Sweet Reef Corals Eye Candy Thread

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Thanks for sharing. You have some really awesome pieces!!

I appreciate you checking in!!

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Well I went ahead and made my first import purchase. I was quite stunned when I got it in. It was completely colorless, off white. Nothing like the stock Tenuis pic from the wholesaler. I’ve had it about 3 weeks now and it’s starting to get some nice blue to the tips and the coralites are getting yellow. Hope it turns out as nice as the stock photos or better

Here’s a daylight & all blue

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Here’s an update on the wild colony. It’s really starting to darken up. I’ve heard that it could take as long as a year to color these wholesale colonies up but we are progressing nicely on this one so far. Excited to watch it develop…

 

[coral reeftank]

Great progress on that one! New imports always take a long time to adjust, as long as you don't run into any major hiccups you can typically expect them to settle in around the 6 month mark.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Great progress on that one! New imports always take a long time to adjust, as long as you don't run into any major hiccups you can typically expect them to settle in around the 6 month mark.

Thank you! You have a bit of experience in that dept! Lol.

I’d like to do more but just don’t have the room until I get that backup system back on track

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Got some people playing around with logos for a website… which one do you like?

#1

#2

#3

 

[Perry]

#3 brother!!!

 

[shakacuz]

2!

 

[jp_75]

3rd looks neat!!

 

[lubeck]

3

 

[Curiousbranching]

Here’s an update on the wild colony. It’s really starting to darken up. I’ve heard that it could take as long as a year to color these wholesale colonies up but we are progressing nicely on this one so far. Excited to watch it develop…

Is it true that wild colonies will darken and regain color after a while? Is there any article about that?

 

[Rams]

3rd one ..Just got my second pack from Jesse as my first pack all grown to mini colonies lol.A+ corals Jesse has

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Is it true that wild colonies will darken and regain color after a while? Is there any article about that?

Yes they regain color. From my understanding, when a coral is stressed it can expel its symbiotic zooxanthellae and lose all color but still remain alive. Once the stressor is removed and the coral starts to recover, the zooxanthellae will start to also recover which brings back the color. Every specimen is different of course and each will take a different amount of time.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

3rd one ..Just got my second pack from Jesse as my first pack all grown to mini colonies lol.A+ corals Jesse has

Thank you my friend. I hope they thrive for you too!

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I wanted to bring a conversation over to this thread as to not interrupt @Perry or @coral reeftank on their threads and their posting of fire acros
I have a system I built to back up my precious SPS collection from my main system. This system consists of (2) 30 gallon breeder tanks stacked on a metal stand ala @FarmerTy with a 28g sump underneath.
I took this build very slow. I seeded the tank with some Aquabiomics rubble that I got from a vendor friend and let that system cycle. I then used it as a fish QT running hypo salinity for 60 days while all the new fish that were going to reside in the 2 tanks completed quarantine. I then started raising salinity until I got to 1.026. Everything was running very smoothly. I started adding some test SPS to the system within a few days and they not only survived, they were thriving in this system. I was over the moon at this point. At this time, several friends wanted to take a road trip to a known vendor south of us to pick up some wholesale priced acros. We got some great deals. His systems appeared healthy and all was good. Got the new goodies home and this is where it went downhill.
I never do this, and I don’t know why I did this time. Maybe it was his polyp extension on site, maybe because everything looked really healthy, etc. I don’t know but I didn’t dip the corals in my Bayer recipe for the full 10 minutes that I normally do. If I remember right, I went with a 5 minute dip, cut off the plugs and remounted, then moved them to the new system. HUGE MISTAKE that I will never make again!! A week later he reached out to tell all 3 of us that he has white bugs. I got my super strength coral inspection glasses out and checked and my stomach was in my throat. These little parasite SOBs were totally consuming the Heart of the Ocean I just scored. Long story short, this was in October/November 2022. I absolutely mega-bombed the system with Dr G’s and Interceptor. Waited a whole week before doing a water change and adding carbon. Well after that massive treatment, I have never been able to keep acros in it long term. I put some test pieces in and they do fine for a week and then the tips start bleaching or the base starts bleaching. No tissue sloughing though. It just looks like they are starved and burn. Almost like it’s too much light with ULN. But I have PAR’d the whole system and minus 1 rack that I purposely have really high, the average par in the system is about 290. I kinda had a feeling that even though I make sure to monitor nutrients closely so they never bottom out, there must be a bacterial imbalance that is starving the acros out. Like the micro biome got damaged from the mega-bomb treatment for the white bugs. I had never heard of such a thing until talking to CRT. In discussing these issues with Perry and Allen it was recommended to try Fauna Marin ReBiotic bacteria. I looked up reviews and product info to see what its about. I generally don’t like putting any products in my systems because it usually never ends up well for me. But in this case I am desperate. I’ve got a massive amount of rack space just sitting there empty while my main system is busting at the seams with Acropora. I know, terrible problem to have. But seriously, I really want to get this backup system back on track so I can back up my collection of MVP’s. I am now 3 doses in as of today. I may be jumping the gun but I have one Acro that is a total beast and has made it through this 9 months of hell and is still alive. It’s CB OMG Acro. This piece had a very bad burnt top and no PE. The base crust had a white line around the growth edge showing that it was trying to recede. Check out the OMG today.....

I may be a bit premature in my excitement but you can see that the tip is clearly healing, the crust around the base appears to be growing again and the PE is the best its been since 2022. I’m stoked and hoping optimistically that this system is turning a corner.

Like I previously mentioned, new frags usually only last a couple weeks or less and then start showing burnt tips or recession. Here are a couple more test pieces I added Saturday that appear to be doing well so far. Both maintaining decent color and PE so far. Sorry for the crappy phone pics.... just trying to document quickly lol

Perry, I have to thank you for the recommendation on the ReBiotic! I feel like it’s doing something positive!! I just hope it continues to progress.

Allen, I got the KZ FWS and Zeovit media in today! Thank you for the recommendation on these! It may still take me a little while to have the courage to use them in the main system, but I will get them going in the backup system tomorrow.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

I wanted to bring a conversation over to this thread as to not interrupt @Perry or @coral reeftank on their threads and their posting of fire acros
I have a system I built to back up my precious SPS collection from my main system. This system consists of (2) 30 gallon breeder tanks stacked on a metal stand ala @FarmerTy with a 28g sump underneath.
I took this build very slow. I seeded the tank with some Aquabiomics rubble that I got from a vendor friend and let that system cycle. I then used it as a fish QT running hypo salinity for 60 days while all the new fish that were going to reside in the 2 tanks completed quarantine. I then started raising salinity until I got to 1.026. Everything was running very smoothly. I started adding some test SPS to the system within a few days and they not only survived, they were thriving in this system. I was over the moon at this point. At this time, several friends wanted to take a road trip to a known vendor south of us to pick up some wholesale priced acros. We got some great deals. His systems appeared healthy and all was good. Got the new goodies home and this is where it went downhill.
I never do this, and I don’t know why I did this time. Maybe it was his polyp extension on site, maybe because everything looked really healthy, etc. I don’t know but I didn’t dip the corals in my Bayer recipe for the full 10 minutes that I normally do. If I remember right, I went with a 5 minute dip, cut off the plugs and remounted, then moved them to the new system. HUGE MISTAKE that I will never make again!! A week later he reached out to tell all 3 of us that he has white bugs. I got my super strength coral inspection glasses out and checked and my stomach was in my throat. These little parasite SOBs were totally consuming the Heart of the Ocean I just scored. Long story short, this was in October/November 2022. I absolutely mega-bombed the system with Dr G’s and Interceptor. Waited a whole week before doing a water change and adding carbon. Well after that massive treatment, I have never been able to keep acros in it long term. I put some test pieces in and they do fine for a week and then the tips start bleaching or the base starts bleaching. No tissue sloughing though. It just looks like they are starved and burn. Almost like it’s too much light with ULN. But I have PAR’d the whole system and minus 1 rack that I purposely have really high, the average par in the system is about 290. I kinda had a feeling that even though I make sure to monitor nutrients closely so they never bottom out, there must be a bacterial imbalance that is starving the acros out. Like the micro biome got damaged from the mega-bomb treatment for the white bugs. I had never heard of such a thing until talking to CRT. In discussing these issues with Perry and Allen it was recommended to try Fauna Marin ReBiotic bacteria. I looked up reviews and product info to see what its about. I generally don’t like putting any products in my systems because it usually never ends up well for me. But in this case I am desperate. I’ve got a massive amount of rack space just sitting there empty while my main system is busting at the seams with Acropora. I know, terrible problem to have. But seriously, I really want to get this backup system back on track so I can back up my collection of MVP’s. I am now 3 doses in as of today. I may be jumping the gun but I have one Acro that is a total beast and has made it through this 9 months of hell and is still alive. It’s CB OMG Acro. This piece had a very bad burnt top and no PE. The base crust had a white line around the growth edge showing that it was trying to recede. Check out the OMG today.....

I may be a bit premature in my excitement but you can see that the tip is clearly healing, the crust around the base appears to be growing again and the PE is the best its been since 2022. I’m stoked and hoping optimistically that this system is turning a corner.

Like I previously mentioned, new frags usually only last a couple weeks or less and then start showing burnt tips or recession. Here are a couple more test pieces I added Saturday that appear to be doing well so far. Both maintaining decent color and PE so far. Sorry for the crappy phone pics.... just trying to document quickly lol

Perry, I have to thank you for the recommendation on the ReBiotic! I feel like it’s doing something positive!! I just hope it continues to progress.

Allen, I got the KZ FWS and Zeovit media in today! Thank you for the recommendation on these! It may still take me a little while to have the courage to use them in the main system, but I will get them going in the backup system tomorrow.

Thanks for the story. I always learn so much more from peoples struggles than successes. Was a very interesting read!

 

[Perry]

Hi Jesse,
Thank you very much for the kind words. I truly believe that the key to longterm management of nutrients is a strong, diverse, micro-biome. Many tanks that struggle are likely fighting the same issue, ultimately starving sps. The polyps are wanting food, all day, all night. Here there is a disconnect, glad you were able to see the trees through the forest. It's not an arbitrary #, but the foods, that are rich in p04, that the coral needs, but at particulate size small enough to capture. Zooplankton is large food source for these corals, in the wild. Zooplankton feed on free-floating algae as their main food source. Algae usually feeds largely on phosphate. So, perhaps that's the wild version of p04 uptake?
In a closed environment, they feed on bacteria, detritus, fish poop, snail poop, micro-fauna brushed off glass, from sandbed when stirred, turkey basting rock, etc...which in turn is likely rich in p04. All these foods are available in our systems, but most of us ignore, use socks and fleece rollers to catch foods and bacteria, then it passes a skimmer, then uv, and returns as clean water, walla, low nutrients, crystal clear water
Then we buy coral foods, and are wowed when our corals show polyps. So, we buy food traps, remove, sterilize, then buy specific foods to feed our corals... hmmm....
Not on board, lol...
No sock, more rock, more biomedia, more Probiotic bacteria, more live rock rubble additions, and finally, living sand in prop system.
More food, to more fish, more often, more coral foods if needed, then more microorganisms to feed, including bacteria, especially if you add more bacteria homing surface area
See, since we chatted, I doubled down...lol
Fingers crossed, this stuff is doing wonders for me
I believe if my anecdotal observation with Rebiotic is correct, it will restore and refresh the biome. It is doing exactly what it states, I will probably convert a few other products down the road, as I am thoroughly impressed.
Please take with a grain of salt, this is merely observation, and anecdotal at best, sorry to be long-winded Jesse

Edit: If you see my last IG Reel, you can see particulate flying around, past the corals, lol, but then you see feeders, on smoothies, lol.

 

[Rams]

Nice article..I dose bacteria every week in my current system after reading @Perry s old tank journal where he use to dose AF probio S which converts nutrients into biomass as corals food.heavy in heavy out

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Hi Jesse,
Thank you very much for the kind words. I truly believe that the key to longterm management of nutrients is a strong, diverse, micro-biome. Many tanks that struggle are likely fighting the same issue, ultimately starving sps. The polyps are wanting food, all day, all night. Here there is a disconnect, glad you were able to see the trees through the forest. It's not an arbitrary #, but the foods, that are rich in p04, that the coral needs, but at particulate size small enough to capture. Zooplankton is large food source for these corals, in the wild. Zooplankton feed on free-floating algae as their main food source. Algae usually feeds largely on phosphate. So, perhaps that's the wild version of p04 uptake?
In a closed environment, they feed on bacteria, detritus, fish poop, snail poop, micro-fauna brushed off glass, from sandbed when stirred, turkey basting rock, etc...which in turn is likely rich in p04. All these foods are available in our systems, but most of us ignore, use socks and fleece rollers to catch foods and bacteria, then it passes a skimmer, then uv, and returns as clean water, walla, low nutrients, crystal clear water
Then we buy coral foods, and are wowed when our corals show polyps. So, we buy food traps, remove, sterilize, then buy specific foods to feed our corals... hmmm....
Not on board, lol...
No sock, more rock, more biomedia, more Probiotic bacteria, more live rock rubble additions, and finally, living sand in prop system.
More food, to more fish, more often, more coral foods if needed, then more microorganisms to feed, including bacteria, especially if you add more bacteria homing surface area
See, since we chatted, I doubled down...lol
Fingers crossed, this stuff is doing wonders for me
I believe if my anecdotal observation with Rebiotic is correct, it will restore and refresh the biome. It is doing exactly what it states, I will probably convert a few other products down the road, as I am thoroughly impressed.
Please take with a grain of salt, this is merely observation, and anecdotal at best, sorry to be long-winded Jesse

Edit: If you see my last IG Reel, you can see particulate flying around, past the corals, lol, but then you see feeders, on smoothies, lol.

I value your train of thought my friend. And I don’t discount anything you said. After experiencing these problems I feel that keeping a healthy micro-biome could be a little more challenging when you have to battle pests or nuisances. If this ReBiotic continues to improve the health of acros, it will prove the importance of (re)fortifying your biome. Not to mention the fragility of these closed ecosystems.

This system has no skimmer, UV is installed but has been off for months. I don’t run carbon (but I’m wondering if I should use a small bag for a week or two). I don’t run filter socks but I do have a 1” floss brick in the overflow section for large particulates. I also have live rock under the racks, a large ceramic media bag and live rock in the sump as well. I feel like I have a good amount of surface area for the bacteria to colonize, I would just never have thought that interceptor would damage those as it appears to have done here. Crazy! I just hope I continue to see long term improvements.

Interesting thought: Can you make a system dependent on ReBiotic? Or will the colonization of probiotic bacteria be at optimal levels after the 6 weeks dosing regimen?

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Nice article..I dose bacteria every week in my current system after reading @Perry s old tank journal where he use to dose AF probio S which converts nutrients into biomass as corals food.heavy in heavy out

Heavy in heavy out is an old school BRS recommendation I do try to follow. However, in this system I really have no export other than weekly 10% WC’s and siphoning turds off the bare bottom under the racks.