A Splash of Color

[mhucasey]

Matt, which colour morph do you prefer of the two you posted? Awesome transformation. Did you anticipate it?

Frankly I felt like I probably was foolish in buying it as it was a pale wild collected colony. I thought it would turn brown and maybe not make it. It was pretty light and glowed when i got it, now it's a nice solid color. Frankly either one would make me happy, it is one of the most pink corals I've ever seen in a tank right now so that is very cool given the scarcity of pink corals

 

[biggles]

Early morning porn shot, i asked the yellow wrasse to pose beside the acro for a color reference. My fish are very obedient

 

[mhucasey]

Early morning porn shot, i asked the yellow wrasse to pose beside the acro for a color reference. My fish are very obedient

Holey moley!:eek1:

 

[nemodan]

The colors of the best football team in Argentina " Boca Juniors" yellow and blue.

Speachless......Amazing......Incredible.......the fish, not the corals ......LOL...LOL

Cheers
Daniel

 

[WilRams]

Amazing.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

The colors of the best football team in Argentina " Boca Juniors" yellow and blue.

Steady ....

 

[reefmutt]

Must.... Keep..... Bad..... Thoughts.... Away.....
Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhh!!!


Soooo good....

 

[Usernam Invalid]

[/QUOTE]


Wow.....[emoji15]

 

[biggles]

Wow, now that last pic is cool, I had a similar experience with my RR stag and Greel slimer, they grew together and did not create warfare, for this, I believe we may overthink acros growing together or encroaching upon one another. A testament to what truly happens in the ocean, great depiction Andrew, and nice score might I add. That purple, what looks to be a humilis, is going to be amazing, that orange and green, presumably tenius, is going to be a show stopper. I am probably dead wrong on both id's, but it's what my eyes tell me mate We have some sweet maricultured pieces at the shop that came from Australia, nothing like what you are showing though, you are a lucky man Biggles!!! Oh, and that yellow acro mate... Made me want to throw my camera in the trash can

Thanks Perry, pretty sure it's a gemmifera and tenuis as suggested by C.Eymann. The ugly looking gemmifera that when happy is goldy green with purple corallites and blue tips you saw bottom left in the flubber top down i posted looked pretty much like the new wild piece when i first got it. I expect the new gem to have similar colors once i bigglerize it. I'll show you how pretty the other one is once it gets over the poops it's still going through.

So, you did a boxer's trick on us then. Show us your right arm and landed a left hook on our chin. The last picture is also awesome. You are a very lucky reefer Andrew. I envy you mate.

While I am on your thread and got your attention, I would like to ask you two questions.

First, you mentioned in an earlier post that you keep your tank water's temperature between 25.5-26.5C. I keep mine 26.8-27.7C. Although every animal seems happy and grow well, would this temperature range affect the coloration of corals negatively?

Second, please have a look at the picture of one of my acroporas below. This frag came from a wild colony, which looked blue in my dealer's tank. In my tank, the frag has changed its colour. I am not complaining because I am pleasantly surprised. However, I feel that I made an error of judgement in that I did not expect this to happen. What am I supposed to look at before I purchase wild acroporas in order not to have this sort of surprise in the future? I know you told us that the yellow coloration is often a sign of bleaching. What about other colours, such as blue?

Thanks

Bulent

Hey Bulent, i haven't noticed any changes in colors or health in the acros running warmer temps. Having said that i'm going to drop mine back another degree as i think it's better for the anthias and all my recent acros have been coming from down in the cold gloom.........

Many blue acros look pastel purple when freshly collected which is frustrating when you are chasing purple and place one next to a blue acro you already have for color contrast. A few weeks later you discover the bloody thing is developing blue pigments over what you thought was bleached purple tissue. :deadhorse1:
The prettiest stressed out and partly bleached acro is a blue stag - they all look like a zeo dream in the shop tank and that's the trap. Once you get them healthier they will take on zoa again and that twinkling pale blue that caught your eye will be gone quicker than a frag browns out in Sahin's tank.......

I have ignored a couple of yellow pieces in the last few months that were nearly as pretty as the yellow acro because they looked like deep water's but were collected in 10-15mtrs. I have been waiting for a yellow collected deep where it has developed those colors in a very blue spectrum (my spectrum) to maximize my chances of holding the pigment without needing to run super clean water or nuke it with light.

Very informative Andrew, most helpful when picking pieces that have made their gruelling 24hr trip from Aus to Toronto. I totally agree with you that intact pieces are a rare find. I usually snap them up when we're lucky enough to get one :bigeyes:

Hey Mike, there's something slightly cooler about any small piece that's been pried off the rocks in one piece....... branches are like flower cuttings my mom steals from peoples front gardens when she's out walking. Intact colonies are like puppies at the pound needing rescuing.

Boy would I ever LOVE to come take pictures of your tank, Andrew..

And maybe do a little reef shopping as well..

.. And well.. Maybe move there as well..

You know how they have sleep overs in tents at the city zoo sometimes in summer, you come over and we will camp out at Dave's shop and do a live spooky SPS RC video broadcast........... Kevin might play murder in the dark with you :hmm3:
You can put floaties on and have a snorkel in the 6x4 acro display - no weeing or Dave will know btw. The skimmer output gave me away when i did it..........:deadhorse1:

I am with you Matt, first stop Biggles, let's hijack that yellow first though Next stop over to Dom's, see if we can nab that firetruck, lol... Would love to live there, surfing, diving, reef tanks, beers, uhmmmmm take me away from here!!!

A certain psychopathic koala might have something to say about that little plan Perry........

When I win the powerball jackpot, it's a partaaaay at Biggles' house.. For everybody!!
We'll get Dom plastered and when he's sleeping it off, the firetruck will be 'relocated'.
It'll be more difficult to 'relocate' Andrew's whole collection, though..

Just make sure you or Perry smuggle me some dragons over Matt

 

[slavetonet]

Andrew,
Is it even for you to have such good variety?

 

[biggles]

The pink one looks a lot like mine

this is what it looks like now:

I'm very sure it's the same acro color variant as yours Matt, if i get as much pink as you i'll be very happy. It will be interesting to see how differently mine colors up compared to yours

I think Im becoming dehydrated from excessive drooling every time I visit this thread. That tenuis on the right has some serious potential! The Blue humilis looking one is A. gemmifera I believe http://coral.aims.gov.au/factsheet.jsp?speciesCode=0030 and is pretty common to see it those exhibit that coloration, i would definately separate the two considering that tenuis looks like its going to be something wicked on its own, they might battle or they might not, but here in the US that tenuis could fetch a pretty penny, where as the blue gemmifera is very common and part of the bread and butter group of acros.

I can't describe the envy I feel, good SPS are really hard to come by in the US where I live, many retail shops around me refuse to order it in as they don't have the equipment, nor the time and effort it takes to maintain the environment that they need to be kept in. I have looked into ordering a box from livestock USA but transhipping seems like quite the gamble.

I had a quick question for you Andrew, I know you said you dose lugol's 1 drop every 75 gallons everyday, question is do you run carbon? if so consistently? or just a few days every couple of weeks?? I know carbon can soaks iodine up like a sponge.

Amazing pictures as always, thanks for letting us have a window into what SPS keeping is like over there in kangaroo land.

:beer:

Thanks for the kind words mate. I dose 3 drops every morning and i get just detectable levels on the Salifert kit the following day when i test before the next dose. I run a cup of carbon passively in the sump so it is quite a 'soft' chemical absorber compared to using a reactor.

Frankly I felt like I probably was foolish in buying it as it was a pale wild collected colony. I thought it would turn brown and maybe not make it. It was pretty light and glowed when i got it, now it's a nice solid color. Frankly either one would make me happy, it is one of the most pink corals I've ever seen in a tank right now so that is very cool given the scarcity of pink corals

Yours is beautiful Matt, pink is my favorite acro color

Holey moley!:eek1:

The colors of the best football team in Argentina " Boca Juniors" yellow and blue.

Speachless......Amazing......Incredible.......the fish, not the corals ......LOL...LOL

Cheers
Daniel

Amazing.

Must.... Keep..... Bad..... Thoughts.... Away.....
Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhh!!!


Soooo good....

Wow.....[emoji15]

You guys are showing an unhealthy interest in my baby - particularly you Matt :twitch:

 

[biggles]

Andrew,
Is it even for you to have such good variety?

Not sure what you mean mate, it's rare not to see something pretty any time i visit Dave's shop if that's what you're asking.

The new Radiums have been running for 3 days now, added another 6L matrix so now have 16L total. RODI is now 0 TDS again. Sand is clean as a whistle

 

[ryanrid]

Awesome stuff buddy

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Early morning porn shot, i asked the yellow wrasse to pose beside the acro for a color reference. My fish are very obedient

This is a stunning photo.

Thanks for your reply to my questions Andrew.

Why do you dose Lugol's solution? What kind of observable benefits do you gain? Do you dose specifically to maintain certain colours or to support corals' skeleton (tips in particular)?

Thanks

Bülent

 

[glaukos]

Early morning porn shot, i asked the yellow wrasse to pose beside the acro for a color reference. My fish are very obedient

:eek1::eek1::mad2::sad2::sad2::headwally::headwally::inlove:....the emotions that pic unleashed in a nutshell...

 

[biggles]

Awesome stuff buddy

Thanks Ryan

This is a stunning photo.

Thanks for your reply to my questions Andrew.

Why do you dose Lugol's solution? What kind of observable benefits do you gain? Do you dose specifically to maintain certain colours or to support corals' skeleton (tips in particular)?

Thanks

Bülent

Thanks Bulent, when i started the brightwell lugols i changed nothing else and i noticed within 10-14 days that the blue's and purples had indeed intensified in saturation. I also observed that day time PE increased dramatically over the same time period.
As you know i rely very heavily on my eyes for actual tweaking of the water rather than constantly testing this and that and have done so for a long time. I think i could tell a lot if i could stand in front of your tank just by looking at your acros up close and personal - i'm an accredited acro whisperer :reading:

Speaking to you as a mate i hope you try dosing it for a month and you tell us if you reckon you see any changes, subtle or otherwise.
I also believe it helped me get away with as little damage as i did recently because i think it may contribute to healthier more robust acros.

If you don't try it for me Bulent i will crack it mate......... just saying....:beer:

Btw, i stopped using sponge power a week ago and haven't noticed anything at all changing. I want to see if it makes a difference that i can see visually in any way.

When i was last at Dave's shop he had Triton tests for $60-. Since things are going well in the display now i thought i would get one done for you guys so you can all finally see the recipe for biggles acro soup.
If there is a reading that is extraordinarily high in something, i think we will all know what's really been going on - Kevin's been secretly dosing something without our knowledge for who knows how long........ :reading:

You guys owe me $60- so don't go leaving town anytime soon......

:eek1::mad2::sad2::headwally::inlove:....the emotions that pic unleashed in a nutshell...

After looking at the over the top contrast between the blue echi and that yellow piece i've decided to soften that area up so it's not so over the top color wise. I'm going to stick the firetruck frag between those two so nothing stands out too much..............:thumbsup:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks again Andrew. I use Tropic Marin A- elements (anionic elements). Iodine is listed in the ingredient list. Having said that I will purchase Tropic Marin's Lugol's solution as it is available in my lfs. I will report back to you. That's a promise.

Regarding Sponge Power I can see visibly that the number of white sponges, barnacles and feather duster worms has increased since I started to use it at the end of March 2015. However, having checked my log book, I realised that I also started to use Tropic Marin NP bacto balance almost at the same time (February 2015). The label on my bacto balance bottle makes a reference to increased population of sponges and filter feeders. I am now wondering if bacto balance is really responsible for this. There is only one way to find out, isn't there? I am going to stop using Sponge power for a month and observe its consequences.

Cheers

 

[Henry Colf]

Great thread, love the contrast of colors you have going on. I'm also very jealous of the corals you can get your hands on. I will definitely be tagging along on your journey!!!! Subscribed !!!!

 

[Myka]

I hate your thread Andrew. It makes my tank look like a Brownipora forest! :mad2: Especially that yellow "deepwater" - I hate that one the most right now. All the Aussie Acro shipments arrive to Canada bleached out. They look like Zeovit Acros and are notoriously difficult to bring back from the brink of death (though I haven't experienced that myself). [emoji38]

 

[cFloor]

FTS is awesome! Those are my favorite pics that you post.

Wow, so you now have 16 liters of matrix? I just added 1 gallon, so just under 4 liters I believe. I built an egg crate basket for it and have some flow running over it. Is that essentially how you are utilizing it?