Through the Looking Glass

[watchguy123]

You should mention because shipping and dipping is what we all do. It looks like the vendor sent you bad frags.

The frags are healthy, 3 out of the four have great polyp extension. The fourth was a freebie. First time I bought from this online vendor. Yes I want colored up frags and the colony pictures were really pretty. But as long as they came in healthy (polyps out), I will deal with it. I also removed the frags from the plugs they were on, dipped, and then reglued to new plugs in different position. I would prefer to assume that these are just fragile coral and beige out with stress. Certainly some corals are famous for beiging out on fragging, like vivids rainbow delight. I'll just give them some time to color up first

 

[watchguy123]

So excited about this acquisition. Have wanted a blue spot jawfish for a very long time

A little camera shy



Best I could do to get a smile out of him. Just about ready to move into his new home



In his new home, hope he likes it. Really hoping he makes a successful transition to the tank (and why did the iPhone pictures come out as good as any of my DSLR pictures , what a surprise!!!)

 

[watchguy123]

this is sitting in my goofy frag tank but check out the spontaneous "graft" on this reef tek starburst. Hopefully you can see the green developing on the edge right next to a hole in the frag rack. I took this with the reefbrites on so the color is a little whacky but I think it is still pretty clear where the green graft is.

 

[ryanrid]

So excited about this acquisition. Have wanted a blue spot jawfish for a very long time

A little camera shy



Best I could do to get a smile out of him. Just about ready to move into his new home



In his new home, hope he likes it. Really hoping he makes a successful transition to the tank (and why did the iPhone pictures come out as good as any of my DSLR pictures , what a surprise!!!)

That's just jawsome haha

 

[cugly]

Very nice collection where are you in socal

 

[watchguy123]

That's just jawsome haha

Thank you and I like that "jawsome"

Very nice collection where are you in socal

Thanks, I'm in the west San Fernando valley, Calabassas

 

[glaukos]

Blue spot is awesome watchguy
Glad you finally found one:beer:

Cyphastrea(?) on the right(last pic) is really beautiful!
How long do you have it,in your tank?

 

[watchguy123]

This is kind of fun to compare from March to now

March




June 21, 2014



March



June 21, 2014

 

[watchguy123]

Blue spot is awesome watchguy
Glad you finally found one:beer:

Cyphastrea(?) on the right(last pic) is really beautiful!
How long do you have it,in your tank?

Thank you. The cyphastrea I've had probably two plus years. I'm not a fan of cyphastrea only because of its amazing encrusting ability. It just never stops encrusting similar to many montiporas and then they become almost a pest, taking over large amounts of precious real estate. It's a looker but probably best placed on its own island rock where it can be contained. Apparently mushrooms and chalices can sting it and keep it under control somewhat

 

[watchguy123]

I always thought this green acro was strawberry fields but expected the tip to have a brighter red center, maybe it just needs more time to grow and color up. The lower left is a palawenesi (sp?.), I believe it was called a Bloody Mary. And to the right is my red planet. This is inches from the top of the tank so lighting is pretty intense here

 

[watchguy123]

After seeing picture after picture by a fellow reefer of his colony, I really flipped over the pc superman acro. Now I take picture after picture as this acro grows out. One of my favorite acro gems, pc superman acro

 

[Dave & Monica]

Just went through all 23 pages again, really great to see the progression, bounce backs from ups and downs, and most importantly your photography.

A few pages back you covered how you glue frags to rocks in your display. However when you do cosmetic surgery on colonies, besides using the plastic containers as props, do you still use only glue gel?

I am so inspired by how well your pictures are, I'm going to download a trial version of PS elements, and take some pic in RAW format. If it's not intuitive, can you make some recommendations on how to correct to blue 20k light?

Several comments you're made about yellow, looking green on corals. I have noticed yellow corals are a rare find and few are really yellow. (like comparing the yellow from the top fin from a powder blue tang). I have a yellow scroll coral I'm really happy with, and what is suppose to be pink lemonade from Yourreef.com, in my setup, is a beautiful yellow acro. I recently bought a yellow mili from Copps as part of a Colorado group buy from him and it is yellowish, but still getting it's yellow coloration. You mentioned daylight, do you have daylight T5 bulbs to supplement your 20K Halides? Can you expand your experience getting yellow to pop? You have that Carolina acro and it appears to be yellow.

Thanks again for sharing your passion, this is a great thread. //Dave

 

[watchguy123]

Just went through all 23 pages again, really great to see the progression, bounce backs from ups and downs, and most importantly your photography.

A few pages back you covered how you glue frags to rocks in your display. However when you do cosmetic surgery on colonies, besides using the plastic containers as props, do you still use only glue gel?

I am so inspired by how well your pictures are, I'm going to download a trial version of PS elements, and take some pic in RAW format. If it's not intuitive, can you make some recommendations on how to correct to blue 20k light?

Several comments you're made about yellow, looking green on corals. I have noticed yellow corals are a rare find and few are really yellow. (like comparing the yellow from the top fin from a powder blue tang). I have a yellow scroll coral I'm really happy with, and what is suppose to be pink lemonade from Yourreef.com, in my setup, is a beautiful yellow acro. I recently bought a yellow mili from Copps as part of a Colorado group buy from him and it is yellowish, but still getting it's yellow coloration. You mentioned daylight, do you have daylight T5 bulbs to supplement your 20K Halides? Can you expand your experience getting yellow to pop? You have that Carolina acro and it appears to be yellow.

Thanks again for sharing your passion, this is a great thread. //Dave

1.) Anytime I place a frag or a colony in the tank, I use zap gel glue to keep it in place. There may be better glues but that is the one that I have always used.

3. ) Ahh, yellows, the very difficult color to get. My Carolinia changes all the time from greenish to yellowish, most probably because of tank conditions but what and why, I really don't know. I wish it were more true yellow but right now it most certainly is more green than yellow. I have 3 ATI Blue plus and 1 ATI purple plus t5 lightbulbs and my metal halides are 250 watt 20k XM's currently. So, bottom-line , I don't know how to make yellow pop. I have a few old and new Reef Raft USA pieces that are pretty yellow, at least from my perspective, Pink Floyd and an unnamed piece as yet (although I will have to double check and see if it did indeed get named recently.)

2.) Photoshop elements: I generally change temperature to near or at 20k, I change tint from whatever the camera said to close to zero, I usually increase exposure and sometimes brightness because otherwise the pictures come out dark. Please Note: These are iPhone pictures of my computer screen but the initial coral pictures were taken with my dslr camera.

Picture "as shot"




Picture customized

 

[watchguy123]

Have to admit, a lot of pretty eye candy out there. Whether this is a sps or lps, I really don't know. You don't commonly see feeders out on this

Jason fox jack o lantern

 

[watchguy123]

Getting this pretty Millie ( possibly prostrata, I can't distinguish between Millie's and prostrata), to color up again. Tips should continue to get bluer and bluer, and polyps longer and longer.

 

[goldencoralfarm]

I can never got my top down pics look anything near yours. Just amazing skill.

 

[Arkayology]

That pc superman is gorgeous!

 

[tdb320reef]

Awesome pics and tutorial.

 

[Volcom698]

Your tank is awesome! So are you using bio pellets at all? How about carbon or GFO.

I'm setting my tank up after a couple years out, and want to do my tank as easy as I can, and not use all these new additives, so just curious what you do.

 

[watchguy123]

I can never got my top down pics look anything near yours. Just amazing skill.

You know I have a bow front so 98% of my pics are top down and I have to climb a ladder to get above the tank. That also means I hand hold my camera, no tripod on the ladder. But I am jealous of the super macro shots that some take, that unfortunately I really can't do.

That pc superman is gorgeous!

Wish I could take credit, but it is just a beautiful coral

Awesome pics and tutorial.

I am trying to get my tank as colorful and populated as yours.

Your tank is awesome! So are you using bio pellets at all? How about carbon or GFO.

I'm setting my tank up after a couple years out, and want to do my tank as easy as I can, and not use all these new additives, so just curious what you do.

thank you. I don't use biopellets or carbon dosing. I have a 1/8 to 1/4 cup of carbon sitting in the sump and I use about a cup or maybe two of GFO in a reactor. I have a great skimmer, use regular water changes and feed the fish. I think that is it.