Through the Looking Glass

[watchguy123]

Z’s Pink Cotton Candy

 

[watchguy123]

Z's Disguise

 

[Pife]

Holy crap. You have more amazing different coral than I've ever seen.

 

[reefmutt]

Mark, fantastic!! Amazing health and growth. Z is an absolute wet thumbed genius!! Mind blowing colours..
Those little dead end frags are so frustrating.. I’ve had some sit in my tank for years.. sometimes they just suddenly start or suddenly rtn overnight.
I’ve had a tiny frag of pearlberry since 2015. Never did a thing as corals grew up around it. About 6 months ago I removed a nub of it out from under the shade of bigger corals. Recently, it has encrusted well and may be about to push out a branch from some of the new encrusting section.. almost as if the original coral just wasn’t going to grow but the new encrusting growth seems to be rejuvenated.. these little animals can be quite perplexing.

 

[watchguy123]

Holy crap. You have more amazing different coral than I've ever seen.

Thank you

Mark, fantastic!! Amazing health and growth. Z is an absolute wet thumbed genius!! Mind blowing colours..
Those little dead end frags are so frustrating.. I've had some sit in my tank for years.. sometimes they just suddenly start or suddenly rtn overnight.
I've had a tiny frag of pearlberry since 2015. Never did a thing as corals grew up around it. About 6 months ago I removed a nub of it out from under the shade of bigger corals. Recently, it has encrusted well and may be about to push out a branch from some of the new encrusting section.. almost as if the original coral just wasn't going to grow but the new encrusting growth seems to be rejuvenated.. these little animals can be quite perplexing.

Well I am so delighted that someone else has suffered through frags that just won't blossom. A friend of mine was gracious enough to give me three different frags over time of Reef Raft USA Firecracker. The first two just would not get happy in my tank. Funny enough the third frag seems happy and thriving in my tank. I have a few frags that should be stellar if they ever decide to grow but after many many months are literally dormant still. I did have one dormant frag finally blossom earlier this year which is really cool. It may have been dormant for a year before it decided to thrive and blossom. I am not sure if the frags are just placed in a spot that is not right for them, so although they may not necessarily fade and succumb, they just stagnate.

Here are a couple more pictures under blue leds which has become my favorite for photos for obvious reasons. I am not done enjoying this lighting.

Reef Raft Canada Orange Passion and Reef Raft USA Pink Floyd (One of my rare through the front glass pictures)



Z's Pink Cotton Candy (it came out blurry but I still wanted to share)

 

[tfp]

Amazing colors Watchguy!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[reefmutt]

Thank you


Well I am so delighted that someone else has suffered through frags that just won't blossom. A friend of mine was gracious enough to give me three different frags over time of Reef Raft USA Firecracker. The first two just would not get happy in my tank. Funny enough the third frag seems happy and thriving in my tank. I have a few frags that should be stellar if they ever decide to grow but after many many months are literally dormant still. I did have one dormant frag finally blossom earlier this year which is really cool. It may have been dormant for a year before it decided to thrive and blossom. I am not sure if the frags are just placed in a spot that is not right for them, so although they may not necessarily fade and succumb, they just stagnate.

Here are a couple more pictures under blue leds which has become my favorite for photos for obvious reasons. I am not done enjoying this lighting.

Reef Raft Canada Orange Passion and Reef Raft USA Pink Floyd (One of my rare through the front glass pictures)



Z's Pink Cotton Candy (it came out blurry but I still wanted to share)

Beautiful contrast between the OP and PF. Pretty darn good front glass shot.
Pink Floyd is an example of a coral that I have tried countless times. Every time I add a frag, it sits, then turns brown and then sits some more... I have never, ever had a Pink Floyd thrive in my tank.. I have one more frag sitting in my frag tank that I decided to receive and instead of glueing it in right away, leaving it in the frag tank for a while.. so far so good.. hasn't gone brown yet. I may put it in the display soon..
Love the pastel shades on the cotton candy

 

[watchguy123]

 

[MMOORE0324]

Love this one! What acropora is this?

 

[Cheapreef]

Wow very nice.

 

[tripdad]

I'm in love!!! Man that's got great contrast!:inlove:

 

[reefmutt]

Gorgeous!

 

[Zweebe]

Awesome reef! Your corals seems so well... Gratz!

 

[shih87]

.......


I am in full agreement with you on both lighting and photography. When I started reefing, I think I used something called power compacts flourescent fixtures. And when I decided to get serious I went with metal halides. I railed for the longest time against photoshop because the whole idea of sharing photographs of our corals is to both share what can be accomplished as well as discover new corals that were worth acquiring. Hard to force others into sharing a sense of honesty or integrity and so sometimes pictures got posted that were not an accurate representation of the coral. But then LEDS came along and changed so much. Now you can dial in virtually any light spectrum you like. And corals that were uninteresting under metal halides became multi-colored and brilliant under LED lighting. And for us metal halide folks, well the world changed. Certainly, the goal was not only to acquire great looking corals but to also to color them up. Lighting changed and now so do our thoughts and impressions of coral change. I added reefbrite XHOS for the dawn dusk effect but it really lets me see the glow--and it is impressive. And so now there are corals like the home wrecker or walt disney that are mind boggling under LEDS and very ordinary under metal halides. I think either metal halides will continue to disappear or those of us who prefer metal halides, will simply add more led supplementation for enjoyment. If you have personally seen a home wrecker under LEDS, you can't help but want both the coral and the lighting together. And the newer LEDS certainly are reducing or eliminating the Windex look, certainly the kessil and radions are and i am sure many others as well.

Photography really requires photoshop or lightroom or some program. I get that Samsung phones are pretty good at reef shots at least dealing with some of the blue, iPhones not so much. I like using a DSLR camera, actually I am using a sony mirrorless. Whether using metal halide lighting or blue leds, some white balance adjustment is necessary and that invariably requires a photoshop like program. It is not about enhancing a picture but color correcting to best approximate what the viewer sees in the tank. So I am generally dismissive of those who state their pictures are not adjusted, that is just dumb. Cameras can't deal with the extreme blue of any reef lighting, metal halide or led. Over correcting via software programs is the challenge. I like to think I get it right with my photos but the only way to really tell is to look into my tank.

In terms of shooting through the glass, I almost never shoot through my front glass. The curve of the bow front makes almost every picture somewhat out of focus. So I shoot top down with a viewer. My tank is a large tank and I guess the stand puts it up a bit tall. So I get on a six foot ladder to be able to take my top down pictures. Although my wife doesn't comment, I am sure I must look like a comical figure on top of the ladder leaning down over the tank. Fortunately to date, neither I nor my camera have fallen in yet. Lastly, top down pictures are the most flattering because they best capture the light off the coral and result in the best color. If you have looked top down at your coral in your tank, you understand exactly what I mean. The bow front of my tank doesn't really give me any choice but to shoot top down.


Reefmutt always gets it right.

So now that I have spent more time at my computer to comment on the comments, some additional pictures to share and yes, blue led lighting

WWC Red Ferrari
......

Sorry for cutting your contains here, but I really feel lots of useful information above that I want to keep in my notes.

Excellent shots and wonderful corals you have in this thread.

 

[watchguy123]

Wow very nice.

Thanks

I'm in love!!! Man that's got great contrast!:inlove:

The contrast is crazy

Gorgeous!

Thanks

Awesome reef! Your corals seems so well... Gratz!

Corals for the most part are happy. Always one or two though that are complaining

Sorry for cutting your contains here, but I really feel lots of useful information above that I want to keep in my notes.

Excellent shots and wonderful corals you have in this thread.

thank you. I tend to get wordy when I try to share a thought or two. I so much enjoy your thread and tank. AND, I just love your avatar. Relaxing is what reefing is supposed to be about.

A couple of monti's with photos under metal halides and t5s. I have taken so many shots of these two and somehow the color is almost always off on these two montipora. I think this is my best effort to capture the colors correctly under metal halides and t5s



Z's Dream Monti (below)

 

[watchguy123]

I don't know what species Z's Favorite is. It has a highly unusual growth pattern and almost impossible to frag without getting tiny little pieces. It looks great under metal halides or t5s or Blue Leds, it just looks good in my opinion.

Z's Favorite (metal halides).



Z's Favorite (blue leds close up view)

 

[watchguy123]

Another recent picture to share

 

[watchguy123]

I would like to know more about additives and what people are using and why. I obviously do not run an overly low nutrient tank hence my sps tend to be deeper colored as opposed to pale.

i am curious about what effects additives are intended to accomplish. I don't use additives, i just feed my fish a variety of foods.

A couple more pictures, hopefully presuming there is interest.

Blueberry Wine, a somewhat Canadian phenomena--although not to suggest this came from the Canadian Great Barrier Reef. I can't quite capture the metallic blue color in my photos, i try but somehow just can't seem to do it.







JF Jack-O-Lantern. Mine is sitting on the sand, but this thing will grow under a rock, not so sure that is a good thing. I keep it isolated off the rock work, it just grows too well. It is sitting in a corner where not much else would be all that happy




Back to another Canadian phenom:

Reef Raft Canada Shazam ( this is metal halides, it really is a stunner)

 

[reefmutt]

being Canadian, I gotta say YAY for the blueberry wine.
and as I've said before, I adore that shazam.. I can't seem to find it here..

Just read your article. Very Nice!
Mark, I wouldn't even go down the supplement road, if I had a tank like yours...
The group of elements I looked for to supplement to supplement my tank with were: zinc, Iodine/flourine, Manganese, potassium and iron. This was to keep both my cheato and corals happy...
This is added via Prodibio Bioptim and AF Iodine+AF Flourine- added every saturday and Wednesday
I also add AF Vitamins and AF Build each night- along with a pinch of Polyplab's reef roids/Fauna Marin Reef Vitality.
Lately, I have been also adding a pinch of FM Coral Balance and Coral Sprint...AND Prodibio's reef booster which is omega fatty acids...
So, in short, I even add the kitchen sink!
Otherwise my system is similar to yours - mh/t5/led lighting, cheato fuge, lots of biomedia, lots of well fed fish and always some n but often too much p (.1-.2)

Do I want to use all of this stuff?? good question... the products I use have been a slow accumulation of trial and error and up to now, this recipe is working for me..
Could I stop? good question.. Will I try to stop? No, because it is working for me..
Do i think you should start? No, because what you are doing is working for you.... and ME when I drool over your corals!
If I had the incredible results you have without dosing all the stuff I dose, I would NEVER have begun using them..

 

[kainic]

Why would you change anything with a tank looking like that? I'd be conservative and spend my time taking pictures of these beauties.

I'm really impressed by your colors and the health of your corals. You are doing it right that's for sure.