Through the Looking Glass

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by Pife

Man your tank is amazing. You have some of the best colors I have seen.

Thank you. I am hoping colors continue to improve. I don't share the photos of the less happy coral but hopefully some of those are getting happier and starting to show better colors soon.

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Just crazy! As usual.
That Pink Floyd is amazing with those red polyps.
That z1 reminds me of Ed's rainbow. Awesome.
Mark, how long did you try the A and B? Are you still using it?

I love the RR USA Pink Floyd. I haven't seen Ed's rainbow but it must be nice, LOL. I have been trying the Red Sea Energy A and B for some weeks now but I have been traveling a lot and when I am gone the tank just gets fish food. I don't want to complicate things by asking my family to do anything more than feed the fish while I am not around. Bottomline, I have not been very consistent with that.

Here are some T5 lighting only. On my display, I turned on the two 80 watt ATI blue plus bulbs this morning and took a few photos.





A very cool monti, it came to me as pink body color but it is taking on a much more orange tint.



Reef Raft Canada Shazam I have taken a gazillion photos of this colony. It is interesting to me how sometimes under the same lighting, the coral seems to look different. Today is a happy day.

[SchnitzelReef]

Looks great mark. Can't wait for my Shazam to grow out. Your colony is amazing!

[reefmutt]

Mark, those shots are outrageous.
That first one makes me weak in the knees. The pale blue tips with white body and red pink polyps.. insane.
There are few tanks on RC with corals looking as good as yours.
Ed (bigE) has one of those tanks that is up there with yours.
Well worth a gander..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...6#post25112336

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

Looks great mark. Can't wait for my Shazam to grow out. Your colony is amazing!

Thank you. It'll be fun to compare the colonies. Reef Raft Canada Shazam is an incredible colony. I'm glad you found a frag, it was a great deal of effort for me to originally locate it. Both the colors and growth pattern are quite beautiful

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Mark, those shots are outrageous.
That first one makes me weak in the knees. The pale blue tips with white body and red pink polyps.. insane.
There are few tanks on RC with corals looking as good as yours.
Ed (bigE) has one of those tanks that is up there with yours.
Well worth a gander..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...6#post25112336

Thanks for the compliments. I have followed Big E's thread and posts for years. His tank, coral, knowledge base and helpfulness is amazing. Don't think I'd compare my tank to his although your thoughts are flattering to me. He has an amazing tank of beautiful, uncommonly colored up gems combined with years of success, a pretty rare combination. I don't know him on a personal level but wish I did

Here are some more photos shot under ati blue plus only



This following photo of Z's Blue Floyd looks so dramatic that it's hard to imagine there really were not any blue LEDs illuminating it. It is an all t5's lighting shot nonetheless . It was shot with an asa of 100 when the rest of the group were subsequently modified to an asa of 800. The two t5's bulbs just weren't putting out enough illumination given the placement of this acro at an ASA of 100 so in post production (Lightroom) I increased the exposure to lighten it up in essence. I believe adding or decreasing exposure in post production is reasonable.

Z's Blue Floyd



Continuing with t5's lighting only

Z's Prize




Z's Dream Monti

[Usernam Invalid]

....speechless 🤤

[Pife]

And the hits keep on coming. I might reach out to you in the future with some light room help. I haven't messed with it in quite sometime. That blue Floyd is a stunner, not that any of the others you posted aren't. It's special.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by watchguy123

Z's Blue Floyd

mark, this is astonishing. One of the craziest, nicest, bestest corals/photos I have ever laid my eyes on!
I will dream about this photo.

[watchguy123]

Purple Monster



Garrett's Carduis



A couple of cool chalices

[Pife]

How long have you been growing that purple monster?

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by Pife

How long have you been growing that purple monster?

I had ithe frag since around june 2015.

September 2015


December 2015


April 2016


July 2016


August 2016


February 2017


May 2017


June 2017

[reefmutt]

Wow.. like everything else in your tank, it really took off in the last year.
Love it.

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Wow.. like everything else in your tank, it really took off in the last year.
Love it.

Tank seems to be in a good place for now

I'm not sure I got the coloring correct on the Pink Lemonade. It seems so much brighter in person. The way I have flow in the tank, gyre on one side only, leads to this unusual growth pattern. Think of Carmel and wind swept cypress trees

Pink Lemonade



I had this frag of reef Raft Canada wolverine growing like crazy and then it suddenly got unhappy. I fragged my frag, let it hang out in my frag tank to rest for a while. I placed it back in its original spot in my display and it is happy once again



Couple of my Reef Raft USA Pink Floyd's





And for contrast

Z's Blue Floyd



All these Floyd's were shot under blue LEDs

[Randy27]

I need those Floyd's Gorgeous shots. Just beautiful.

[SchnitzelReef]

Looks great mark! I really need to find a purple monster, bummed my frag died. :/

[tripdad]

I was going to chime in with matt on that red one but then you post the Floyd's, wow! You have some nice corals sir!

[reefmutt]

Absolutely astounding corals, Mark.
That blue Floyd is out of this world.
Your corals are getting huge.
Your tank must be bloody unbelievable to look at.

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by Randy27

I need those Floyd's Gorgeous shots. Just beautiful.

Thank you, the Floyd's are pretty brightly colored gems indeed

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

Looks great mark! I really need to find a purple monster, bummed my frag died. :/

Thank you

Originally Posted by tripdad

I was going to chime in with matt on that red one but then you post the Floyd's, wow! You have some nice corals sir!

I think that red one is pretty cool too

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Absolutely astounding corals, Mark.
That blue Floyd is out of this world.
Your corals are getting huge.
Your tank must be bloody unbelievable to look at.

My tank is filling in. But it is a big tank 180 gallons and it takes a while to get the growth where tank shots actually look cool. Eventually, it will fill in.

Reef Raft Canada Orange Passion under blue leds





Blueberry Wine




Below is a pretty cool contrast in lighting, Blue led's make for some exciting pop in colors:

Z''s Red Hornet



Z's Red Hornet--under blue leds

[reefmutt]

Wow.. whoever Z is, I like him.

[Pife]

The more I see that blue berry wine the more I like it. Is it thin branched?

[tripdad]

Please enlighten me O' master of the swaying polyp.....who is Z and where can I get a piece of that Red Hornet?

[Arkayology]

Awesome shots!

[tmantaylor18]

I don't think I've seen better colors than you have.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by tmantaylor18

i don't think i've seen better colors than you have.

+1

[watchguy123]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Wow.. whoever Z is, I like him.

Z is perhaps the best reefer that I have seen. Truly legendary

Originally Posted by Pife

The more I see that blue berry wine the more I like it. Is it thin branched?

Ya, I think it would be considered thin branched.

Originally Posted by tripdad

Please enlighten me O' master of the swaying polyp.....who is Z and where can I get a piece of that Red Hornet?

Z is like the most popular man in the world, plus a famous reefer. I will share the secret as long as you keep it secret, he is my 4 year old grandson. Yeah, my bad, I named some coral after him. Cool coral though Z, keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by Arkayology

Awesome shots!

thank you

Originally Posted by tmantaylor18

I don't think I've seen better colors than you have.

thank you. I have a lot of coral frags and colonies and so it seems that they hit their stride sometimes at different times. So I get to pick and choose what I am sharing. I don't share the ones struggling or the duds. Not quite that brave.

I had this growing in my display and it started encroaching on some really nice sps. I did what any reefer would, I cut out what I could and epoxied the remainder over. Don't mess with my pretty sticks. I managed to save this portion of it and it is doing so well in my frag tank. I don't know if it is the t5s over the frag tank or just good fortune but this is the best color on it that I have ever seen. When I stare into the tank it looks truly unreal/fake but its not. It looks better now in the frag tank than it probably ever did in my display. Its been in the frag tank for months now but I don't really remember how long. All in all, in the hobby it doesn't get much love. Perhaps because it grows so slowly.

Darth Maul Porites.

[Pife]

I always wondered where the name came from.

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