therman's SPS Collection

T

therman

biodiversity enthusiast
I haven't given RC enough love lately. This forum got me started in the hobby 20 years ago and is still an absolutely invaluable source for a lot of the best information about reef keeping in existence. It can be a challenge to search through and find those gems of knowledge and experience, but it is soooo worth it compared to the knee jerk useless responses you get from posting on social media.

To give something back I'm going to try to start a bit of a photo repository here. I have a lot of SPS and will try to post a photo along with a quick description from my experience with growth form, hardiness, and requirements for nearly every variety in my collection.

I have had my current system running since 2006 in one form or another. It is hard to remember which of my oldest critters have been with me since the beginning, but I know a few have, including a yellowtail blue damsel and a flame angel. Amazingly I still have several mussels on my live rock that are still plugging along 14 years later.

Going to start it off with a favorite photo and I'll start adding corals as time allows in the days and weeks ahead.

Hopefully people find this useful and I can lure some old timers to pop in and say hello along the way :) Feel free to chime in with questions too!

Enjoy!

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EC Valentina a.k.a. Hung's Rainbow Explosion

Going to start with one of my newer favorites. This one took me a few tries to get going but finally have two putting up vertical growth and one of those is well on its way to being a decent colony. I've never seen this one grown out large so I have been hoarding it :)
It's darn near the rainbowest of any "rainbow" Acropora and it's a smoothie, making it a top contender for best Acropora ever. Mine seem to be doing best at 400-550 PAR, though I've worked them up to that level from mid 300s. Moderate flow, and will get that "deformed" edge on the corallites if it's getting hit too strongly by a pump.

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RR Pink Cadillac

A newer coral, but due to its hardiness and growth rate it is widespread and pretty cheap nowadays. Honestly I think it is underrated. Gorgeous circular growth pattern, yellow/green/pink with purple polyps. This should be a go-to Acropora for people starting out and a staple in every nice Acropora tank :)

Does great in 300-400 PAR for me with random moderate to high flow. Never had any issues with this one at all.

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BC Blue Ghost

Honestly this oddball is one of the most uniquely colored corals I have seen in years. It is predominantly a fluorescent powdery light blue, bordering on white, with yellow corallite edges and pink tips when it is at its happiest. It is actually a pretty quick grower once established and is another personal favorite because I like weird things.

This one will gobble up the PAR, and I have pieces doing great over 500 though it doesn't need that to thrive. High random flow seems best. I've had no real issues with mine at all, but I've heard from others it can be a little sensitive to shipping like the other kind of thin branching shaggy fragile corals (I.e. Pink Lemonade, Vivid Confetti, CC Voodoo Majick, etc.).

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I love the detailed info on each species and your experience with them...super valuable info

Please include a full tank shot for perspective...

Also I haven't seen some of these corals for sale...please share where we can find some of these like the Blue Ghost


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Hey Tim,
I had a similar idea but haven't made my post yet. Rc was one of the first sites I found to learn and share on. I'm ready to move away from FB and go back to my origins. Nice post and see you next swap!
Erik
 
Hey Tim, I would love to see a picture of your Angry Birds colony and a full take shot. Sweet picture of the Skinny Love bud.
 
kinggeorge818 said:
I love the detailed info on each species and your experience with them...super valuable info

Please include a full tank shot for perspective...

Also I haven't seen some of these corals for sale...please share where we can find some of these like the Blue Ghost


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Thanks, I do have a sale thread in the classifieds, not sure if I'm allowed to link that here. I can send you a PM.
 
Here are a couple of quick and dirty FTS from the front. The main system has a 180g and a 36" half cube containing live rock shown here, but many of the SPS are in the four 12" deep prop tanks.

The biggest Acropora is the BC Bleeding Tree v2 in the middle of the 180g, which spans it completely front to back now. Green slimer on the left and the Copps Calacali just out of frame on the right are close behind.

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This has a few high energy Acropora colonies and a lot of healing frags:
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Beautiful corals!! Thanks for keeping this going! What's your secret sauce (how do you care for the tank)?


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Kreeger1 said:
Hey Tim,
I had a similar idea but haven't made my post yet. Rc was one of the first sites I found to learn and share on. I'm ready to move away from FB and go back to my origins. Nice post and see you next swap!
Erik
Click to expand...

Thanks Erik! Good to see you posting here :) Hope LEAR can happen next year and things get back to normal.
 
purplereef said:
Hey Tim, I would love to see a picture of your Angry Birds colony and a full take shot. Sweet picture of the Skinny Love bud.
Click to expand...

Hey Dan!

Unfortunately I lost all but the base from the AB. Here are some photos before it died back. The base has regrown and I'm starting to get a couple of nubby branches started again.

RRUSA Angry Birds tenuis (maybe?)

This piece was from Eric Litvin, he said it was RRUSA. I've heard others say the USA is more blue so I dont know who to believe.

This one is mainly lavender and pink, definitely has some crazy looking polyps under blue LED with a filter though.


As for requirements, this one did great for me under around 400-450 PAR in random moderately high flow. It was a really quick grower and I sent out several frags. It died back due to a crazy high phosphate spike (0.30+ ppm) so I cant really blame the coral for that. Color has not been what I expected for the price, but that seems to be the trend these days :)

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