Watchguy's SPS Addiction (photo intense)

[watchguy123]

Well, I have been involved in reefing for a lot of years. Have experimented with all kinds of approaches and after my last crash, I have gone back to simple and careful. the tank has been very stable for well over a year. I started reaquiring frags about a year ago and I have seen some wonderful growth and color and so I wanted to share as well as track my own progress. Many of my frags originated with reefers on this forum, so thank you to all of those reefers. I got a new camera but not a macro lens so some of my photos will not be all that great. I also have a bow front tank so sometimes it is impossible to get a front view shot because of the distortion in the bow glass. But I think most photos are good enough to appreciate the color and growth of some of these coral. I have tried very very hard to keep colors accurate and unmanipulated as much as possible. My adjustments have been primarily exposure and white balance.

just a cool shot of a few corals

colors did not come out well, this is really bright green body with bluish purple tips, oh well.

I try never to pick up maricultured corals but here is an exception, I was helping out a friend who got stuck with too many from too good a deal.

A small frag of vivid's tricolor prostrata

Another no namer, from Vivid's as well.

Strawberry shortcake, it may be the uc version, I am not sure but will check

Tyree orange setosa, an oldie but goodie (maybe not that old). This colony has really neat growth pattern. I have multiple colonies throughout my tank and they grow and color differently depending on flow and light.

tyree lime in the sky

tyree fire and ice, a little bit weird angle so the coloring looks strange in the photo because of the shading

This is a second frag of tyree fire and ice from a different source and it is just beginning to grow.

 

[TChristman1]

Great looking corals. Very nice.

 

[Scoly]

Things are looking great! That no homer from vivid looks pretty sweet!

 

[watchguy123]

Well a few more for this evening,

I have a couple colonies of the tyree blue matrix, I like it a lot

Tat's psammacora, slow growing but ever so pretty with that great green and weird fuzziness.

Superman digitata, a local reefer shared this piece with me a while ago. I have it up high with lots of flow. I know it is an easy sps to grow but in bright light and good flow, it is really special.

Another colony of strawberry shortcake, it is pretty bright although this pic is only ok. And yes, that is purple monster to the right of it.

I have two colonies of Steve Elias Stag
#1

#2

This was represented as somewhere over the rainbow when I purchased it, but I have my doubts. Maybe it will show more color as it get bigger, just have to wait and see

I think this is a snowcone prostrata but will have to verify.

there is a very cool story to this frag. Started out white, I thought it was dead and it is turning out to be a stunner.

This came from a local reefer/vendor in Ventura

 

[watchguy123]

Alright one more post, before I end up staying up too late.

Great coral, lousy picture. Just somehow not able to represent colors well on this one. Rommel's watermelon millie.

This one came from Reef Raft USA, Tony thought it might end up with blue tips. Lesson learned, if it isn't exactly the right colors you want, wait, there will most definitely be another to choose. It is still pretty and might end up with blue tips, but I am not too positive yet.

I have never seen a better looking stag than this one. Bright pinkish/red, thick branches and long polyps. I have it up high with lots of flow and it is growing crazy.

I have the red planet and palmer's blue millie growing next to each other and although they do not play nice, the color contrast is incredible.

Got this from a local reefer who says he got it from coral in the reef, CITR Red Dragon. Started out as a tiny frag some months ago.

 

[watchguy123]

This is a really pretty rainbow acro. Looks better than some of the best rainbow acro's out there, and it grows like a weed once it gets established.

And this is zoomed in a little closer. Remember no macro lens so this is challenging.

 

[SteezySPS]

sweet. is that the rainbow delight? one of my favorites but loves to encrust everywhere

 

[SteezySPS]

another nice acro besides the matrix is the tyree blue monster from oculus. do you have that one as well?

 

[watchguy123]

another nice acro besides the matrix is the tyree blue monster from oculus. do you have that one as well?

its funny oculus is relatively near me, although I have never been there because it is a wholesaler. But to answer your question, I have not even seen the tyree blue monster.

 

[watchguy123]

Some more pics:

this is a purple polyped nasuta but I did not get the exposure right cause it looks washed out. I will work on getting some top down photos.

speaking of purple, this is the purple monster. I got my frag from Copps who is a very inspirational reefer. Anyway, I seem to have found a happy spot for it because I think it is growing really fast and yes I am aware it has a reputation as a slow grower. I have it high and again lots of flow. It is both encrusting and branching.

Pink lemonade, for me is growing slow. But I do have it placed relatively low and with much less flow because of its position (its kind of in a dip in the rock structure)

This is the pink smoothie digitata that I recieved from a fellow southern california reefer. It actually has taken a long time to get comfy probably because I would move it all the time to make room for something else. Finally gave it a really good spot and now you can almost watch it grow daily. And near it, below and to the right is my maybe SOTR

ORA pearlberry, who does not love this coral. It is just a very very pretty coral and grows well.

Here is a better pic of palmer's blue millie:

Paletta's pink tip, I got this from a fellow r2r reefer. It has encrusted and started to branch but kind of slow growing for me. It is getting shaded now by the red stag.

this also came from a fellow r2r reefer. Started out as a super thick frag and seemed to take forever to start to lengthen itself. But it has and the colors are awesome as well as the polyp extension.

This came from a local fellow reefer, the same one that I got the CITR red dragon from. He seems to be well connected because his tank has the latest, greatest coral. This was about a 1/4 inch frag, I kid you not. The smallest frag that I have ever purchased but it is really growing fast. Not super colorful yet but growing, it is the tyree Mr. Pacman.

 

[lars]

Very nice corals. Thanks for sharing.

 

[revsgirl]

Your coral looks great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[watchguy123]

To continue:

This is the laker's coral, atleast that is what aquarium city calls it. It's supposed to be purple and gold. They have had this for atleast a several of years and it has dwindled down to a small colony (more like a frag size) because of accidents and not sales. I had this coral about two years ago and it was stunning and then I had a lousy tank crash (long story that I can share at some time). I asked and asked for another frag and got this about a month ago. It is just starting to encrust and hopefully will grow into a stunning colony.

Stuck kind of to the right and behind almost everything is the start of my halloween millie. This came from a southern cal reefer in Ventura. His colony is unbelievably beautiful and so I remain optimistic.

Another no namer from vivid, the colony it came from is super bright green with blue tips and unusual coral structure. I am looking forward to seeing it grow into a colony.

This is another super bright green acro, kind of stuck in the far side of my tank. But it is almost as if it is lit by a spot light, its pretty cool.

Garf bonzai, hard to photograph because the polyps are so bright it looks strange sometimes in my photos. I have seen lots of valida's described as tyree garf bonsai but its gotta grow like a bonsai to be a bonzai. Either way, it is a beauty. I did not place this well because it is starting to run into the wall and on the other side of it is my superman digitata and they do not play nice together (they sting each other upon near contact--a little chemotactic warfare).

Off to work now, I will post some more photos hopefully later today.

 

[FMF0331]

Full tank shot please .. Everything looks great

 

[nova65ss]

Incredible great pics!

 

[blaten]

Awesome corals!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Pkunk35]

Your acropora are stunning! Would you mind stating the type of lighting and size of the water volume they are kept in?

 

[watchguy123]

Your acropora are stunning! Would you mind stating the type of lighting and size of the water volume they are kept in?

. I have a 180 bowfront with a 20 gallon refugium or so and a 30 gallon sump. I have three 250 watt 20 k metal halides and two t5 actinics supplements. Flow is awesome, I just replumbed with a reeflo dart hybrid to replace three other pumps I was using. In addition I have two tunze powerheads, I think 6105's . I have a calcium.reactor and a bubble king skimmer. A dozen plus fish, I will start taking some pics of them as well. Oh and I have a chiller, those halides run hot. I periodically add mag, aim for 10 gallon water changes weekly and that is it. Oh and thank you for the compliment.

 

[watchguy123]

I should have added I test regularly and sometimes irregularly. I look at alk, ca , magnesium and salinity

 

[DecanoLA]

this is my first post on R2R... and have to say congrats!!! everything looks spectacular!!! I also want a full tank shot!!!