I have ordered my first ever acropora frag. It's the Dr Foster and Smith Neon Vermiculata... Supposedly some special edition. It was on sale in the diver's den. I can't wait to try my luck with this thing. I have kept softies and a few LPS but never had the guts to try any SPS.

 

You're in the same position as me! I'm putting my first SPS order together and should have it next week
Good luck!

 

It arrived this morning, and is in the tank. All the polyps are extended and waving in the breeze.

 

Pics?

 

All talk and no pics is annoying Let's see it

 

Haha! Just saw this. Lights out right now but I'll take a couple tomorrow!

 

Sorry about the terrible quality. The only piece of photography equipment I own is an iphone.

 

Nice!

 

Thanks! It may be brown and dead 3 days from now, but so far, so good...

 

Nice. Good luck and update when you can.

 

Just keep your levels steady and you'll be fine.

 

Now you will really learn about water stability.

 

I was told to lay them horizontal so they'd grow up and make more branches ;but that's fairly subjective for what you're trying for.

What are your parameters?

 

This afternoon they were as follows. Tested with a blend of Red Sea kits and Hanna checkers. BRS refractometer fo salinity.

Temp 79
PH 8.2
Salinity 35 ppt
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~5
Po4 .02
Ca 470
Dkh 8
Mg 1300

 

Spot on, you should be fine

 

Today the filaments are out. I noticed it after adding some nori. It had been a while and the nori had started disintegrating. This is a sign of good health, right?

 

Filaments in the long tentacles trying to catch food, or filaments as in secretions that are streaming from it.

Longer tentacles are good, but usually are out with the others in the species that have them.

Secretions are a sign you made it angry. Doubt it was the nori though. If it's doing it every once in a while is ok. If it does it too much then that means something is stressing it and eventually it'll bite the dust.

I think they usually they do this as a means to fight with other corals, so I'd look at whats close to it first.

 

Pretty sure it was feeding. I compared it to some videos and it looked exactly the same. There were tiny specs of "dust" presumably nori or mysis, stuck to them. After a while they were gone. I took a crappy cell phone video but accidentally uploaded it in standard def.

 

Well, it RTNed on me. Almost overnight...

 

Bummer, sometimes it wasn't meant to be. There are some more hardy pieces than others. Ask anyone who's been in the hobby long enough and everyone has lost a few. I have somewhere near 20 and have lost at least 5-10, some thrive some don't immediately. It takes awhile for some to do well, so once you get a few that thrive, you get the hang of locations that work.

What are your lights?