Lovely tank! I get more envious each time I see it. Maybe envious is the wrong word - its makes me aspire to make my tank that pretty.

Hopefully my new RO/DI will help... It arrived in one piece and is great! Thankyou so much for you help beating anti-UK sellers and customs

EDIT: My new zoas have arrived just as I was typing this. Double excited!!

Have you tried adjusting the color hue balances to see if you can get a more "true" color? I have used irfanview to do this in the past.

If that doesn't work, I wonder what it would look like if you took two identical pics, one with and one without the flash, then superimposed them, making one partially transparent... You'd need something like photoshop or the GIMP to do it though.

That's a nice looking brain. So you got your water chemistry issues taken care of? Which salt mix did you end up using and are you still dosing 2-part? Sorry if I missed this.

Everybody loves my brain!!
I have to admit, it does photograph well, and I like it too.
The water chemistry issues in this tank were different from those in the other tank, although salt mix may have affected things here as well. I think it was more an issue of the tank adjusting to the addition of 2 fish in a fairly short period of time.
I am currrently using Oceanic, although I don't know yet whether or not that will be a long-term thing. Oceanic does seem to be working better for me than what I was using before.
I have never dosed 2-part in this tank cause it has almost no sps, just one small Monti. The 2-part was being dosed in the prop tank, which had several sps pieces.

BibleSue is right, this tank actually does look better in person than in the pics, but I will continue to keep trying to capture it on film adequately.
Mr. Fosi, I haven't messed with the color settings or white balance on this camera yet, but I will!

L34NN3, thank you, and I hope the RO/DI works out great for you, I'm just glad I was able to help.

Looks great weetie! I got my rics in today and they look amazing.

Weetie, super pics of a stunning tank! I really love the way you have such a variety of textures in the fts's; I agree that that feathery Kenya really adds a lot! And that red macro in the corner just has such graceful lines!

I was struck by the long-stemmed cloves before you even mentioned them--they look like little palm trees. Man, you've done a fantastic job choosing your specimens and putting it all together. So glad you got a camera that could do it all justice!!

--Diane

HEY!! LOOK WHO VENTURED OUT OF THE OTHER WEETIE THREAD!!

That really IS a nice looking brain...and great photos. Great aquascaping

YOU MADE IT!!!!
We have fun stuff going on here too, you should check out the ninja attack a couple of pages back.

I just got some frags in from a trade with SeeDemTails, some Monti's and a zoa frag, I'll try to get pics of those up later tonight.
I need you guys' input on something though.
I have this smallish, intricately shaped piece of LR that has three different corals growing on it, xenia, EE zoas, and Orange Monti Cap. It's a really pretty piece, but a pain in the butt to work into any aquascape because of it's shape. Last night it fell down behind the rockwork and when I pulled it out just now, I saw that it had been growing some really scary MONSTER green bubble algae.
This particular piece keeps growing that stupid bubble algae and I just periodically harvest it off. I have lots of experience working them off very carefully without bursting them. This time they must have been close to bursting on their own, cause 2 of the bubbles burst as I was trying to get them off. They were just above water level when they burst, so I'm hoping/thinking the spores didn't get into the water, but only on the rock. I was scared to put the piece back in the tank for fear of the spores getting all over, so it's currently sitting in a container with tank water.
Does anyone have any ideas for how I can safely get the spores off the rock before placing the piece back in the tank? Keep in mind it has those 3 corals growing on it.
I'm almost at the point where I feel like dremeling the bubble algae off with a small piece of rock under them so it doesn't keep growing back although it would ruin the look of the rock.

Yay I hope you like the stuff......Your stuff was certainly cool enough!

Tank looks great, nice stuff for sure!

As for the BA.....two methods....pop and pluck with tweezers, the rinse with RO.......OR.......Burn with a lighter and pull off, and repeating other method after burning.

FWIW, I consider the dread about popping bubble algae to be mostly an "old-reefers-tale"--i.e., "conventional wisdom" that really has no basis in fact. I'm not saying that that's not how the alga reproduces; just that I don't think popping bubbles in your tank is a prime means of it spreading. I've done it plenty of times with no obvious increase, and I've heard the same from many others. IME and from what I've read, the spores will be filtered out, sucked up by your filter feeders, grazed by your grazing snails, etc.

In short--I wouldn't worry about them.

As to how to keep that particular rock from regrowing the bubbles--I guess you could take drastic action and give the rock a dermobrasion treatment ()--or you could keep picking them off by hand.

IME there are quite a few bubble species that are NOT too invasive, and are rather decorative...(I also think the bigger bubbles are less problematic than the smaller bubbled species...).

--Diane

Thanks Diane. I actually ended up mostly going by SDT's recommendation and taking the bubbles off by hand and pouring RO water over the areas where they popped.

Here's a couple quick pics of some of what I got from SeeDemTails. I'll try to get better pics later.

Nice corals weetie!

Wow, that was quick!
Thanks!
I have to do a serious cleaning and WC today and once I get everything taken care of I will try to get some really good shots off of the new stuff. The pic of the Cap was pretty accurate, but the zoas actually look better than that. My favorite frag that I got was a small frag of "Hulk" Monti. It's a very vivid and intense green, almost has to be seen to be believed!

Here's a couple more pics of the new stuff from SeeDemTails.
I'm not satisfied at all with the way the color came out in these pics, the colors are MUCH more intense in real life, ESPECIALLY on the Hulk Monti.
But what the hey, here's what I have right now:

Small Hulk Monti frag:


Unknown zoas:

wow. Those are some sweet Zoas.

It turns out that it was a blessing in disguise when I had a coral-encrusted piece of LR fall behind my rockscape a couple of days ago.
In dealing with the issue, I discovered that I had a nasty invasion of some kind of scurfy algae in many areas of the tank. It's like nothing I've seen or dealt with before. It's stronger than a film algae, forming a solid skin or mat. It's not hair algae either. It's really nasty, and I did a pretty thorough cleaning of the tank, removing all that I could find.
I suspect that one of the things contributing to this growth was not enough flow in the tank, so I added a Koralia 1 tonight after the cleanup.
I also think I need more snails. I had a couple of larger snails and a multitude of smaller ones, and I think the Yellow Coris Wrasse may have been taking out some of the smaller ones, although I'm not positive of that. At any rate, I hope to get more snails soon.

Could it be bryopsis?

bummer about the problem algae.

What kind of snails are you looking into?

Algae...ugh. I've gotten to the point where I even hate Coraline 'cause it grows on the front glass and I have to scrape it, much less a crappy "nuisance" algae. lol hate to hear about your new PITA.

WOW....I am really glad that every is doing well. Those zoas are SUPER fast growers, and they look like they are doing well in your tank.

The hulk monti frag is looking great....It was getting that same awesome polyp extension in my tank, crazy for such a small frag huh?.....You do see the second piece on the rock right? It is a fast grower too, give it a little time to get going!

The cap is going to turn a darker red than that. That frag came from one of the lower plates, so give it a little time and it will deepen up!

Yeah, I get that sometimes, have to scrape it off with a blade. Doesnt really look like coralline, more like film algae, but is just as tough.

I have had the exact same experience.

I recently put two 14k 150w phoenix bulbs over my tank, and all my pictures seem to come out looking much bluer than the tank does in person. I don't think the sensor in my digital camera knows what to do with that color of light. I have messed with my white balance settings, but to no avail.

Your tank looks wonderful, and your kids are adorable. Keep the pics coming.

Nice to see you here, thank you!!!
One of the things I've learned is that if you use a flash the colors come out closer to true. It still takes a little fiddling though, and I still have a lot more to learn about the finer points of operating this camera. I know I've still only scratched the surface of what it can do.

Fosi, it's definitely not Bryopsis, it's not an actual macroalgae plant.
SDT's description seems closest. It's some kind of nasty, slimy, skin-like algae and in some places it has what seems like "Toe Cheese" growing or collected underneath it. Gross, right??!!!

If you have a canon, I get the best color with my Canon SD 630 under my 14k phoenix with the "cloudy" setting in the white balance menu. I love canon point and shoots, but I have found them to be challenging to use with blue lighting.

My Sony HDR SR5 High def camcorder w/4 mp dig still takes awesome pictures, with perfect color representation, and not to mention the macro mode. I have to clean the glass so its perfectly clear, otherwise if it is not clear enough, the camera will focus on the glass, even if the lens is touching it!

OO thanks! My camera is a canon point-and-shoot, i'll have to try that when I get home. (I think the cloudy setting is the only one I didn't try, lol)

If you can't get your cam to color balance the way you want, you can clean it up in irfanview. It's a freeware image converter/viewer app that has a great many plugins. The CCDs in cameras have response curves that are not even for all visible light wavelengths. That means your pics might not look right, especially when you get toward the far blue/purple end of the visible spectrum.

You can use it to easily and quickly adjust your color hues to something closer to "reality".

I have really noticed that with charge coupled device sensors.......As I was saying above, my new sony with a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (cmos) takes much better images in the light wavelengths we use for our tanks.

Hey Weetabix the tank is looking great and I love the placement of the huge rock I traded you. Your corals look happy too. Hope the algea clears up and ill be looking for an updated FTS from you

That rock is gorgeous, I still think I came out ahead in that trade.
I gotta do some maintenance before I'll feel brave enough to post any pics, it's looking a little neglected right now.

I know you dig frogfish so when I was at the LFS I thought of you. They had a critter in there labeled as a sargassum fish. Similar to the frog/leaf/scorpion but neon yellow and green. So kewl and only $45!! I'd have tossed him in the 55 in a hearbeat if I didn't know that he'd eat every creature in there. Just thought I'd let you know that the kewl predators are indeed out there and are, IMO, affordable.

Bill

Know whacha mean. (But wait till I post some pics of what happened when I finally got around to some major maintenance!)

Just checking in on all the threads I've been missing the past week or so--.

--Diane

Just wanted to say, awesome thread and great pics!

You keep getting those fish in at your store!!!
I'm gonna have to talk to you about hooking me up with one before long...

Hi Weetie,

Saw your post on Dive's thread about the Ramora. How is that working out? Have you noticed the difference in the algae growth?

I'm not totally sure yet.
To be totally honest with you, I haven't yet gone through and removed all of the algae that has been growing.
Life has just been very full (I know you know how that is!!).
So far I've just done WC's and added the Remora.
I will say that my corals got a little happier after I added it.
Getting all of the algae that's grown out of there will be a HUGE job and might honestly involve literally taking everything out to get to all of it.
Right now I'm just trying to pull everything together for the local frag swap tomorrow.
I'm actually taking the kids, which I'm sure will make things interesting!!!

The lights just came on and the yuma is puckered a bit cause I was cleaning the glass just in front of it, but here's some early pics of the Orange Ricordea and Rainbow Yuma I picked up at yesterday's frag swap. I'll try to get more pics when they open up all the way.
The Ricordea is more intensely colored IRL and the Yuma has all the colors of Rainbow Sherbet with a kind of minty green, a plummy purple and orange.

Love the new additions and i especially love the new avatar, what a great movie

OMG Weetie, that Yuma is very sweet!

Its offspring MUST BE A PART OF OUR TRADE ( if and when THAT ever happens! )

Hope all is well, and nice to see a little update here.

Like the new corals weetie, you should check out my thread, i've gotten a few new corals myself.

Thanks Richie (and others!), but I promise, it looks MUCH nicer in person!!!
Unbelievable colors.
I'm gonna try to get some better pics over the next couple of days.
It looks like one of those Yuma's that sells for over $100 online, but BibleSue got it for me for $20 from the guy at the table next to us at the Frag Swap yesterday.
He said that the parent he got it from splits fairly regularly, so hopefully I'll get some babies from it before long.
I had actually seriously been considering taking this tank down (I know, I know!) just cause I was so burnt out and felt like I needed to cut back, but the Frag Swap yesterday kinda re-enthused me a bit and I'm thinking of some tentative plans for reworking things.
That nasty, scurfy skin-like algae came back BAD, and I think I may have it under control but I need to manually remove what has grown up to this point. That will require a huge overhaul since it's growing on almost everything including the lowest levels of my LR structure. I will literally have to take everything out and scrub it off.
Hopefully I have it in me to do that!
If I do manage to take the task on, I'm planning on completely reworking this tank including LR structure and what corals are in it.
We'll see what happens.
I won a TON of stuff yesterday at the Frag Swap including $100 in gift certificates to Air, Water & Ice, $25 gift certificate to Saltwaterfish.com, some DT's Oyster Eggs (which they have to ship to me), and a dry Magnesium supplement from SeaChem. I even found a $25 gift certificate in my stuff to Dr.'s Foster & Smith which I didn't remember winning!!!
Anyway, you can see why it perked my enthusiasm up a little.

Good deal, weeties

Awesome yuma!

HI. I Hate to seem obtuse, but I always wondered what happens at those frag swaps because I've never been and I don't even know if we have any around here. Judging by the name, people trade somehow, but I also read about others buying things. Would you mind enlightning me?

oooooooooo....that dip n' dots yuma is SWEEEET!

Well, I've been to 3 and there seems to be more buying and selling than actual trading.
You will have people who set up a table with stuff to sell and you can usually get some pretty nice stuff for unbelievably cheap prices. I've scored some pretty sweet deals at Frag Swaps.
Some of the people who set up a table will do "pre-sales", where they announce on various boards what they will have available and people can pay them for it ahead of time and pick up their frags at the swap. They do this to avoid making a bunch of frags and lugging them out there only to not sell many and have to lug them all back.
BibleSue and I have set up a table at all of the frag swaps we've been to and we haven't personally done pre-sales, we just take whatever we already have available.
One of the things that's really startled me at the Swaps is the number of people who bring frags just individually bagged and set the bags on the table for people to buy. To me, this seems impractical cause you can't control the water temp that corals are in and people can't see the corals all that well since they aren't under any kind of lighting. I've bought a couple of frags that way though, and they've all worked out fine for me.
Frag Swaps also have door prizes, and they also usually have prizes that you can get in a raffle. You pay a set amount for the raffle tickets and then there are drawings to see who wins. I cleaned up in prizes at this last Swap, although I didn't sell much.
Personally, I think it's a pain to set up and break down at the Swaps, but I really enjoy interacting with everyone and getting to meet some NR members in person and finding some awesome deals on nice corals that I would normally never be able to afford. I've made some good connections with people through swaps too.
All in all, they're a blast.
Here's some pics of BibleSue and I at the Swaps we've set up at:





Frag Swaps are put on by the local Reef Clubs.

all the frag swaps i go to are jam packed.... and picked over unless you get there super early... best deal i ever got was on some yumas actually... that yuma you got looks killer, what lighting do you have it under... mh? pc?

Well, that's definitely one of the advantages of setting up a table at a swap, you get to look over all the frags and make deals before the general public is admitted!
I have it under 150w MH with a Phoenix 14k bulb. It actually looks much bluer in the pic than real life, I'm hoping to take a better pic soon. I've just got my hands full with tank makeovers right now!!!

Thanks so much for the info. Your display tanks look really nice and pro!
I'll see if I can find some swaps in my area because that sounds like fun.

I think...
I'm going...
to DIE



I'm so beat I feel sick to my stomach.
That nasty, nasty skinlike algae came back with a vengeance, in places all over the live rock and some of the corals.
I just got done taking every single thing out of the tank and getting the algae off with a toothbrush. Did a mega-mega cleaning and redo of the aquascape to help improve flow.
If I can hang in there, this tank will be taking a whole new direction!

dont admit to problems... its un-mod like....















j/k dont smite me oh great mod