🐻’s Reef

[BearTheSquare]

Few weeks in the tank and I’m seeing some new babies coming out 🙂

[BearTheSquare]

I’m normally not a big name guy when it comes to zoanthids, but I do like knowing what I’ve got in my tank (especially my favorite pieces). I had been looking for a different ID on this zoa for a long time. I was told nebula people eaters, but couldn’t find anything. Finally found an actual ID that I think is right...

 

Hawaiian People Eaters:

 

And a quick picture of the goblins on fire, three new baby heads are starting to grow in. Started with only 3 polyps and it’s looking like they’re starting to take off:

[Daniel91]

I love GOF - tons of bright color and a fast grower (when adapted) for most.

[BearTheSquare]

9 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

I love GOF - tons of bright color and a fast grower (when adapted) for most.

Yeah when I got them their polyps were super small. Once they grew to the size of my other zoas they started to grow. I’m guessing I bought some freshly cut baby polyps awhile back, because I thought they were always just going to stay that size. They’re definitely one of the brightest corals I’ve seen though!

[Daniel91]

1 hour ago, BearTheSquare said:

Yeah when I got them their polyps were super small. Once they grew to the size of my other zoas they started to grow. I’m guessing I bought some freshly cut baby polyps awhile back, because I thought they were always just going to stay that size. They’re definitely one of the brightest corals I’ve seen though!

Yeah, this happend to me for my Oompa Loompa - as soon as the one polyp became bigger, the babies started poppin out

[BearTheSquare]

Been awhile, here’s a couple pictures from around the tank:

 

 

 

[BearTheSquare]

Rastas 🙂

 

[Christopher Marks]

How's the zoanthid collection coming along @BearTheSquare? Love those scrambled eggs!

 

It was neat to see your 1st nano reef photos from back in the day on page 2!

[BearTheSquare]

Been awhile since I’ve updated this thread. Got really busy between school, recruitment for my fraternity, and finishing my internship out. 

 

On 9/23/2019 at 5:54 PM, Christopher Marks said:

How's the zoanthid collection coming along @BearTheSquare? Love those scrambled eggs!

 

It was neat to see your 1st nano reef photos from back in the day on page 2!

Thanks for checking back on the thread! The scrambled eggs might need to be trimmed back pretty soon, but they’re so bright it’s making it tough for me. The collection as a whole are growing really well, but I ran into a bit of a byprosis issue during a span of not doing much with the tank for about three weeks and I’m just now seeing the end of that hopefully. So I should be good to add about two or three more zoas before they fill in the rock; fire & ice, magicians, and something else that I haven’t decided yet. Thanks for looking back through the thread and checking out the old tank too, it ended up being a Red Sea Xenia paradise for my maroon clownfish until I transferred it to my family’s 75 gallon 😂

 

Anyways, here are some long overdue shots of the tank that I finally had time to take. Currently I’m really happy with how everything’s going and just deciding on future corals to add. 

 

October 8, 2019 FTS:

 

Left side shot:

 

Right side shot:

 

ORA Pearlberry is still doing really well, thinking about adding a tyree pink lemonade next week from a local reefer:

 

Going to get some close ups of the coral after my camera gets charged up. Pretty excited to have some more time to spend actually taking care of the tank again now that life has calmed down a little bit. Should be updating this a lot more in the next couple months.

[BearTheSquare]

Also here’s my high fin goby that’s actually been in this tank since April, but I barely ever saw him until last month when he started getting more comfortable in the tank. Never posted about him in here because I could never get a picture lol.

[billygoat]

Beautiful photos! It's great to see that everything is still going well. Glad to see you back Bear! 😊

[BearTheSquare]

Thanks @billygoat, I’m gonna have to read through your thread since it’s been awhile.  How’s everything been going in the tank?

[billygoat]

13 hours ago, BearTheSquare said:

Thanks @billygoat, I’m gonna have to read through your thread since it’s been awhile.  How’s everything been going in the tank?

I post quite a lot so don't feel compelled to wade through the entire thing! 😅 Things have been going well though, thanks for asking! Next week will mark 10 months since I started the system, and I am pleased with how it's been going so far.

 

I can't get over all the awesome feather dusters you've got. It seems like they've gotten even bigger and more numerous in the past few months!

[BearTheSquare]

2 hours ago, billygoat said:

 

I can't get over all the awesome feather dusters you've got. It seems like they've gotten even bigger and more numerous in the past few months!

Not sure how interested you’d be or how well they’d ship, but I have about 30 completely covering a rock that I’d like to put my cyphastrea on (bottom right side of the tank). They’re all calcified in tubes and will continue to get messed with every time I clean that corner anyways. They’re pretty hardy so I’m sure they wouldn’t need more than flat rate shipping honestly.

[BearTheSquare]

This Yuma has budded off three babies that are just starting to color up. Pretty amazed at how fast this coral grows because I don’t remember my Ricordea Florida growing/reproducing nearly as much.

 

June 28:

 

Today (excuse the two pieces of BA that I’m nervous will spread if I pull):

[BearTheSquare]

Much needed water change for a late night study break. Under the blues

 

 

 

Top down (pink monti cap has colored up so much since I got it (it was completely white)):

 

Most recent addition, meteor shower Cyphastrea:

[BearTheSquare]

Went in on a group buy and ordered 4 Bhergia Nudibranchs which should be in next Thursday. Really excited because everything I’ve been doing to get rid of the aptasia seems to be making it worse. I’ve been trying to hold off on buying corals until they’re all gone, so hopefully in a month or two I’ll be able to add what I want (lots of zoas I’ve been thinking about).

 

Side note: has anyone ordered from cherry corals that can say a little about it? So far every review I’ve seen looks positive

[BearTheSquare]

Sad news first, the goby ended up jumping during a water change last week and my dog got to him before I even noticed it happened. It was sad to see, but at least my dogs stomach reacted to it better than the Pedigree dog food I started him on when he was a puppy.

 

Now for the better news...

 

Nudibranchs come in Thursday and I’m hoping they can rid the tank of aptasia before about February (it’s out of control). Once they’re all gone I’ll feel a lot more comfortable adding the rest of the coral that I want and letting the tank fill in on it’s own.

 

Corals I’m going to add:

• Purple-Tip Hammer
• A few more acans
• Zoanthids (looking at a bunch on cherry corals)
• Possibly a few easier to care for acros

Corals I’m going to take out:

• Toadstool (don’t like where it’s at and don’t have anywhere to move it)
• Nebula/Hawaiian People Eaters (just bored with them and think a different zoa would look better in their spot)

Also, finally got around to taking some more pictures around the tank...

 

Clownfish is doing really well, thinking about getting a mate for it pretty soon now that’s it’s beefed up a little and the goby is gone (either black storm or Wyoming white):

 

 

 

Still can’t believe how fast this hammer has grown in this tank. I think I’m going to try and fill the entire mid level of the tank with Euphyllia:

June 9th-

November 18th-

 

And if anyone has any tips on photographing acros I’d love to hear them. I just can’t seem to get the color right no matter what settings I try:

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Maybe a quick recap of how you’re taking photos currently, light settings and what camera(s) you use, etc?

[Ratvan]

What colours seem off? That'd give a clue to the spectrum you're not picking up

[BearTheSquare]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Maybe a quick recap of how you’re taking photos currently, light settings and what camera(s) you use, etc?

Yeah I guess I should’ve included that in the original post lol. The camera is a Nikon D3200.

 

Camera Settings I’ve used most:

• Manual Mode
• Raw
• ISO- 400
• Aperture 1/50

 

After editing on pictures is turning down shadows on Snapseed and turning up temperature.

 

Light Settings (AI Prime HD):

This photo shows closer to the actual color of the acro, but the picture in whole looks too blue (no orange gel filter):

 

I like this picture better, but the colors are very pale in this (I saw something about the 80% all colors setting on AI prime helps with taking pictures):

 

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

What colours seem off? That'd give a clue to the spectrum you're not picking up

I guess it just looks much more pale in photographs, I really think it’s mostly a white balance issue. But at the same time the only time I’ve ever picked up a camera is trying to get some shots of my tank so I might just be doing it all wrong. The green in the first picture of this post is about right, but I can’t get the purple to show with my schedule lighting.

[mitten_reef]

2 minutes ago, BearTheSquare said:

Yeah I guess I should’ve included that in the original post lol. The camera is a Nikon D3200.

 

Camera Settings I’ve using most:

• Manual Mode
• Raw
• ISO- 400
• Aperture 1/50

Light Settings (AI Prime HD):

This photo shows closer to the actual color of the acro, but the picture in whole looks too blue (no orange gel filter):

 

I like this picture better, but the colors are very pale in this (I saw something about the 80% all colors setting on AI prime helps with taking pictures):

 

I guess it just looks much more pale in photographs, I really think it’s mostly a white balance issue. But at the same time the only time I’ve ever picked up a camera is trying to get some shots of my tank so I might just be doing it all wrong. The green in the first picture of this post is about right, but I can’t get the purple to show with my schedule lighting.

Yes even channels gives better colors in photos, speaking from experience. See that little round wheel next to “Done”?  I used to use that to dial the color to 15000K-16000K, most photos came out pretty good without needing further adjustment. 

 

If your corals come out dimmed or dark, you should adjust shutter speed/aperture - they’re kinda work opposite of each other if I recall correctly. 

 

Additional color correction can be done via DSLR internal white balance setting. It helps take the “edge” off of the blue led, you have to play with your camera settings and light setting to find the one that works best together.  For example, I have a “photo mode” on my light that isn’t necessarily the same as my regular viewing schedule to help offset the blue led challenge. 

 

Hope some one of that is useful. 

[BearTheSquare]

@mitten_reef

 

Thank you for the response it was very helpful! I’m going to give it a try tomorrow and see what works. I’ve tried setting a custom white balance on the camera so many times but just can’t seem to get it right. Maybe I’ll have better luck with those light settings and messing with the aperture tomorrow. Thanks again! 

[BearTheSquare]

Still going to keep messing around with the settings, but the color spectrum really helped out @mitten_reef.

 

Some shots of the Pearlberry today:

the color is spot on in this one:

 

And a bit of a growth update from when I added (edited very bad) to now for comparison. I really thought it hadn’t grown at all until looking at these side by side:

 

[mitten_reef]

 

i really like that shot^ 😄. Is the pearlberry just losing some of the pearly-ness as it grows? It sure grew quite a bit. Nice to have old pics to compare to.