Sierra Bravo

I have never really noticed this before, but I have some type of green coralline or other algae along with the purple.  Hard to see it when my reef lights are on, but if they are off and all my living room lights are on you can see it clearly.  Not sure if this is common for everyone or not.

I posted this on R2R pointing out the allelopathy around my Garf Bonsai telling me I'm about to see a big spike in my alk usage.  It seems to always proceed a growth spurt. 

This is a cruddy photo taken through a coral viewer, but I know @FarmerTy  likes to see how his efflo does in other people's tanks.  It's been encrusting like crazy for a while and is now starting to begin to table with purple axial corallites and white tips.   Nice pieceTy!

14 minutes ago, Reefpuck said:

Sorry to hear that! I have one too and definitely my favorite fish. 

I'm not waiting long - I already have one on order coming to my LFS tomorrow!  We had a short wake.   🙂

My Ruby Red Dragonet booked a one way flight out of the tank and onto my fish room floor last night.  To add insult to injury, I found him by stepping on him with my bare foot.  When I looked down in my sleepy still-hadn't-had-coffeee state my very first thought was "Who the heck left a piece of Slim Jim on the floor of my fish room?"  So I kicked it off the rubber mat out of the way.  It was then I realized "Oh, no!"  Darn fish - one of my favorites to watch.

Grow, darn you, grow!  FTS under evening blues.  Not too bad for a cell phone.   I didn't see it until after, but if you look on the orange monti sitting on the bottom in the middle of the tank you'll see my little red scooter blenny perched on top taking it easy. 🙂

So the frag below, soon to be mini-colony, is the D&M millie that I purchased from @Gig 'em @ NDstructible   about 8 mos ago.  I had a frag with me at the ARC meeting and John had remarked I was pulling some different colors out of it than he had.  I thought I'd post a pic here and revisit it down the road to see what becomes of it.  The pic is not great; I'm shooting with my phone through a coral viewer and it just isn't capturing the vibrancy.

Gig 'em, if you happen to read this, can you fill in the backstory on this frag?  I thought you said it was a hobbyist couple and I inferred they were local, but I've since found D & M Corals (Dave and Monica) out of Aurora CO and was wondering if I heard wrong.

Here's a processed photo using the curve tool to filter the blues out.  In reality it is somewhere in between these two pics:

That could have been much, much worse.

23 minutes ago, RicordeaFreak said:

You should bottle that stuff up and sell it, i'm sure there are some people out there who would buy it. Have you noticed the growth of the coralline affecting your cal/alk numbers? I would imagine with that much in your system that it would be up-taking a bit. I love that even the CUC shells are purple haha.

The YWG and tiger pistol I originally had attracted the attention of my wife too, enough to want her to set up her own tank. Which she immediately threw some of what others would consider No-No corals like zenia and blue clove polyps since I wouldn't let her put them into my tank.

It's hard to tell what drives it, because my alk numbers tend to swing a bit even with peristaltic pumps dosing two-part, but it does seem if I let it get out of hand and the spots get too large on the glass my alk usage goes up.  And that would make sense because as the spots increase in size they grow at an exponential rate as far as surface area created. 

I've added small rocks from my sump which normally have very little coralline to the display tank and on average, it takes them only about three weeks or so to get to purple.

I know the color makes it look like I'm saturating the photo.  I do pull the blues out of my pics a bit before posting to get the coral colors right, but not by much.  Top is before processing and the bottom is after.  It really is that purple.

My odd growing slimer.  Only horizontal growth and all from the bottom - top has just become a little bushier.  I'm guessing it has to be due to downward flow from my Gyres.  It's in a place where the opposing current often comes together and diverts downward.  WWC Yellow Tip right beside it has the same thing going on, although the original stalk is growing vertical.

Happy about my Palmer's Blue Millie finally taking off.  Sat idle for a long time.

10 minutes ago, RicordeaFreak said:

I missed the last update photos, you have some really nice looking stuff in there. I love the yellow watchman I had one in my pico for a while, they have an interesting personality and their always grumpy looking face makes me laugh. That coralline algae growth is crazy.

I have no shortage of coralline.  🙂  I have to scrape it off the glass every two weeks or so.  More than that and it gets really heavy.

Yeah, the YWG is always described as having personality.  Mine is paired with a Randall's pistol shrimp.  They are one of the few things I'll actually catch my wife checking out in the tank.  The acros, well "they're just sticks. . . I don't care for them"  🙄

Where'd you stuff that hunk of porites/monti unkillable whatchamacallit you took with you?  😃

32 minutes ago, victoly said:

What does your humidity look like with your vent fan setup? Does it vent to the roof?

I wish.  I dump it to the hallway which happens to have my AC return so it gets sucked up pretty quick.   I've never seen it over 60%.  Usually around 50% with the door closed according to the hygrometer.

Oooh that RMF Flavor Parade!  I just bought a piece from Maruf in San Antonio along with a Pink Cadillac before he breaks down the tank the rest of the way.  I'm really looking forward to having it.  Very nice shots and pieces as always, Jim.  One day I'd like to book about three hours with you just to sit and stare at your frag tank.  🙂

Here are some suggestions for improvement at the next get together:

1. Use the frag tank as a "touch tank", where we can all get our hands in there and feel the anemones and the corals.
2. Contest where members are blindfolded, spun three times, then allowed to blindly reach in the DT and break a frag off one of the colonies to take home.  
3. Sleepovers pre and post meeting.
4. A Colorado Sunburst raffled on the hour every hour.
5. Install a b-ball hoop in the fish room to pass the time while waiting for frags.
6. Spring rolls

I hope some, if not all of these, are taken into consideration for the next meeting.   Other than that, it was great to see the faces of the forum members and special thanks to Ty's wife for allowing us to take over her home yesterday!  🙂

I actually just acquired a replacement Vivid Rainbow.  I'll check with Ty on Saturday.  Thanks!

Very nice - I've always liked an aquascape that takes you from water to above the surface.  Excelent job with the mangroves growing from the exposed rock - looks very good.

All my posts lately have been on the negative side.  I took some pics of the tank that were not affected by my recent issues; I've got nothing to complain about.  😃

On 10/7/2018 at 4:51 PM, Sierra Bravo said:

1.  

Accidental post - updated list on first entry.

My ALK spike of several weeks ago affected my Pearlberry and Vivid Rainbow. . . because ALK spikes specifically hate higher-end colonies.  😠  You never hear anyone complain "My ALK spike killed all my clove polyps and I'm pissed".  😋

Anyway, I thought I'd reach out for some back up frags in case they don't recover that I could pick up at the meeting on Saturday.  Let me know if you are willing to part with a frag and shoot me a price.  Thanks!

11 minutes ago, Sal Bishop said:

I'd like to pick some of these up over the weekend

Just let me know what you'd like and I'll bring them with me.  I'll be there at Ty's until he finishes talking or the spring rolls run out; whichever is first (hint:  probably the spring rolls  😂 )

36 minutes ago, Christyef said:

Pm sent


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Not seeing it. . .

Pricing reduced. 

Dominican I sent you a PM.

3 minutes ago, Christyef said:

I’ll take the “unkillable” one. Is there a 100% guarantee ? . Jk. I’ve actually got some montis and cyphastrea that are still alive! Woohoo


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Left out of the aquarium, overnight, in sub-freezing temperatures and then sprayed with Lysol toilet bowl cleaner it might retract its polyps for a couple days.