My sps journey

[sam.veilleux30]

Cool, I found someone with a Papi Chulo Frag. A fellow Canadian too!

Not many "Papi Chulo" out there doing a google search. Your thread was a Google Search HIT.

I got one about 8 months ago from Reef Raft Canada here in Toronto and it lost it's TWO-TONE Coloration after couple of months.

I ignored the change since it was healthy and the PE was Strong/Red with White whiskers.

Then when I lowered Phosphates, and got them stable. It really colored up, and growth took off too. I actually stopped Aminos totally, and Colors kept getting better.

The reason for looking for other people with Papi Frags. Is to compare Color/Growth Rate.

Yours has encrusted nicely.

Take care of it, and wait patiently, it's my most colorful RED PE and hardy SPS (Since I really beat up The other Frags (P swings), but the Papi was forgiving and a quick healer)

Thanks for the info.
It was the first time i saw this on fragbox (maybe one more since) and the piece looked healthy.
Not sure for the two-tone coloration you speak about, mine seem to be consistent red for now.
I will go to see your thread for pics of it.
I did not know reef raft had a store in Toronto.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Update on some corals.
Starting from post 101. I will try to include the water chemistry and relevant info as i post new progression pictures.
This way it might help to understand the changes in coloration.
And i changed my aquascape yesterday.

The right is now on the left.
In the process one of my springeri lost is shelter and was taking a serious beat-up, so i brought him back at my lfs.

 

[W1ngz]

And i changed my aquascape yesterday.

I like it! It doesn't even look like the same tank I saw the other day.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Let's hope the corals love their new place.
Last time i moved the pink cadillac he almost went rtn.
This new setup give me more buffer for growth and the monti cap is now the third of what you saw.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

It's done,

Three little frags, still the double of what i got last year.
It will be fun to watch the progression of the colony over time.
At the same time i did the update on the post #108 to keep track of it.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

sorry for the quality, dont know how to post in hd yet.

 

[Wrangy]

Looks unreal mate!!!

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Looks unreal mate!!!

thanks, the little reef is doing fine these days.
Even the cyano is giving me a break.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

One month of growth on the "maleficent"

not quite the same zoom but you can get the difference in size.

 

[Wrangy]

So nice!

 

[sam.veilleux30]

So nice!

Yeah, this is a nice piece but it can get so much better.
Yesterday i sold some frags and the guy still have mh/t5 and reefbrites, his corals were really stunning with more deep coloration and contrast.
The maleficent he own have blue hints with deep red center.
Well, i'm still happy with my leds but seeing his pics i can understand why some people go back to mh/t5.

 

[Wrangy]

Yeah, this is a nice piece but it can get so much better.
Yesterday i sold some frags and the guy still have mh/t5 and reefbrites, his corals were really stunning with more deep coloration and contrast.
The maleficent he own have blue hints with deep red center.
Well, i'm still happy with my leds but seeing his pics i can understand why some people go back to mh/t5.

I'll always have a soft spot for halides and what they can do but I'm really really keen to see what I can do with leds again! I love blues so they're definitely my kind of lights haha

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Little update, redid the right half of the scape during the week-end.
I might do some tweaks but for the most part i'm happy with the result.
Earlier this month i sold some frags and the guy was also interested with some corals in the tank (24k and graffiti), saturday i made a frag swap.
I now have four more little pieces:

reef raft Canada firecracker
JF midnight dynamite
Tierra del fuego
Pinky the bear

They're quite small but i should be able to grow them, pics to come.

 

[Wrangy]

Looking forward to the pics mate!

 

[sam.veilleux30]

So, the new scape!

This is the part i might change (acrylic rod and epoxy).

the water is still a little cloudy, i had to do another one treatment for the cyano last week and the skimmer is not back from it yet.

On the fish side... i lost one of my anthias 3-4 weeks ago, i had her since 2016 and she was doing well until the end.
The last day she had troubles breathing and was lying on the sand, on her side.
I decided to let thing run it's course until one of the urchin started to eat the little fish alive, so in the end i eased her passing.
Never fun to see... and now the other one is acting funny, hiding all day and barely getting out of her shelter to try to get some food.
For now i put this on the stress of the new scape but it never look good when a fish start to behave like this.
Let's hope it turn for the best.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

And now the corals side...
The new (tiny) ones: pinky the bear

tierra del fuego

JF midnight dynamite

reef raft Canada firecracker

 

[sam.veilleux30]

And some new pics of the acros

wd (not at his best on the color side)

wolverine, getting there

marvin the martian, always polyps out, angels or not

pink floyd, deciding to grow some more

ssc, back from the brown state (all my pieces of it turned brown near the end of june, this is my last frag).

the sub zero, casting shadows on a somewhat less prime estate part of the setup.

the cherry blossom

the papi chulo

So that's it for now, i'm really pleased whit the new frags and how they might turn out if all go well.
They're not at 100%, (color wise) the guy had some troubles lately and the acros suffered from it, but they seem healthy enough.

 

[Wrangy]

The new scape looks awesome mate! Sorry to hear about your anthias though the corals look unreal though!

 

[sam.veilleux30]

The new scape looks awesome mate! Sorry to hear about your anthias though the corals look unreal though!

Thanks, i think this one will do for some time, the next change will probably be to move the pink cadillac to a less crowded spot (it's getting huge).

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Food for thought...
The red planet before the angels

and then after

pe is almost nonexistent in the second pic but on the overall it look fine.
So far i'm still happy with my decision to go the "angels way", they're really nice fishs, less agressive than the tangs i had, and fun to watch (when not nipping corals).