Mitten_reef’s IM30L

[ninjamyst]

27 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

A bouquet of flowers to start the day

 

Coming a long way from October 2019

Has it still on original frag plug?  I always wonder how goniporas grow....do they make their own skeleton or do they encrust?

[mitten_reef]

26 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Has it still on original frag plug?  I always wonder how goniporas grow....do they make their own skeleton or do they encrust?

you got me curious enough to run down and take a look.  yes, it's on the same ~1.5" round frag tile shown in the october photo.  when I deflated the colony, there's an almost perfect hemisphere growth all the way out to the edge.  So yes, I'd say they grow much of their skeleton as the spread their base.  
 

here’s a quick iPhone pic (NR rotates my pic again, 😒). 

 

[debbeach13]

That’s some nice growth.

[spectra]

The gonis do grow there own...……..LFS has one that is the size of a softball and just tosses it into the saw and cuts the top off it...…… it grows back over itself after time...…...

 

 

[ninjamyst]

9 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

you got me curious enough to run down and take a look.  yes, it's on the same ~1.5" round frag tile shown in the october photo.  when I deflated the colony, there's an almost perfect hemisphere growth all the way out to the edge.  So yes, I'd say they grow much of their skeleton as the spread their base.  
 

here’s a quick iPhone pic (NR rotates my pic again, 😒). 

 

So do you think the size of the frag plug inhibits growth?  Now that it has covered the entire frag plug, will it stop growing???

[mitten_reef]

38 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

So do you think the size of the frag plug inhibits growth?  Now that it has covered the entire frag plug, will it stop growing???

I don’t think so. I’m sure it’ll keep going down the side of the plug. I’ll probably mount it on a rock platform, or a larger round tile once that happens. 

[mitten_reef]

A little red planet topdown action

 

and the biggest acro in the tank - got it as a small colony in a trade-in to LFS a couple years ago. 

 

[second_decimal]

Wow.. 

[Elizabeth94]

Digging the pastel color of that acro. 

[mitten_reef]

10 hours ago, second_decimal said:

Wow.. 

Thanks!

10 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Digging the pastel color of that acro. 

Me Too!  it looks a lot more interesting to have some colorful sticks, yet not having to rely on fluorescent. 

 

Rics update: could almost stitched these two pics together....check out that acan in the first one.  

 

 

up close with my fav blue/orange one

[Cannedfish]

Those ric’s look unreal... they look like a bunch of teeny tiny clowns tied a whole heap of somehow smaller balloons together and used their little scuba suits to place them in a delightful pile at the bottom of your tank. 

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

Those ric’s look unreal... they look like a bunch of teeny tiny clowns tied a whole heap of somehow smaller balloons together and used their little scuba suits to place them in a delightful pile at the bottom of your tank. 

I think this is going to be my signature...not that it matters much, but I'm on PC a lot more these days.  😂

[Pjanssen]

On 5/30/2020 at 11:09 AM, mitten_reef said:

Today’s edition of zoas

Topdown of the garden - sadly the rastas couldn’t keep up with the rest and unable to spread as much as I’d like it to. I have more rastas as standalone mini colony, it was behind a rock so forgot to get a picture of it. 

New utter chaos

Old utter chaos

SunnyD 

How do you keep your yellow zoas yellow? Mine have turned green.

[second_decimal]

I use RS AB+ And it works pretty well. Also, I am about to start dosing ATI Essentials Pro which seems to be a staple in the best looking tanks, so hopefully that will add to the color bang. 
 

@mitten_reef For what’s its worth, those don’t look like sunny d though.. I have some that look identical and they where sold to me as “tinkerbell”

 

regardless, you’re killin it lol

 

edit: I take it back, who knows what tinkerbell looks like. But sunny d is probably what I have lmao.

[mitten_reef]

10 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

How do you keep your yellow zoas yellow? Mine have turned green.

I had problem with browning zoas, especially sunny D and the old utter chaos colony, even the yellow ones were a bit muted.  

@pokerdobe suggested that it could be due to low phosphate. I was using some phosguard at the time, so I pulled it.  the color had since started coming back.  

as far as green?  I don't know.  they do receive a bit more light than I'd say people give typical zoas, being in a shallow tank next to a bunch of acroporas. I grow acros on the tank floor too 😛, albeit a bit more directly under the light than the yellow cluster, but similar spot to sunnyDs.   

my API kit hadn't registered any nitrate in a while, but it is also an expired kit.  I have new N and P test coming in the mail so I should be able to answer with those numbers more firmly soon.

so for now, my answer is probably gonna be light intensity.

[mitten_reef]

6 minutes ago, second_decimal said:

I use RS AB+ And it works pretty well. Also, I am about to start dosing ATI Essentials Pro which seems to be a staple in the best looking tanks, so hopefully that will add to the color bang. 
 

@mitten_reef For what’s its worth, those don’t look like sunny d though.. I have some that look identical and they where sold to me as “tinkerbell”

 

regardless, you’re killin it lol

i'm interested in the AB+, but just bought a new Fuel to support LFS.   

 

I'm fairly certain it's sunnyDs, the orange streaks just aren't all the way in yet, like it said it's still in recovery.  you can go wayy back to find some amazing look at the earlier colony.  

[second_decimal]

You think it’s all lighting?
 

Are you dosing though? I don’t remember. 
 

edit: I like the new sig haha. What’s fuel?

[DreC80]

19 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I had problem with browning zoas, especially sunny D and the old utter chaos colony, even the yellow ones were a bit muted.  

@pokerdobe suggested that it could be due to low phosphate. I was using some phosguard at the time, so I pulled it.  the color had since started coming back.  

as far as green?  I don't know.  they do receive a bit more light than I'd say people give typical zoas, being in a shallow tank next to a bunch of acroporas. I grow acros on the tank floor too 😛, albeit a bit more directly under the light than the yellow cluster, but similar spot to sunnyDs.   

my API kit hadn't registered any nitrate in a while, but it is also an expired kit.  I have new N and P test coming in the mail so I should be able to answer with those numbers more firmly soon.

so for now, my answer is probably gonna be light intensity.

YESSSSSSS....we gave her the same answer 🤜.  I did it in a different thread though.  I have some King Midas that I keep right near acros (300ish par) and they maintain their yellow. 

[mitten_reef]

54 minutes ago, second_decimal said:

You think it’s all lighting?
 

Are you dosing though? I don’t remember. 
 

edit: I like the new sig haha. What’s fuel?

Fuel - https://www.aquavitro.com/fuel.php  it's seachem's premium brand, meant to be distributed only in LFS.   

 

all lighting? probably not ALL, but definitely a big part of it, I think.

 

dosing? 

• big 3 (ca/alk/mg), of course. 
• Fuel, sporadically, really when I remember.
• Red Sea ABCD Colors (trace element) - sporadically.    

 

 

[mitten_reef]

So as I mentioned before (maybe?), the indo millie colony that I bought a while ago, turned out to have 3 nice-sized branches.  Well, one died shortly after I tried to cut a second frag from it, good thing it was the smallest, ugliest one.

here are the other two. They’ve lost all the fluorescence that was shown in the LFS photo. Now I’m waiting to see how it will bounce back. Now, just solid pink with green polyps. 
the bigger one:

 

and the smaller one

 

[second_decimal]

14 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Fuel - https://www.aquavitro.com/fuel.php  it's seachem's premium brand, meant to be distributed only in LFS.   

 

all lighting? probably not ALL, but definitely a big part of it, I think.

 

dosing? 

• big 3 (ca/alk/mg), of course. 
• Fuel, sporadically, really when I remember.
• Red Sea ABCD Colors (trace element) - sporadically.    

 

 

seems very similar to the AB+. maybe i will try it out once i'm done with the current bottle. it also says it eliminates the need to dose mineral elements. i have been dosing ESV 3part but i am switching to ATI Elements Pro. one of the things i like about the AB+ is that you can mix 7-10 days of usage in a doser (un-refrigerated) and keep the rest cold. not sure what the requirements are for fuel. so with 3 heads tou can hit a full dosing regiment. thanks for sharing pictures and updates.  

[mitten_reef]

More random acros stuff
a lot smaller (quantity) frag rack

 

pc rainbow

 

fire dragon and its golden tips

 

this green slimer is getting hulk-like growth acceleration

 

and the most random, unknown, yet very cool looking frag right now. 

 

a smaller piece of the above growing in the midst of other “nicer” acros, and it still catches my attention everyday. 

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

More random acros stuff
a lot smaller (quantity) frag rack

 

pc rainbow

 

fire dragon and its golden tips

 

this green slimer is getting hulk-like growth acceleration

 

and the most random, unknown, yet very cool looking frag right now. 

 

a smaller piece of the above growing in the midst of other “nicer” acros, and it still catches my attention everyday. 

 

 

 

 

So far 🤞🏼🤞🏼 All the SPS frags look very happy and in fact happier than they were in the cube. When I last checked the kh it was down to 8-9. Will see Friday what we are holding at when I do the weekly tests. So maybe someday I'll have a ridiculous SPS garden like you!

[ECLS Reefer]

Oh and I pulled a you and ended up shoot something crazy like 300 pictures today 😱

[mitten_reef]