Through the Looking Glass

[watchguy123]

That coral is awesome.

Have you thought about treating with interceptor? It was recommended I treat 6 months ago by various folks but I ignored it until last month. I could get corals in decent health and some would look great but most would suffer and just not get happy. Different tanks, different problems, but maybe worth consideration. I'm also a big believer in sponges and spongepower which does seem to accelerate their growth.

I hate to give suggestions because it's honestly all just guesswork for me but maybe something to think about.

It is an interesting and provocative suggestion. Red bugs or aefw is a concern to the hobby and each of us who share or add frags to our tanks. I have not seen evidence of either though. For every photo shared, there are so very many deemed inadequate to post. But with all the numerous macro photos in addition to the countless hours of staring into the tank, I just haven't seen a bite mark or bug, red or black. I have also made a point when adding something new of cutting off every new plug, and then dipping that new frag in 10ml of bayer to 4 ounces of tank water for greater than five minutes. I only place treated frags in my tank. Every coral in my tank including lps as well as sps, started with a bayer dip before entry. So although no method is fool proof, I am reasonably confident that pests are not the issue. I appreciate your suggestion, thinking and rethinking issues and approaches is what makes this forum so helpful. I know that I look at a number of sps threads to learn from others experiences and examples. It is remarkable that this wealth of experience from reefers all over the world can be accessed. So I appreciate your suggestion and thoughts, I really do. Who better to learn from than from reefers with lots and lots of experience


I have had this frag for a very long time and recently it has been showing growth and even some color





This guy is not easy to find in the states and I'm pretty darn excited about it.

 

[reefmutt]

Wow, your pink Cadillac is on a growth tear.
Mine is sitting... Encrusting... Zzz.....

 

[scrapz]

Those corals are beautiful. Ill have to come check it out in person next time. Let me know if you are ever fragging that yellow polyped one..must have..:headwally:

The z wonder looks very similar to the limitless..

 

[plyle02]

Seriously amazing collection of corals you have! They are beautifully colored too

 

[MichaelW]

Your "favorite" is stunning I would love to find a piece the same.

 

[watchguy123]

Wow, your pink Cadillac is on a growth tear.
Mine is sitting... Encrusting... Zzz.....

It does look like its settling in nicely! Thanks

Those corals are beautiful. Ill have to come check it out in person next time. Let me know if you are ever fragging that yellow polyped one..must have..:headwally:

The z wonder looks very similar to the limitless..

I will get you out to my place sometime. Not sure about the z wonder and the limitless though. Going to have to follow how those two turn out when they get bigger.

Seriously amazing collection of corals you have! They are beautifully colored too

Thanks. There are a lot of beautiful acros out there, and its tough choosing what you like and what likes your tank. Frustrating part is that it usually takes at least a year to see if you really like it.

Your "favorite" is stunning I would love to find a piece the same.

I haven't seen another one quite like it, but then again, its from the ocean so Im sure they are abundant.

A cool looking monti




Another frag just starting to color up

 

[watchguy123]

I don't take iPhone pictures because well they just don't come out right. I ordered a large (100 plus) sample of filters (total cost around five dollars) and found the best of those (which is just ok, actually more interesting than ok) and took some iPhone pictures under all blue reefbrite XHO's. It's definitely interesting but a little goofy for me. Nonetheless, I thought I would share. Oh yeah, I have a bow front tank so I infrequently take through the glass pictures because of poor focus. Photographs and the colors are reasonably true to all blue LEDs but I spend most of my time staring at the coral with metal halides and t5's on.


Pink Tenuis



Reef raft Canada orange passion




TGC Ray's Rainbow




Z Wonder

 

[glaukos]

These are great pics :beer:
Beautiful corals!
Where do you keep your no3 and po4 at?

 

[reefmutt]

Cool shots. You just can't beat the psychedelic, mind blasting colours the LEDs bring out.
Love that Ray's rainbow

 

[watchguy123]

These are great pics :beer:
Beautiful corals!
Where do you keep your no3 and po4 at?

I have recently changed my nutrient approach. I have typically kept NO3 between 5-10 ppm and phosphates seem to move from .03 ppm to .12ppm. I have a refugium and grow chaeto consistently. I use GFO but not constantly which accounts for my fluctuation. I have a lot (15-20) very fat fish. My new approach: I added Siporax about 3 months ago and a few weeks ago, my nitrates dived to .025 ppm. I am now adding nitrates and hoping my phosphate stays low and at a constant state. I am adding nitrates to aim for 2-5 ppm. Today I am at 4 ppm nitrates via red sea pro test kit. And my phosphates are at .05 ppm via Hanna ULR phosphorous checker.

I just removed 5 large fish from my tank because I believe they were nipping my sps and I only had polyp extension at night. I have two more fish to remove and then I will replace those with other more sps friendly fish hopefully. The polyp extension is already dramatically beginning to improve within a few days of the fish removal, so I am pretty excited. It was hard pulling out magnificently colored fish but some of the sps don't really show all their colors and form unless there is polyp extension. I removed an imperator angelfish, majestic angelfish, majestic fox face, aiptasia eating file fish, and a yellow tang. I think the yellow tang discovered polyps or mucous by observing the angelfish. Any fish that now looks sideways at an sps, gets yanked out.

This is my pink lemonade that previously would not show its polyps during the day. I am hoping those red polyps come out more and more now that the worst nippers have been removed

Metal halides and t5's



Reefbrite xho blues and t5's



Its interesting that with top downs, it is difficult to sometimes gauge the size of the coral. This next picture is maybe 1/2 inch of encrusting and 1/2 inch of vertical height but it looks a little bit like some of my three inch tall frags. It shot under reefbrite xho blues and t5's




This is a three inch tall colony shot top down and it doesn't look very big. reef bright xho and t5's



And last is a small frag, RR Cadillac pink cadillac top down. Didn't get the focus right but I like it anyway.




Well, actually this is the last of the night, too much blue otherwise. This is a jsaon fox flame that I almost lost a few months ago due to an alk spike. All the tips were burned dramatically and a great deal of the base receded. It is coming back and coloring up again. I have it up as high as I can in my tank and it is getting blasted with huge flow, more than most sps can handle. I think the flow accounts for its thick branched growth.

 

[glaukos]

Thanks for the info
Lemonade looks really nice!
One of my favorite corals

 

[watchguy123]

I have had some frags that have been sitting in my tank for months and months and well just sitting there. No real growth, no nothing. But patience is a virtue.

This is RR Asia Spear of Destiny, and it may be almost a year old. Happy, content and doing nothing as far as growth or encrustation. Exact same size as when I got it.

 

[reefmutt]

Your corals continue to come along extremely well... Except for the spear of destiny...
It's a little slow... With a name like that, it's no wonder it has growth anxiety!
Sometimes it's the most amazing ones that really test our patience.

 

[watchguy123]

 

[reefmutt]

Nice monti. I have a piece of the exact same thing. I just glued it in at the bottom of my tank.... Come what may!!
It was too nice not to put in the reef...

 

[watchguy123]

Nice monti. I have a piece of the exact same thing. I just glued it in at the bottom of my tank.... Come what may!!
It was too nice not to put in the reef...

That monti looks like it grows slow enough to not be a nuisance.

I like pictures, so here are a couple of different frags


Reef Raft Canada Pink Cadillac





It's not an sps but what the heck

 

[tdb320reef]

Corals are looking great!

 

[tigersmith]

Really nice suharsunoi colony! One of the best I've seen so far.

 

[watchguy123]

Corals are looking great!

Thank you, your tank is an inspiration

Really nice suharsunoi colony! One of the best I've seen so far.

Thanks so much, I appreciate it


A few pictures for a Tuesday morning. I got rid of the fish that were nipping at my corals and finally beginning to see a little daytime polyp extension

RR USA pink Floyd




RR Canada orange passion



Jason fox flame



Cool favia or favite, I can't tell me the difference



Another not sps



Purple monster (actually just a baby)

 

[watchguy123]

Palettas tricolor



Garrett's Carduus




Jason fox flame



Another non sps, hallucination favia




A friends Acro gift, it's coloring up from the base up. Wonder what's it's going to look like eventually