From stupid to less stupid: tank growth

If you can guess what this is you are a badass! It is Cyphastrea or the Meteor Shower coral or as I call mine, Pork. This is of one of the polyps of Pork and is only about a few millimeters in diameter, so don’t let the close up macro shot fool you about it’s size. You can’t really appreciate the minute beauty marks until you zoom in. Grows well over rocks.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6767269201/" title="Meteor-Shower by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6767269201_690b83994e_z.jpg" width="640" height="358" alt="Meteor-Shower"></a>
 
Dude, your coraline growqth is sick. at 4 months It is all over your tank. At 4 months I have a hand full of pea size flakes of cololive on the overflow. I am dosing akl/calc. Whats your secret?
 
MHG said:
Dude, your coraline growqth is sick. at 4 months It is all over your tank. At 4 months I have a hand full of pea size flakes of cololive on the overflow. I am dosing akl/calc. Whats your secret?
Click to expand...

This is going to blow your mind. Maryland tap water and scraping. Started this tank with MD tap water and continued to use it for about 5 months before I switched to RODI water. I also occasionally scraped purple off the rocks and especially the back (to keep it clean...lost that battle) in powdered form thinking it would help the it to spread. Maybe that's the secret.

Also I didn't start dosing alk and ca until about two months ago (15 months after starting tank).
 
I have 2 Pocillopora corals that are easy and grow quickly. I have pink and green and the pink is a hybrid of late. I really like them.

Here are pink Poci tips. I am color blind so maybe this is the green Poci.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6773508341/" title="DSC_3335Nishal by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6773508341_d1b51a11d8_z.jpg" width="640" height="301" alt="DSC_3335Nishal"></a>

Recently I saw that my pink Poci is now a hybrid or at least that's what my wife saw! A small part has green mixed in. Maybe this is normal but most on my local forum (WAMAS) think it's a hybrid. I wish I could see it.

Hybrid pink/green Poci!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6773508237/" title="DSC_3493-edited by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6773508237_842bebce6d_z.jpg" width="640" height="356" alt="DSC_3493-edited"></a>
 
Got this sps from someone else months ago and it was brown and was almost dead. It's now growing and turning purple with green polyps.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6776782805/" title="ugly acro by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6776782805_243f5c14aa_z.jpg" width="640" height="494" alt="ugly acro"></a>

Anyone know the name?
 
Close up of a ployp of a frag of green deep water aco. I don't know the name of this one either. Anyone?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6776767289/" title="green acro by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6776767289_4d0c7c4f9f_z.jpg" width="640" height="439" alt="green acro"></a>
 
gizmoody said:
Got this sps from someone else months ago and it was brown and was almost dead. It's now growing and turning purple with green polyps.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6776782805/" title="ugly acro by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6776782805_243f5c14aa_z.jpg" width="640" height="494" alt="ugly acro"></a>

Anyone know the name?
Click to expand...

Great photography, although my favorite reef tank picture ever is your jawfish image.

On a serious note. You may have some unwanted pests. I hope I am wrong and I probably am. This image looks to have bite marks. AEFW's? Did you dip it before putting it into your tank? Can you inspect it with a magnifying glass or use a macro lens and take pictures at the base and look for eggs. Again, I am no expert but I am concerned by what I think I see.

Can any of the folks who know AEFW's chime in here? I truly hope this is just my imagination or old damage.
 
NatureNerd said:
Great photography, although my favorite reef tank picture ever is your jawfish image.

On a serious note. You may have some unwanted pests. I hope I am wrong and I probably am. This image looks to have bite marks. AEFW's? Did you dip it before putting it into your tank? Can you inspect it with a magnifying glass or use a macro lens and take pictures at the base and look for eggs. Again, I am no expert but I am concerned by what I think I see.

Can any of the folks who know AEFW's chime in here? I truly hope this is just my imagination or old damage.
Click to expand...

+1, looks like an ORA bellina, and does look like AEFW bitemarks. I just lost my colony to AEFW, they are particularly vulnerable apparently! My ORA tricolor valida also tanked from AEFW (similar skin, color, PE).
 
gizmoody said:
This is going to blow your mind. Maryland tap water and scraping. Started this tank with MD tap water and continued to use it for about 5 months before I switched to RODI water. I also occasionally scraped purple off the rocks and especially the back (to keep it clean...lost that battle) in powdered form thinking it would help the it to spread. Maybe that's the secret.

Also I didn't start dosing alk and ca until about two months ago (15 months after starting tank).
Click to expand...

Maybe I should scrape some off to get it seeding... I have done that with my seed rock but I think my HA problem has slowed it down...
 
NatureNerd said:
Great photography, although my favorite reef tank picture ever is your jawfish image.

On a serious note. You may have some unwanted pests. I hope I am wrong and I probably am. This image looks to have bite marks. AEFW's? Did you dip it before putting it into your tank? Can you inspect it with a magnifying glass or use a macro lens and take pictures at the base and look for eggs. Again, I am no expert but I am concerned by what I think I see.

Can any of the folks who know AEFW's chime in here? I truly hope this is just my imagination or old damage.
Click to expand...

Thanks NatureNerd for catching that. Really good eye. Another stupid mistake I had made for almost a year was not dipping my corals. I learned the hard way by getting crabs...uh I mean my tank had bad brown hairy crabs. I had dipped this coral for 5 mins. I thought it was some type of damage too but never thought it could be bite marks! I read that after treating for Red Bugs, some people see an increase in AEFW population if there were any before. This could be it. I was really worried and thought I had seen some brown flat worms, not on this coral but another.

I remember having AEFW's in the first few months of having my tank. They were even on the glass. However, by chance, I picked up a Six-line Wrasse and it ate them all, at least as far as I could see. Unfortunately this one jumped while I was cleaning the tank and I didn't notice until it was too late. I recently got another and s/he was constantly picking things off this coral and a few others. Maybe I got lucky again. I checked the corals as you suggested NatureNerd with a macro lens and couldn't seen any damage or worms, both brown or clear (not even sure I would be able to see these). I'll keep on monitoring just in case. Thanks again dude.
 
ange062 said:
+1, looks like an ORA bellina, and does look like AEFW bitemarks. I just lost my colony to AEFW, they are particularly vulnerable apparently! My ORA tricolor valida also tanked from AEFW (similar skin, color, PE).
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your valida and bellina. I'll monitor carefully for AEFW's. Thanks. I checked out the bellina. Mine is growing in thin curving upright stalks but the coloration is the same. Man, these corals seem to be really hard to keep alive. I'll update as it grows...or dies :sad2:.
 
MHG said:
Maybe I should scrape some off to get it seeding... I have done that with my seed rock but I think my HA problem has slowed it down...
Click to expand...

What are you doing to deal with the hair algae? I got rid of months of agony by adding an MP40 for more flow, less feeding, frequent water changes and another secret weapon.
 
I hope you don't mind if I share this photo even thought this is an sps forum. I had an awesome looking Dragonface Pipefish that I got to help take care of my Red Bug problem (and because he was cool), but he ate everything except Red Bugs. He also loved swimming around in the current and lived well. However, one day I came home and saw one of my mushroom eating the pipefish! Say what?! Yeah, I wanted to burn that mushroom or dry it and sell it to a crackhead (not really), but I guess that's nature. Still feel guilty that such an awesome fish lost it's life because I put him in my tank. What a freaky thing to see though.

For reference, the mouth of this mushroom is less than half a centimeter in diameter.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6785109101/" title="DSC_3332-2Nishal by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6785109101_abe86f7aa6_z.jpg" width="640" height="424" alt="DSC_3332-2Nishal"></a>
 
Birds Nest had a hard time growing as it was partially taken over by hair algae when I had optimized hair algae growth conditions and some kind of black death (parts would die quickly and turn black). Broke those off and was left with a pathetic twig. Now it's growing quickly and much bigger. Good thing too, since this is my wife's favorite coral! I love dark moody macro photographs, so that's why I am drowning everyone in macro photos.

One arm of Brids Nest

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6791316923/" title="DSC_3501nishal by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6791316923_dede91489f_z.jpg" width="640" height="338" alt="DSC_3501nishal"></a>
 
I'm going to revisit Red Bugs again because I found this photo. I don't have them in my tank anymore because I treated with Interceptor. However for those who have not had this problem and never seen them, they don't really appear red, they are yellow with a red spot as in the photo below. I hope this also helps to inspire the hell out of you to dip and quarantine your corals if you can. I now treat new corals by dipping in Revive and an Interceptor saltwater quarantine for about 6 hours. While this may not kill Red Bug eggs, it makes me feel better that I did everything I could in case something bad happens.

This coral frag is a smooth skin acro that stopped growing, started to reduce in size, stopped extending polyps and the polyps themselves became smooth and covered over with tissue by the time I started treating with Interceptor. It was like watching leprosy doing it's thing for few months but on corals. The vibrant green and blues all disappeared to the point that this coral looked like it was sea sick. Enjoy.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6797843957/" title="DSC_2849 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6797843957_e759fd739d_z.jpg" width="640" height="434" alt="DSC_2849"></a>
 
February 2012 whole tank shot update. Good growth. There is a coral missing above the ponape on the left because I accidentally broke it off while cleaning and now it's behind a rock. Will have to do some magic. Floor of tank is getting too crowded. Time to get rid of the last few LPS.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6813889375/" title="Feb 2012 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6813889375_c53ffb9343_z.jpg" width="640" height="374" alt="Feb 2012"></a>
 
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