Watchguy's SPS Addiction (photo intense)

chicago

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 28, 2014
Messages
1,597
Reaction score
544
Location
chicago
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
NICE COME BACK... I am going through the same ... I now QT all my fish and FRAGS... takes a long time.. my issue is the QT of frags for 30 days.. they tend to pale in the QT...
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yikes.... That incrusting blue polyp whatever it is a beast (photo 3 and 5). I started out with a small piece about 5 years ago and it has taken over. No corals can stand up to it. I strongly recommend isolating it or getting rid of it. In the long run you will regret it's current location. If you have an anemone rock, it would work there.
Yes indeed that is an encrusting montipora and I don't have any that are allowed to encrust on the rock work. They are either on an island or disk. I think montipora are beautiful but just overly aggressive with their desire for more and more real estate ultimately.
man those are great ive been making a wish list from your thread. pictures are top notch quality.
Thank you, appreciate the comments
NICE COME BACK... I am going through the same ... I now QT all my fish and FRAGS... takes a long time.. my issue is the QT of frags for 30 days.. they tend to pale in the QT...
Anything and everything with a reef tank takes time unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately. Reefing is a long game. Sometimes overly long.

A couple more pictures:

Small SPS but growing, I guess I should start sharing names as well soon.

coral-94.jpg



Reef Raft USA Rainbow Blossom, I had a very small nub, actually two survive and they look like they eventually will merge into a colony once again sometime soon.

coral-93.jpg
 

justy

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 7, 2015
Messages
102
Reaction score
52
Location
England cheshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Beautiful corals could you give a quick recap on husbandry, feeding, parameters etc.
I always look forward to reading your thread well done for the comeback takes some drive and determination.
Thanks justin
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Wow that is super hairy!
It is the hairiest acro in my tank. Its crazy.
with your restart, are you doing anything new? Parameters, lighting, flow, filtration,.....?
Beautiful corals could you give a quick recap on husbandry, feeding, parameters etc.
I always look forward to reading your thread well done for the comeback takes some drive and determination.
Thanks justin
Hey Jose, and Justin. I wish I had something special in my approach but I don't really. I am not sure I would describe this as a tank restart, just a lot of death due to an extended power outage last November. The tank didnt seem to show any evidence of a recycle. It seems as a result of the power outage that a lack of circulation as well as a lack of oxygen led to fish and coral death. Once I got back into our house after the fires in my area, the tank parameters were just fine. So this last year has really just been a restocking experience. Expensive as all get out. But of cours there were a bunch of really nice reefing friends that were very gracious to me as well and shared corals as gifts or at a dramatically reduced price. It was pretty amazing to be witness to so much kindness.

I run a protein skimmer, calcium reactor and run dKh around 8 currently. I have a refugium with a kessil 350(?) that grows chaeto like crazy. I use a filter sock that I change out weekly. I also have a handful of siporax bags in my sump. I do 20-25% water changes every two weeks (40 gallons of new salt water). I use 3 x 250 watt radium metal halides, 4 T5 80 watts blue plus ATI bulbs, and reefbrite xhos. My nitrates are between 2-10 ppm and phosphates usually at or less than .1 ppm I have a lot of fish and I feed them well although nobody seems to really have a measure of what a little or a lot of food really is. I have a lot of live rock and a 3-4 inch sand bed that I don't stir. The tank is old and seems to be able to keep things reasonably stable.

Pictures for today

Cornbred's Maleficent no branches just encrusting on and on.

coral-98.jpg


A pretty tenuis below

coral-97.jpg
 

Graffiti Spot

Cat and coral maker
View Badges
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
4,320
Reaction score
3,676
Location
Florida’s west side
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oh my that red and green one with the blue tips coming out on the last page is just nasty! And that firecracker has got to be one of my favorite deepwaters, yours is beautiful as can be and I really wish I didn’t loose the frag I got from tony a few years ago :(. I wish I could find a cheap one or trade for it but I haven’t been on my local forum for a while now.
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oh my that red and green one with the blue tips coming out on the last page is just nasty! And that firecracker has got to be one of my favorite deepwaters, yours is beautiful as can be and I really wish I didn’t loose the frag I got from tony a few years ago :(. I wish I could find a cheap one or trade for it but I haven’t been on my local forum for a while now.
Agreed. Isn't crazy how some of the most famous vendors have disappeared. I remember well, Steve Tyree limited editions, RR USA, RR Asia.

A few more for today

I wanted to add some names to the pictures but when I am at the computer screen looking at a frag photo that is cropped, it is hard to place where in the tank its positioned and id it.

So just another little frag with promise
coral-99.jpg



The frag below is truly crazy and came from a good reefing friend. Those are a lot of colors there, pinkish/red, purple, blue and green.
coral-100.jpg
 

SeaDweller

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
3,369
Reaction score
4,776
Location
.
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The frag below is truly crazy and came from a good reefing friend. Those are a lot of colors there, pinkish/red, purple, blue and green.
coral-100.jpg
Oh my.

So... can I get on the waitlist for a frag of this?
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Oh my.

So... can I get on the waitlist for a frag of this?
It is pretty.


The SPS below also has bluish body but the polyps give the frag a purplish hue. Cool yellow splotches on the edge of the corallites. It is sitting near the back of the tank behind a large JF Flame colony ( you can see a bit of the JF Flame in the right lower corner), so I have to get on a ladder to get the top down view behind the large jf Flame colony
coral-101.jpg


Green is not so impressive on the frag below but it comes from a stunning mother colony so the colors are just waiting to come in as it gets bigger. It is interesting how many frags start out so blah but as they develop into mini colonies, the colors start slowly coming out. Unfortunately this one is pretty much just green for now.

coral-102.jpg


I have a lot of LPS scattered about on disks on the rock work--they add tremendous color. Fun for a splash of color. Although I don't really like disks on rock work, I don't want lps stinging my sps so this way I can move the LPS if problematic.

coral-103.jpg
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
looks like your tank never skipped a beat, tbh
Cleaning out the dead colonies was pretty hard and because I wasn't sure if I would continue with the tank, I didn't add anything for months. But now that I have restocked, it feels pretty good.

It still remains one of my favorites, JF Flame. I have heard of all sorts of people placing it lower in the tank. Mine is as high up as it could possibly be with a lot of flow hitting it. Grows like a weed and it really looks like that under blues.

coral-104.jpg




I placed it an unusal angle and its growing somewhat strangely but the colors are wonderful.
coral-106.jpg
 

Wunderpus

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 27, 2019
Messages
266
Reaction score
231
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
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
cool-acros.jpg


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


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.
wild-acro-2.jpg


A small frag of vivid's tricolor prostrata
vivids-tricolor-prostrata.jpg


Another no namer, from Vivid's as well.
vivid-unknown.jpg


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


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-orange-setosa.jpg


tyree lime in the sky
tyree-lime-in-the-sky.jpg


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


This is a second frag of tyree fire and ice from a different source and it is just beginning to grow.
tyree-fire-and-ice-frag-2.jpg
A coral and watch collector? My kinda guy! Nice stuff, looks great!
 

justingraham

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
5,348
Reaction score
6,709
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Amazing as always
I will be getting ur blue Floyd soon and can’t wait been on my want list

What kind of halides do you run?i run the same exact light set up
 

Coral Euphoria

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 5, 2019
Messages
134
Reaction score
625
Location
Chula Vista, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks, Bill.

This last batch of pictures are all under reefbrite blue leds. I use a Sony A7riii mirrorless camera with a Sony 90 mm macro lens and a 85B orange lens filter. Although I sometimes use the camera's AWB, for this batch I set it at a 9900K. My camera settings are typically shutter speed 1/60, F 8 and ISO 400 -800 depending on shading. I use lightroom for post, and I generally adjust the temp to 20,000 plus K, I also will slide the tint slightly to the right, positive, increase exposure, I reduce the highlights and shadows, and I reduce vibrance into the negative--around -13, I leave saturation at zero. The post adjustments in lightroom are my best effort to get correct color. I am aiming for mirroring what I see in the tank under blue leds. The rock work always seems to come out funky though. I have acquaintances that use Canon and it is different from either Sony or Nikon in that Canon seems to be much more capable of handling the blue led lighting with its AWB. I have considered switching to Canon for that reason. Bottomline, blue leds are really challenging to get accurate color rendition which is exactly what I aim for. I hand hold the camera and shoot through a top down viewer. I use to use an Avast marine but somehow got a drop of super glue on it--hobbyist hazard and so now I have been using the Building an Obsession top down viewer that attaches to the camera to shoot with.

When I take photos under t5s and/or metal halides I don't use the orange lens filter. I still use lightroom for post but usually only to adjust temperature to 20k with some very minor tweaks.

Cameras and reef lighting are tough. I hope my information on what I do is helpful. I really wish my pictures were better. Hopefully along with whatever criticism I get on my technique, maybe someone will also share some helpful tips to improve.

The Samsung phone (I have an apple iPhone), seems to take really good pictures and deals well with reef lighting. I have friends that use it and I like their pictures.

I enjoyed reading about your photography techniques! Thanks for sharing. Reef photography is so challenging, especially under blue LEDs. Often I can get the coral to show up correctly as it looks in daylight, but because the piece is partly lit by blue LEDs, the background looks like it was taken under blues. This is with my camera WB all the way to 10000K and with lightroom maxed out. I almost want to blame my camera but since I'm an amateur photographer, there is probably something I'm missing. Also like you said, when I photo under T5s and/or halides, no problems at all. I use a Nikon D90 with a Tamron 90mm macro 1:1 lens. When I photo under all blues I use a generic eBay yellow filter. The orange filters I tried are too strong of a filter. Not enough light passes through. But I try like to limit noise, so I try to shoot at ISO 100 and F8.

And I totally agree with the Samsung phone. My S7 takes pretty good pictures for a phone! But really there is no comparison to my standalone DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.

Anyway man, nice to see the comeback!
 

SeaDweller

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
3,369
Reaction score
4,776
Location
.
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I enjoyed reading about your photography techniques! Thanks for sharing. Reef photography is so challenging, especially under blue LEDs. Often I can get the coral to show up correctly as it looks in daylight, but because the piece is partly lit by blue LEDs, the background looks like it was taken under blues. This is with my camera WB all the way to 10000K and with lightroom maxed out. I almost want to blame my camera but since I'm an amateur photographer, there is probably something I'm missing. Also like you said, when I photo under T5s and/or halides, no problems at all. I use a Nikon D90 with a Tamron 90mm macro 1:1 lens. When I photo under all blues I use a generic eBay yellow filter. The orange filters I tried are too strong of a filter. Not enough light passes through. But I try like to limit noise, so I try to shoot at ISO 100 and F8.

And I totally agree with the Samsung phone. My S7 takes pretty good pictures for a phone! But really there is no comparison to my standalone DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.

Anyway man, nice to see the comeback!
get in the back of the line, @Coral Euphoria , you aint getting that one piece he has before I do! :p
 
OP
OP
watchguy123

watchguy123

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
1,858
Reaction score
3,451
Location
San Fernando Valley, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A coral and watch collector? My kinda guy! Nice stuff, looks great!
Thanks, I have a lot more coral than I do watches.
Amazing as always
I will be getting ur blue Floyd soon and can’t wait been on my want list

What kind of halides do you run?i run the same exact light set up

Blue Floyd is awesome. In terms of the halides, I run 250 watt radiums bulbs
I enjoyed reading about your photography techniques! Thanks for sharing. Reef photography is so challenging, especially under blue LEDs. Often I can get the coral to show up correctly as it looks in daylight, but because the piece is partly lit by blue LEDs, the background looks like it was taken under blues. This is with my camera WB all the way to 10000K and with lightroom maxed out. I almost want to blame my camera but since I'm an amateur photographer, there is probably something I'm missing. Also like you said, when I photo under T5s and/or halides, no problems at all. I use a Nikon D90 with a Tamron 90mm macro 1:1 lens. When I photo under all blues I use a generic eBay yellow filter. The orange filters I tried are too strong of a filter. Not enough light passes through. But I try like to limit noise, so I try to shoot at ISO 100 and F8.

And I totally agree with the Samsung phone. My S7 takes pretty good pictures for a phone! But really there is no comparison to my standalone DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.

Anyway man, nice to see the comeback!
Thank you. Im contemplating getting a canon just to deal with getting better white balanced pictures. It is just so expensive to switch.
get in the back of the line, @Coral Euphoria , you aint getting that one piece he has before I do! :p
Eventually, there will be plenty for everyone. LOL

I fragged a small colony of four color watermelon chalice months ago and it responded by almost disappearing. Some coral you can frag for ever and others find it insulting and respond accordingly. But it is on the mend, except it is tiny now.

coral-107.jpg


There were only a few polyps that survived on this once large SPS colony from my extended power outage last year. But it is making headway, albeit slowly. The polyps should eventually turn orangish/red if I remember correctly

coral-108.jpg
 

Graffiti Spot

Cat and coral maker
View Badges
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
4,320
Reaction score
3,676
Location
Florida’s west side
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Agreed. Isn't crazy how some of the most famous vendors have disappeared. I remember well, Steve Tyree limited editions, RR USA, RR Asia.

The frag below is truly crazy and came from a good reefing friend. Those are a lot of colors there, pinkish/red, purple, blue and green.
coral-100.jpg

This piece is blowing my mind. What species are you thinking it is? Austera or gemmifera or something similar? The colors on it are fresh as can be and I would be blown away to find a frag of something like this in a friends tank. If it grows out I would love a piece as well. Just let me know if you ever have frags for sale down the road.
 

justingraham

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
5,348
Reaction score
6,709
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well I have radium bulbs if u want them
My ballast can’t overdrive them and I don’t like the color or par of them
 
Back
Top