Time for the losing my mind rant LOL

[Reef2Land]

MANY GOOD deals to be found in the classifieds

IT'S ABOUT THAT HUSTLE!!! MAKE MONEY!!! lol

 

[DocTock993]

For reference - this is what Fijian coral looks like (in nature) at ~3-6ft during mid-day light.
Image shot with Nikon D800, natural lighting - NO major photo-processing or manipulation used.

Note: In NATURE (aka = the real ocean) the water does not look "Windex bottle" blue. No weird nor wild colorations are evident - UNLESS very special fluorescent filters/ strobe light is used to capture the image. [Please refer to this article which describes some of the science behind and the techniques + equipment used to capture flourescence in underwater phootgraphy - http://www.divephotoguide.com/under.../science-technology-fluorescence-photography/]

 

[Reef2Land]

For reference - this is what Fijian coral looks like (in nature) at ~3-6ft during mid-day light.
Image shot with Nikon D800, natural lighting - NO major photo-processing or manipulation used.

Note: In NATURE (aka = the real ocean) the water does not look "Windex bottle" blue. No weird nor wild colorations are evident - UNLESS very special fluorescent filters/ strobe light is used to capture the image. [Please refer to this article which describes some of the science behind and the techniques + equipment used to capture flourescence in underwater phootgraphy - http://www.divephotoguide.com/under.../science-technology-fluorescence-photography/]

That's what I'm talking about lol Looks like a flash went off. Anyone who's seen this a billion times knows you're not going to see a Rainbow Sherbet Double Green Star Burner right in the middle of all of that. I'd rather have THAT in my living room because I know what an actual reef looks like. It's strange to me that reefs became a kids toy at some point and they started getting built more colorful. These days I can't tell whether something is a plastic toy that was purchased at a superstore or an actual coral "WAIT THAT'S REAL!?!?! No that's gotta be plastic."

Turn your lights back up. Leave those poor corals alone.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I love that there are 1,001 ways to do this hobby. If you like brown or green corals, you can fill your reef with those. If you like the more colorful varieties, you can fill your reef with those. If you wanna spend $5 on a frag, those are available. If you wanna spend $5k, those are available too. If you wanna run your reef under 6500k lighting so that everything looks like it's under a yellow lamp, you can. If you want to run your reef under primarily blue spectrum so that corals fluoresce 24/7, you can do that too. To each his own.

 

[DarkSky]

Re: "corals need more than just actinic lighting."

I run actinic LEDs and actinic t5s exclusively. I get great growth and coloration.

This is a strawberry shortcake. Not an expensive designer sps.

 

[SeaDweller]

That's what I'm talking about lol Looks like a flash went off. Anyone who's seen this a billion times knows you're not going to see a Rainbow Sherbet Double Green Star Burner right in the middle of all of that. I'd rather have THAT in my living room because I know what an actual reef looks like. It's strange to me that reefs became a kids toy at some point and they started getting built more colorful. These days I can't tell whether something is a plastic toy that was purchased at a superstore or an actual coral "WAIT THAT'S REAL!?!?! No that's gotta be plastic."

Turn your lights back up. Leave those poor corals alone.

But the thing is, the newer lights and spectrums are making those colors come out of those specimens. So that Fijian microcosm May look so different in your living room if you were to run T5 or LEDs. I’m with you on the prices, but if someone can encourage the colors to come out of certain pieces, then I think that’s great.

I know you’ve referenced “dye being injected” into corals, but I don’t think that’s ever been done right? That’s why when we could buy the wild or Mari stuff from Indonesia, we would let them “cook” in our frag tanks/tanks to see what colors we could pull out of them.

To me, and I could be wrong, but there must be something in the genetic makeup of the coral or the dinoflagellates in them that allow those colors to express, and all it took was artificial light.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Personally I think the idea that we are manipulating coral colors by putting them under certain lighting is or cooking them is a not really changing anything. There are nice corals out there but I have not seen any examples of a coral that has changed colors too dramatically because of a certain light. I do see green pigments that when pictured under filters, might look a different color depending on what filter you use, and I think that’s why people say it was their less that made a certain color. They don’t want to say it’s just a filter on their camera. I mean t5 lights are not a new thing and people have been taking figi and indo corals and growing them under t5 for a while now. I think this whole idea that certain led lights and spectrums are creating some new colors is not correct. The only manipulated colors I have seen have been through using filters or photoshop. If we could manipulate colors that well with just lights, we would have seen a thread showing before and after pictures about how someone changed the color of some corals with just light. I have seen some trying, but they are all using less and a filter over their lens. If a coral has changed colors truly then you should be able to take a picture of the coral in a daylight spectrum and still see those colors.
I have seen a lot of pieces (mainly softies and lps though) come in dyed. I don’t think that’s what’s being done with acropora but I wouldnt put it past some people to try. I remember for a while a certain wholesaler was sending out dyed red toadstools and dyed neon green candy canes that would leave your hands neon green if touched.

 

[SeaDweller]

Personally I think the idea that we are manipulating coral colors by putting them under certain lighting is or cooking them is a not really changing anything. There are nice corals out there but I have not seen any examples of a coral that has changed colors too dramatically because of a certain light. I do see green pigments that when pictured under filters, might look a different color depending on what filter you use, and I think that’s why people say it was their less that made a certain color. They don’t want to say it’s just a filter on their camera. I mean t5 lights are not a new thing and people have been taking figi and indo corals and growing them under t5 for a while now. I think this whole idea that certain led lights and spectrums are creating some new colors is not correct. The only manipulated colors I have seen have been through using filters or photoshop. If we could manipulate colors that well with just lights, we would have seen a thread showing before and after pictures about how someone changed the color of some corals with just light. I have seen some trying, but they are all using less and a filter over their lens. If a coral has changed colors truly then you should be able to take a picture of the coral in a daylight spectrum and still see those colors.
I have seen a lot of pieces (mainly softies and lps though) come in dyed. I don’t think that’s what’s being done with acropora but I wouldnt put it past some people to try. I remember for a while a certain wholesaler was sending out dyed red toadstools and dyed neon green candy canes that would leave your hands neon green if touched.

That’s nuts, the wholesaler.

I don’t feel the LEDs or t5s or MH are “changing” colors per se or making/creating new colors, but perhaps they allow those colors to express vs in natural daylight. Like certain spectrums are allowing those colors to come out. Just a thought.

 

[Reef2Land]

That’s nuts, the wholesaler.

I don’t feel the LEDs or t5s or MH are “changing” colors per se or making/creating new colors, but perhaps they allow those colors to express vs in natural daylight. Like certain spectrums are allowing those colors to come out. Just a thought.

I'm starting to agree lol I've been messing with it the last couple days. So now I feel like this. I took this about 10 minutes ago. He was just STARING at me...creeper....

 

[SeaDweller]

I'm starting to agree lol I've been messing with it the last couple days. So now I feel like this. I took this about 10 minutes ago. He was just STARING at me...creeper....

So, rant over? Lol

You still selling your Showercurtain Bubble Blaster Rainbow Sprinkler Head Trauma Hypertension Millepora?

 

[Reef2Land]

So, rant over? Lol

You still selling your Showercurtain Bubble Blaster Rainbow Sprinkler Head Trauma Hypertension Millepora?

No I mean I'm still ticked. Thing is my lights, my tank, my water chemistry, means that I know what the corals are going to do and how they're being taken care of. I still take issue with the sellers going beyond actinic and coloring up the corals just to charge more knowing those corals are going to 97% change in another person's tank. I'd NEVER do that to a customer personally. It be like patching a massive oil leak just until the sale of the care is done. Wanna mess with the people doing it? Ask to see the coral under just 10k. I don't even get a response half the time if I do that. But for my PERSONAL tank I switched my colors to between 20k and 15k for around 11 hours a day with 4 of those hours being 20k at 25% intensity.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Funny thing about this thread is that there are several complaints about prices for named corals. I guess my honest question is - why do you want them?

I don't get it (seriously). I've posted a couple of times about the names being silly (and in my opinion, they are - wouldn't have such a thing in my reef tanks). But never mind the goofy names. Why in the heck do people want a "homewrecker"? It's just not all that, and neither is most of the other ones that I see sold as 1/2" frags.

As an example, I've come to find out that I have a "crocodile island" scolymia. In this particular case, I'm OK with the name since it's derived from geographical origin, and does actually describe something that very well might be a new species, and doesn't have a proper name at present. It's a cool coral, but it's also not "all that". And apparently, a couple of sites on the 'net advertise these things as "master" crocodile island scolys - for $1500. That's a bit jaw-dropping, even though I could do it if I really wanted to. But I don't - I just wanted a scoly for the new reef tank.

So I guess the bottom line to this rather disjointed post is: never mind the comic-book names, never mind the price, why in the heck do people want these things? And for those that are cost-sensitive, especially when you can buy a whole colony of a beautiful australian acropora for the cost of a 1/2" frag?

 

[Reef2Land]

DON'T SAY THEIR NAMES OR BABAYEGA WILL COME OUT!!! lol

Yeah I don't get it. I think most people settle for the something similar effect. People look at a picture and think they'll be happy if they can even get it to look like something similar in their tank. I don't understand. Buy a Tenuis and color it yourself. I'm pretty sure there are articles everywhere on how these people are doing it. The coral just needs to have a good base to color it up. If you can tell what you're looking at from a picture of what it will do under 20ks then you're probably good. We all saw the color wheel in 3rd grade lol Blue and yellow make green. If you can look at the darker colors of the corals and figure out what adding UV and Blue to that color would turn it into, then you can do whatever these people are doing as far as I can tell.

Chromoproteins