A Splash of Color

[biggles]

Yes that one is only a few days in the tank Matt. It was collected in a 3 mtr deep wave protected lagoon that is waist deep at low tide so it's used to some serious high light. I specifically bought it to see if the pink and the blue tips will hold as most of my acros are collected from much deeper waters.

 

[aggie13reef]

I've got a question for you Andrew. I was at my LFS yesterday and they had a couple of mini colonies for sale that I was super interested in. 2 millies and one smooth skin that was greenish with blue tips, I passed on them all however because I could see spots on each of them, although small, where tissue was not present. The millies had nice PE, my question to you is would you purchase any mini colonies that showed spots of missing skin? Now that I am really wanting to get into more Acro/Milli I don't want to spend that kind of money for something that has a good chance of not making it. Just trying to get better at spotting good purchases :dance:

 

[tripdad]

Both the new pics are very nice colored corals, hard to come by near me except mail order. Definitely jealous

 

[Volcom698]

Question regarding your Matrix, how are you running it? In a reactor, or mesh bag, or another way. Also are you shaking them up at all or having to rinse them or anything?

 

[biggles]

I've got a question for you Andrew. I was at my LFS yesterday and they had a couple of mini colonies for sale that I was super interested in. 2 millies and one smooth skin that was greenish with blue tips, I passed on them all however because I could see spots on each of them, although small, where tissue was not present. The millies had nice PE, my question to you is would you purchase any mini colonies that showed spots of missing skin? Now that I am really wanting to get into more Acro/Milli I don't want to spend that kind of money for something that has a good chance of not making it. Just trying to get better at spotting good purchases :dance:

Hey Nick, i would avoid anything with tissue loss that didn't look like transport damage without being able to examine them in person. If i had a quarantine acro tank though i would grab what i wanted and nuke them with bug poison and make sure they are ok for sure. Don't put dodgy stuff in with your healthy corals is my advice no matter how cheap or pretty they are mate.

Both the new pics are very nice colored corals, hard to come by near me except mail order. Definitely jealous

Thanks Scott

Question regarding your Matrix, how are you running it? In a reactor, or mesh bag, or another way. Also are you shaking them up at all or having to rinse them or anything?

I have 10 liters laying about 1" deep in the sump return section which is 20" x 30" and another 6 liters in the bottom of the overflow box about 2" deep. Once or twice a week i give one or the other a swish with my fingers and i use a stick to stir up the ones in the overflow section.

I used the light through the front door to snap the sump section. To the right is just the other section with the skimmer and nothing else that the overflow drains to. Potatohead likes the pump because all things yummy flow towards that corner lol.

Anthias circling after smelling blood in the water from my cut hand. I figure if it works on the acros.............:reading:

 

[markalot]

Do the silly floating matrix rocks ever sink, or should I toss them? I filled up a reactor and dumped the rest in the sump. 5 or 6 of the rocks floated.

I love potato head, cleaner shrimp have so much personality.

 

[Volcom698]

Thanks! Is that the pond matrix or just the regular matrix.

 

[biggles]

Do the silly floating matrix rocks ever sink, or should I toss them? I filled up a reactor and dumped the rest in the sump. 5 or 6 of the rocks floated.

I love potato head, cleaner shrimp have so much personality.

Hey Mark, this whole ' floater ' issue has been covered before but i'm going to go over the science of matrix floaters and why you should NEVER keep them.

Back when people got stuff done they used to test if you were a witch by throwing you in a lake all tied up so you couldn't swim. They knew just as we do that witches are made of wood. If you sank and didn't come to the surface ever again you were obviously not made of wood so innocent - YAY !

But.......... if you somehow managed to stay afloat and not drown it was pretty clear you were made of wood and a witch. In these cases they dried you off and then burned you at the stake - NOT YAY !

I don't want anyone taking their floaters out and trying to burn them as we aren't living in the bloody dark ages but the actual science behind witch detection works very well when applied to reefing imho. :reading:

Don't use the floaters is the lesson in all this.

Thanks! Is that the pond matrix or just the regular matrix.

It's the regular matrix mate. To calculate if you have the right amount of matrix for your system you simply make two stacks of 2L containers and put your carbon container on top. If it reaches the bottom of your tank or higher you are spot on, i just checked mine and i pretty much aced it when i guessed i needed about 16L or 1L per 10gal overall system water volume. :smokin:

Biggle Matrix Coefficient - gallons divided by liters of matrix.

BMC should be 1.00 or lower - and NO WE DON'T COUNT THE FLOATERS. :hammer:

150 divided by 16L = 0.93

Since listing my fish the other day i realised the jumpers had lowered mt BFC drastically. 1.28 :facepalm:

After adding 12 yellow striped cardinals my BFC is a more respectable 2.14 :thumbsup:

 

[rodneyri]

Whats in the syringe??

 

[ryanrid]

Whats in the syringe??

By the ramblings on this thread I would say crack cocaine. Crack is in the syringe

 

[biggles]

Whats in the syringe??

The same stuff that's in the bottle of additives i made up for Dom before he arrived last visit.

By the ramblings on this thread I would say crack cocaine. Crack is in the syringe

If you say so Ryan :beer:

Dom gave me a monti frag with the firetruck frag. In his tank it's fluoro orange with green polyps and glows like it's under actinics even when all the lights are on. I stole a pic from his journal which is when he first got his frag of it a while back i believe.

After two weeks on the sand the polyp and tissue colors are changing which is a good thing imo.

 

[1000_smiles]

Umm, I guess I haven't been keeping up...
So now you are dosing blood and directly injecting additives into your acros?
:eek1:

 

[Wrangy]

Dom gave me a monti frag with the firetruck frag. In his tank it's fluoro orange with green polyps and glows like it's under actinics even when all the lights are on. I stole a pic from his journal which is when he first got his frag of it a while back i believe.

After two weeks on the sand the polyp and tissue colors are changing which is a good thing imo.

Now that's looking interesting! Can't wait to see how it turns out in the next few weeks though!! I'm glad to see it doing well You'll be pleased to know none of your frags have lost colour and things are doing better than they have in a very long time! So well I'm really contemplating the upgrade and think it very well be my only option :eek2: at least that's what I'm telling myself! :lolspin: (mainly because I want anthias and a few of them! lol)

 

[markalot]

Cool monti, but it's not an acro.

I'm totally going to burn these floating rocks in the fire pit. They're haunted me thinks.

I need more matrix!

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Thats a lot of matrix!!. Wow. Think im going to pay for for tix to come to the U.S, so you can take care of my tank lmao

 

[Reeftub]

Biggles, I've been watching and learning from you and thanks for the great info. You also have a beautiful garden of sps. I just wante to ask how this sps hasn't colored up but grows nice colored tips?

also this one. The rest of the corals are fine.

sorry to post a lot of pics on your thread I just now you have seen a lot and can tell what's up. 6-hydra 52 above 190g Thanks for any help

 

[Usernam Invalid]

Whats in the syringe??

Think it's AGH acro growth hormone. [emoji382]

 

[nemodan]

Hey Mark, this whole ' floater ' issue has been covered before but i'm going to go over the science of matrix floaters and why you should NEVER keep them.

Back when people got stuff done they used to test if you were a witch by throwing you in a lake all tied up so you couldn't swim. They knew just as we do that witches are made of wood. If you sank and didn't come to the surface ever again you were obviously not made of wood so innocent - YAY !

But.......... if you somehow managed to stay afloat and not drown it was pretty clear you were made of wood and a witch. In these cases they dried you off and then burned you at the stake - NOT YAY !

I don't want anyone taking their floaters out and trying to burn them as we aren't living in the bloody dark ages but the actual science behind witch detection works very well when applied to reefing imho. :reading:

Don't use the floaters is the lesson in all this.



It's the regular matrix mate. To calculate if you have the right amount of matrix for your system you simply make two stacks of 2L containers and put your carbon container on top. If it reaches the bottom of your tank or higher you are spot on, i just checked mine and i pretty much aced it when i guessed i needed about 16L or 1L per 10gal overall system water volume. :smokin:

Biggle Matrix Coefficient - gallons divided by liters of matrix.

BMC should be 1.00 or lower - and NO WE DON'T COUNT THE FLOATERS. :hammer:

150 divided by 16L = 0.93

Since listing my fish the other day i realised the jumpers had lowered mt BFC drastically. 1.28 :facepalm:

After adding 12 yellow striped cardinals my BFC is a more respectable 2.14 :thumbsup:

I can't stop crying, of the emotion, after seing your Matrix picture explaining graphically how to estimate the amount needed.

I will strongly encourage you to post it on the RC Matrix/Siporax thread. And to submit it for publication in Science or Nature .

Best Daniel !!!!
:beer:

 

[mhucasey]

I can't stop crying, of the emotion, after seing your Matrix picture explaining graphically how to estimate the amount needed.

I will strongly encourage you to post it on the RC Matrix/Siporax thread. And to submit it for publication in Science or Nature .

Best Daniel !!!!
:beer:

I'm partial to the floaters explanation. Randy Holmes-Farley couldn't have explained it better

 

[biggles]

Umm, I guess I haven't been keeping up...
So now you are dosing blood and directly injecting additives into your acros?
:eek1:

I cut my hand accidentally earlier and my acros never get anything but love from me mate.

Now that's looking interesting! Can't wait to see how it turns out in the next few weeks though!! I'm glad to see it doing well You'll be pleased to know none of your frags have lost colour and things are doing better than they have in a very long time! So well I'm really contemplating the upgrade and think it very well be my only option at least that's what I'm telling myself! :lolspin: (mainly because I want anthias and a few of them! lol)

Hey Dom, you know there's a 40x24x18" sitting here if you want to really have some fun - new 400W ballast and 400W dragon breath bulb and 2 x twin 3ft T5 units sitting either side of your 2ft halide/T5 unit angled inwards about 15 degrees - how easy is that...........

Cool monti, but it's not an acro.

I'm totally going to burn these floating rocks in the fire pit. They're haunted me thinks.

I need more matrix!

The monti will one day grow up big and strong and on his own rock and when he looks really cool i will stick an acro right on his head because that's all they're good for Mark........

You do need more Mark.

Thats a lot of matrix!!. Wow. Think im going to pay for for tix to come to the U.S, so you can take care of my tank lmao

It's not a lot when you look at how little rock i have, most of which is sealed by acro encrusting tissue so pretty useless for processing water in a useful way.

Biggles, I've been watching and learning from you and thanks for the great info. You also have a beautiful garden of sps. I just wante to ask how this sps hasn't colored up but grows nice colored tips? sorry to post a lot of pics on your thread I just now you have seen a lot and can tell what's up. 6-hydra 52 above 190g Thanks for any help

Hi mate, do you have a build thread i can look at. I find it hard to give advice with LED tanks because i don't use them and they can be a big part of the problem when not used correctly. I'm sure your lights are with the radions as the best two to use atm if going pure LED but that's may be wrong.
Can you get some pics with the whites on about 70% and the blues no more than 10% so i can see some colors. If you can under expose the pics by 2/3 of a stop that would help a lot too, i can lighten them up etc so don't stress about how dark they are.

How close is this, are your acros as pale as they look in this adjusted pic mate.

Think it's AGH acro growth hormone. [emoji382]

Could be anything mate........

I can't stop crying, of the emotion, after seing your Matrix picture explaining graphically how to estimate the amount needed.

I will strongly encourage you to post it on the RC Matrix/Siporax thread. And to submit it for publication in Science or Nature .

Best Daniel !!!!
:beer:

If i posted that in the matrix/siporax thread Reefvet would get me Daniel.......:debi:

I'm partial to the floaters explanation. Randy Holmes-Farley couldn't have explained it better

I knew you'd get it Matt............ you should get on out there buddy, they have a special on AF cauldron's this weekend...........

AF/FM/ZEO Training Facility