BoomCorals
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Thanks jda
SPS Keeper's Guide to Spotting BS/Greasy/Edited Photos
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rkpetersen
walked the sand with the crustaceans
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Pacific Northwest Reefers
On the other hand, if you have a particular acro that's growing and always polyped out like crazy day and night, and then you find that it's polyps are suddenly all closed up and stay that way for hours or longer, you can take that as a sign that something is very wrong, and be correct most of the time.
I find this hobby joyous. Not only do I like taking and sharing photos, I love looking at others photos. The amazing part of this forum is the incredible amount of information shared. You can sit in your home and see corals in all parts of the country, heck world. That is just incredible. Like many others, I have seen photos that I question their accuracy but that doesn't effect my enjoyment of all the photos I look at. So many interesting points have been made but many of them I find in error, dogmatic, boisterous even inflammatory.
To begin with, we all have to admit that lighting is different for each of our tanks. From metal halides, to t5s to leds. And among each of those bulbs, there are countless spectrums to choose from. With metal halides there are 10k, 14k and 20k and probably more that I don't even know about. T5's have a long list of bulb choices that is pretty long and each manufacturer has their own variations. And then LEDS seems to include every spectrum that you could possibly enjoy. And to make it even more confusing, a 20k metal halide tank looks a lot different than a 20k LED lit tank. Heck, forget spectrum even intensity varies the look. And as much as any of you may wish to defend your lighting as the only accurate representation of lighting or spectrum, you are being, well overly dogmatic and a bit silly. There is not one type of lighting that is the most accurate color spectrum, it just boils down to what you have hanging over your tank and what you like.
On top of all that, metal halides are likely the minority of light fixtures. I don't know that as a fact, but at my last recent visit to reefapalooza in Southern California this month, I don't think there was a metal halide bulb over any tank whether it be from a coral vendor or a tank vendor, probably not anywhere in the building. I run metal halides, t5s, reefbrites and a 10 gallon frag tank with recently acquired radions. And there are significant differences in the lighting. Of course there is. I am delighted by my metal halide lighting but I also love what the Reefbrite XHO's add. And for a long time, I questioned the validity of LED lit photographs. But if the majority of tanks are lit by leds and that is how the majority of reefers see corals. Its not fake, or disingenuous.
I am not dismissive that lots of photographs are over tweaked or photoshopped. Both the observer and the buyer should be wary. But to address some of the issues brought up: faking polyp extension, and "healthy" parameters of sps. Well photoshop doesn't make polyps longer, at least I can't imagine how that would be done. And I found fascinating the descriptions of inducing polyp extension for photos. I guess its done, I don't really know. I do know that at night, my sps have much longer PE. But I have really long polyp extension during day lite hours. Unless, you have fish that nip sps polyps like angelfish or others, why wouldn't you have polyp extension all day long. I have about 20 fish in my 180 gallon tank, mostly tangs and wrasse but also a couple clowns and a mandarin goby. And if you prefer fewer fish is that somehow bad. In terms of describing "healthy" attributes to sps, well there is no ekg, blood test or anything like that. As far as I know, the only objective marker for healthy coral is perhaps growth. I like to think colorful coral are healthy but I am sure there are lots of brown healthy coral as well, I just don't collect those knowingly. I also think polyp extension is great but whether it truly indicates health, I don't know but I still like it and am delighted when I see it all day long. And we all know that sps require flow, it has a lot to do with the "boundary layer". And I obviously understand that it is a necessity but its also cool to see polyps moving in the flow. I readily admit that I often reduce my flow for pictures but that is not to get the polyps further extended, it is to get a better focused picture.
In terms of corals not turning out to look like the pictured frag. Well, that is an interesting discussion as well. So of course there is fakery and deception. I don't know how much but usually that is self limiting. How much can you really lie before you trip up on your foolishness. But, first of all, the best rule to start with, is only buy frags from what you see with your own eyes. Hard to be fooled. Unless, of course you buy a frag without seeing the mother colony. Frag tips can look spectacular even from an ugly mother. A well established mother colony in a tank for a long time is the best indicator that either a blah or pretty frag will very likely grow into a copy of the mother colony. Generally speaking, lots of multi-colored frags blah out after fragging before they color up, but if the mother is beautiful ultimately so will your frag similarly develop.
If you really want the rare or crazy colored frags, you have three choices that I can think of. Have a friend who collects those and get yours from that friend. Buy online or travel. I am crazy about sps. I live in Southern California so I can visit Reef Raft USA, Two guys Coral, Aqua SD and an endless list of local fish stores. Plus there are lots of crazy reefers in this community so you can actually track down a beauty or two. But I have also trekked to the so called holy sites, I have visited WWC in Orlando and Reef Raft Canada in Toronto as well as reefers in those communities. There are other online vendors I hope to visit someday as well. It is eye opening and an education. I also buy online, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. And I have vendors I don't go back to as well as those that I do. And after many years of being in this hobby, I find some corals just don't like my tank for reasons I can't explain. I accept my failures as well.
Back to tank lighting. If you have metal halides, there are so many beauties that work out well: Oregon Tort, Purple Monster, Red Planet, Aqua SD rainbow millie, practically all the sunset millies, Palmers Blue, every Paletta acro. But if you want a Walt Disney, Matt V Envy, or Homewrecker or Orange Planet or many others, they simply won't be as colorful under Halides as they will be under LEDS. It is not the fault of the acro or its photograph, its the fault in the choice in lighting.
I just wrote an article on achieving colorful sps in Reef Hobbyist magazine, seven of the nine sps pictures that I took and shared are metal halides and I believe two are blue leds. They are all pretty in my mind. Most importantly, they are my best attempt at accurate representations for each of those coral under that particular lighting. So back to fakery or disingenuous photos. There are indeed "shopped" photos on the internet. We all have our criteria for evaluating photos. I don't call people or vendors out. There is too much I don't know and I prefer not to embarrass myself that way. I have taken many thousands of pictures of my corals. Somedays they just turn out crummy, same lighting, same equipment, just lousy pictures. Other times, I get fortunate and capture something beautiful. I usually describe the lighting the photo is shot under but not always. But I am happy to always clarify. My purpose in this post was to provide some additional input and I was surprised by the tone of some of the comments. I try to be tempered with me responses, perhaps it is my age. And of course, understanding temperament or attitude can be difficult online and so I apologize if any of my comments came across as mean spirited, that certainly was not my intent.
To begin with, we all have to admit that lighting is different for each of our tanks. From metal halides, to t5s to leds. And among each of those bulbs, there are countless spectrums to choose from. With metal halides there are 10k, 14k and 20k and probably more that I don't even know about. T5's have a long list of bulb choices that is pretty long and each manufacturer has their own variations. And then LEDS seems to include every spectrum that you could possibly enjoy. And to make it even more confusing, a 20k metal halide tank looks a lot different than a 20k LED lit tank. Heck, forget spectrum even intensity varies the look. And as much as any of you may wish to defend your lighting as the only accurate representation of lighting or spectrum, you are being, well overly dogmatic and a bit silly. There is not one type of lighting that is the most accurate color spectrum, it just boils down to what you have hanging over your tank and what you like.
On top of all that, metal halides are likely the minority of light fixtures. I don't know that as a fact, but at my last recent visit to reefapalooza in Southern California this month, I don't think there was a metal halide bulb over any tank whether it be from a coral vendor or a tank vendor, probably not anywhere in the building. I run metal halides, t5s, reefbrites and a 10 gallon frag tank with recently acquired radions. And there are significant differences in the lighting. Of course there is. I am delighted by my metal halide lighting but I also love what the Reefbrite XHO's add. And for a long time, I questioned the validity of LED lit photographs. But if the majority of tanks are lit by leds and that is how the majority of reefers see corals. Its not fake, or disingenuous.
I am not dismissive that lots of photographs are over tweaked or photoshopped. Both the observer and the buyer should be wary. But to address some of the issues brought up: faking polyp extension, and "healthy" parameters of sps. Well photoshop doesn't make polyps longer, at least I can't imagine how that would be done. And I found fascinating the descriptions of inducing polyp extension for photos. I guess its done, I don't really know. I do know that at night, my sps have much longer PE. But I have really long polyp extension during day lite hours. Unless, you have fish that nip sps polyps like angelfish or others, why wouldn't you have polyp extension all day long. I have about 20 fish in my 180 gallon tank, mostly tangs and wrasse but also a couple clowns and a mandarin goby. And if you prefer fewer fish is that somehow bad. In terms of describing "healthy" attributes to sps, well there is no ekg, blood test or anything like that. As far as I know, the only objective marker for healthy coral is perhaps growth. I like to think colorful coral are healthy but I am sure there are lots of brown healthy coral as well, I just don't collect those knowingly. I also think polyp extension is great but whether it truly indicates health, I don't know but I still like it and am delighted when I see it all day long. And we all know that sps require flow, it has a lot to do with the "boundary layer". And I obviously understand that it is a necessity but its also cool to see polyps moving in the flow. I readily admit that I often reduce my flow for pictures but that is not to get the polyps further extended, it is to get a better focused picture.
In terms of corals not turning out to look like the pictured frag. Well, that is an interesting discussion as well. So of course there is fakery and deception. I don't know how much but usually that is self limiting. How much can you really lie before you trip up on your foolishness. But, first of all, the best rule to start with, is only buy frags from what you see with your own eyes. Hard to be fooled. Unless, of course you buy a frag without seeing the mother colony. Frag tips can look spectacular even from an ugly mother. A well established mother colony in a tank for a long time is the best indicator that either a blah or pretty frag will very likely grow into a copy of the mother colony. Generally speaking, lots of multi-colored frags blah out after fragging before they color up, but if the mother is beautiful ultimately so will your frag similarly develop.
If you really want the rare or crazy colored frags, you have three choices that I can think of. Have a friend who collects those and get yours from that friend. Buy online or travel. I am crazy about sps. I live in Southern California so I can visit Reef Raft USA, Two guys Coral, Aqua SD and an endless list of local fish stores. Plus there are lots of crazy reefers in this community so you can actually track down a beauty or two. But I have also trekked to the so called holy sites, I have visited WWC in Orlando and Reef Raft Canada in Toronto as well as reefers in those communities. There are other online vendors I hope to visit someday as well. It is eye opening and an education. I also buy online, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. And I have vendors I don't go back to as well as those that I do. And after many years of being in this hobby, I find some corals just don't like my tank for reasons I can't explain. I accept my failures as well.
Back to tank lighting. If you have metal halides, there are so many beauties that work out well: Oregon Tort, Purple Monster, Red Planet, Aqua SD rainbow millie, practically all the sunset millies, Palmers Blue, every Paletta acro. But if you want a Walt Disney, Matt V Envy, or Homewrecker or Orange Planet or many others, they simply won't be as colorful under Halides as they will be under LEDS. It is not the fault of the acro or its photograph, its the fault in the choice in lighting.
I just wrote an article on achieving colorful sps in Reef Hobbyist magazine, seven of the nine sps pictures that I took and shared are metal halides and I believe two are blue leds. They are all pretty in my mind. Most importantly, they are my best attempt at accurate representations for each of those coral under that particular lighting. So back to fakery or disingenuous photos. There are indeed "shopped" photos on the internet. We all have our criteria for evaluating photos. I don't call people or vendors out. There is too much I don't know and I prefer not to embarrass myself that way. I have taken many thousands of pictures of my corals. Somedays they just turn out crummy, same lighting, same equipment, just lousy pictures. Other times, I get fortunate and capture something beautiful. I usually describe the lighting the photo is shot under but not always. But I am happy to always clarify. My purpose in this post was to provide some additional input and I was surprised by the tone of some of the comments. I try to be tempered with me responses, perhaps it is my age. And of course, understanding temperament or attitude can be difficult online and so I apologize if any of my comments came across as mean spirited, that certainly was not my intent.
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