A Splash of Color

[reefmutt]

I think I've said this befor but I see growth on your corals, Andrew. It is slow growth. Not the turbo, colour changing growth that we love to see. That nub at the base of the red coral looks promising for some turbo growth, however..
I am always transformed into a covetous monster when I look at your photos, Andrew.
I don't like it..
I love it..
I don't like it at all!!
More..

More!!..

 

[biggles]

Thanks for the info. I have to say, I'm liking the results that I'm getting with the AF vitamins. I decided to go with the Fish Vitamins instead of the Coral ones because the bottle is twice as big and I'm only losing, if I can recall, 3 of the vitamins that the coral one has over the fish version for the half the price of the coral vitamin mix.

Here's what's in each according to AF :reading:

Vitality

AF Vitality contains: vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin E and vitamin K3.

Fish V

Ingredients: vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D3, E, K3, and biotin, alanine, choline, cysteine, glutamine, leucine, lysine, serine, tyrosine.

I think I've said this befor but I see growth on your corals, Andrew. It is slow growth. Not the turbo, colour changing growth that we love to see. That nub at the base of the red coral looks promising for some turbo growth, however..
I am always transformed into a covetous monster when I look at your photos, Andrew.
I don't like it..
I love it..
I don't like it at all!!
More..

More!!..

Hey Matt, some of the acros are starting to look like they might be waking up so things aren't looking too bad

Dave dropped over last night and i asked him to give me a brutal opinion of the scape and where i've put colors...........

' Well those two all blue frags near each other look identical '

' One has dark bluey purple polyps and the other one has dark bluey green polyps Dave '

' Yeah...... a normal person would never see that though, they both look like all blue acros really '

' Ok i'll move one then '

' Up to you '

' Hang on, what do you mean a normal person Dave, are you saying i'm not normal ? '

' You know what i mean '

' Oh i know exactly what you mean Dave '

' Stop it i know what you're doing Andrew '

I couldn't help myself and burst out laughing - Dave refuses to play with me anymore lol.

He slagged the way all the islands are the same distance from the front glass, stood up the peninsula end looking down the length and held his hands out about 2ft apart and said,

' All the acros are about 100mm from the front and back glass all the way down '

' So ? '

' Well some different depth of field would look good '

' You really are a picky bastard aren't you Dave '

' You asked for it '


Soooooooo,

I already pushed the whole right island back about 3" which is why the water is a bit cloudy but there's a lot more sand in front of it now. I have 32" to play with remember.

1. Shoving the bigger blue acro up the other end in between three red acros.

2. Moving the little light/dark blue piece to where the other thing was.

3. Angling that rock more to the front to make the gap in the middle of the island more visble to the eye and pushing the whole thing in closer to the main rockwork.

4. The new mauvey colored acro will be able to overhang the spot where the light/dark blue acro was.

That's what's going to happen........... in theory :spin3:

 

[Pife]

Here's what's in each according to AF :reading:

Vitality



Fish V





Hey Matt, some of the acros are starting to look like they might be waking up so things aren't looking too bad

Dave dropped over last night and i asked him to give me a brutal opinion of the scape and where i've put colors...........

' Well those two all blue frags near each other look identical '

' One has dark bluey purple polyps and the other one has dark bluey green polyps Dave '

' Yeah...... a normal person would never see that though, they both look like all blue acros really '

' Ok i'll move one then '

' Up to you '

' Hang on, what do you mean a normal person Dave, are you saying i'm not normal ? '

' You know what i mean '

' Oh i know exactly what you mean Dave '

' Stop it i know what you're doing Andrew '

I couldn't help myself and burst out laughing - Dave refuses to play with me anymore lol. [emoji14]

He slagged the way all the islands are the same distance from the front glass, stood up the peninsula end looking down the length and held his hands out about 2ft apart and said,

' All the acros are about 100mm from the front and back glass all the way down '

' So ? '

' Well some different depth of field would look good '

' You really are a picky bastard aren't you Dave '

' You asked for it '


Soooooooo,

I already pushed the whole right island back about 3" which is why the water is a bit cloudy but there's a lot more sand in front of it now. I have 32" to play with remember.

1. Shoving the bigger blue acro up the other end in between three red acros.

2. Moving the little light/dark blue piece to where the other thing was.

3. Angling that rock more to the front to make the gap in the middle of the island more visble to the eye and pushing the whole thing in closer to the main rockwork.

4. The new mauvey colored acro will be able to overhang the spot where the light/dark blue acro was.

That's what's going to happen........... in theory :spin3:

Sounds like a good plan. Glad you're back. You're corals look spectacular even if they don't grow.... But I think they have quite a bit.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[biggles]

Sounds like a good plan. Glad you're back. You're corals look spectacular even if they don't grow.... But I think they have quite a bit.

Thanks mate, all went drama free for a change. Some stuff is trying to grow for sure, i just need to keep things stable and not change what i've been doing i think :beer:

Water was still cloudy but you can see from the peninsula end view that the scape isn't running perpendicular to the front glass anymore.

 

[reefmutt]

I like Dave.

You know you've set the growth back another few weeks with all of your moving around...
A normal person wouldn't move everything around so much..

so no more complaining.

 

[martinphillip03]

Andrew, welcome back! These 20 days of not posting seemed like a year. FYI, my life is always better when you post. So thanks for starting up again, and now, I can come off my depression meds.

Marty

 

[biggles]

I like Dave.

You know you've set the growth back another few weeks with all of your moving around...
A normal person wouldn't move everything around so much..

so no more complaining.

I think we all know i'm not normal Matt.......... :spin3:

Dave complained that i was wasting the orange monti,

' You know nice orange montis like that aren't all that common, it's a shame you covered it up really '

' Monti's are colorful live rock Dave nothing more, they're garbage corals '

....... SPS are acros, everything else is stupid easy to keep garbage that is merely there to make the acros look better.......

Before anyone takes offence, that is a quote and as such you shouldn't just assume i agree 100% with the author's views. I can't remember his name but he he's a cool dude, take my word for it. :thumbsup:

Andrew, welcome back! These 20 days of not posting seemed like a year. FYI, my life is always better when you post. So thanks for starting up again, and now, I can come off my depression meds.

Marty

Thanks Marty lol.

Spooky Mike up close and personal Mate. There's a lot more to Mike when you take a closer look......

More contrast so you get a better idea of the pop in person......... and because it's porny.........:smokin:

 

[Wrangy]

I'm glad to hear things are good and I know Dave enjoyed catching up with you on Saturday which I'm bummed I missed!!
We'll definitely need to catch up soon, I've been meaning to text you the last few weeks! I've been slack on that front though!

Looking stunning mate!!

 

[biggles]

I'm glad to hear things are good and I know Dave enjoyed catching up with you on Saturday which I'm bummed I missed!!
We'll definitely need to catch up soon, I've been meaning to text you the last few weeks! I've been slack on that front though!

Looking stunning mate!!

Hey Dom, i had good fun catching up with Dave but it was Friday night when he picked me up, we went to the airport and picked up two boxes from Sustainable Reefs, went to the shop about 7pm and waited for Ken to arrive.

' Ken has a master class chalice coming from Christian '

' What makes it master class ? '

' It's gold among other things '

' Gold my arse Dave, it'll be a green piece of sh$t '

When Dave placed Ken's chalice in the tank i may have exclaimed quite loudly something along the lines of,

' HOLY BLEEP DAVE, IT LOOKS BLEEPING GOLD ! '

Anyway, Ken was most pleased i think........

At Dave's shop there is a clown tank which Dave keeps the common bubble tip anemone's in also. When i'm at the shop i refer to them as my clowns, ' how are my clowns going Dave ? ' I love them and they are my swarm of super cute babies

Just so you know how much i care about these guys ok......... like they are my children....... at the shop.......... i hate people buying any........ got it......

Now............

Friday night Dave unpacks an anemone and tells me it's about $600- because it's a green tipped rose something anemone, it wasn't a bubble tip i know that. Since normal rose nems are $400- in Aus i told him it looked cool but the price was crazy. Dave then placed the anemone in my clown tank which seemed reasonable and 15 mins later it was open and it did look super cool colored. Some of my babies were already poking around it like they were going to swarm it like they do to the other nems.
About 30 mins later Dave was unpacking acros and humming to himself quietly as he did so. I walked over to my clown tank and the new nem was all closed up and swollen in distress.....

' Dave, there's something wrong with that expensive new anemone '

Dave stops unpacking and comes over to see what's wrong.

' Oh it's fine, it's probably eaten one of the clowns '

He then turned and went back to the SPS tank and.......... i still can't believe he did this.........

Dave started humming............ like i was still staring in shock at the bastard nem that murdered one of my clowns trying to process what he just said and Dave is $%$%@ humming !

There was a short discussion after which Dave decided to move the nem immediately rather than my strongly worded suggestion to take it out the front of the shop and and i stomp on it until it spat out my clown...... :furious:

Had this for a couple of years, i dead headed it about a year ago to a stump because it was one long stringy branch and was also looking half dead and brown at the time. I don't keep many pieces this long with bugger all reward color wise but a few times over the years when the tank has been going well i have seen glimpses of what the tips do when it is growing and as such it has always had a place at the back of the scape. It's just starting to lighten up on the skin lately so the nice purple is more visible and when the axial tips are growing they are baby blue with bright pink polyps. If you squint hard and look at the top right tip in the pic you can see the polyp turning pink which is why i know it's about to start growing at the tips and coloring up with the blue.

Anyway Marty, that's why i keep this particular acro despite it not looking very nice atm, hopefully the next pic will be very different - otherwise it's going on the roof............ :reading:

 

[Pife]

That piece looks great.

Because of your fireworks coral I'm going to be out a couple hundred bucks.

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[biggles]

That piece looks great.

Because of your fireworks coral I'm going to be out a couple hundred bucks.

Thanks mate, i posted a pic of the original branch years ago on here i think so i will chase it up and re post it for comparison.

All my fireworks are still poopy from the recent alk spike and not growing, they'll brighten up soon enough though as most other things are looking nice. I think as long as you can afford it there is no way any of the fireworks colored acros over there will not quickly become one of your favorites. Jason Fox found the original variant i think as i came across my wild version at least a year after he had 1/2" frags for $400-................ at least it's not a made up LED only nice colored piece, i promise all of you that a fireworks acro will blow you away in person so definitely try to spread it around to make it a lot cheaper and more common :beer:

You will love it Pifey

It was bone colored all over from top to bottom when Dave tried to talk me out of buying it about 3 weeks ago now i think. I told him even if it stayed bone colored all over it would look beautiful because the growth was so delicate - my acro weak spot.

I moved it today to a very prominent spot because it's not going to be bone colored.......... bloody Dave has no idea.......... :spin3:

 

[sparker1663]

LOL I do love the banter you and Dave have

 

[martinphillip03]

I have to side with Dave on this one. He knew it was going to turn green. It is very delicate, but green. Dave knows you don't like green acros. And especially, Delicate green acros! Dave did not want you to hurt your arm when you would throw it on your neighbors roof because it turned green.
I'm sure many of your readers, like Dave and I, are shocked you like any type of green acro. I do like the acro, but I do think Dave is in the clear on this one.

Marty

It was bone colored all over from top to bottom when Dave tried to talk me out of buying it about 3 weeks ago now i think. I told him even if it stayed bone colored all over it would look beautiful because the growth was so delicate - my acro weak spot.

I moved it today to a very prominent spot because it's not going to be bone colored.......... bloody Dave has no idea.......... :spin3:

 

[Pife]

I have to side with Dave on this one. He knew it was going to turn green. It is very delicate, but green. Dave knows you don't like green acros. And especially, Delicate green acros! Dave did not want you to hurt your arm when you would throw it on your neighbors roof because it turned green.
I'm sure many of your readers, like Dave and I, are shocked you like any type of green acro. I do like the acro, but I do think Dave is in the clear on this one.

Marty

I'm almost thinking orange to green /yellow tips. I like it too, but it like many others before will end up on the roof if green...

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[slavetonet]

Biggles is back.
Mate I do missed your post lately.

 

[biggles]

LOL I do love the banter you and Dave have

Hey Sam, when i was at the shop with Ken he and Dave organized THREE different pairs of reef safe angels for Ken's display. Bellus, semifasciatus and another type - the semifasciatus pair were in the shop and make the bellus look like garbage.......... both the female and male are stunning but too expensive for me

So i then ask

' Can i put that little blueface angel in my sump tank Dave, he's been here for months and you know i love the little guy '

' Hah, not happening '

' Why not ? '

' Because you'll end up putting him in the display and then blaming me for the carnage '

' No i won't '

' You told me a month ago that's exactly what would happen and not to sell you the fish ever Andrew '

And get this, he just smiles and walks off......... so don't tell Dave anything Sam because the bastard remembers everything........

I have to side with Dave on this one. He knew it was going to turn green. It is very delicate, but green. Dave knows you don't like green acros. And especially, Delicate green acros! Dave did not want you to hurt your arm when you would throw it on your neighbors roof because it turned green.
I'm sure many of your readers, like Dave and I, are shocked you like any type of green acro. I do like the acro, but I do think Dave is in the clear on this one.

Marty

I asked Dave if he could see any hint of green on it as a safety precaution Marty and he said no............ that part is Dave's fault and i will take the blame for the other color

I'm almost thinking orange to green /yellow tips. I like it too, but it like many others before will end up on the roof if green...

It's looking very roof safe atm mate but you just never know......... :spin3:

Biggles is back.
Mate I do missed your post lately.

Thanks Kevin

Old over saturated fireworks pic when it was still the same shape as when collected, looks nothing like the same growth now with much finer tips and branching no matter how much flow it gets.

That purple piece when i got it

After a few months in the tank it was just starting to color up and then i had a bad patch and it nearly died and ended up with just one long tip alive so i decided to chop it back to a stub base and regrow it.

Out of the water when i got it

 

[martinphillip03]

Andrew, this is your tank 109 pages ago. Could we get another shot like this so we can see how things have changed. Also I would like to see your tank since you have implemented Dave's ideas.

Thank you,

Marty

This is my 60x32x18" SPS dominant reef display. I am restarting my journal since i have abandoned plans to keep a peninsula type display so a fresh start is in order.

The aim remains the same - to make my reef tank a big splash of acro colors.

I ran a 100 micron felt sock for 24 hours before taking this pic, the water is very clear. I didn't clean the end panel glass so you could see the algae buildup in 24 hrs - nitrates are at 10 and phos is about .08 at the moment which is a good balance but way too high a concentration. :hammer:

 

[biggles]

Andrew, this is your tank 109 pages ago. Could we get another shot like this so we can see how things have changed. Also I would like to see your tank since you have implemented Dave's ideas.

Thank you,

Marty

I will get a pic for you in the next day or two Marty.

Finally waking up..........

 

[biggles]

Three months and all it has done is encrust about 1/8" and change from peach to whatever it is atm. Lately when i've had the cutters in the tank i have thought about smashing this thing off the pinnacle it was supposed to look amazing on.......... whilst actually growing as well....... :spin3:

Tried my best to balance the colors but you can see the difference regardless between the two pieces.

After a month of high light under 8 T5's in the sump, the Giesemann equivalent of 4 x B+, 2 x actinic and 2 x coral+ i cleared the area on the blue acro i told you guys i was going to do months back and placed the frag beside it's small mother colony. I placed a piece of putty between them to bridge the gap so they can encrust and join up more easily.

With more blue still in the pic

Most of the reds i see posted on RC look the shade of red the frag is displaying, i could be wrong but the point is not to offend any of you but to show you that it's the UV output of a 400W Radium that drives the intense production of of pigment - all i ever see is people talking about PAR when it's the PUR that matters. If you think about why my acros are colorful it's this simple. Take the spectrum that acros receive at say 30mtrs and then apply it to acros collected from similar depths but double the PAR or intensity of that 30mtr spectrum and hit the acros with that. Lots of low nm spectrum lighting at unnaturally high levels is what makes pigments saturate.
If you took a blue tennuis from 30 mtrs and stuck it at 5 mtrs for a month it would lose zoa and pigment to deal with the excessive high nm spectrum.
If you did the same thing but kept the spectrum the same as at 30mtrs whilst placing it in 5mtr PAR levels of that spectrum the blue acro will intensify in 'blueness' to crazy intense levels. Not everything will react positively to such lighting but when they do you see new expensive ' one off ' limited edition frags for sale.

And that's all i have to say about that..............:reading:

 

[gregkn73]

Three months and all it has done is encrust about 1/8" and change from peach to whatever it is atm. Lately when i've had the cutters in the tank i have thought about smashing this thing off the pinnacle it was supposed to look amazing on.......... whilst actually growing as well....... :spin3:

Tried my best to balance the colors but you can see the difference regardless between the two pieces.

After a month of high light under 8 T5's in the sump, the Giesemann equivalent of 4 x B+, 2 x actinic and 2 x coral+ i cleared the area on the blue acro i told you guys i was going to do months back and placed the frag beside it's small mother colony. I placed a piece of putty between them to bridge the gap so they can encrust and join up more easily.

With more blue still in the pic

Most of the reds i see posted on RC look the shade of red the frag is displaying, i could be wrong but the point is not to offend any of you but to show you that it's the UV output of a 400W Radium that drives the intense production of of pigment - all i ever see is people talking about PAR when it's the PUR that matters. If you think about why my acros are colorful it's this simple. Take the spectrum that acros receive at say 30mtrs and then apply it to acros collected from similar depths but double the PAR or intensity of that 30mtr spectrum and hit the acros with that. Lots of low nm spectrum lighting at unnaturally high levels is what makes pigments saturate.
If you took a blue tennuis from 30 mtrs and stuck it at 5 mtrs for a month it would lose zoa and pigment to deal with the excessive high nm spectrum.
If you did the same thing but kept the spectrum the same as at 30mtrs whilst placing it in 5mtr PAR levels of that spectrum the blue acro will intensify in 'blueness' to crazy intense levels. Not everything will react positively to such lighting but when they do you see new expensive ' one off ' limited edition frags for sale.

And that's all i have to say about that..............:reading:

Very interesting your analysis of colouration Andrew, but following this analysis ,I can not explain the amazing colouration of sustainable reef frags, growing under just sun light , at their shallow vats. Can you help me understand how their frags can have such intense pigmentation, growing under so high nm levels? If you also consider that the poly carbonates, they use to cover their vats ,filter probable , most of the sun light UV radiation, makes even harder to explain their frags amazing colouration...