Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[reefmutt]

This Is Insane. Period.
Can we have a picture of it with full lights on?
Not that other corals are not amazing but this, oh this.

You are touched Matt, you have been blessed by reef gods.

Congratulations for your recovery.

I like this one Matt, very high contrasting dark polyp acros are my favorites.

Do you have any new acros in the works, do you have any spath ?

Some gratuitous acro porn wouldn't go astray...........

Sergi, Andrew, here's a couple shots of Acrodesiac under full lighting. Tough to get a lot of depth of focus so here's two shots:

Lower down:


Andrew, I have one reddish/green spath which is tucked in near one of my pink matrix and another Aussie. It does very little for me. I don't think I have enough light tomreally make it shine. I pretty much ignore it. It's boring but not in a spot that I could put anything else in so it sits there. I might have a pic..I might have gotten it in one of the pics I took recently.
I did! Here's a wide shot of left centre.. the spath is upper directly center, to the right of the pink matrix and left of the yellow/green Aussie.

This is that Aussie up close:

Hey! It's there as well. It's a bloody photobomber coral.
In terms of anything new I'm working on, here's my JF Flame. Only a week old in the tank:

Not much at the moment....
ans here's a fiji I got last month from reefsolution. He was redoing his display and this coral was sitting in a holding tank waiting to go back in. I begged him for it and he finally said yes. It was more pale when I got it and is getting nice blue tips now. I'm hoping the body will darken and get more red..

Here it is when I got it..

Oh! And furiosa is going to survive after all! The mother colony never died completely but brown out so badly I thought it would die but it is coming back..
Here it is next to a 'ultra Fiji from Fragbox..

Here's the same corals, shot from just over a year ago..

Ok. I have some more random shots I'll post soon..

 

[wheelman76]

Sergi, Andrew, here's a couple shots of Acrodesiac under full lighting. Tough to get a lot of depth of focus so here's two shots:

Lower down:


Andrew, I have one reddish/green spath which is tucked in near one of my pink matrix and another Aussie. It does very little for me. I don't think I have enough light tomreally make it shine. I pretty much ignore it. It's boring but not in a spot that I could put anything else in so it sits there. I might have a pic..I might have gotten it in one of the pics I took recently.
I did! Here's a wide shot of left centre.. the spath is upper directly center, to the right of the pink matrix and left of the yellow/green Aussie.

This is that Aussie up close:

Hey! It's there as well. It's a bloody photobomber coral.
In terms of anything new I'm working on, here's my JF Flame. Only a week old in the tank:

Not much at the moment....
ans here's a fiji I got last month from reefsolution. He was redoing his display and this coral was sitting in a holding tank waiting to go back in. I begged him for it and he finally said yes. It was more pale when I got it and is getting nice blue tips now. I'm hoping the body will darken and get more red..

Here it is when I got it..

Oh! And furiosa is going to survive after all! The mother colony never died completely but brown out so badly I thought it would die but it is coming back..
Here it is next to a 'ultra Fiji from Fragbox..

Here's the same corals, shot from just over a year ago..

Ok. I have some more random shots I'll post soon..

Wow so many nice looking pieces Matt , love those last two shots , and the fox flame is looking nice already.

 

[kevlow]

Wow, is all that I can say. That top down shot of yours is maybe my favorite top down shot in all Reef Central. It has a great mix of color, variety and the swirl of Monti under is a dramatic effect.

 

[reefmutt]

5 days, shirley you've taken some pictures.

Of course I've taken some pictures! And don't call me Shirley!

Just somewhat caught up on your thread Matt, really beautiful as always!

I especially love the growth on this acro, I think it's absolutely stunning.

Thanks, Josh. I originally bought it as a red dragon. The person selling it said 'it's just a little pale, you'll colour it up..' it never coloured up but I really like it as well. Grows like crazy.

Hi Matt,

Have you started to use kalkwasser yet? If so, have you noticed any changes in your water test results, such as phosphates?

Hey Bulent, I've been using KW for a couple months now. I can't really say I've noticed many changes.. mostly because I've really been too busy to do many tests. Mostly I just test alk and make sure it's in a good range. I also still use phosphate minus regularly and use 4 drops np pro every day. The one test I did a couple weeks ago showed p down to .08 from where it usually sits around .16 but I couldn't really attribute the drop to the kw..
I have yet to get my stirrer on line.. still making fresh kw every two days. Getting tedious..

reefmutt - without going thru your thread again did I read that you had a previous problem with red cyanobacteria? Did you use Boyd's Chemiclean? If so how did you remove it from your tank?

I've used both chemi clean and rsr. Without any downsides to the corals. And yes it takes weeks and weeks for the skimmer to go back to normal.. even with carbon additions.. like it has been mentioned, I've found that the more you keep the skimmer going the faster it returns to normal.

Here are a couple more random shots..

I know I recently posted this coral but I like it enough to post a new one!

Artsy fartsy.. ultra Fiji and furiosa in foreground..

Another familiar shot I can't stop taking.

 

[reefmutt]

Wow, is all that I can say. That top down shot of yours is maybe my favorite top down shot in all Reef Central. It has a great mix of color, variety and the swirl of Monti under is a dramatic effect.

Thanks, Kevin! Yeah.. I am very happy with the growth and pattern of that background nauti spiral. It is a beast, though. It rolls out like a lava flow. Soon it will start impacting other corals in the reef..

Few more close up shots and a few more wider ones..

OP and PL

The bruise and OP

Fairly recent high end cultured piece from Raja:

Ssc

Old and new frags from Raja..

The bruise, op, pl all touching now. The op has lost the fight on both sides which is ok for me because it grows the fastest..

Most of the above corals in a wider shot..

And finally.. blueberry wine from Fragbox.

Starting to grow again..

 

[markalot]

Awesome Matt. I just love the way the top down looks with all those larger colonies and the monti spreading like wildfire beneath them.

 

[reefmutt]

Awesome Matt. I just love the way the top down looks with all those larger colonies and the monti spreading like wildfire beneath them.

Thanks Mark! You just missed my final bunch of shots..
I have to say, I am glad I planned that placement well. I put it down low and in the back, on purpose, knowing the potential of montis to really spread out.

 

[Pife]

Thanks, Kevin! Yeah.. I am very happy with the growth and pattern of that background nauti spiral. It is a beast, though. It rolls out like a lava flow. Soon it will start impacting other corals in the reef..

Few more close up shots and a few more wider ones..

OP and PL

The bruise and OP

Fairly recent high end cultured piece from Raja:

Ssc

Old and new frags from Raja..

The bruise, op, pl all touching now. The op has lost the fight on both sides which is ok for me because it grows the fastest..

Most of the above corals in a wider shot..

And finally.. blueberry wine from Fragbox.

Starting to grow again..

My goodness you are a great reefer and photographer. Everytime I check in on your thread there is another group of beautiful pictures.

 

[reefmutt]

Hey, thanks man! Very nice comments. Gives me great satisfaction.

 

[Acronic]

Well. Nick nack patty whack, give a dog a bone. I really like your photos. And can give your frags a new home

 

[slavetonet]

Very nice photos Matt.
A great "come back kid" moment.
I like the richer colours personally.

 

[mhucasey]

Looking really good Matt! I am very jealous!

 

[kevlow]

Love the Bruise, the BlueBerry Wine, and whatever the Blue piece is in the fourth pic up.
It appears that the route to awesomeness passes through some problems first. Several tanks here in the sps section have recently had problems but then recover to have record setting color and growth!

I think I need to schedule in some issues in my tank. lol

 

[reefmutt]

Well. Nick nack patty whack, give a dog a bone. I really like your photos. And can give your frags a new home

Kevin! I never knew (perhaps I did) that you were such a cunning linguist!
One day we will have to have an acro porn master debate.

Very nice photos Matt.
A great "come back kid" moment.
I like the richer colours personally.

Thank you! I would say that the alk drop effects are 90% in the past and the corals are moving forward.
Interesting, about 3 weeks ago I was pushing my ca reactor to get alk up closer to 8. I over shot a bit, noticed some burnt tips and a reduction in consumption/growth. Luckily I've been testing alk almost daily. I reduced co2 and as soon as I got alk below 8, the corals started consuming again like crazy. I think I'm back up to the co2 level that had gotten me over 8 but now alk is back around 7.2..

Looking really good Matt! I am very jealous!

Thanks, Matt... you won't be for long...

Love the Bruise, the BlueBerry Wine, and whatever the Blue piece is in the fourth pic up.
It appears that the route to awesomeness passes through some problems first. Several tanks here in the sps section have recently had problems but then recover to have record setting color and growth!

I think I need to schedule in some issues in my tank. lol

Thanks Kevin, that blue is just a random pick up from Raja. Just one of those crazy tenuis corals that give us so many of the recent must have corals like WD and OP and pink matrix .. they are all so pretty.
Not all of my corals have returned to the colour they had before the alk drop but many have. AND, many of the dormant corals woke up.. growth is certainly picking up.
Scheduling in a 'stress event', although tricky may not be such a crazy idea.. that stress can push coral into survival mode or something like that.
I certainly don't advocate that, however! Could be a real mess.
I wonder if playing with temp changes a bit could be a safe (ish) way of doing it..

 

[codydemmel4]

very very nice pictures and as always very nice corals!

have a couple questions.

how far off are your t5s from your top coral? also how long do you run all your lights for or whats your lighting run up and run down?

 

[reefmutt]

Thank you, Mike. It is a very good feeling to be on the other side of a screw up. You will be back there soon enough!
I scrapped all other lights but t5. I removed my AI Primes and my 150w radiums. I now have 10xt5 plus a pair of 24 w b+ and pure actinic on each end of the tank as dim dawn dusk lighting. They are on from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm.
Here's the rest:
Hope this comes out right..

blue+ These two:10:30a-9p
Coral +
Blue + 9:30am-10:00p

Coral +
Aquapink These four are on from 11am to 7pm
Blue +
Coral +

Blue + 9:30a-10:00p
coral+
blue+ These two: 10:30a-9p


Thanks! I'm glad I could reciprocate the feelings I get when you do a photo dump!

Hey Scott, thanks!
Raja's mystery is just that, unfortunately. I bought a frag of it from him last year. At the time he suspected it might turn into a pink Cadillac but it is distinctly different at the moment.
Sorry coral species identification is NOT my forte..

Here's the schedule.. I'll get some measurements a little later.

 

[plyle02]

Hey Matt,
Looking frickin sweet as always!!!
Way to bounce back, you have the fortitude, that makes you a very amazing aquarist.
Great job man, looking forward to seeing more of the beautiful colors you have on display

 

[codydemmel4]

Here's the schedule.. I'll get some measurements a little later.

you may have the longest lighting schedule i have seen on here, looks like it is working great for you!!

any reason why you leave them on so long? if I read that correctly you pretty much have 6 t5s running from 10am-9pm?

then all 10 running from 10am-7pm?

 

[slavetonet]

I run my ATI on 12 hours for all.
2 blue are on for 14 hours.
Corals don't die from it I can assure you of that.

 

[Usernam Invalid]

Awesome pics as always. Sooo jealous of your collection of acros.