Jon and Maureen's reef thread...finally

[Hilary]

VERY nice!! I do need to stop by and see it in person!

[Jon Lazar]

Thanks for all the encouragement. I certainly don't think we're ready for TOTM status, but maybe someday when the corals have grown in more. We're very happy with how the aquascaping turned out, and I have to say it looks better in person than in the phots. The main arch and the column of rock are easy to make out, but you can't appreciate many of the other interesting features without viewing in person.

 

Here's a few more pics. I'm still struggling with getting consistently focused macro shots and with taking full tank shots that aren't washed out from all the light. I'm also finding that when I select a fast shutter speed to stop the fish from blurring, I can't open the aperature wide enough and my shots are usually underexposed. If I take a zillion pics I usually end up with a few worth saving, but it can be frustrating. I guess more experimentation is in order...

 

 

Blastomussa welsi colony...one of my favorite corals.

 

 

Donut coral. This one has red highlights in it's center under the right conditions.

 

 

 

Cool acan frag we cherry picked from the Aquarium Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mopar32985]

your doing a beautiful job on that tank it just looks great. I can only hope that one day mine can look like that

[Patti]

Jon & Maureen

 

Your tank is gorgeous! I love the rock structure and all of your corals look so vibrant, healthy and happy! I can't wait to one day see this beauty in person!!!

[MisterTang]

...and Maureen said all you guys had were frags. Holy cow! That Blasto is an intriguing piece, although I have to say it closely resembles the remnants of a possum I saw on Rt. 9 this morning

[MLazar]

...and Maureen said all you guys had were frags. Holy cow! That Blasto is an intriguing piece, although I have to say it closely resembles the remnants of a possum I saw on Rt. 9 this morning

 

Doug,

 

There are still a lot of frag plugs visible if you get up close, especially the acros, which I can't wait to see fill out and color up the top of the tank.

 

Thanks to all for nice comments, we're really working hard on the tank (actually Jon works really hard and I bring drinks, offer encouragement and a good back rub once in a while lol! Not entirely true, I get to help with placement, but he's the technical guy.)

 

Maureen

 

ps Doug: ew and gross.

[GaryL]

i'm jealous..i have to figure out what i'm doing wrong....well i think i know just have to actually do it....

[MLazar]

i'm jealous..i have to figure out what i'm doing wrong....well i think i know just have to actually do it....

 

 

Gary,

 

Plan on stopping over sometime, you're probably one of our closest WAMAS neighbors!

 

Maureen

Edited August 28, 2008 by MLazar

[GaryL]

sweet! i might just have to do that.

[MLazar]

VERY nice!! I do need to stop by and see it in person!

 

Would love to have you, let us know when you're planning on coming down this way!

 

M

[tbittner]

That bubble coral is HUGE! It looks like it's planning on taking over the left side of the tank.

[MLazar]

That bubble coral is HUGE! It looks like it's planning on taking over the left side of the tank.

 

 

And one of Jon's least favorite corals! I actually talked him into the pink, he's still longing for a green. It is really healthy and continues to grow for us. Thanks for noticing!

 

M

[GaryL]

And one of Jon's least favorite corals! I actually talked him into the pink, he's still longing for a green. It is really healthy and continues to grow for us. Thanks for noticing!

 

M

 

no doubt, it must be a lady thing..when i first got started and when i was married she wanted a bubble coral too...it was a white one from dr. mac. its an eye catcher for sure

[tbittner]

Maybe he would like it better if you called it a PEARL bubble coral instead of a pink bubble coral.

[steveoutlaw]

The tank is absolutely beautiful. You guys did a great job on the rockwork and the coral selection. Let me know when you're ready to frag that blasto wellsi.....I have a blasto merletti and a couple acans you might be interested in. Besides, I like the look of roadkill in my tank!

 

Be careful of that bubble......it's a very aggressive coral. When I had mine I came home to find that one of it's sweeper tentacles had lasso'd the polyps of one head of my torch coral 8" away. Needless to say, the bubble was moved to an isolated area.

[Jon Lazar]

I

[GaryL]

hydroids.....how ya get rid of em? if i got em.

[Gadgets]

Awesome photos and progression! I really like the shot of the donut coral.

[Jon Lazar]

hydroids.....how ya get rid of em? if i got em.

 

Gary,

 

I had hydroids on several frags, but the most important ones to save was a rainbow monti frag and a tubbs zoa frag. The rainbow monti was easy because all the hydroids were located around the edge of the frag plug, so I trimmed down the frag plug right to the edge of the monti.

 

 

The tubbs was a lot harder because the hydroids were all entwined within the zoas. The hydroids were stinging the tubbs to the point that they weren't opening at all, so I had to do something and I wasn't willing to throw the frag away. I tried picking them off with tweezers but the hydroids would could back in a few days; presumably growing back from the small parts I missed. I used multiple 5-10 minute freshwater dips, as well as a couple of 5 min dips in Revive, but I think the freshwater is what did it. I didn't really do this with the rigor of a formal study, so it could be that something else eliminated the hydroids. My money's on the freshwater dip though.

 

Jon

[Jon Lazar]

I stopped by the Aquarium Company on Tuesday and found this gorgeous blastomussa frag. It grows encrusting like a blastomussa welsi, but it has small dime-sized polyps like a blastomussa merletti.

 

Whatever it is, I like it plenty and might have to pick up another frag on my next visit if there's any left!

 

[steveoutlaw]

I stopped by the Aquarium Company on Tuesday and found this gorgeous blastomussa frag. It grows encrusting like a blastomussa welsi, but it has small dime-sized polyps like a blastomussa merletti.

 

Whatever it is, I like it plenty and might have to pick up another frag on my next visit if there's any left!

 

 

Ok Jon, whenever you find the nice blastos or acans like that, you have to get at least one extra polyp for me!!

[Jon Lazar]

Steve,

 

There were several more of these frags at the store on Tuesday night, so there may still be some left.

 

Jon

[MLazar]

The tank is absolutely beautiful. You guys did a great job on the rockwork and the coral selection. Let me know when you're ready to frag that blasto wellsi.....I have a blasto merletti and a couple acans you might be interested in. Besides, I like the look of roadkill in my tank!

 

Be careful of that bubble......it's a very aggressive coral. When I had mine I came home to find that one of it's sweeper tentacles had lasso'd the polyps of one head of my torch coral 8" away. Needless to say, the bubble was moved to an isolated area.

 

Steve,

 

I'm pretty sure the bubble has grown 2+ inches across since you posted this comment!!!! I'm watching her carefully. She's a beauty for sure and extremely happy in our tank (now if Icould only get Jon to stop seeing it as potential real estate for many, many other corals.............). Still not his favorite.

 

M

[Jon Lazar]

This afternoon I noticed one of my zoa frags looked unhappy. A closer look through the magnifying glass revealed...zoa nudis! Argh. At least I haven't gotten around to glueing any of the frags down yet, so it's easy enough to pull the frags off and re-treat them. I'm not sure how this happened. Could be I mixed the potassium permanganate solution wrong so it wasn't strong enough, or a nudi hitchhiked from the QT into the DT on another coral.

 

Zoa nudibranch circled in red. The frills on the back of the nudis take on the same color of the zoas it feeds on.

 

I also noticed a tiny spot of fluorescence coming from a piece of LR, but I don't think this one is a pest. It looks like four tiny polyps of some unknown coral. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can tell what it is as it grows. Maybe an encrusting montipora or porites. The whole thing is about the size of a pinhead. I looked around and found two others nearby.

 

 

Maureen's been asking me to post a full tank shot under actinics, so I gave it a try. There's a few corals on the sand I still need to find more permanant places for. In my tank, I mean, not in yours

 

[Smoothtriqueter]

looks real nice. hope the zoas recover!