some pics from today

[Folta]

I just snapped some photos of my tank. Before you guys make comments, yes I have algae, yes there are little bubbles in the picture, but that was because I was fiddling with the tank, and yes, there is alot of glare in some of these... but you can still tell what they are, haha!

 

Ok, first, I want to reshow my 'white hammer' I bought a few months back, that turned out to be just bleached:

 

 

here's what that same one looks like today:

 

 

um... ignore the bleached hammer behind it... believe it or not, that one is doing much better than it was about a month ago as well - it was completely 100% white... I thought it would die, but I've noticed the tips have started getting their color back, and the 'tentacles' are starting to color up again, woo!

 

Next are a couple monti caps.. a purple one, and the second one was supposedly green, although I haven't seen a hint of green on it yet ^_^ - not even when I threw pure actinic lighting over it!

 

 

 

Then we have a broader shot, of just stuff:

 

 

Here's one that shows my golden finger leather, as well as some yellow zoos I got from Dr. Mac at Macna:

 

 

If anyone can id this following one for me, that'd be great. It seems to be doing well, good polyp extension and what not. Its the free frag I received from fragexchange, and has looked like this since the moment I put it in my tank.

 

Also, you can see some pulsing xenia there that I was given by Dave (dhoch). Funny thing is that I had other xenia that stopped pulsing months ago.. the day I put this xenia (and another rock of it that Dave gave me) in the tank, the old xenia started pulsing! Mysterious! :P It also could be coincidence; I've made some vast improvements with water quality over the past month or two.

 

 

And lastly, some blue zoos... the pic is blurry, and for some reason a whole bunch of them decided to not show their faces today, but eh...

 

 

 

My lighting at the moment is 2 250 watt 10,000 k XM bulbs. These blue zoos look a lot more blue (obviously) when under at least some actinic or 20k's. They are growing well, so I hope to be making frags off of them soon.

 

Thats it folks! Comments always welcome! (Unless its about the algae haha)

[dhoch]

Tim,

 

Xenia is looking good.

 

As for the green monti that looks brown that came from me... That's wierd that it looks so brown... anyone want to comment on why that is?

 

Here is a pic of the parent colony that frag came from (honestly):

 

 

Dave

[Gadgets]

Nice pics. What size tank is it?

 

Chris

[Folta]

Dave, I believe you. I'm hoping that it colors up nice and green, I was thinking maybe it colored out when it was in your frag tank possibly? It has great polyp extension and is showing signs of growth (white edge). If it doesn't green up, well it still looks very nice

 

Chris, its a 55 gallon tank. I'm currently in the works of getting a 180 in and setup though!

[Gadgets]

180 is my dream tank! I wish I had the space for one. :(

[fishface]

It may be adjusting to a different tank chemistry. Usually any coral that loses color and develops brownish coloration is harboring more Zoxanthellea to accomodate lower light than they like. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

In my case, I have two completely different colonies that recently greened up. The first is an Acro from Tribui, and he might have told me that it was green-I took his word and the time, probably 6 months ago, and it has "greened" up over the brown.

 

I also bought a yellow turbinaria that was a mustard color, and I realized by last month developed a beautiful greenish cast. I've had it 9 months, but recently moved it, and it apparently likes where it is.

 

I had 3 weeks of high temps, and unfortunatly after a measure of success both have started to bleach.

I'm going to try to save some frags of them and begin again.

 

-FF

I have a 75 with two 250 HQI AB pendants. The acro is under a 14k, the turb is under a 20k.

[flowerseller]

Nice pics,

 

 

fishface,

Heat can and will cause bleaching as we all know however,

a drop in ALK can also have a similar effect. Check it.

[Folta]

Chris, a 180 is my dreamtank too. I had to make space for it

 

FF, the cap looks very healthy to me, and didn't discolor when putting it in my tank (ie. I've never witnessed it being green at all) - it doesn't look 'browned', rather it looks like a nice light beige color, fully extended polyps, and showing nice growth. I have a tenius that has browned, so I can see a difference (in fact you can see it in the upper left corner of the pic with the purple monti cap in it)

[dhoch]

Tim,

 

What temp is your tank running at at peak temp (I keep mine between 79-79.5).

 

Dave

[Folta]

Actually, its something I'm still finalizing control on now...

 

until a couple days ago, i would get swings of 77 at night to 84 in the day. I bought a 6" clip on fan on ebay, it came in the mail a few days ago. I have it blowing the air above the tank, below (and also at) the halides. Yesterday I saw a peak temp of 81 degrees. I've also adjusted my heater to keep min at 79, and this morning it seemed to keep it. My goal of course is to get it as constant as possible, and right at about 79.5 degrees.

 

I think the fan has already proved its effectiveness.. just some fine tuning now. The fan kicks on at the same time as my halides (and off too)

[Caribbean Jake]

Folta - Nice Pictures

 

Dhoch - temp, alk and even old lights can change the coloration on a coral. Don't change and test all at once, but make sure you test all of them gradually starting with Alk, and you will soon find out the problem on the coloration of your corals.

 

Jacob

[dhoch]

My tank levels are very consitant.. the only thing that is different from my frag tank to my main tank is the amount of light and flow... water params are the same...

 

Alk ~10 (varies from 9.6 - 10.4 depending on day measured)

Cal ~440 (varies from 430-460)

Temp ~79.6 79.5-80.1 (never seen it go higher than that)

 

My main tank has 8 x 80W of T5 (over 180 gallons) and my frag has 3 x 24 W of T5 (over 30 gallons)... I tried taking out one of the 24 W on my frag tank today and see what changes...

 

I'm betting Tim that it's the temp swings... just my 2 cents though.

 

Dave

[Folta]

when I was browsing through my photobucket pics, I found one that has the hammers from that first pic..

 

 

Just posting it, so you can see how some color has returned to the hammer that still looks like its not doing so well.. definitely on the road to recovery.

 

Dave, I don't think it could be the temp swings, as when I put it in my tank, I put actinics over it within a few hours, so I could see the green, but it still didn't show at all. I'm still happy with it though, it looks healthy and growing.

[Guest mightymouse]

folta i call dibs on first frag of those yellow zoos those are amazing i actually might have some comign in i have one right now btu i dotn kinwo if it will pull through it is real bleached was in marine scenes loose polyp tank