Jack's EXT-50 Lagoon

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

I really like getting fluorescent yellows, oranges, and pinks since those colors are far less common in corals and even just a few corals in those colors really, really stand out. Also, because of the contrast, they make the corals around them look more impressive even if they are more common colors.

 

I think that was the biggest weakness in my 20g. I had way too many purple and blue corals, so they just blended right in with the rock and since I placed so many similar colored corals together, they just sort of blended together with no real contrast. Definitely trying to avoid that this time around!

Can't argue there; orange, white, yellow, and pink are my most-sought-after colors, hard to find and hard to keep them that way once you do in allot of cases lol.

Hard disagree on the second sentiment, but we all see our own tanks differently than those lookin-in' from the outside, you've spent enough time looking at yours that I've got no actual ground to argue lol.

[jservedio]

On 5/27/2021 at 12:44 PM, A.m.P said:

Hard disagree on the second sentiment, but we all see our own tanks differently than those lookin-in' from the outside, you've spent enough time looking at yours that I've got no actual ground to argue lol.

Thank you! I spend way too much time staring at my tank, so I get a little desensitized to the really nice stuff in the tank and overlook it for the weaker aspects of the tank. I think your opinion is probably more valid than my own on how it looks overall.

[jservedio]

Time for a big update! I spent a few hours this week during my maintenance finally gluing things down permanently on my new rocks and everything is really moving in the right direction. Most of the nuisance algae that popped up from dumping 15 pounds of dry rock into the tank is quickly subsiding after only 2-3 months and I'm starting to see some coralline on the new rocks. It's definitely progressing much faster than I expected and should be all cleared up in a month or two. In the next few weeks I'll be picking up a handful of new acro frags as well, so in terms of new corals I should be almost done and just letting things grow out.

 

I also got one of my Nano-Reef.com stickers on the glass - thank you @Christopher Marks!

 

 

 

 

Got three zoa/paly frags glued down on my zoa island and trimmed back the purple cap a few inches to cut back on the shading. I might add one or two more frags to the island even though I know they'll eventually get overrun. But, it'll look really nice for the time being! I placed the Utter Chaos closest to the Ding Dangs to hopefully keep them from spreading to this rock. They both grow obscenely fast, so if you want a frag just let me know! Picture is pretty dark because I shaded the lights to get it - I'll try and get a better picture that shows off the colors a bit better.

 

 

 

 

I also glued down all of my acan frags to the acan rock and I think I've got room for 2-3 more! I made the mistake of waiting way too long to move my orange/red acans off the bathroom tile and they were pretty heavily encrusted on the tile. Instead of just popping right off, I had to dremel and nip the tile around the acan. I was able to get it pretty close, but there is definitely bathroom tile on that rock now. I need to work on getting some more colors in there.

 

 

 

 

Since getting my skimmer I've been able to feed frozen much, much more often than I used to so my LPS are going nuts coloring up. Took this focal stack of my old Orange Crush Echinata. While the orange has always been bright, the light blue and purple have been even close to this nice.

 

 

 

 

I also removed my long polyp toadstool from the rock it was on since it was only 6" from my nem and my clowns were constantly nipping at it. With the toadstool moved, I added some WWC Horizons to the rock the toadstool was on with a couple stylos and was able to tuck it into the scape so it doesn't look so out of place anymore. I hope that purple stylo gets overtaken by the green one because it sure is ugly as hell!

 

 

 

 

The SPS has finally hit it's stride in the new tank and is taking off. The explosion of growth has continued for the last couple of months and it looks likes it's time to start cutting again. Anyone want a WWC Yellow Tips? I'll have 3-4 frags cut in the next few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Even though it barely stands out in FTS pictures because it has almost no vertical growth. my bubblegum digi is actually pretty big and covers almost a 5" area. Hopefully it'll start growing upward now!

 

[A.m.P]

Looking incredible!

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah this reef has really moved into the next level. Very well executed indeed 

[jservedio]

17 hours ago, Murphych said:

Yeah this reef has really moved into the next level. Very well executed indeed 

 

19 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Looking incredible!

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

[jservedio]

Since making so many changes, I decided to take another FTS shot that's straight on. Already a lot of progress in just a few weeks.

 

 

[jservedio]

The new lights are definitely starting to work their magic. I'm starting to get a cool "painted" pattern on the base of my Boomberry acro, which looks absolutely nothing like all the other local samples of the same coral. Almost every one I've seen is a very light blue with light purple tips and dark purple polyps. Mine is almost entirely dark purple and dark green, but the base is getting a lot fluorescent green to it. I wonder if this is just because it's jumbled up and been fighting for two years with a couple of other acros and is picking up color from them? It has zero resemblance to the mother colony 2-3 years out.

 

 

 

This is a picture of the mother colony that I got mine from:

 

 

 

My Red Planet has fully recovered from me accidentally drying it out and leaving it on my desk for a few hours. Here is what it looked like less than a week after the incident:

 

And here is what it looks like now all colored back up, better than it's ever looked and looking like it's about to throw up some new branches:

 

[jservedio]

My RBTA has been growing incredibly fast as well since with only two fish and a big skimmer, I am able to feed it 2-3x a week now. Not too shabby for less than 4 months worth of growth!

 

Now:

 

 

Beginning of March:

 

[Murphs_Reef]

How are you finding the BTA? Is it staying put? I had mine 3 days and it's finally decided it likes a spot... Behind the rock or course! But at least it's not sitting right in the middle of my man eaters like it was for the first day... All of which are closed tight for now 🤣

[jservedio]

18 hours ago, Murphych said:

How are you finding the BTA? Is it staying put? I had mine 3 days and it's finally decided it likes a spot... Behind the rock or course! But at least it's not sitting right in the middle of my man eaters like it was for the first day... All of which are closed tight for now 🤣

I've actually never had a BTA go on the run before. I spend a lot of time making sure it's going to stay put before I give it a chance to run or let go. I also do my best to isolate them so if they want to move, they have no choice but to let go and as long as they aren't tiny little babies, they never let go. If they are tiny babies, I keep them locked up in a food container until a little bigger.

 

The only problems I've ever had with them are just them getting huge in a small tank. Though, they are super easy to trade/sell! I'm actually thinking of adding another BTA to this tank on the same rock. It's pretty big and as long as they are on opposite ends of the rock, should be able to hold both until they are really big.

[Murphs_Reef]

I'll say it again. It's a well thought out tank you have. Really enjoy how it's structure... 

Hopefully my BTA is settled now. I can just about see if from the front.. 

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, Murphych said:

I'll say it again. It's a well thought out tank you have. Really enjoy how it's structure... 

Hopefully my BTA is settled now. I can just about see if from the front.. 

Thank you very much!

 

At least you can see it from the front, mostly - yours could definitely be in a much worse spot! By far the nicest thing in my tank is my yellow rainbow maxi-mini nem and it's hiding behind my rockwork. It refuses to move and it's foot is super deeply embedded on a rock I can't take out of the tank. I really, really should have removed it when I broke down the 20g, but it's too late now unless I pull everything apart.

 

 

 

 

At least the nem staying there has a silver lining - it's only about 5" back from the glass and is in an evenly shaded spot, so I can take fantastic pictures of it! I'll have to re-do this picture now with my new lights since the nem is a little more colored up now.

 

[jservedio]

I think it might be time to very heavily trim the monti caps. I pulled out the tape measure today and from corner to corner, the two caps measure 15" across! Hopefully cutting them back will coax them to grow a little more vertically/layered. In any case, if I turned them so they were straight across, they'd take up slightly more than half of the tank and that's just too much for such a plain coral. Had to shoot it through the surface without a porthole because you can't get the entire thing through the porthole. The centerline of the two reflected pucks on the left is the exact center of the tank!

 

[Pjanssen]

The idaho grape is stunning. You will likely get a decent price for frags at your LFS. Good luck get it to frag off where you want it too!

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

The idaho grape is stunning. You will likely get a decent price for frags at your LFS. Good luck get it to frag off where you want it too!

Thank you! My LFS stopped buying frags recently so no trade in credit, but I've been selling them cut to order locally for years now. I've actually considered USPS priority shipping frags of this, so if you want to be a guinea pig I'll ship you one for just postage (like $8-9).

 

I generally only frag entire plates that jut out so it's easy to frag, but I've turned trimming them into kind of an art. The whole plate that is overhanging the mandarin zoas was actually trimmed last week by about an inch and you already can't tell. I pinch the edge of the plate with my thumb and pointer fingernails and nip off off maybe 1/8" of cap at a time and it is very accurate. Unfortunately, the shards left behind just end up in the sand or flushed because they are way too small to mount.

[Pjanssen]

43 minutes ago, jservedio said:

if you want to be a guinea pig I'll ship you one for just postage (like $8-9).

Thanks, but I already have one. Of course it's not doing as well as it was since it's in a holding tank that I don't dose, but hopefully will come back to it's glory once I get it transferred into the new tank.

[jservedio]

4 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Thanks, but I already have one. Of course it's not doing as well as it was since it's in a holding tank that I don't dose, but hopefully will come back to it's glory once I get it transferred into the new tank.

Well it shouldn't need to be in holding for too long - the new tank looks awesome. I'm sure it'll come back quickly. My stuff was looking pretty rough after only 3 weeks in holding, but bounced right back.

[jservedio]

Went a little crazy over the last couple of days with the camera practicing focus stacks and reshooting the maxi-mini, hope you enjoy them!

 

Here is a six shot stack of one of the more colorful polyps on my Orange Crush Echinata:

 

 

This is the most ambitious stack I've ever done at 21 shots of the Reverse Bleeding Apple Bowerbanki

 

 

Here are two shots of my absurd, actually every color of the rainbow, maxi-mini:

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to believe the maxi-mini is that absurdly colorful, but here is the first shot in Lightroom before I adjust down the blue channel (-38), bump the red channel (+4), and resize/export in Photoshop. Literally zero vibrance and saturation. It's that stupidly colorful. Not too shabby for $35 (and more than six years of coloring it up)...

[jservedio]

Not a good photo since it's entirely behind my rockwork, but I wanted to get this picture on here as a starting point to keep track of progress.

 

This is my "orange mutant" Hollywood Stunner chalice that I've had for almost 10 years now. This is the 4th time I've killed and resurrected this coral and I've fragged this at least half a dozen times where I kept the frag and sold the mother. When I set up the 50g, I couldn't get it off the rock and it is exactly where I needed to stack more rock on top of - so my main SPS shelf was sitting directly on top of this. I just wrote off the coral and let it become part of my liverock since it can't be seen from the front or sides. It received absolutely zero light from the day I set up the tank until I got my new lights and re-scaped a bit. It was in total darkness and was buried under rock for just a few days shy of 6 months. I thought it was totally dead when I re-scaped since there was no flesh, no visible polyps, no color, and it was entirely covered in algae.

 

In just one month of being exposed to the light again, not only did the polyps start coming back and growing a little surrounding flesh, but they colored up like crazy. This is the most indestructible coral I've ever had. I bet it'll make some wild textures and layers when the polyps start meeting up.

 

 

 

Also, after just 6 months, my sump is totally full of life thanks to my really, really old rock in the display tank. I have no rock in the sump (yet), but this all sprung up in a such a short period of time. This was likely helped along by the first major accident I had in this tank: I shut down the return pump without shutting down the skimmer first and overflowed 3-4 weeks worth of skimmate into the sump. Haven't been able to run the skimmer for the last couple weeks, but I've been running lots of carbon to soak some of it up and doing a few water changes and it's almost there - can probably turn it back on in another 3-4 days and another water change. The SPS lost a tiny bit of color, but everything else was absolutely loving the organic overload.

 

 

 

[jservedio]

I feel like I'm at a point with the new tank where I'm ready to start filling it in with more acros, but need some help with placement and color combinations. I've always been terrible at placing corals (especially SPS...) in the best places for their growth forms and have a habit for grouping colors together and having corals look like they all run together. I would very much like to avoid that in this tank, so please help me get it right this time!

 

Here is where I see available space for more acros in this tank without going too overboard. While 1/2 look like they are getting stuffed in, there is actually about 6" front to back between the setosa and cap, so actually a ton of space.

 

 

 

Here are my thoughts on what acros to place where. I am not totally set on anything and if you think a different acro would look awesome in a particular spot - I am open to all opinions!

 

1/2: I am thinking of putting in a pair of tenuis in these two spots. I am thinking a Walt Disney for #1 and an SC Orange Passion for #2. I thought the yellow polyps on each, with fairly different base colors would look cool. However, I am worried they may end up looking too similar. If you have a suggestion for a better tenuis or other acro let me know!.

 

3: Vivid Confetti exactly where those zoas are, maybe slightly higher. I thought this would be bright enough pink to stand out from the big purple confusa to the right. Definitely one of my favorite acros - especially seeing the pictures of it in @pokerdobe's ToTM photos.

 

4. Pink Lemonade just behind the peak of the rock. There is a TON of space back there on the back side of the rock and I have almost no yellow in the tank. I thought this would contrast a lot with the purple, pink, and green of the other corals on this rock.

 

5. Any darker colored deepwater acro. Maybe a echinata, carolinian, granulosa or suharsonoi? Something that would have a totally different growth form, need less light, and be darker colored.

 

Let me know your thoughts.

 

@mitten_reef I'm tagging you in this because you really helped me take the corals I had in my old 20g and really turn them into something. I'm hoping you can work your magic again!

[pokerdobe]

It's totally been a while since I've come back to NR lol. Thanks for the tag. 

 

1/2 -> Both WD and SCOP are definitely classics - but I would be hesitant on pairing the two together, mostly because there might not be enough color contrast to really have the two stand out from each other. Considering how good they both can look, it'd be a shame to have them blend into each other. A CB under high par will turn very pink and the reddish polyps are kind of cool if you want something a bit more contrasty. 

 

3 -> In my tank, the Vivid has been more of a tabling acro, so there's some slight concerns it could shade spot 5, but otherwise, I'm all for this. Mid tank positioning has been best for my confetti so this spot looks great. You could probably just keep trimming it to prevent shading issues on 5. One note - the confetti looked like a pale dud when it was a frag for me and I've seen it lose color when first transplanted down enough times. 

 

4 -> My lemonade has also developed a pseudo table structure, but it could be a function of flow. I do think however, the pink floyd has a more discrete yellow tone to it, whereas the PL really needs some fine tuning in order to mitigate lime green notes. 

 

5-> How do you feel about a fox flame? I really, really like fox flames. RR firecracker is a nice sub too. 

[pokerdobe]

I take back what I said about 5, since you'll already have pink, the reds of the fox flame and firecracker will not contrast well. 

 

I've always been a fan of the hawkins. 

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, pokerdobe said:

It's totally been a while since I've come back to NR lol. Thanks for the tag. 

 

1/2 -> Both WD and SCOP are definitely classics - but I would be hesitant on pairing the two together, mostly because there might not be enough color contrast to really have the two stand out from each other. Considering how good they both can look, it'd be a shame to have them blend into each other. A CB under high par will turn very pink and the reddish polyps are kind of cool if you want something a bit more contrasty. 

 

3 -> In my tank, the Vivid has been more of a tabling acro, so there's some slight concerns it could shade spot 5, but otherwise, I'm all for this. Mid tank positioning has been best for my confetti so this spot looks great. You could probably just keep trimming it to prevent shading issues on 5. One note - the confetti looked like a pale dud when it was a frag for me and I've seen it lose color when first transplanted down enough times. 

 

4 -> My lemonade has also developed a pseudo table structure, but it could be a function of flow. I do think however, the pink floyd has a more discrete yellow tone to it, whereas the PL really needs some fine tuning in order to mitigate lime green notes. 

 

5-> How do you feel about a fox flame? I really, really like fox flames. RR firecracker is a nice sub too. 

Thank you very much!

 

The WD is much easier to get my hands on locally, so I'll go with that for #1. I was hesitant about the SCOP because I'd have to ship it, plus I wasn't sure if it'd contrast enough with the WD so I'll go back to the drawing board on the #2 acro. Maybe I'll just put my Castells Banana there since I've got it already and there isn't a ton of green there?

 

There is actually quite a bit of room between #3 and #5 - it's just the angle, there is about 6" and I can always trim it or add more lights! The monti would be directly above #5 and I frag that constantly since it's pretty ugly and already takes up a ton of space anyway.

 

For #4 thanks for the suggestion, I have a local source for the Pink Floyd, so that might be a better option. If not, pink lemonade are super easy to find and very cheap!

 

 

1 hour ago, pokerdobe said:

I take back what I said about 5, since you'll already have pink, the reds of the fox flame and firecracker will not contrast well. 

 

I've always been a fan of the hawkins. 

Yeah I'm a huge fan of the hawkins as well, and had one in the 20g that I ended up losing during the transfer to the 50. At least it was the only loss. This is what I really want to put there, but I lost it like 6 or 7 years ago and have no idea WTF it was (sorry, really bad picture).

 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

It's totally been a while since I've come back to NR lol. Thanks for the tag. 

 

1/2 -> Both WD and SCOP are definitely classics - but I would be hesitant on pairing the two together, mostly because there might not be enough color contrast to really have the two stand out from each other. Considering how good they both can look, it'd be a shame to have them blend into each other. A CB under high par will turn very pink and the reddish polyps are kind of cool if you want something a bit more contrasty. 

 

3 -> In my tank, the Vivid has been more of a tabling acro, so there's some slight concerns it could shade spot 5, but otherwise, I'm all for this. Mid tank positioning has been best for my confetti so this spot looks great. You could probably just keep trimming it to prevent shading issues on 5. One note - the confetti looked like a pale dud when it was a frag for me and I've seen it lose color when first transplanted down enough times. 

 

4 -> My lemonade has also developed a pseudo table structure, but it could be a function of flow. I do think however, the pink floyd has a more discrete yellow tone to it, whereas the PL really needs some fine tuning in order to mitigate lime green notes. 

 

5-> How do you feel about a fox flame? I really, really like fox flames. RR firecracker is a nice sub too. 

 

2 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

I take back what I said about 5, since you'll already have pink, the reds of the fox flame and firecracker will not contrast well. 

 

I've always been a fan of the hawkins. 

from choice of acros, pretty much what he said, lol.  you already narrowed down to some of the must-have's.  and CB is the Cherry Bomb tenuis, its pinkish/reddish polyps should make for good contrast against WD (but i've been told they could be finicky with showing their best coloration)

 

for #5 spot, it isn't all that low from lighting perspective, so i'd say explore a "true" table - this will give you one extra dimension in growth form.  for idea, search for Battle Coral aquaticman, PC Superman, these two have very tight small vertical branches that spread horizontally - there are some more out there, but the names escape me atm.  if you can't search and find colony photos, don't go with anything with just 'table' in the name, lol, fair warning.  for example, I don't personally classify the red planet as a table.  to me, only acropora anthocercis (old school terra del fuego) and hyancinthus (two above examples) are the two tabling growth forms worth waiting for.  like @pokerdobe said, most corals will grow into a table-ish form given enough space and time to grow and proper husbandry - and he knows that cuz he got a bunch of palm-sized slabs (some even bigger) in his tank, lol.    

 

If you really want to stick with the original idea of deepwater-type, try searching for a granulosa species.  again, ymmv on who call their acros 'granulosa'.  but if you see enough of them, you'll get the idea what could be the real deal.  it gives you that smooth look that you lost a while back. 

 

also, while we're on the aquascape topic, one constructive criticism if I may.  prune that tort in the center of the tank, and hopefully it'll regrow with proper side corallites and branches now that you have plenty of flow and light for them.  I'd say trim a couple branches down to about 1/2" off the crust and see how they regrow, if you like the new growth, move on the to the next leggy branches, you have an awesome base for a massive feature colony.