Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[Wazzel]

Did you get the Regal?

I am lazy with the photos. What I post is usually straight out what ever I used. The last few batches have just been from my iPhone.

 

[mhucasey]

Did you get the Regal?

I am lazy with the photos. What I post is usually straight out what ever I used. The last few batches have just been from my iPhone.

I only have an iPhone for a camera. My LFS is scouting a Regal that is eating from Quality Marine- last batch were right size but not eating. Hopefully one shows up this week...

 

[mhucasey]

I have to agree, Pictures can be altered so easy now a days . I simply use the windows version to "fix" the pictures (take off the blue glare and straighten the image ) i have a tripod yet I'm lazy to take it out lol.

Great simple pictures btw . Noobies are looking good , not that I was expecting anything less

I really need to get a real camera with real white balance adjustment. Of course one nice thing about the iPhone is I take a pic and it's already there on my computer(Mac) with photostream- all I have to do is a quick edit and upload to Photobucket. I suspect there will be more of a process with a real camera. At the moment I take a LOT of pictures to find the few gems I can post. At least digital pictures are free

 

[reefmutt]

In the interests of full disclosure I'm having a strange issue that I'm trying to address. I love the Purple and blue bulb combo and color wise and growth wise, the corals love it too. Im seeing easily verifiable growth that is quite good. For example, visible day to day spreading of coral bases, cut branches healing over and growing in 4-6 days, etc.

Before I started the increased blue regimen, however, I saw a darkening of growth tips. The corals are certainly growing, and doing well but the bright colored growth tips were just vanishing. On some corals, that's a big problem - like the "surf and turf", where the beauty is in the blue tips. After a week plus of the higher blue light schedule, the tips are still trending that way. I'm a bit baffled as to what is missing to cause this to occur. I attempted to increase the intensity a bit by lowering the lights but I haven't seen any changes from that.

I read a while back that the blue tips were a response to high levels of irradiance, especially UV. Since the tip is growing quickly, the coral is low in zooxanthellae at that location and the pigmentation is used to protect and encourage proliferation at the tips.

I've spent a lot of time looking at the Spectrums of blue plus and superblue bulbs and comparing them to the AquaBlue Special bulb. I've looked at the AquaBlue for comparison because that bulb has produced growth tips within a day or two of adding it for me before.

In the blue/violet area, there is a peak around 400nm that is reduced in the blue plus, as well as more output in the ~485nm area. Obviously there is a big green spike and spikes in the yellow, orange and red wavelengths. Since I use the Purple bulbs that supply the reds, oranges, and yellows, the combined spectrum of the blues and purples should be very similar. In fact, when I use the spectrum simulator, other than the UV at 400, the only significant differences are the green spike and a wider red peak.

ABS put out more lumens and look brighter because of the green peak, but supposedly the 550nm light has no effects in corals. The real world and calculated par is almost identical between a combo of 4ABS and 8B+ and 8B+ and 4Fiji Purple. So I'm bait baffled as to what the missing ingredient is. I will start with the UV by swapping out 2 blue bulbs and replacing them with 2 super Actinic. After a week I'll see if there is a change.

Curious to see what your conclusions are... That's some serious analysis of lighting and spectrums...
Have you considered the possibility that the changes in color and growth aren't light related? Maybe something else has changed in the system... I just find it hard to believe that a slight change in bulbs would have such dramatic and rapid effect on color and growth...
I really don't know.. I have never really experimented with so many bulbs.

I really need to get a real camera with real white balance adjustment. Of course one nice thing about the iPhone is I take a pic and it's already there on my computer(Mac) with photostream- all I have to do is a quick edit and upload to Photobucket. I suspect there will be more of a process with a real camera. At the moment I take a LOT of pictures to find the few gems I can post. At least digital pictures are free

Matt, my camera has wifi. I shoot, pull the photos off my camera into my phone, upload to photobucket and use the photobucket editing tools and done. No computer. Sometimes I play around with a photo in snapseed for fun but not really for posting on RC.
I'm sure most cameras have wifi now that will let you send images directly to your computer as well..

 

[mhucasey]

Curious to see what your conclusions are... That's some serious analysis of lighting and spectrums...
Have you considered the possibility that the changes in color and growth aren't light related? Maybe something else has changed in the system... I just find it hard to believe that a slight change in bulbs would have such dramatic and rapid effect on color and growth...
I really don't know.. I have never really experimented with so many bulbs.

Literally nothing else has changed that I can think of other than switching from Acropower to Salifert trace elements. Both contain Aspartic acid and are reasonably similar in their purported benefits and dosing.

The decline in growth tip color started shortly after removing the last ABS. Its not just the tips getting darker, on some corals the tips changed color - like the Sarmentosa - the pink-red tips are gone and now there is just a pale bluish color. The coral health and growth is great and the coral color in general is good. This is a picky thing and its not critical so I can take some time to identify what is causing the issue.

One of the most recommended old combos for T5s that worked well for growth was 5 Blue Plus, 2 purple plus, and one GE6500K. The GE6500 possesses a big UV spike among other things, like many MH bulbs. I'll start with UV and see if that has an effect.

Matt, my camera has wifi. I shoot, pull the photos off my camera into my phone, upload to photobucket and use the photobucket editing tools and done. No computer. Sometimes I play around with a photo in snapseed for fun but not really for posting on RC.
I'm sure most cameras have wifi now that will let you send images directly to your computer as well..

Thats good to hear. i haven't bought an actual camera in a long time and back then I had to deal with memory cards...yuck.

 

[reefmutt]

Literally nothing else has changed that I can think of other than switching from Acropower to Salifert trace elements. Both contain Aspartic acid and are reasonably similar in their purported benefits and dosing.

The decline in growth tip color started shortly after removing the last ABS. Its not just the tips getting darker, on some corals the tips changed color - like the Sarmentosa - the pink-red tips are gone and now there is just a pale bluish color. The coral health and growth is great and the coral color in general is good. This is a picky thing and its not critical so I can take some time to identify what is causing the issue.

One of the most recommended old combos for T5s that worked well for growth was 5 Blue Plus, 2 purple plus, and one GE6500K. The GE6500 possesses a big UV spike among other things, like many MH bulbs. I'll start with UV and see if that has an effect.


I know it's easy to be an armchair reefer, but for the sake of science (hard science), why not try changing nothing, lighting wise, but go back to acropower for a while and see what happens..
AND... Could this be a delayed reaction to the raising of your lights from last month? Why not drop your lights AND go back to acropower to see what happens??
I have to find a way to bug you after your last post on my thread!

 

[mhucasey]

Literally nothing else has changed that I can think of other than switching from Acropower to Salifert trace elements. Both contain Aspartic acid and are reasonably similar in their purported benefits and dosing.

The decline in growth tip color started shortly after removing the last ABS. Its not just the tips getting darker, on some corals the tips changed color - like the Sarmentosa - the pink-red tips are gone and now there is just a pale bluish color. The coral health and growth is great and the coral color in general is good. This is a picky thing and its not critical so I can take some time to identify what is causing the issue.

One of the most recommended old combos for T5s that worked well for growth was 5 Blue Plus, 2 purple plus, and one GE6500K. The GE6500 possesses a big UV spike among other things, like many MH bulbs. I'll start with UV and see if that has an effect.


I know it's easy to be an armchair reefer, but for the sake of science (hard science), why not try changing nothing, lighting wise, but go back to acropower for a while and see what happens..
AND... Could this be a delayed reaction to the raising of your lights from last month? Why not drop your lights AND go back to acropower to see what happens??
I have to find a way to bug you after your last post on my thread!

I don't think that it is a delayed reaction, but looking closely at the timing it may have been exacerbated by the increased blue photoperiod. I was looking at the cinderella arc two nights ago and the yellow corallite edges were faded compared to the picture from the 27th. I changed over the photoperiods on the 24th and Acropower to Salifert on the 2nd.
You can see the rise and fall a bit on this series.
September 15:

September 22:

October 24th:

October 28th:

 

[mhucasey]

Well bless my heart. It seems I'm just picky - I did a survey of the corals and the color is pretty darn good throughout the tank, its really down to a few missing blue tips and the Sarmentosa. The sarmentosa lost its red tips and now it looks like this:

The Cinderella looks a bit better after a couple of days with the actinics added:

The rest of the corals look pretty spectacular. Its hard to beat a tricolor, and this one is getting BIG:

The red planet won't fit in frame any more:

This blue stag hasn't looked this good ever:

This new Subulata has developed blue tips in a week or so:

 

[mhucasey]

New Rainbow Hyacinthus Developing multicolor:

The SSC just glows:

The Pearlberry:

The Pink Lemonade:

My no-name Acro recovering from near death - this one is unreal when in full bloom:

And for some Flubber...The "Nose" coral you were asking about Matt:

 

[markalot]

It would be just awesome if you owned a camera. I'm happy things are going well, interesting about the tip color. I blew a disc in my back, recovering nicely, but lack of maintenance (fiddling I suspect) has improved my acros. Figures.

 

[mhucasey]

It would be just awesome if you owned a camera. I'm happy things are going well, interesting about the tip color. I blew a disc in my back, recovering nicely, but lack of maintenance (fiddling I suspect) has improved my acros. Figures.

I'm glad you are recovering, my wife has been dealing with a bulging disc for a couple of years now. Multiple injections, surgery, and lots of Meds have helped somewhat. The best thing we did for her back was get a sleep number bed.

It's funny how leaving stuff alone is so good for the tank. I don't really have much to do on the tank most days so I have to restrain myself from creating some tasks to perform in there:crazy1: I think I might work on getting a real camera for Christmas. That's a good excuse for spending a bunch of money

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, things are looking sweet in there!
That Cinderella is a stunner and the pe is crazy..
I would never recognize that sermentosa with such crazy pe.
Nice growth as well.
It almost seems to me that your light changing is really (to borrow an expression) producing 6 or half a dozen, depending on the combo....

 

[mhucasey]

Acro Porn carpet bombing commence - operation "Shock and Awe":
Hawkins:

Freakshow Tricolor:

Aspera:

Blue Millie:

Cherry Blossom:

ASD Ultimate shortcake:

Out of control Tortuosa - anyone know which one this is?:

Other angle:

Solytaryensis:

Blue-green Acro from Steve Garrett ROP 2012:

 

[mhucasey]

Continue Bombing run....stay on target!
Blue Hyacinthus:

Green Carolinia and other green tip unknown. I grew the Carolinia from the tip of one branch:

Ponape Birdsnest:

Rebuilt Garf Bonsai Colony:

Gomezi:

Hoeksemai:

Greg C Ultimate Stag:

Green tabling:

 

[mhucasey]

Deepwater:

Blueberry millie:

Other Tort - Anyone know the type?:

Lighthouse and no name:

Bali Extreme tricolor:

Itty bitty Frogskin Frag:

Red Dragon:

"Radion":

 

[acesq]

Wow!

I'll just leave that right there.

 

[mhucasey]

Matt, things are looking sweet in there!
That Cinderella is a stunner and the pe is crazy..
I would never recognize that sermentosa with such crazy pe.
Nice growth as well.
It almost seems to me that your light changing is really (to borrow an expression) producing 6 or half a dozen, depending on the combo....

I realize that I will always be critical, but in the long run its what keeps me interested. I worked for a long time at getting blue and red/pink Acros to balance against the green and after taking a careful look around the tank I was surprised to realize how much beautiful blue is in there! Quite a lot of red, pink, and orange too. As these colonies get bigger I think it will be pretty stunning

 

[mhucasey]

Wow!

I'll just leave that right there.

Mission accomplished!

 

[biggles]

Acro Porn carpet bombing commence - operation "Shock and Awe"

Holy cow Matt, that's an awesome collection of stunners buddy :beer:

Looks like world war bloody three has broken out in the SPS porn world.........:strooper:

I would just like to point out that Aus, Canada & the USA are now engaged in acro porn pic hostilities and guess who started it all and is now nowhere to be seen........ you're a nasty bit of work Sahin. :rolleye1:

 

[mhucasey]

Holy cow Matt, that's an awesome collection of stunners buddy :beer:

Looks like world war bloody three has broken out in the SPS porn world.........:strooper:

I would just like to point out that Aus, Canada & the USA are now engaged in acro porn pic hostilities and guess who started it all and is now nowhere to be seen........ you're a nasty bit of work Sahin. :rolleye1:

Allways the instigator, that Sahin