hypostatic Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I can't browse that site. My wallet is way to empty, and my constitution is weak Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Its been a busy few days for the tank. After getting a bunch of things at the frag swap on Saturday, my local reef club had our monthly meeting at one of the LFS Sunday. This LFS has a great greenhouse/grow-out facility. It has been so nice and toasty warm to visit during this cold Midwestern winter! Anyway, they were offering a discount for the meeting, so I picked up a small Capnella frag and an emerald crab for my bubble algae. In addition, one of my fellow club members gave me some Halimeda from his tank. (I had gotten the idea that I wanted some Halimeda after I saw VIP Reef's dive video.) So yeah, the tank is really cluttered, but I wanted to update with a full tank shot for March. Here it is: The unattractive plastic container is my Ricordea nursery. I got a neat pink mouthed rainbow Florida Ric at the swap. I'm waiting for it to attach to some rubble. Other things that have changed since my last tank shots... I have a Paly frag in there (supposedly "Lord Sith" though who knows, all these Z&P names go over my head) that I got by trading away my Sympodium. The Sympodium just hadn't been happy with all the moves I had to do to dodge Sauron's travels. The Borneman anemone last night decided to crawl to the back of the rockwork, then extend his head up to the top, plunking his tentacles amongst the Gorgonians and my Clove polyps. (You can't see him in the FTS since I irritated him by doing a water change and he retracted a bit.) They had started to recover from Sauron's travels. Now they are looking worse for the wear again. At least the Gorgonian that had its polyps eaten by the Sexy shrimp is regrowing polyps now. The Yasha has been really happy with the addition of the macroalgae. He recognizes it as a good backdrop, and has been out a lot more. The Pistol shrimp even grabbed the piece of rubble some of the Dragon's Breath is attached to and dragged it closer to their burrow. Both the Yasha and the Pistol were out hamming it up as I was taking pictures. I really love the two of them. My 3 new nems from VIP come Wednesday morning. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Its been a busy few days for the tank. After getting a bunch of things at the frag swap on Saturday, my local reef club had our monthly meeting at one of the LFS Sunday. This LFS has a great greenhouse/grow-out facility. It has been so nice and toasty warm to visit during this cold Midwestern winter! Anyway, they were offering a discount for the meeting, so I picked up a small Capnella frag and an emerald crab for my bubble algae. In addition, one of my fellow club members gave me some Halimeda from his tank. (I had gotten the idea that I wanted some Halimeda after I saw VIP Reef's dive video.) So yeah, the tank is really cluttered, but I wanted to update with a full tank shot for March. Here it is: The unattractive plastic container is my Ricordea nursery. I got a neat pink mouthed rainbow Florida Ric at the swap. I'm waiting for it to attached to some rubble. Other things that have changed since my last tank shots... I have a Paly frag in there (supposedly "Lord Sith" though who knows, all these Z&P names go over my head) that I got by trading away my Sympodium. The Sympodium just hadn't been happy with all the moves I had to do to dodge Sauron's travels. The Borneman anemone last night decided to crawl to the back of the rockwork, then extend his head up to the top, plunking his tentacles amongst the Gorgonians and my Clove polyps. (You can't see him in the FTS since I irritated him by doing a water change and he retracted a bit.) They had started to recover from Sauron's travels. Now they are looking worse for the wear again. At least the Gorgonian that had its polyps eaten by the Sexy shrimp is regrowing polyps now. The Yasha has been really happy with the addition of the macroalgae. He recognizes it as a good backdrop, and has been out a lot more. The Pistol shrimp even grabbed the piece of rubble some of the Dragon's Breath is attached to and dragged it closer to their burrow. Both the Yasha and the Pistol were out hamming it up as I was taking pictures. I really love the two of them. My 3 new nems from VIP come Wednesday morning. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas! Yey, I'll be watching with you (I ordered 3 myself today). No email yet as to when they'll come. I'd love to have them by Friday. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg omgomgomg I've never order livestock online before. I'm ridiculously excited! Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 FedEx Fairy arrived! I had been sitting at my dining table, looking out at the parking lot so I could see when the van drove up. She was a little startled when I opened the door before she even knocked. Water is still nice and warm. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Letting them purge their shipping water. They are ugly ducklings right now, all stressed from shipping and under plain daylight. Other than the peppermint candy striped one on the far right, I'm honestly not even sure which is which of the other two since neither of the others looked to have zebra stripes in Frank's pictures. I'll get them settled in to the tank and take some more picture in a few hours when they have attached and settled a bit. In the mean time I'm going to run out to a LFS and see if they will take my emerald crab. I got him for bubble algae control... he decided dragons breath algae was far tastier. Link to comment
Steensj2004 Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 OK, even though I just "complained" in my last post that my tank is crowded, I just placed an order with VIP Reef! I miss the big splash of orange Sauron added to the tank. And, I've been drooling over Frank's nems ever since Gena and 1stimereefer pointed me in his direction. I undoubtedly will have to do some serious re-arranging and maybe sell/give away my palys and some of the macroalgae, but I'm pretty sure I can make it work. The delivery comes on Wednesday, so I have time to plan. This is what's coming: Son of a biotch....now I am going to go spend more money...never knew they could be this KILLER in color! Thanks a lot Mirya... Edit: Great, now I went to the site....good lord these things are beautiful! Expensive, but drop dead amazing. Miyra, what is your experience with the color in pictuer VS. color in real life once you recieve them? Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Son of a biotch....now I am going to go spend more money...never knew they could be this KILLER in color! Thanks a lot Mirya... Edit: Great, now I went to the site....good lord these things are beautiful! Expensive, but drop dead amazing. Miyra, what is your experience with the color in pictuer VS. color in real life once you recieve them? Mwahahahahahaha! Welcome to the compulsion that is rock anemones! OK as for the color rendering in real life vs what is on VIP Reef's website: it is pretty true to life, not all Photoshop gimmicks. Disclaimer, I do have LED on my tank, and I think that makes a difference. Yes, I can make things ridiculously pop by dialing up the blues. But I don't like the look of a blue tank look so IMHO my blue settings are reasonable. Even under non-crazy blue settings I get nice fluorescence. The top anemone, the orange face with orange tentacles is an even a brighter orange in real life. So bright as in I think I could wear him at night while running and I'm be safe from traffic. The middle anemone, the rainbow, is a little harder for me to assess since he tucked himself into a shaded crevice. What I can see of him is that his face looks pretty true to the picture, but his tentacles are darker. The peppermint stripe looks better in person than in the picture. Those red stripes have fluorescence! I had actually asked Frank about that one before my purchase, and he was nice enough to send me a short video of that nem in his holding tank. While these nems may seem pricey, VIP Reef's prices are extremely good on these high end rock flowers. I've been to 2 frag swaps recently and have made some weekend trips to a bunch of LFS in Columbus, Dayton, and Akron. I've been doing tons of price comparisons and checking out stock. I've seen cheaper nems, but not as pretty (eg plain non-fluorescing faces with either red or green fluorescing tentacles for $50-80). I've also seen some nems as pretty as Frank's that have been priced at $150-500 each! The one place I've seen that competes with VIP Reef on the cost/prettiness scale is Splash Corals. Adam/Splash Corals is based out of Cincinnati. I've bought nems from him at the two swaps I was at, so I don't know if he does shipping. He is working on an actual website, so maybe he will do shipping. Gena and 1stimereefer have both gotten nems from VIP/Frank for their tanks. I had asked them both about him before I made my purchase, since I've never bought livestock online before. They both had excellent things to say too. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Yey, I look forward to seeing them. Truly, his nems rock. These things can be up to 6 inches later so they are worth 1) their colors 2) their variety. Never have I seen diversity like this. Ebay, also, some only sell red or green and they want $130. Seriously? for one tone? When his nems sport 3-5 colors. They're all healthy when you get them as well. He takes care of his nems. I'm going to post today on my thread what I have coming in tomorrow! So glad you joined in the fun. And as you saw, takes a few days before they show a relaxed stance on the rock and they've unfolded. But holy cow- I sure wanna know what camera he uses to take their pics. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I'm always so weary of buying corals on the internet. Very few times have the corals looked the same in my tank as they have in the pictures online Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I'm always so weary of buying corals on the internet. Very few times have the corals looked the same in my tank as they have in the pictures online I have found that to be true, especially of acans and some zoas. But the nems do show these great colors with more blue than white. I like them during the day but as the evening progresses I reduce the white and increase the blue from like 10p-12am and I'm just blown away. My pics always look really blue when I take the pic, I don't know how he keeps the color of the background white while his nem has the bright colors. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Yeah, looking at the pics it appears that the bottom nem pic was taken under different lighting Link to comment
gena Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Looks like a successful order! The colors will brighten even further the longer they are in the tank and acclimated to the new conditions. Mine seem to get more colorful everyday . I always wondered why he says to set them on the lid to purge the water before going into the tank. Maybe to get rid of any contaminants from stressful shipping? Someone should ask him! . Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Looks like a successful order! The colors will brighten even further the longer they are in the tank and acclimated to the new conditions. Mine seem to get more colorful everyday . I always wondered why he says to set them on the lid to purge the water before going into the tank. Maybe to get rid of any contaminants from stressful shipping? Someone should ask him! . I agree that's probably why, because they were sitting in their own nasties. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 I agree that's probably why, because they were sitting in their own nasties. That is what I had always assumed. It's what I've done with ever nem I've added to the tank and it has worked thus far. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Today has been a long day and I'm kinda beat. I wanted to put up some pictures of the new nems though before I go pass out! I'm too sleepy to spend much time editing them though, so they are a little crummier than usual. I'm going to see if I can borrow a good DSLR camera over the weekend and get some good pictures. Never used a DSLR though so we'll see how that goes... Upper left is the rainbow face I just got from VIP Reef. He is still under Zed's shadow. I imagine he will crawl out in the next few days. (Some of Zed's white tentacles are just reaching into the frame.) Front and center is the purdy orange face/orange tentacles I just got from VIP Reef. Next to him is some Botryocladia macroalgae I got yesterday. I took the emerald crab I just got back to the LFS because he wanted to eat my dragons breath algae instead of the green bubble algae. /sigh The LFS owner gave me the red bubble algae in exchange for the crab. My understanding is that the branching red bubble is less prolific than the green bubble. Upper right, mostly obscured by the Botryocladia is a green-face, white tentacled nem I got from Splash Corals at the Cleveland swap a few weeks back. Close-up on the ultra-orange. Picture doesn't do him justice at all. Bottom left is the peppermint I just got from VIP. Upper right is an ultra-green I got from Splash Corals at a frag swap in Dayton last weekend. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 OH MY GOSH! that ultra orange/pink is phenomenal. And I love your peppermint. And of course the rainbow is hiding. But again, his colors are what they look like. Aren't you happy you bought them!!!!!! And they're so healthy. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 WANT. I'm telling you it's hard to make those choices on that site. You always wonder, should I have picked this one or that one. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 damn you wallet. why you so empty. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 My wallet is empty, but my tank is full! I've told myself my wallet can recover now since I don't have space to add anything atm. That, and there are no frag swaps coming up to tempt me! Link to comment
gsgentry Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Love the tank setup!!! I just noticed that VIP Reef will be at the show I am going to in Orlando this month. Along with Frag Junky, Cornbread, Jason Fox, Reef Chicks, etc. I am in deep trouble!!! LOL Better leave the credit card at home!! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Wish I lived closer. I would SO go to a show in which VIP was there. Whatever flowers he brings to the show will go quickly. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 7, 2014 Author Share Posted April 7, 2014 Love the tank setup!!! I just noticed that VIP Reef will be at the show I am going to in Orlando this month. Along with Frag Junky, Cornbread, Jason Fox, Reef Chicks, etc. I am in deep trouble!!! LOL Better leave the credit card at home!! That sounds like a line up made in heaven! Link to comment
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