's a real word btw. I'm just telling you how and why i do things so take it all with a grain of salt because i've killed my fair share of acros too over the years. :deadhorse1:

 

[Fishy 1]

I suppose your right mate, as it is only a small shop. I look forward to pics of your new wrasses i know you'll love them:inlove:. Don't be sorry about the PE ramble mate, it was a very interesting read for a SPS hopeless like me

 

[biggles]

I suppose your right mate, as it is only a small shop. I look forward to pics of your new wrasses i know you'll love them:inlove:. Don't be sorry about the PE ramble mate, it was a very interesting read for a SPS hopeless like me

I look forward to just seeing them again at this stage Rory lol.

The new scolly is a happy camper tonight.

There's enough here to fully load a Trident submarine i reckon Troub........

It's way past my bed time but tomorrow i'll try to show you the new fish and also the other acros i bought. :beer:

 

[Fishy 1]

I think you should see them mate, especially the fairy since it ate before lights out.

Haha lol, well that makes two of us, I'm off to bed

 

[Jim Z.]

Hey Biggles,

I just finished getting a new floor put in our basement and put away 4 cords of firewood. So if the wife stays distracted, I may have enough time to get a tank journal started:lolspin:. That's on my to do list!

That's a nice shop--I'd like to see some of those frags here in the US. I refuse to pay 100 dollars for a frag that's the size of a gnat and those frags have some size to them...........................Jim

 

[reefmutt]

Great tour!!
Magic, eh?? Explains a LOT!!
I always thought I had been drugged and date raped... Thank goodness it was all magic. Makes me feel much better to be poor..
Those Poseidon missiles are called fire fish around here.. Poseidon missile is very dramatic.
Don't stop talking about the little stuff, biggles, it's basically what got us all here!
I'm enjoying this ride!

 

[martinphillip03]

A very fair question, only an experienced reefer like you would ask. I have learned so much from your threads!

Marty

This fish just stands out whenever i see one.

I then asked if having a broken pot in the peninsula would let me keep one and Jack just turned away....... no idea if that's a yes or no tbh.