SPS Pictures

P

peterlin

This millepora has colored up quite a bit. From brown to green - and now with bright orange tips. Yes, I have moved the millepora after taking this picture, so that it is not touching pink Pocillopora
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This teal stag is really nice and fuzzy polyps are extended during the day. The blue A. tenuis next to it is very blue, but somehow the pictures always turn out bluish purple.

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I agree. They look great. Hard to imagine that your bulbs are almost 2 yrs. old.

What do you attribute your outstanding colors too? Feeding 2x per day? Stability?

I've seen some folks on RC talk about feeding more helps with more color 'pop' as long as it's exported later.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Chris - actually the bulbs are now 2 years and 2 months old. I am using 10K AB DE bulb. They are a bit yellow-white but sps seem to grow better under them.
Since corals are living animals, they do better when you meet all of their needs. Light is just as important as water quality, flow, trace elements.
I think that I have alot of flow - 4 Tunze stream alternating (so really 2 on at a time) plus the wave box.

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Peter,
Do you, or have you, ever encountered red bugs in you tanks? If so, did you treat the tank or just let them go.

Your corals always look incredible. With so many acros, I was wondering what your thoughts on red bugs are.
 
Dean - I don't remember exactly but it's been a year since I treated my tank for redbug with interceptor. It worked but I am not sure about the consequence. I regret loosing all the Acro crabs that live with the colonies, but at that time it felt that the 'right thing' to do since a majority sps keepers are reporting better sps growth after red-bug treatments. If you do a search, you will know that red bug is not the only pest that we, reef keeper, have to deal with. I think Acro crabs and other beneficial pods are in our tank for a purpose.

My philosophy is to find ways to keep everything under control. I do spend a great deal of time to keep up with my tank. Red bugs or any pest do not kill acro overnight. The danger is that any pest if not kept under control will do great damage over time - weaken a coral and gradually killing it.
 
I regret loosing all the Acro crabs that live with the colonies said:
Did you also notice better growth, color, & PE after your treatment?
I think I have read every open thread dealing with red bugs on Reef Central. Some people swear they are the culprit, while others are not so sure. There are several guys that claim to have red bugs on the sps for 5 years or more with no problems.

Since you have not treated again for over a year, do you feel you have eliminated the bugs, or just concluded they might not be as bad as everyone thinks?
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They are not as bad if you keep them under control. I think blide has posted a picture of growing sps with red bugs. I have no reason to doubt that corals in the wild have lived with red bugs and their predators without Interceptor for a long time.
 
@peterlin wrote:
You treat coral individually when pest is detected. said:
I don't think that this is really an effective strategy. The bugs can hop right off the coral as you remove it and either hop back on after treatment or migrate to another coral. Plus what about all the ones you don't notice, on other corals perhaps?
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It's not a cure all, but as a mean to keep things under control - creating a balance. If you read RC - various treatments will kill not only the pest but also beneficial critters (pods, acro crabs). So you kill red bugs with interceptor and it also kill acro crabs - which are there for a purpose - to clean your acro of algae and whatever else. And how do you replace acro crabs ?
I would be more interested to do biological control than chemical.
 
Peter, speaking of natural control, I found a couple of articles saying that the blue velvet nudibranch may be a natural predator of flatworms..

http://www.seahorse-nw.com/Predators.html

(I noticed them for sale at saltwaterfish.com - http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=313&parent_category=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4)
 
@Ashlar wrote:
Peter said:
They are a very good predator of flatworms, they suck them up like a vacuum cleaner. They are so light though, that any flow at all, will have them either sucked down the overflow into the sump. Or they get blown around till they end up in a powerhead. And they certainly would not last a minute in a tank with a Tunze stream in it.
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Wonder if you could do a treatment tank with low flow, if they work that fast :)

(much like the berghia nudibranch treatment for aiptasia, with moving 'infected' rocks to the berghia tank.)
 
I have seen a couple of them work. And I bet two of them in a 100 gallon tank, would eat themselves out a job in a month. It would have to be very low flow.
 
My understanding is that velvet nudibranch is good for red flatworm commonly found with zoo's - not the acro eating flatworm. I am sure there are other types of flatworm not yet discovered.
 
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