A ton of pictures from today...

[melev]

This acropora continues to grow quickly. It has spread out substantially. The blue damsel is full grown and 9 years old, if that helps with a sense of scale.

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And here's another piece from the parent colony that has grown just as quickly. The new tips look blue under the ReefLux bulbs.

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The faster growing SPS in my tank is the Scripps acro. Here's a small cluster that makes the back profile of my tank. There is more growing off to the left (out of the frame).

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Here's a closeup of the A. secale that has encrusted on the neighboring rock.

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Anyone curious how the blue tort is doing? It's not pretty.

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This frag of A. nobilis looks like GSP to some I'm sure, but it has been doing quite well. I see two tiny tips popping out of the tissue!

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[melev]

Seven reef shots in a row:

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[melev]

I was really surprised to see the Blood Shrimp out on the substrate today. It looked a tad dusty and dark, and I'm wondering if it is about to molt. Since it was acting uncharacteristically today, I dropped in some food to see if there was any reaction on its part. It was very excited and pursued some pellets, so I guess it is fine.

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Behind the Blood Shrimp, you can see how the Pavona is encrusting on the glass.

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The M. capricornis continues to do very well. It looks like it is finally puddling out at the substrate, so that should help keep the sand underneath it finally.

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The Blue Ridge grows quietly beneath the A. tenuis, and seems to be holding its own against the neighboring zoanthids.

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The blue A. millepora looks great. It has less extension than I'm used to seeing though.

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Nearby is a pink Tabling Acropora, which hasn't done much but I continue to hope will amaze me one day.

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[melev]

Orange M. digitata. I have a few pieces of this growing in my tank, but stuff always stings it or breaks it off. It is super brittle.

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Here's the red A. millepora that really needs to be extracted to a safer spot in my tank.

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Some tiny neon star polyps.

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Pink pocillopora from last year's MACNA. It has been a very slow grower, but looks kind of happy where it is.

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The corals on the sand look kind of interesting from the end of the tank.

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As does the pink Branching Hammer.

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[melev]

Neon candycane trying to not be smothered.

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Psammacora. I've had this coral for over four years, and I really can't say if it has grown anything at all. At best, it probably replaced segments that died off, but there's nothing to brag about this coral. And yet I get frag requests for it from time to time. Wierd.

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This green tabling Acropora is getting damaged by flow from the VorTech pump. I'm going to have to move the pump or lessen the flow rate.

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Here are some orange zoos that grow almost on the substrate of my reef, next to some Pavona tissue.

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The A. millepora colonies look great, and have probably grown more toward the front of the tank.

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This moon coral or Favia was a gift from my son over a year ago.

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Some green Hammer, with the A. tenuis to its right. You can see some of the Hammer babies appearing around the main heads.

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[melev]

This acropora has bright bright blue tips, but I can't capture them on film for some reason.

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The tiger cowrie, out and about.

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What is the opposite of Jenny Craig?
Spock! :lol:

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[Jaguar]

OoOooo Marc! :? Shaddup and Frag already! :shock:

Er. .did that just come from my keyboard. I think the cat walked over it. . .er. . . :roll:

It looks like I have alot to look forward too when my little SPS tank grows up. :wink:

I look forward to actually trying to grab a frag of something outta your tank soon.

 

[Guest]

Awesome pictures! Are you bringing any acro frags to the swap?

 

[melev]

I'm rather uncomfortable sharing SPS frags from my tank since I've had both red bugs and AEFW in my tank this year. I've treated for both on a case-by-case basis, and it seems like all is well at this point.

Many of the corals are growing and next year should be of such volume that fragging won't be obvious. There are quite a few nice pieces that are still kind of small.

 

[chriscurtis]

Hey Marc, great pictures of great corals, as usual. Do you think the Scripps acro is a. micropthalma? I've got one I call that but I didn't get it as Scripps, just a staghorn frag.

 

[hitillidie]

Great pics Marc, Yeap you'll have to frag soon.

 

[ChuKronos]

Those look great, Marc!
-Chuck

 

[melev]

@chriscurtis wrote:

I don't know Chris. I asked the source, who was Nathan (Nuclear Reefs) and he told me it was a Scripps. I asked again later from a few others, and they seemed to agree. I doubt the name is correct, and if anything it came from a tank such as one at the Scripps Clinic or something. I looked up your name in Google and found Coral Dynamics has one that is somewhat similar in shape but the color isn't the same. Of course, that coral may have been recently handled and not fully extended. Thanks for the input!

 

[Nicki]

Great pictures. I am glad to see that you still have Dole. He looks fat and happy. You must feed well. Does he still wake up at 3:00 or did he adjust to your lighting schedule?

 

[melev]

Hi Nicki. Dole is doing quite well. He switched to the right schedule a long time ago, maybe two weeks after moving to my tank. He did jump out of my reef about 6 weeks ago, again. That time he took the landing very hard and I didn't expect him to live. He is probably a bit brain-damaged now, but he swims and eats daily. The jumping he used to do seems to be off of his wish list, which is saving me on replacement MH bulb money finally. :roll:

 

[Nicki]

I can't believe he jumped out twice. Good thing you were there to save him.

 

[Reefnoob]

Nice to finally meet you last night. I came home and read your photography article, working on getting the pictures the right size, my software is too complicated for me, because I lost the instruction book. Your tank is awesome, puts to shame even the professinal tanks at public aquariums. The SPS scares me but Id like to try some easy stuff. See all of you guys at the frag swap.

 

[melev]

Braedon, it was nice to meet you too, finally!

If you use Windows XP, download the "power tool" from microsoft.com that is called "image resizer". It is really easy to install on the computer. Then any time you need to, just RIGHT click over the image (or folder) and click on Resize in the menu. It will let you pick the pixels (640 x 480 is perfectly fine for web sharing and what I used above), and then it will save them to the new size with a new filename. The originals will be left as is.