Watchguy's SPS Addiction (photo intense)

[watchguy123]

absolutely beautiful corals.

I want all your SPS! My mouth's been watering scrolling through 4 pages of goodness :jaw:

Sweet Tank!

Thank's for all the nice words. I think I like taking pictures as much as I do reefing. I have been too busy with work to do much of anything else but tonite, I just had to take at least one shot. I tried my 90 mm macro but could not get a clear shot of one of my colonies through the bow front tank. That darn curved glass front makes photographing a challenge. So I picked up my trusty kit lens, 18-55 non macro and voila. I finally got a decent shot of my Ultimate Rainbow Acro.

the first shot is just the colony.

the second shot is a cropped shot. With 24 megapixels, you can do a lot of cropping. I am still learning and am envious of those who can take super sharp macro shots, but I am working on it. Although this shot is cropped and not zoomed in with a macro, I still like it.

And here is the original shot, which I believe is my favorite because I like the look of the adjoining colonies. Anyway, three views of one shot for tonite.

 

[watchguy123]

Could not help myself, had to take a few more pics

wild colony, incredible orange/red polyps with blue tips, never ever seen anything like it. I have had it for a few months I believe and it is really growing well.

Another wild colony, and I really try to never ever buy wild. It is actually a more deep red body but just could not get it right. I have it near the top and I think the lights are too intense for photographs without shading it and I do not have enough hands to do that. You can see the mystic sunset montipora on the bottom and it appears orange when it really it a very bright red/pink color so it should be very apparent that I just could not get the color temperature correct on this photo.

And Atl's Jaleen Red, i just got this a few weeks ago. Its down low in my tank because I have no spare space anywhere else in my tank. Hopefully it will be happy.

 

[watchguy123]

 

[darryl_v]

That first shot is hilarious...! Im envious of your chalice quality in an SPS reef. Any tips? Do you hand feed them?...keep them in the shade?

 

[watchguy123]

That first shot is hilarious...! Im envious of your chalice quality in an SPS reef. Any tips? Do you hand feed them?...keep them in the shade?

Anytime someone takes note of my photos I get thrilled. So thank you for noticing. When I got that chalice frag, I wanted it off its original plug and I wanted to place it on a putty form so it would not grow into my rock structure. In getting it off its plug, I fractured it by mistake and just glued the two remnants near each other. They are friends. Have to see how they continue to grow out.

I keep my chalices in the lower third of the tank, some a little shaded some not--I just pick spots that look good. I think I somehow manage to keep parameters just good enough for sps and just good enough for chalices. Which means I really am not great at keeping parameters in general, not too clean and not too dirty. I only feed fish, flakes and pellets daily. No supplements like coral food or amino acids or zeovit, just free floating fish poop.

 

[watchguy123]

Oops, a little bad karma. I had my tamron 90 mm macro fall off the entry way table onto the limestone floor. Do not ever try this at home. The top half has disengaged itself from the bottom half, not cracked, just disengaged. Before I label it as a very expensive paperweight, I will see if repair is possible even though unlikely. Expensive lesson to learn about handling camera lens. Definitely an unfun experience.

 

[watchguy123]

Wanted to get a picture of my space invader pectinia

Well, you might notice two things about it. One, it is unhappy and deflated. If you look at the lower left corner, you will just barely see my hand. Yup, I picked it up to get the photo and to dry my hand, I then lifted it out of the tank for a minute and that really made it deflate, sorry. Here is what my hand and the pectinia really look like.

And back in its home which is in one of the back corners of the tank so it is really hard to get a clean shot of it. Was hoping it would not look so deflated. I had to underexpose the photo because the green almost fluoresces . And yes I have asterina stars.

 

[darryl_v]

I've always had tons of asterna stars.....they have never been a problem for me. I think they go after decaying mater so people thing they eat thigns but if the asternas are on something its probably already dieing.

Love you space invaders. You dont see to many colonies like that around (or at least nice ppl who will share pictures). I started with a decent frag 4 months ago and mine is almost 2" now when inflated.....growing good but Its in my frag tank and I feed it mysis regularly. The other piece Im envious of you is the jack o lantern.......is that a "must have" favorite for you? How does it grow?

I have an ultimates rainbow acro too and mine is just getting out of the frag phase and into mini colony phase. Your colony is beautiful.

The only thing my tank might have on yours Mark is time....my SPS have been growing for 2-3+yrs and some even more.

Great stuff,hope your lense is ok!

 

[mikedelgado]

thanks for posting all the pics.I really enjoyed reading this thread .very inspiring

 

[watchguy123]

Thank you for all the nice compliments, Mike and Darryl

Came home from work, decided not to work on clearing my desk and gave myself a treat: more photos, what a day and what a nice way to end the day.

Red dragon, front view

Red dragon, top down

strawberry shortcake, top down

sapphire or metallic millie

and one more view

Rommels watermelon millie, that's pearlberry to the left and nick's bubble gum millie to the right of it.

Don't cha love it

gettin hungry, my pink lobo

pink smoothie, if you go back a couple of pages then you can see how fast this guy/girl has grown

boat load of color

jedi mind trick, what do you think of my placement. Actually it was against the back wall and I had to almost break stuff to free it. Coral are going nuts and growing like weeds.

Trying to confirm what this really is, for the time being cousin of pink lemonade is how I remember it.

 

[tinctorus]

Man I am still seriously IN LOVE with this tank!!!

 

[watchguy123]

Interesting progression:

September 11, 2012

October 22, 2012

December 4,2012

 

[watchguy123]

Appreciate all the input everyone. Here are some I snapped today.

 

[classklown90]

Appreciate all the input everyone. Here are some I snapped today.

Very nice! What's the chalice called on the right in the 3rd pic

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

 

[watchguy123]

I got it from a really nice southern california fish store and I believe they called it the "original tyree watermelon". The main body color is a very bright light pink and the photo has not quite captured that. I have had it for some months and almost lost it, it fell over and ended up on something else upside down. it is just beginning to fill in nicely. Thank you for noticing my corals.

 

[Tinola]

Are you a watch addict too? You should post your collections lol.

 

[Sahin]

Just beautiful. Love the colours you are getting.

 

[Aquaph8]

Beautiful pics, nice radiant too

 

[myzislow]

just awesome!! Your growth and coloration is phenomenal. It's evident that your corals are very happy; each and every update there is noticeable growth throughout the tank. Well done man!

 

[watchguy123]

Beautiful pics, nice radiant too

just awesome!! Your growth and coloration is phenomenal. It's evident that your corals are very happy; each and every update there is noticeable growth throughout the tank. Well done man!

Just beautiful. Love the colours you are getting.

I want to thank you for your kind thoughts It's fun reefing and its fun taking pics. But it is really great sharing and then actually having you guys notice. More pics planned over the next few days hopefully