My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[DiscusHeckel]

Hmm. Beautiful shots. I am very privileged to have your coral photos in my tank thread sir. Thank you very much.

It is now Andrew's turn to furnish me with some stunning photos. Thanks in anticipation Andrew.

[reefmutt]

Trying something..

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Ok! Here goes. I have always found that speciosa gets some pe. And I have found that turaki and echinata get very little.. Some but very little.
Here are my speciosas:
Not great pe but better than I've ever had.

Top:

Another: sorry bad shot..

Top

Last one..

I find that the corralites of speciosa are very squared off from the arm of the coral and sometimes the corralite is sort of cut perpendicular to the arm of the coral..sort of at an angle.. Not sure that makes sense..
And I find the polyps are star shaped and never seem to have that one longer 'finger' extending from the polyp..

Echinata and turaki rarely (for me) get any pe and the corralite tip is always very rounded with a slightly darker tip..
Here's a Hawkins.. Well maybe not, actually, not sure.. But probably echinata.

Here's another echinata (sold to me as echinata)

Here's my turaki. Main body.

Growth tip..


I find that turaki grows more openly in my tank and echinata more densely. But the actual growth tips look very similar.

[reefmutt]

I don't understand what is happening. They are on my photobucket account when I go in myself but they aren't there when one accesses it publicly...
Doesn't make sense..
Not sure what to do.. I can't make the links work..
Trying 'direct' instead of image link..
http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/a...pssdzexw7e.jpg

[Henry Colf]

Awesome thread. Love the coral selection and placement.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by Henry Colf

Awesome thread. Love the coral selection and placement.

Henry,

Thank you for the kind words.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Ok! Here goes. I have always found that speciosa gets some pe. And I have found that turaki and echinata get very little.. Some but very little.
Here are my speciosas:
Not great pe but better than I've ever had.

Top:

Another: sorry bad shot.. There's a coral growing directly in front of it that gets in the way..

Top

Last one..


I find that the corralites of speciosa are very squared off from the arm of the coral and sometimes the corralite is sort of cut perpendicular to the arm of the coral..sort of at an angle.. Not sure that makes sense..
And I find the polyps are star shaped and never seem to have that one longer 'finger' extending from the polyp..

Echinata and turaki rarely (for me) get any pe and the corralite tip is always very rounded with a slightly darker tip..
Here's a Hawkins.. Well maybe not, actually, not sure.. But probably echinata.

Here's another echinata (sold to me as echinata)

Here's my turaki. Main body.

Growth tip..


I find that turaki grows more openly in my tank and echinata more densely. But the actual growth tips look very similar.

Here's a shot I posted on your thread a few pages back as a comparison between your 'turaki' and mine..


I hope this works..

Bulent, I have a question.. Didn't we have a quick conversation where I posted that I'd re upload the photos and you posted something along the lines of 'thanks that would be great'
Where did those posts go???
Very mysterious..

[reefmutt]

Yay.. It worked!! For now..

And just to make things a bit more confusing, here's an old shot of a 'ice fire echinata' that has not grown a mm in a year.. It looks a lot more like speciosa than echinata..

It's branches are even more fine than the speciosa branches.
I'd say that speciosa and the ice fire echinata look pretty close but the turaki is quite distinguishable from speciosa...
Assuming my names for all of the corals I have posted are actually right!

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Bulent, I have a question.. Didn't we have a quick conversation where I posted that I'd re upload the photos and you posted something along the lines of 'thanks that would be great'
Where did those posts go???
Very mysterious..

Pictures are back. Thank you Matt.

I have asked the mods to clean up the thread, including my own posts, as I got too confused. Your previous post with the missing pictures is likely to disappear too.

Hmm. Beautiful shots. I am very privileged to have your coral photos in my tank thread sir. Thank you very much.

My dealer got back to me and decided not to play the ball. His reply was: "there are a few very similar bottle brush Acropora, speciosa is certainly a possibility."

[reefmutt]

Solves that mystery..
You are very welcome, Bulent. As I'm sure you are aware, I quite enjoy shooting corals and whenever there is an excuse to put together a bit of info at the same time, all the better!

I just hope my info is accurate.. It's only as informative as it is accurate..

'Bottle brush' is such a general term for so many types of acropora..
Over here, it is more commonly used to name the Fiji Hyacinthus Acro..

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Solves that mystery..
You are very welcome, Bulent. As I'm sure you are aware, I quite enjoy shooting corals and whenever there is an excuse to put together a bit of info at the same time, all the better!

I just hope my info is accurate.. It's only as informative as it is accurate..

'Bottle brush' is such a general term for so many types of acropora..
Over here, it is more commonly used to name the Fiji Hyacinthus Acro..

Thanks again Matt. I appreciate your help.

Here are three close-up shot, which I took with my iPhone. My coral does not extend its polyps drink light hours either. I think my head hurts. I will create a thread in SPS-ID section to confuse some more people. At the end of the day, it really should not matter what it is, but then again because I am a sick person with OCD tendencies, it does matter....

[DiscusHeckel]

Here are some random shots, which I have just taken:

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Here are some random shots, which I have just taken:

These are great! The color contrast is very very good, and I love those anthias!!

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

These are great! The color contrast is very very good, and I love those anthias!!

Thanks for your praise Matt. My anthias are doing really well. I am glad that I listened to my lfs and bought them. There is zero aggression among them, which is another plus point. One negative point is that they do not eat mysis though they gobble large RS mysis (fresh water mysis).

[reefmutt]

Beautiful shots, Bulent. Love the colour mix and sheer coverage of coral.
I see four of your genicanthus in the first two shots. Nice!
I recently found a second bellus, a little bigger than my existing one.. Hoping it will turn to a male..

[DiscusHeckel]

Since I took their photo last month, the two bubble algae have grown quite a bit. On numerous occasions, I tried to remove them without bursting them, but to no avail.

[/QUOTE]

I tried again tonight, but this time I succeeded to dislodge the one on the right hand side.

The b@st@rd looks really fat.





There is no way the one on the left hand side is going to budge.

[reefmutt]

Oh yeah. That's a a bubble bomb alright.
Got a few of those myself!

[MichaelW]

Pictures are looking great. I have 4 resplendent anthias 2. They are awesome. I might add some more. How many do you have? You are getting really nice color on your sticks.

[mhucasey]

That bubble algae is downright frightening!

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by MichaelW

Pictures are looking great. I have 4 resplendent anthias 2. They are awesome. I might add some more. How many do you have? You are getting really nice color on your sticks.

Thank you. I have eight resplendent anthias. One of the females has turned to a male recently.

[Superpuma]

Love the selection of Angels in those last pic's, l currently have a female G.Melanospilos, hope to pick up a male on my next trip to the UK.
That Bubble Algae is a bute, l used to strategically place big uns like that in my neighbours garden, god only knows what they thought they were and came from, LOL.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by Superpuma

Love the selection of Angels in those last pic's, l currently have a female G.Melanospilos, hope to pick up a male on my next trip to the UK.
That Bubble Algae is a bute, l used to strategically place big uns like that in my neighbours garden, god only knows what they thought they were and came from, LOL.

Thanks Mike.

Abyss is your place to get a male G. melonospilos though Wharf can also get pretty much anything you want. I found out that Abyss had a pair of G. watanabei when I spoke to Steve about your UK trip. Sadly, my tank is not big enough for a pair.

I am glad that you have found useful purpose for your bubble algae. You have given me a good idea. I might try it on my departmental colleagues at my work place.

[b22]

That's a nice looking tank. I hope my new 65 ends up looking half as good

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks b.

Thanks for your compliment.

I have no doubt your tank will be better.

[DiscusHeckel]

Sorry for the late reply.

Originally Posted by mhucasey

These are great! The color contrast is very very good, and I love those anthias!!

Matt. That means a lot.

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Beautiful shots, Bulent. Love the colour mix and sheer coverage of coral.
I see four of your genicanthus in the first two shots. Nice!
I recently found a second bellus, a little bigger than my existing one.. Hoping it will turn to a male..

Thanks Matt. I am ashamed to admit that my second G. watanabei has also died. She jumped into my weir this time and was stung by my aiptasia scrubber. I have eventually closed all the gaps. There is no where to jump now. If this had not happened you may have seen all my five Genicanthus.

I hope your new female bellus turns to a male. I keep my fingers crossed. I always find female bellus angels more attractive than their male counterparts though.

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Oh yeah. That's a a bubble bomb alright.
Got a few of those myself!

I know you do. There is a Dutch guy who applied sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to get rid of green hair algae very successfully. A guy who I know inn the UK adapted this technique and applied it to both byropsis and bubble algae. He says that NaOH was very effective. However, note that as you most likely know this chemical is very potent and kills corals on contact and raises pH if used too much. If you are interested, I can send you the details of this Dutch reefer's thread on a UK forum on which he demonstrated the application of NaOH.

Cheers

[reefmutt]

Yes, please send me the link, I'm interested in the application.
Thanks!
I agree with you that the female bellus are prettier.. That's why I'm still in the hunt for one or two more females.