Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[FloformAustria]

Matt you are killing me with those random I just point the camera somewhere and still amazing corals shots
I need water

[shih87]

Amazing shot and excellent coral color.
I forgot what nutrition level you keep in your tank. Mind to remind me again?

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by FloformAustria

Matt you are killing me with those random I just point the camera somewhere and still amazing corals shots
I need water

thanks Flo.. I guess calling those shots 'random' is a bit conceited on my part because of course, being a photographer yourself, you know that any image that you finally show to people has been well fixed and 'prepared' for viewing before you let it 'out there'

Originally Posted by shih87

Amazing shot and excellent coral color.
I forgot what nutrition level you keep in your tank. Mind to remind me again?

Thanks Shih,
Up until last month, N was around 50ppm and P was around .17
It had been there 6-8 months- since last November or so..
One month ago I re started a cheato fuge. That has pulled n down to around 15 and p to .15.
Once I see n stabilize, I will direct my attention to p.

[berlin-riff]

all looks very heathy great job !

[reefmutt]

Thanks, Dennis!

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by Big E

Niiiice Matt,

I love that Melanarus shot.............do you have any standard settings for fish pics? Or some tips?

Is there a current colony shot of that pink matrix............I want to see more of it.

Ok, Ed. Took some shots of my pink matrix pieces as well as the so called rr Lady In Pink. You tell me if there is any difference.
Here is my original piece. Current colony shot:

When I had my alk spike last October, a couple arms rtned but then recovered. That is why it is so irregular.
Couple close ups..
This is the centre. The original frag. It never grew from the end of the original frag, only out from the base..

Here's an arm shot..

A new shoot..


Ok here are two other pieces from the same vendor.. the smaller piece is all that is left from a mini colony that all dies during the alk spike except for the small piece. The lower piece, I bought a couple months after the spike to ensure I had a piece because I thought I was going to lose all of the pink matrix colonies..

Closer of the survivor..

Closer of the replacement..

Another angle just because I got it!

I assume that all of these pieces come from the same mother colony.

I must say I am liking my new viewing box. No scratches. Very clear.
Next I'll post shots of the Lady in pink which came from a different vendor..

[reefmutt]

Lady In Pink..
Colony shot:

A few close ups




I really don't see a difference between these shots and the las post.. I really think it's the same coral..
Thoughts?

[Pife]

It looks the same to me too. It is incredible how good your tank and pictures look! Did you harvest your cheato? Does your no3 go up briefly when you do?

[Big E]

Thanks Matt, that piece is stunning!

It's refreshing to see a true rainbow tenuis colony with proven colors under normal lighting.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by Pife

It looks the same to me too. It is incredible how good your tank and pictures look! Did you harvest your cheato? Does your no3 go up briefly when you do?

Thanks,Pife! I pulled out a good 1/3 of my cheato over the weekend because it was turning brown at the surface where it was getting pushed out of the water. I haven't tested no3. I'll try to do that tonight. I was too busy taking photos yesterday! I don't anticipate seeing a dramatic change and actually with that salifert test kit, it's pretty difficult to see changes of less than 10 ppm when the numbers are high to begin with.
A buddy who is setting up a new tank, and was making some sumps out of acrylic, made me a viweing box from his left overs. It has no fine scratches in it like my old box.

Originally Posted by Big E

Thanks Matt, that piece is stunning!

It's refreshing to see a true rainbow tenuis colony with proven colors under normal lighting.

Thanks Ed. Yeah, when only the blue leds are on late at night, it's a different looking coral..
It occurred to me that all three pieces are located at the same height in my tank and are also all located almost directly under a 150w mh. The smaller pair of pieces probably see a bit more par because they are right in the middle of the tank..
but under different lighting, and/or different nutrient/dosing conditions, this coral could look completely different and therefore get given different names..
The little survivor nub- upper piece in this shot:

Looked very different last year..
Here it is against my (now dead-alk shift) Oregon tort:
THIS IS FROM AUG. '16

Maybe under higher light, it would change even more, or under leds, the red polyps could be accentuated..
Anyways... Rainbow tennis is a much more apt name for the coral..

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by Pife

It looks the same to me too. It is incredible how good your tank and pictures look! Did you harvest your cheato? Does your no3 go up briefly when you do?

Did an no3 test with salifert. Definitely no raise in no3 after harvest. Actually I think they have gone down some more.. I think to around 10ppm..
Looking from the top, it is hard to tell but when looking though the side, I am definitely between the 100 and 50 colour patches.. that would indicate below 10ppm but the top down view looks a bit higher..

I may have to reduce the hours of my cheato photoperiod.. I don't want n much lower than this...
Wow,.. I can't believe I'm saying that.. been a long time...

[Wrangy]

Just gorgeous Matt! Way to show my pictures up though

[biggles]

Those are the most impressive set of acro images i've ever seen Matt, seriously mate. I have never, ever seen someone able to capture baby blue tips in any way that does them justice.

You really have a gift for aquarium photography buddy, it looks the same acro and it's ridiculously beautiful - and real for a bloody change like Ed said, a true stunner

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by Wrangy

Just gorgeous Matt! Way to show my pictures up though

Just doin' my job, Dom. but that psycho candy kaleidoscope zoa shot is crazy.

Originally Posted by biggles

Those are the most impressive set of acro images i've ever seen Matt, seriously mate. I have never, ever seen someone able to capture baby blue tips in any way that does them justice.

You really have a gift for aquarium photography buddy, it looks the same acro and it's ridiculously beautiful - and real for a bloody change like Ed said, a true stunner

Hey, big E asked for photos. I had pretty serious standards to live up to!!
Anybody who is not familiar with bigE's (Ed's) thread should go here to see some absolutely stunning corals and priceless info:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...8#post25144338
Sorry Ed, I am probably responsible for the dramatic uptick in traffic on your thread- I post a link to it all the time! It's too good to stay hidden.

Andrew, thank you for the very fine compliment! I certainly have a passion for photography and for whatever reason, I seem to do it best when shooting my tank.. I appreciate your comments. It really means a lot to me.
Now, having said that, I tried to do very little to those photos and the same thing to each photo..
Once I've downloaded them to my phone from the camera, they get converted from raw to jpeg. Once in my phone, I edit in Snapseed. I did exactly the same thing to each photo:
I 'tune' the image by warming to about 65, then I increase 'details' - structure to 28 and sharpen to 31- the structure and sharpening really make the photos pop.
That's it. My macro and new viewing box, along with how high the pieces are in the tank, do the rest..
Blue is one of the toughest colours to catch properly and I usually don't have too much luck but that light blue seems to come out very well..

[Pife]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Did an no3 test with salifert. Definitely no raise in no3 after harvest. Actually I think they have gone down some more.. I think to around 10ppm..
Looking from the top, it is hard to tell but when looking though the side, I am definitely between the 100 and 50 colour patches.. that would indicate below 10ppm but the top down view looks a bit higher..

I may have to reduce the hours of my cheato photoperiod.. I don't want n much lower than this...
Wow,.. I can't believe I'm saying that.. been a long time...

Thanks for testing. I also use Salifert. I find it really hard to read the lower levels. I'm thinking of ordering a Red Sea Pro kit as I have heard great things about them being easy to read. Have you ever used another brand of test kit?

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by Pife

Thanks for testing. I also use Salifert. I find it really hard to read the lower levels. I'm thinking of ordering a Red Sea Pro kit as I have heard great things about them being easy to read. Have you ever used another brand of test kit?

For the past few years, when my no3 was below 4 ppm, I used the Red Sea kit and loved it. It's great and easy to read but it only goes up to 4ppm..
I'm considering letting my n drop to there just so that I can use the test kit!
Probably not a great reason.. but I had pretty good results with no3 in that range..

[slavetonet]

The colours are coming out very nice.
IMO the perfect range for NO3 is around 1 to 5ppm.
PO4 is around 0.01 to 0.05ppm.
Having a bit of nutrients keeps the RTN trolls and STN trolls in the dark.
All depends on what it is.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by slavetonet

The colours are coming out very nice.
IMO the perfect range for NO3 is around 1 to 5ppm.
PO4 is around 0.01 to 0.05ppm.
Having a bit of nutrients keeps the RTN trolls and STN trolls in the dark.
All depends on what it is.

Thanks!
Yeah, I was very happy with colours last year when n was around 4ppm.
Po4 I've never had that low, however.
I'm going to watch no3. If it starts showing up well on the Red Sea kit, I will start dosing some n and see if I can pull p down a bit.. but that's probably several weeks away.

[FloformAustria]

Amazing Matt!!
I don't think I could get my hands on something so beautiful here...

Love it

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by FloformAustria

Amazing Matt!!
I don't think I could get my hands on something so beautiful here...

Love it

Thanks Flo! I think you could. As Ed called it- rainbow tenuis is undoubtedly available all over the place. I'm beginning to think that tennis is quite a mutate able coral, colour wise.
Last year, when my tank was doing very well and I had some really good colour and growth, that coral looked like this:

And this is the other piece.

Those were from exactly a year ago.
This is it 1 1/2 years ago:

Today:

And I have had a frag of it under 6x 3foot t5 and it was even better looking.. heavy pe more purple red in the polyps and body, blue tips. Crazy..

All this to say that lighting, nutrients, supplements and age have a LOT to do with how this coral looks.
Find some tennis pieces and let them grow out, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[reefmutt]

So, now I have a little cheato update..
First, it has pulled n down to below 1ppm. I'm amazed a how well it is growing. I can pull cheato every two weeks easily... crazy.. it's got to be the prodibio supplements..
an interesting thing happened along the way, though..
When I first added the cheato, n was at 50 and p was at .2
As n dropped p mov d down a bit but not a lot...
At an n of 35, p was .17
At an n of 20, p was .16
At an n of 10-15, p was .15
Then when n went to 3, p dropped to .1
And when n went down to .5 p went back up to .15
Last week I began dosing cano3 to keep n around 3 ish.
Latest test show n at 1.5 and p at .13. That was last weekend. I have dosed cano3 a couple times and will test again hopefully tomorrow or Saturday..
In the meantime, I have been turning co2 up daily to increase output from my carx. I cannot get alk above 5.5-6 right now!
Growth is picking up!
So, that's my article, now for a pic..
A couple of months ago the red coral I call the bruise, reached my orange passion and burned it nastily. Left a big dead patch. I cut the bruise back and was left with a bare patch on the op. At first I glued a frag of op there to let it grow back and then I said to myself 'hey! I have a better idea! I'll put a different, contrasting coral there! Why not?? In the wild, coral spawn will attach to whatever bare surface they can..' so with that in mind, I glued a frag of my blueberry wine onto the bare patch on the orange passion, next to the bruise...
So here's a cool close up of the three.. so I have accelerated the growth process a bit. It is an 'artificial' reef isn't it??

Another angle..

This blueberry wine is the most interesting and unique metallic deep blue. It is stunning..
Here's the mother colony:

It has been growing very well lately..
Here are the three all together.. you can see the base of the bb wine. It a few weeks it will have encrusted the area and look more natural.

Come one!?! Who wouldn't have taken the opportunity to do that? How awesome is that contrast of colour??
I don't regret it for a minute!!

[DiscusHeckel]

I would like to echo what everyone else has said about your A. tenuis Matt. Congratulations.

I am deliberately not including its picture in my post as I know that after 31st December 2018, it will not be displayed even if you moved the original image to another host.

[reefmutt]

Thanks, Bulent. Yes.. I have a feeling that by then I will be way too 'photo invested' to not pay the ransom.

[codydemmel4]

hey matt,

how much are you feeding to keep your nitrates and phosphate up even with the cheato growing a lot?

Also what are you all dosing now?

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

hey matt,

how much are you feeding to keep your nitrates and phosphate up even with the cheato growing a lot?

Also what are you all dosing now?

Hey Cody, food wise, I am feeding a large pinch of a mix of flake and pellet Vitalis foods- almost a 3 finger pinch and 6 cubes of frozen cube food each day. one of each per day
I also have a fish in the frag tank that gets 2-3 small feedings a day.
But this does not keep nitrates up. I have begun adding about two teaspoons of cano3 crystals twice a week to keep n in the 3 ish range.
As for supplements, the backbone is the Prodibio Bioptim and Reef Booster as per Prodibio- one vial each, twice a week.
when they go in- wednesday and saturday, I also add 16 drops of AF Flourine and Iodine each.
Each evening, I add a drop of Polyp Lab's Pro Colors amino acids, 12 drops AF Vitality, A squirt of AF Build and a thick pinch of a 50/50 mix of Polyp Lab Reef Roids and Fauna Marin's Reef Vitality...
Man.. I think that's it..