growth pics...my first.

[daveonbass]

well as the title says...these are my first growth pics...I finally got into SPS about 7 months ago and finally have some pics to share. please feel free to ID anything I label as unknown.

first off the full tank. lights are 14 inches off the water or stuff bleaches. light is an ATI powermodule...5 Blue+ and 1 Purple+.

unknown blue tips with green polyps
8-23-10

3-9-11

unknown green acro. got it and it was tan...didn't know what it would become.
8-23-10

3-9-11

unknown violet and teal acro
8-23-10

3-9-11 hard to get a good pic as it's behind other stuff...but it's got some nice growth and multiple branches are forming

Pink with Teal polyps Milli
11-3-10

3-9-11 not much growth

 

[daveonbass]

not SPS but I'm proud of it. Hammer.
8-30-10 two heads...

3-9-11 five heads all starting to split

unknown purple acro with light blue tips...very pretty tips.
10-29-10 (notice the little teal green frag attached to the right of the coral...have fragged it seperate)

3-9-11

unknown Teal green frag
3-9-11

Sunset Monti
8-23-10

10-30-10 final location

3-9-11 (hard to get a good pic of it growing up the lit wall on the right of the pic...the left is shaded)

 

[daveonbass]

my poor red monti cap. After I first got it I thought it had died but it had one tiny patch of life and lots of polyps still
6-20-10

10-30-10 moved it up to get better light once it was healed.

11-14-10 Top down photo showing how it's getting it's color and growth pattern back

3-9-11 Finally in it's final spot...and great color and fast growth now...I can literally see growth in a few days.

ORA Red Planet
11-3-10 came to me very white...

11-14-10 moved it up after 3 days and got some green back into it 2 weeks later

1-24-11 has started to grow onto the plug...but not much upper growth.

2-3-11 better pic showing more growth

3-9-11 finally took it off the frag plug and glued it to it's final spot. has already grown onto the rock

 

[daveonbass]

had these less time but I like the slow progression...

Spongodes monti
1-24-11

2-3-11

3-9-11 glued to final spot

Verrucosa monti
1-24-11

3-9-11

Tubbs Birdsnest
1-24-11

3-9-11 slightly rotated to give more light to the verrucosa monti

thanks for looking.....comments are welcome and any help is appreciated...

dave

 

[daveonbass]

wow...no love for my progress or my pics...haha

no biggie...at least some people looked.

 

[strout]

Very nice growth. What I like is the coral after the FT shot. Big change in color from when you got it to what it now looks like.

 

[ryshark]

Nice progression pics. I enjoyed looking at them.

 

[spartyblaze]

This is s great thread and it takes a ton of time to organize this stuff. Nice shots!

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Looking good. Nice growth shots!

 

[Steedy]

had these less time but I like the slow progression...

Spongodes monti
1-24-11

2-3-11

3-9-11 glued to final spot

This is Montipora Confusa.
Nice progres with grow , really nice aq.

 

[daveonbass]

Very nice growth. What I like is the coral after the FT shot. Big change in color from when you got it to what it now looks like.

What's even stranger is that it looks different from the mother colony that its from. To me at least. It grew and colored up nicely IMHO.

 

[daveonbass]

This is s great thread and it takes a ton of time to organize this stuff. Nice shots!

Man, you are NOT kidding. I never knew how much went into other people's progress threads. It took two solid nights of combing through digital camera pics and saving them separate on the computer. Then labeling them all with the correct names and dates for each pic. Then the uploading begins on Photobucket. Then the post with all its copy and pasting of the proper pics in the proper order....then being told I can only post 10 pics per post....so then reposting with only 10 at a time...

It was exhausting, but seeing my photos in a thread like this and really appreciating the before and after nature of the thread, seeing the growth...makes it all worth it. . It's funny how seeing the corals everyday doesn't allot us the pleasure of noticing any growth. Pics like this finally does. I recommend everyone try to document their livestock and its growth as much as they can. You'd be surprised what we can all learn from it.

 

[daveonbass]

Steedy:

How can you tell/are you sure? It was sold to me as a spongodes...and the mother colony looks like it is. So what makes it a confusa instead? I'm not arguing, I just like to know these things...

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

spongodes is a trade name

 

[sahin]

Man, you are NOT kidding. I never knew how much went into other people's progress threads. It took two solid nights of combing through digital camera pics and saving them separate on the computer. Then labeling them all with the correct names and dates for each pic. Then the uploading begins on Photobucket. Then the post with all its copy and pasting of the proper pics in the proper order....then being told I can only post 10 pics per post....so then reposting with only 10 at a time...

It was exhausting, but seeing my photos in a thread like this and really appreciating the before and after nature of the thread, seeing the growth...makes it all worth it. . It's funny how seeing the corals everyday doesn't allot us the pleasure of noticing any growth. Pics like this finally does. I recommend everyone try to document their livestock and its growth as much as they can. You'd be surprised what we can all learn from it.

Its because of reefkeepers like you; who take the time and effort to document growth and colour changes of SPS corals that progresses the hobby. To the untrained eye these photos and descriptions of your tank may not mean much, but there is a lot of information here.

E.g. it shows that with just 6 x T5 tubes one can have a very successful and colourful SPS tank. It also shows what works and what doesnt. It shows what ingredients (ie tank size, skimmer, rocks, salt brand, light brand, light tube brand etc etc) were used to produce colourful and healthy corals.

I especially love SPS tank threads and when I see colourful and healthy SPS corals I take note of what equipment and husbandry techniques were utilised to achieve the end result.

Imagine, that in effect this is an evolution of the reefkeeping hobby...we see what works for others and we utilise those factors and perhaps tweak or adjust some aspects to improve the effect.

Therefore; thank you for taking the time to produce the thread.

You have a very nice tank, and in time with more growout this tank, should you keep it for a few years will look wonderful.

 

[daveonbass]

spongodes is a trade name

Haha...really? I did not know. Is setosa a trade name too? I always thought "spongodes" sounded like a scientific name for the species. Thanks.

 

[smtank]

I am a huge fan of growth images. Take a lot of them myself.

Thanks for sharing I enjoyed the tread. It is nice to see small acropora frags that are pale initially turn into colorfully pieces.

 

[Justdrew]

Nice shots!. Question for you. You showed the red planet encrusting to the plug, then you talkd about removing it to mount it. How are you doing that without disrupting the encrusting or really ****ing it off?

Thanks
Drew

 

[daveonbass]

Nice shots!. Question for you. You showed the red planet encrusting to the plug, then you talkd about removing it to mount it. How are you doing that without disrupting the encrusting or really ****ing it off?

Thanks
Drew

I'm not. That's the short answer. I guess I didn't imply it enough when I wrote that little bit of info.

What "I" did was to simply see that it was healthy enough to finally start growing onto the plug, so before it got out of hand I snapped it off the plug. Literally just pulled it out of the tank...broke it off the plug (gently) as close to the base as possible...and then dryed the break with my shirt I think. Applied some super glue gel. Then placed it in it's final resting spot. (as seen in last pic of it) The part I was happy about its that it took months to finally see growth onto the plug. And then just a few weeks to see it on the rock after glueing. All the "encrusted" part is still on the plug. Which I am now just letting grow on it's own. So I technically already have fraged my frag....I just gotta let it all grow back out on the plug and then pass it onto another reefer, while I keep the bigger colony that had already grown. And hopefully the next guy can/will do something similar. (or I could let it grow and then break it off again and give that frag away and let my little magic plug just keep growing in a happy place)

But don't be fooled it was not too happy about it at first. But as you can faintly see from the pics...the frag is already encrusting onto the rock I glued it to. The plug is now slow but it's not dead...so I'll just wait it out. I have nothing but time.

On a side note I did this with the spongodes as well...and that plug is growing extremely fast. The glued on part is still growing quick...but the old frag plug that had some left over, encrusted, tissue, is already growing "up."

So I'm happy with my tanks growth.

(next question )

 

[ritter6788]

So I'm happy with my tanks growth.

Me too. Nice job, keep it up!