A whole new dimension!!!

[returnofsid]

Had some Macro fun, this morning.

Hate these mushrooms!! Grrr

Cali Tort

Pink Monti

Purple Acropora formosa

Purple Pocillopora

ORA Ice Tort

Reverse Alien Eye Prizm Favia

 

[GoTakuF1]

Great pics and nice tank!

 

[returnofsid]

Great pics and nice tank!

Thank you, very much!

Our latest addition, picked up from Aquatic Dreams, yesterday. Hopefully this bugger will eradicate the Majanos that we've been dealing with, due to my laziness.

Acreichthys tomentosus (Matted Filefish)

WOW can this one hide, in plain sight. To start with, it took Kevin probably 30 minutes to catch it, because we were both looking for it, forever, and finally, Kevin found it sitting in a corner, right in front of both of us!! I expected Kevin to charge me a "catching fee," since he spent so much time on it...lol.

Then, today, I hunt for it, to take these photos, for almost an hour, and am about to give up when I see it, 3" from my face. It'd been sitting there, the entire time!!

I researched these, for the purpose of battling Majanos, for several months before finally deciding to give it a try. They seem to do a great job, with Majano and Anemone, but have mixed "reef safe," results. Most have had no issues with them at all, but some have had them go after Zoanthids, after they're done with the Majanos and Aptasia. So, we'll be keeping a close eye on this one!

 

[skinz78]

I used to have one Michael, I didn't see it munchin on anything but it definitely ate all my Aptasia's. They are quite the masters of cammo, and they can slightly change color depending on their mood.

 

[Reef UP]

I need one!

 

[returnofsid]

Long overdo bulb change. While I had all the old bulbs out, I decided to remove and clean the reflectors. Before and After photos were both taken, with identical camera settings and un-edited, so as to show the actual difference.

Before:

After:

 

[Troylee]

Great pics and great lOoking tank Sid.....1smile1

 

[swordfight]

Looking great so far, how safe are anglers to keep in reefs?
I always wanted one but wasn't sure if it'll eat everything or everything will eat it alive :/

 

[returnofsid]

Thanks!! It's a more dramatic change than I expected. But, for the past 2 months, 2 of the bulbs, in the back fixture, were burned out...lol. So, the Before photo, only has 8 bulbs lit. I also changed the configuration slightly. This time around, I went with 5 ATI Blue Plus and 5 ATI Aquablue Specials, alternating front to back.. The last configuration included a couple KZ Fiji Purple bulbs.

 

[returnofsid]

Looking great so far, how safe are anglers to keep in reefs?
I always wanted one but wasn't sure if it'll eat everything or everything will eat it alive :/

I couldn't answer that, as I've never kept an Angler. If you're referring to the fish, in the photos above, that's not an angler fish. It's a Filefish. However, I do have a friend who had an Angler, in a reef tank. It was the only fish, though, in a salona. It would eat anything it could fit in it's mouth and could open it's mouth HUGE. He fed his mollies that had been acclimated to a SW tank. As far as "reef safe," that would depend on your definition of the word. I believe it would eat any shrimp or crabs, but it won't harm any corals.

 

[swordfight]

Oh, that's what I thought too!

Figures, anglers are just too cool to pass up, but it's definitely not worth the risk of your inverts and possibly corals as you described.

 

[returnofsid]

Filefish is showing more and more success. I'm actually noticing it pick at Majanos, more consistently. Also, there are areas where whole patches of Majanos are now MISSING! I would guesstimate that probably 30% of the Majanos are now gone!

 

[returnofsid]

Yesterday evening, I noticed some warfare going on, between the Stylophora and M. digitata, which the digitata was definitely LOSING. Decided to snap a couple pics.

 

[skinz78]

This means war!!!!!!!!!

 

[returnofsid]

Yeah, these two corals go through this, every once in awhile. Sometimes I cut the digitata back, sometimes I let the Stylo "cut it back" for me...lol.

 

[returnofsid]

So, I have a few different projects going on, but took some time away from them, well, included in them, to take a few photos today. As some of you have seen, I've had a large mass of UGLY zoanthids climbing up the front glass, for quite awhile. Well, I finally decided to do something about it. Last week, I took a razor blade, a net, and a step stool and got rid of them!! Razor blade to scrape them off the glass front and glass bottom, step stool to be able to reach the bottom...lol. The net was to catch stray polyps, as they tried to escape, where they would plant themselves and start a new mass of ugliness!

Unfortunately, this ticked off a lot of corals. I ended up losing a small colony of M. undata, a couple frags of M. setosa, my Rainbow Monti and a couple other encrusting Montis are still showing a lot of stress. A couple Echinos are still showing signs of stress, of course, the nice ones! All other corals have completely recovered and are doing well. LPS were ticked off for a few hours but bounced right back. Acropora were not at all effected.

Well, removing this mass of ugliness allowed me to take pics of corals I've not been able to photograph, since the ugly zoanthids were in the way! While photographing them, I decided to shoot some other photos too. So, without further ado, here we go...

I still need to scrape coralline, so these ones were a little obscured.

Sunny Ds.

Chong Bongs

One of several frags of Armor of Gods, and the easiest to photograph, due to it's location.

A nuisance mushroom, but at least a purdy nuisance.

One of my Cyphastrea japonica frags

Green Millipora

ORA Miami Orchid (a little ticked because I moved the colony, right before taking this picture)

 

[returnofsid]

The AMAZING Majano devouring Matted Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus)

Original Oregon Tort

Watch for updates, on the 40 breeder thread and watch for a new thread, on another lil' pet project I have going on!

 

[returnofsid]

It's been awhile since I've taken the time to take any pictures. Today, I had a little bit of spare time, so decided to pick up the camera.

Seattle Sparkler colony

ORA Hawkins Echinata

Top down of a couple clams.

 

[returnofsid]

Here's a FTS I just took.

 

[skinz78]

Very nice Michael!