Josh's Softy Reef(s)

[ptora]

That's so awesome you found one, which LFS was this?

[joshthebox]

58 minutes ago, ptora said:

That's so awesome you found one, which LFS was this?

exotic aquarium world! He has a ton of large frags 😃 I rarely ever go to that store so I just happened to luck out and visit at the perfect time! 

[Firefish15]

Looks beautiful! Does it aggressively cover rockwork like xenia or anthelia? Or is it more slow growing?

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, Firefish15 said:

Looks beautiful! Does it aggressively cover rockwork like xenia or anthelia? Or is it more slow growing?

I could be mistaken, but I believe most blue anthelia is usually cespitularia, so kind of.
Still quickish growing but nothing like anthelia.

[joshthebox]

2 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Looks beautiful! Does it aggressively cover rockwork like xenia or anthelia? Or is it more slow growing?

I think blue cespitularia grows slow. I hear it's a lot more sensitive to parameters compared to xenia etc. and that it can melt if unhappy. 

[joshthebox]

1 hour ago, A.m.P said:

I could be mistaken, but I believe most blue anthelia is usually cespitularia, so kind of.
Still quickish growing but nothing like anthelia.

According to google, this is what blue anthelia looks like 

 

I can see the resemblance but they're definitely not the same. I'm curious to see how fast mine grows! 

[A.m.P]

For what it's worth violet Cespitularia is a nicer, more difficult to find, coral anyway.

[joshthebox]

Tiny Limpet. Didn't even notice it's eyes until I used the camera to get a closer look. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Looks like you have a tiny friend

 

[ptora]

On 3/9/2022 at 8:03 PM, joshthebox said:

exotic aquarium world! He has a ton of large frags 😃 I rarely ever go to that store so I just happened to luck out and visit at the perfect time! 

Ha! I still need to go there and check it out. 

[joshthebox]

1 hour ago, Chowder's Reef said:

Looks like you have a tiny friend

 

Haha awesome!!!!! 

[joshthebox]

Zoas are pretty cool! One of these days i'm going to get a frag of rastas, they're beautiful. 

[Pjanssen]

I love Zoas, and yours are beautiful. For some strange reason, every time I get rastas, they just melt away.

[Pjanssen]

On 11/23/2021 at 1:41 PM, joshthebox said:

 

Can you please tell me what this is? I love it!

 

[Pjanssen]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:02 PM, joshthebox said:

A friend of mine mentioned that using an extension tube can pretty much turn a zoom lens into a macro one

Can you possibly explain this, photography for dummies style? I have an expensive macro ens, but can't get shots to look like that!

[joshthebox]

50 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

I love Zoas, and yours are beautiful. For some strange reason, every time I get rastas, they just melt away.

Thanks!

 

I had them in the past (sold them, now I regret it), and yeah I felt the same way. They were very tricky to keep happy. I think the key with them is to start with an established frag instead of a freshly cut single/double polyp frag.

50 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

 

Turbinaria reniformis 😃

[joshthebox]

49 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Can you possibly explain this, photography for dummies style? I have an expensive macro ens, but can't get shots to look like that!

I'm no photography expert by any means! A friend of mine told me to try extension tubes, which are pretty much just extensions for your lens to push it father away from the camera sensor. In doing this, a regular zoom lens can focus at very close distances instead of far ones. I use the zoom on the lens to 'focus' on the subject 😃 

 

Here's an article on it https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/macro-photography-with-extension-tubes.577389/

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 3/12/2022 at 8:32 PM, joshthebox said:

Haha awesome!!!!! 

Too kind sir haha

[joshthebox]

Dinos popped back up again, I am tempted to add sand into the tank but I'm trying my best to resist. Switched back to a very white spectrum (2 blue +, a coral +, and a 6500K bulb) as I haven't noticed much benefit from running all blue + bulbs, and I generally prefer the daylight look anyways. The tank is mostly softies and clams, which i'd argue, look their best under daylight. The clowns have decided to lay eggs on the back glass instead of the rock work for a change. The nepthea hides the eggs very well, here's a photo of the male clownfish guarding his eggs like a good dad would. 

[joshthebox]

New fish I got from work - a two-spot blenny! I had one in the past, they're so cute to watch. Cespitularia is also growing extremely well, I should have a colony in no time! 

[joshthebox]

Full tank shot. Still dealing with a bit of dinoflagellates, but I think they're going away. I've decided to switch to water-changing once a month to reduce this reoccurring problem with dinos. The zoas and the yellow fiji leather always seem to respond the worst to the dinos (shrinking in size, closing up). I'm positive it sets back their growth substantially. 

 

[joshthebox]

Went to Reef Raft Canada this weekend, all I can say is wow. He runs T5, and just seeing the colour makes me want to go back to T5 only. That store was the reason why I tried T5 in the first place lol. Every time I go there, I'm just blown away. 

[joshthebox]

Nothing like daylight 

 

 

[joshthebox]

Another GIF. Sort of gives an idea of the flow in the tank. I run reef crest. Ideally i'd have the pumps facing each other to get a nice standing wave, but they look better on the back wall. Still trying to get rid of the dinos 

[joshthebox]

A buddy of mine went to a store quite a ways away, and picked up a cultured Indonesian blue squamosa for me. I was under the impression it was going to be around 4" from the store's photos, so I was surprised and a bit worried to see it being a little under 2" or so. It isn't attaching very well so I glued some rocks around it to prevent the clam from tipping over. Trying to not get too attached to it because tiny clams can be hit or miss... 

 

 

I also started dosing nitrate and phosphate again because I felt the clams grew significantly faster when I was dosing them.