Through the Looking Glass

[reefmutt]

Well you can tell the reef geeks by how carefully they pick up on colors of acros. I think this one is going to turn out pretty cool. Cant wait for it to get bigger and fuller.


Brought nitrates up from .05 ppm on red sea pro test to about 4 ppm. Interesting, as i added KNO3, polyps came out just like a feeding response. Just trying to determine if nitrates will stay up on their own if I need to continue to supplement. I continue to feed 3 to four times a day heavily with the following: New Life Spectrum pellets, Ocean Nutrtion Forumula two pellets, Julian sprung sea veggie flakes, and LRS Fish Frenzy frozen (frozen about 3-4 times a week). Phosphates remain around .08 ppm via red sea test kit, I need to double check it with hanna ULR phosphorous tester.


Interesting color on the frag pictured below, the base not so much but the branches are a cool bluish/purple with light yellow corallite edges.

Reef geek!?! How dare y...... Well.. Ya, ok.. From one to another...
How come when my wife calls me a fish nerd, it is pejorative but when you call me a reef geek, it's like a badge of honor!

Yes, the blue/purple mottled base and green/yellow highlights are very cool on this one, and the pinched corralites.. Interesting. I don't know my coral morphology well enough to know which species of coral this is but must be recognizable to someone smarter than me!

And yes, Mark, you have some of the best looking corraline algea out there!!

 

[watchguy123]

Mark, I read your comment about believing that chloramines may have been the cause of your issues. I don't know who your water supplier is but mine is Las Virgenes and they put a ton of chloramine in the water. Just last year, LADPW started putting chloramines in its water supply so if you are in that district, you are dealing with a problem you didn't have before.

Like you, I've concluded that chloramines mean death to SPS, especially in low nutrient systems. After trying without much success to keep them in check by changing out the BRS carbon blocks every couple of months, I decided to brute force the issue by adding a BRS chloramines monster in addition to three other carbon blocks and three di chambers. The chloramines monster is rated for 10-20,000 gallons of water so it should last at least a year. Next week I'm going to change out my ro membranes because they get damaged by chloramine breakthough and add a booster pump to maximize the efficiency of the system. I'm also dosing a little potassium nitrate to raise the NO3 and PO4 a bit. My corals are starting to come back around after a rapid decline, but I've been through this twice in the last two years and it seems that the ones who get hit the hardest never seem to recover. Luckily this time I caught it fairly early and only a few look horrible.

This hobby can make you sick at times. I'm glad to see you have everything back under control and are growing some beautiful sticks. Looking forward to more pictures!

Well in the process of once again changing out sediment, carbon and chloramine filers. You are making me think that maybe I need a chloramine buster like you added to your system. We are both getting the same water, I'm sure from Las Virgenes.

Mark--so pleased your tank is up and running again! Your tank and thoughtful commentary has been a big motivation for me to go into reefing. In fact, most of your frags still make up the basis for much of my reef...

Mark

Thank you and I guess that means I may need to hit you up for some frags as well.

Hi Mark, you have such a thick layer of coralline algae covering your rocks. How did you achieve that? Have you been asked about this? Have you mentioned this somewhere and I have missed it?

Btw, your corals are gorgeous.

Reef geek!?! How dare y...... Well.. Ya, ok.. From one to another...
How come when my wife calls me a fish nerd, it is pejorative but when you call me a reef geek, it's like a badge of honor!

Yes, the blue/purple mottled base and green/yellow highlights are very cool on this one, and the pinched corralites.. Interesting. I don't know my coral morphology well enough to know which species of coral this is but must be recognizable to someone smarter than me!

And yes, Mark, you have some of the best looking corraline algea out there!!

I don't really know why my coralline algae grows so darn well. It is layer upon layer and I have almost given up on cleaning the back wall of it. I break some coral every time I try to clean it off back there. My macro algae grows reasonable well in my refugium but I have virtually none to little green algae on my rocks. I would prefer some green algae. Plus I imagine that the coralline algae is literally plugging up my live rock and limiting bacterial colonies.

I took some pictures today and none really came out well but here are a couple. Not sure why so few are interested in this favia but I think it is remarkable. Hallucination favia and not very expensive but crazy colored eyes. and the acro frag to follow is a newbie, blue polyps with reddish base. The acro is cool but it was on my frag rack in the tank and too close to the reefbrites so I could not get the color right. I seem to be getting worse at photography.

 

[watchguy123]

Just starting to have some colors poke through. Yeah! Plus its exciting to see the white ring around the base where this acropora is stinging and growing over the coralline algae.

 

[cugly]

Very nice
Merry Christmas and Happy new year bud

 

[reefmutt]

Very nice! Love the red polyps starting..
You know a coral is gearing up when the 'kill zone' around the base appears.
Still extremely jealous of your pristine corraline algea.

 

[watchguy123]

Happy holidays to all

 

[reefmutt]

Same to you!
What is this one called?
Seriously purple..

 

[maroun.c]

Same to you.
That last one is the most purple I've seen
Also interested in its ID.

 

[watchguy123]

Same to you!
What is this one called?
Seriously purple..

Same to you.
That last one is the most purple I've seen
Also interested in its ID.

Thanks guys. Happy holidays. Its an unknown, I am pretty sure from Vivid's which is one of my local LFS. They seem to get lots of wild colonies and wild colonies sometimes do funny things including not thriving. They don't have the colony anymore to the best of my knowledge. The tips are more blue and the base very rich and dark purple.

 

[RobTheReefer]

How about some macros of that coralline? lol

 

[sahin]

Your pulling some great colours out of these acros! Keep up the good work. Hope 2016 is a great year for all of us SPS keepers.

 

[watchguy123]

there are some crazy blues out there. None of these are the infamous oregon tort but just as pretty and blue

I like this one a lot, it is the craziest blue that I have ever seen:



Or this one:



or even this one, even though it is tiny:




Same name but different country,



or this:



another:



I like the red polyps on the RR Canada Shazam


Hope you enjoy my corals feeling blue.

 

[Hentz]

Just starting to have some colors poke through. Yeah! Plus its exciting to see the white ring around the base where this acropora is stinging and growing over the coralline algae.

What Acro is this? Pretty sure I have an exact frag of it

 

[watchguy123]

What Acro is this? Pretty sure I have an exact frag of it

It is Ultimate's rainbow Acro. I am expecting it's colors to lighten up with time. I have been playing around with my nitrate levels. I have had them recently between 5 and 10 ppm and will eventually return them to lower levels. I think this coral looks great dark but it looks pretty outstanding with lighter colors.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

What's your secret to having so much coralline algae? I don't see any green hair algae in the tank, just solid purple algae covering every inch of live rock. What does your clean up crew consist of? How many tangs do you have? What are your phosphates and nitrates?

 

[reefmutt]

Nice, Mark
The last two corals almost look like before and after shots of the same coral..
Seriously nice and healthy!
I'd say 90% of my corals have done what yours are doing: lay down serious amounts of base instead of or before branching out..
It requires the patience of a buddhist monk..
Have you noticed any changes since dosing no3?

 

[watchguy123]

Sorry, haven't been on the forum all that much except as a lurker lately. Been looking at a lot of lovely pictures some of you guys have taken of your sps. I have been mighty jealous. My tank is developing but the best I can say is acros are surviving and growing but not really prospering except for a few goodies

Daylight photo: palm of my hand out on the backyard patio, no led's, no t5's, no mh, just good ol' pure sunlight on a cloudy day

 

[reefmutt]

Looks like a pearlberry..
But it seems to be struggling to encrust..
..and.. Your corraline algea growth has looked better.. It's a little wrinkly..

 

[watchguy123]

Looks like a pearlberry..
But it seems to be struggling to encrust..
..and.. Your corraline algea growth has looked better.. It's a little wrinkly..

Here is the colony it came from and although it is not Pearlberry, that was really perceptive because the colony colors are similar but the growth is very different. This acro tends to have shorter branches for the most part.

MH, t5's and LED's





and just for fun, t5's and LEDs but not MH





This is a different mini-colony trying to live up to its potential but not there yet:

MH, t5's and LED's (reefbrite XHO)




and this time without MH, just t5's and LEDs

 

[Volcom698]

Awesome pictures! I still wonder how you get coralline algea to grow so nice like that lol. I for some reason can't get it to grow at all it seems.