Through the Looking Glass

[westreef]

Mark, I am still wondering how you can get such thick coralline algae on all your rocks. Must be some ancient secret recipe. :headwally:
Just few months ago all my coralline algae bleached and disappeared from my tank. Now they are coming back -- love to see that.
I also wonder if its disappearance has anything to do with the use of Vibrant. By the way, Vibrant did get rid of all my algae issues.

 

[watchguy123]

Gorgeous as always!!

thanks, man

Looking amazing as usual, Mark! Keep up the outstanding work :thumbsup:

A work in progress

Mark, I am still wondering how you can get such thick coralline algae on all your rocks. Must be some ancient secret recipe. :headwally:
Just few months ago all my coralline algae bleached and disappeared from my tank. Now they are coming back -- love to see that.
I also wonder if its disappearance has anything to do with the use of Vibrant. By the way, Vibrant did get rid of all my algae issues.

My coralline algae is in hypermode. I don't know why but it just is

One picture for the day, blue light only cause its so crazy.

 

[watchguy123]

How about a metal halide with t5's lit photo

JF Flame




And a couple more with the same lighting (no LEDS)

RR USA Pink Floyd



Z1 (the colors are absolutely crazy)

 

[Pife]

Man your tank is amazing. You have some of the best colors I have seen.

 

[reefmutt]

Just crazy! As usual.
That Pink Floyd is amazing with those red polyps.
That z1 reminds me of Ed's rainbow. Awesome.
Mark, how long did you try the A and B? Are you still using it?

 

[watchguy123]

Man your tank is amazing. You have some of the best colors I have seen.

Thank you. I am hoping colors continue to improve. I don't share the photos of the less happy coral but hopefully some of those are getting happier and starting to show better colors soon.

Just crazy! As usual.
That Pink Floyd is amazing with those red polyps.
That z1 reminds me of Ed's rainbow. Awesome.
Mark, how long did you try the A and B? Are you still using it?

I love the RR USA Pink Floyd. I haven't seen Ed's rainbow but it must be nice, LOL. I have been trying the Red Sea Energy A and B for some weeks now but I have been traveling a lot and when I am gone the tank just gets fish food. I don't want to complicate things by asking my family to do anything more than feed the fish while I am not around. Bottomline, I have not been very consistent with that.

Here are some T5 lighting only. On my display, I turned on the two 80 watt ATI blue plus bulbs this morning and took a few photos.





A very cool monti, it came to me as pink body color but it is taking on a much more orange tint.



Reef Raft Canada Shazam I have taken a gazillion photos of this colony. It is interesting to me how sometimes under the same lighting, the coral seems to look different. Today is a happy day.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Looks great mark. Can't wait for my Shazam to grow out. Your colony is amazing!

 

[reefmutt]

Mark, those shots are outrageous.
That first one makes me weak in the knees. The pale blue tips with white body and red pink polyps.. insane.
There are few tanks on RC with corals looking as good as yours.
Ed (bigE) has one of those tanks that is up there with yours.
Well worth a gander..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25112336#post25112336

 

[watchguy123]

Looks great mark. Can't wait for my Shazam to grow out. Your colony is amazing!

Thank you. It'll be fun to compare the colonies. Reef Raft Canada Shazam is an incredible colony. I'm glad you found a frag, it was a great deal of effort for me to originally locate it. Both the colors and growth pattern are quite beautiful

Mark, those shots are outrageous.
That first one makes me weak in the knees. The pale blue tips with white body and red pink polyps.. insane.
There are few tanks on RC with corals looking as good as yours.
Ed (bigE) has one of those tanks that is up there with yours.
Well worth a gander..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25112336#post25112336

Thanks for the compliments. I have followed Big E's thread and posts for years. His tank, coral, knowledge base and helpfulness is amazing. Don't think I'd compare my tank to his although your thoughts are flattering to me. He has an amazing tank of beautiful, uncommonly colored up gems combined with years of success, a pretty rare combination. I don't know him on a personal level but wish I did

Here are some more photos shot under ati blue plus only



This following photo of Z's Blue Floyd looks so dramatic that it's hard to imagine there really were not any blue LEDs illuminating it. It is an all t5's lighting shot nonetheless . It was shot with an asa of 100 when the rest of the group were subsequently modified to an asa of 800. The two t5's bulbs just weren't putting out enough illumination given the placement of this acro at an ASA of 100 so in post production (Lightroom) I increased the exposure to lighten it up in essence. I believe adding or decreasing exposure in post production is reasonable.

Z's Blue Floyd



Continuing with t5's lighting only

Z's Prize




Z's Dream Monti

 

[Usernam Invalid]

....speechless

 

[Pife]

And the hits keep on coming. I might reach out to you in the future with some light room help. I haven't messed with it in quite sometime. That blue Floyd is a stunner, not that any of the others you posted aren't. It's special.

 

[reefmutt]

Z's Blue Floyd

mark, this is astonishing. One of the craziest, nicest, bestest corals/photos I have ever laid my eyes on!
I will dream about this photo.

 

[watchguy123]

Purple Monster



Garrett's Carduis



A couple of cool chalices

 

[Pife]

How long have you been growing that purple monster?

 

[watchguy123]

How long have you been growing that purple monster?

I had ithe frag since around june 2015.

September 2015


December 2015


April 2016


July 2016


August 2016


February 2017


May 2017


June 2017

 

[reefmutt]

Wow.. like everything else in your tank, it really took off in the last year.
Love it.

 

[watchguy123]

Wow.. like everything else in your tank, it really took off in the last year.
Love it.

Tank seems to be in a good place for now

I'm not sure I got the coloring correct on the Pink Lemonade. It seems so much brighter in person. The way I have flow in the tank, gyre on one side only, leads to this unusual growth pattern. Think of Carmel and wind swept cypress trees

Pink Lemonade



I had this frag of reef Raft Canada wolverine growing like crazy and then it suddenly got unhappy. I fragged my frag, let it hang out in my frag tank to rest for a while. I placed it back in its original spot in my display and it is happy once again



Couple of my Reef Raft USA Pink Floyd's





And for contrast

Z's Blue Floyd



All these Floyd's were shot under blue LEDs

 

[Randy27]

I need those Floyd's Gorgeous shots. Just beautiful.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Looks great mark! I really need to find a purple monster, bummed my frag died. :/

 

[tripdad]

I was going to chime in with matt on that red one but then you post the Floyd's, wow! You have some nice corals sir!