Some new pictures

[zibba]

I haven't been practicing my photography recently, so a lot of these pictures are so-so and have a lot of "noise" because my ISO was too high. I'll keep trying for better ones down the road. Here are a bunch of new additions and some other random shots of corals in our ADA under a MaxSpect Razor:

Reef Raft (RR) Warhammer Acan Hillea


RR Red Barron chalice


RR Blue Hippo Chalice (I bought the RR blue merlin, but I'm 99% sure this is the blue hippo -- not blue merlin. Not complaining though, as this is sure to be a sick piece)


RR Princess Favia


RR Sunset Rodactus


RR Radioactive Rodactus


Blue and Orange Ric (I think this came from reef2go -- it has since sprouted two babies, one of them is pictured on the left and the other I split off and it's on the rockwork)


Random Mushroom shot (from reefs2go, The Aquarius, PROP auctions and Reef Raft)


RR Blue Hornet Zoas


RR Spawn Frenzy Blasto

 

[zibba]

Tyree Watermelon


Fruit Loop Chalice


Mummy Eye Chalice -- Pretty awful picture, but I can't get a full shot of it without shooting at an angel through the glass. Colors are a little weird here too. Oh well.


Random Zoa/Paly shot (Nuclear Greens, Capitan Americas, X-mans, and Unique Coral's Purple Dragons. Jason Fox Psarmacora (sp?) in the upper left and Tyree Setosa in the upper right)


Metor Shower Cyphastria -- super colorful and a fast grower, it's running out of room on this rock

 

[Anthrax15]

Fantastic pictures! What is your lighting?

 

[zibba]

Thanks Anthrax! These were under a MaxSpect razor late in the day -- I think it was something like 25% W and 75% B. Hard to get the colors to match up at that spectrum. The corals really light up under it so it makes for good viewing but it's hard to photograph.

 

[zrogst]

I love that mushroom garden Zibba! Mine have colored up really well under a R420R as well

 

[jporter]

Wow! I see some chalice trades in the future. JP

 

[zibba]

I love that mushroom garden Zibba! Mine have colored up really well under a R420R as well

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the compliment. The Razor is great for pulling good colors from the corals, but I've noticed slower growth. I prefer colors over growth though so I'm a happy camper.

Wow! I see some chalice trades in the future. JP

Gracias, JP! Yes, I think there will be plenty of opportunities in the future...assuming these guys continue to grow. The RR chalices are only dime/penny size right now.

 

[Jerms01]

Nice shots and even more amazing specimens!
I am actually running down today to pick up those extension tubes so I can shoot me some macro! I will post some pics this weekend.

Keep it up!

 

[dotcommer]

Those are some great pics thanks for sharing. Now I know what my Meteor Shower is supposed to look like :-(

Curious on what you keep your parameters at: ie: ALK, CAL, Mag, Potasium?

 

[dotcommer]

Can you post some full tank shots?

 

[Fig70g]

DROOLING... amazing corals and great photography, thanks for sharing.


Also interested in a FTS and params!

 

[zibba]

Nice shots and even more amazing specimens!
I am actually running down today to pick up those extension tubes so I can shoot me some macro! I will post some pics this weekend.

Keep it up!

Cool, what tubes are you getting? I've never used extension tubes before, but I've seen great pictures from them, including several pictures by FRAG members. Thanks for the compliments.

Those are some great pics thanks for sharing. Now I know what my Meteor Shower is supposed to look like :-(

Curious on what you keep your parameters at: ie: ALK, CAL, Mag, Potasium?

Haha, that thing has really taken off under the LEDs. I have two other frags under a 250W Radium (halide) and they don't grow nearly as fast. They still look good, but I think the color is slightly better under LEDs on that particular coral.

Can you post some full tank shots?

DROOLING... amazing corals and great photography, thanks for sharing.


Also interested in a FTS and params!

I've had my fair share of issues (especially recently) but I try to keep parameters as follows:

Alk: 7.6-8.0, as measured by a Hanna (had a spike in early July while away and lost some SPS and browned out others). It reads a little lower than my Red Sea kit, so take that for whatever it's worth.

Calcium: 450, as measured by a red sea only -- I don't have a cross check for this one. This has been higher recently in the 475 range -- still figuring out a new doser.

Magnesium: 1400-1500, as measured by red sea only. I don't measure often and dose under my daily consumption. I usually just bump it up manually from time to time. It goes down with water changes because I use Red Sea Coral Pro and that runs around 1300 or so.

Potassium: Hunter tested this for me once. I think I was a bit on the low side. I don't test for it myself so I don't dose it.

Temperature stays between 78.5-79.0 and pH is around 8.18 +/- 0.2 (according to my Apex history).

The most recent FTS are from June, before some problems started. Both tanks are still infants -- about 9 months from the day we first added water. A lot of corals have been moved around between these two tanks in the past two months so looks different now. I'll try to get recent shots up. Again, they're both a work in progress so be kind!

The ADA


The Envision


These two systems are linked together and share the same equipment/water -- the difference is in coral and fish selection and lighting. Halides over the SPS tank and LEDs over the LPS/softie tank.

Thanks again for compliments -- which I'm taking as words of encouragement during the mini-lull.

 

[dotcommer]

Thanks for the full tank pics and the water params. The full tank shots look great.

 

[SweetCoralline1]

I still want some of these purple dragon zoas!

 

[zrogst]

Looking great Eric! Wanted to tell you that Papa is finally getting comfortable after being introduced into the main DT last week.

 

[zibba]

I still want some of these purple dragon zoas!

I'll take a look tonight and see if I can cut it for this auction!

Looking great Eric! Wanted to tell you that Papa is finally getting comfortable after being introduced into the main DT last week.

Awesome to hear. Hope all your other fish made it safely through QT as well! See you at the auction next week?

 

[SweetCoralline1]

haha!

haha!

I'll take a look tonight and see if I can cut it for this auction!



Awesome to hear. Hope all your other fish made it safely through QT as well! See you at the auction next week?

I just sent you a PM about that!

 

[zrogst]

Awesome to hear. Hope all your other fish made it safely through QT as well! See you at the auction next week?

I'll be there! Unfortunately, the mandarin was very malnourished from the long QT period and didn't make a successful transfer. Everyone else seems happy and healthy (having readily eaten pellets for the last 8 weeks.)

 

[zibba]

Cool, we'll see you there. Sorry to hear about the mandarin but it's a tough fish to QT. Glad the others made it and have a happy/healthy life ahead!

 

[tatuaje08]

Love the rock scapes. Proof that you don't need to go overboard on rock to have a successful tank. I don't know how much rock you have but the '1 pound per gallon' rule is out the window, in general.