Coral

Hidden Cup Coral - Phyllangia americana

melev — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 04:40:12 +0000

Hidden Cup Coral - Phyllangia americana melev Sun, 09/04/2022 - 07:40

If you have ever acquired liverock that came from Florida, odds are it had a few individual polyps that extended short tentacles. Those are called Cup Corals, and don't live long in our aquariums due to a lack of a regular food source. Generally I would just advise that you enjoy them for as long as they last. Cup Corals are not sold to hobbyists, they are a free hitchhiker coral that come on rock sold in the aquarium trade.

I purchased some live rock earlier this year, and spotted something interesting as I peered intently at the rock. Something different from the common cup coral... so I asked my friends to help me identify it: Phyllangia americana, also known as the Hidden Cup Coral. The primary difference are the elongated tentacles; they look quite similar to those of Dendrophyllia to me. Here's an overly edited picture so you can see the coral clearly. The tips come to a point; they don't display a ball which would have led to a different identification.

This specimen is located on the underside of a piece of rock, away from any direct light, and partially obscured from view. Looking at it with the naked eye, it's opaque, the tentacles swaying in the flow, which stretch out to be about 1" long. In this next picture, you can see it directly under the vertical brown tube of a small fan worm (or hitchhiker feather duster). The fish in the foreground is about 1.25" long.

This polyp has a calcified base, meaning it is in the LPS family. It can easily capture larger food such as mysis. These cave-dwelling corals rely on nutrients that drift through their tentacles.

It better not like the taste of fish.

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Aquashella frags

melev — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 22:43:59 +0000

Aquashella frags melev Mon, 08/08/2022 - 01:43

At Aquashella Dallas, my plan was to pick up some ricordea and zoanthids for Caitlin's Reef. Here are the frags from the first day. The following day I came home with 7 more, making it a total of 18 new items for her little tank. This tank has dirty water compared to an SPS reef, and I expect soft corals to do well. They aren't light demanding, and can tolerate minimal filtration.

Several types of zoanthids, a soft cabbage leather, Cespitularia. Once they are planted on the rock, I'll take some better pictures and post an update.

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A few top down pictures

melev — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 23:28:37 +0000

A few top down pictures

Taken with a Nikon D500 with a 40mm lens

melev Mon, 07/11/2022 - 02:28

These pictures were taken under Neptune SKY lighting in Coral Growth mode. I cleaned up the images in Lightroom.

The reef has been doing well lately. I've been staying on top of water testing, and of course daily glass cleaning duty. Some of the other things I've done lately:

Dosed Prodibio
Changed the RODI filters
Cleaned the Nyos 300 skimmer's collection cup and squeegee assembly
Cleaned and re-set the algae turf scrubber, pulling out over 2 lbs of green hair algae.
Sent off and received a current ICP test.

The reef is fed every night a mixture of thawed frozen foods. Last water change was a month ago.

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Why does that coral look different?

melev — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 18:35:58 +0000

Why does that coral look different?

The colors seem off

melev Thu, 03/17/2022 - 21:35

I take pictures at different times of the day, and corals don't always look the same. Recently someone said the image (above) was bluer than they were used to seeing. I took this picture around 9:30 p.m. when my reef was in a deeper blue hue.

Had I taken pictures earlier in the day, the subject would have more white spectrum since that's a different look that I enjoy. I shoot what I notice when I notice it, which can be during about six different color spectrums daily.

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New growth after five weeks under Sky lights

melev — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 01:48:00 +0000

New growth after five weeks under Sky lights

Color me impressed!

melev Wed, 06/02/2021 - 04:48

Five weeks ago, I replaced my metal halides with LED lighting. I've been running the Sky fixtures 11" off the water, and noticed a lot of brand new growth bursting out of the tips of acropora corals.

On the left side of my reef, I have a cluster of boring brown sticks that I've repeatedly thought need to be removed to create some new space for a nicer coral. However, these purple and turquoise tips are emerging. Are you telling me those sticks were supposed to be this color all along?!

The Shadowcaster acropora is pushing out fifty new tips off the multitude of branches. Here are a few examples. These bits are probably 1/2" to 3/4" long, all new growth bursting out:

Lots of new tips bursting off this one area that is about 2" wide.

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Images taken from above

melev — Fri, 21 May 2021 17:15:21 +0000

Images taken from above

Topdown photography, or even simply viewing your tank from above, is highly underrated.

melev Fri, 05/21/2021 - 20:15

Every so often I get motivated to take a few pictures of my reef from above. Frankly, the best view is looking down into the aquarium from my perch on the walkboard. I took these pictures with my iPhone 12, using the Polyp Labs lenses in a Smartphone Floater.

All the flow stays on, and I simply move the Floater to the desired location and take a picture. I didn't alter my lighting; this was just a spur of the moment decision meaning I don't know exactly where in the lighting spectrum the Sky lights were at the time. The XHOs were on.

This first picture (below) is the area of my reef I call the Coral Graveyard. Despite what the name sounds like, everything is quite alive. All these corals are simply down on the sand, left to do what they want, semi-forgotten by me. It behind the reef, only visible from the fishroom side, but best viewed from above. PAR in this area measures around 115. If I ever make some room on the rockwork, I'd be able to take some of these pieces and move them into a more visible location.

This picture (above) is an area of my 400g reef that is visible, it's the lower left corner beneath the MP60 Vortech pump.

And here are a few more topdown shots. At this time, the corals have been under the Sky fixtures for 23 days.

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How weird is this?

melev — Sat, 09 May 2020 21:27:58 +0000

How weird is this? melev Sun, 05/10/2020 - 00:27

On March 17, this coral (pictured above) turned bright green, after looking perfectly heathly for nearly 2 years in my tank. When a coral suddenly changers color, it's a bad sign. Usually, they won't surive it. This colony was a total loss, which was a disappointment. Look how pretty it was. It's called a Seattle Dreamcatcher, and came from Duane's reef. Unlike a regular tri-color acro, this was a quad-color.

Due to it looking so green, I immediately figured the coral suffered from something called "green boring algae." This is when the algae has gone into the skeleton, and in my particular system it seems likely that it would come from higher phosphate levels. If you break a branch in half, the green goes all the way through the core of the skeleton. That wasn't what this was, though.

A week later the entire colony turned bone white. All the green went away, which is strange. Still, I didn't remove the colony. I knew it was dead, and that I'd have to cut it off the rock it was secured to, but there was no rush. I kept an eye on it mostly out of curiosity.

What normally happens next is that nuisance algae grows all over it, as dead corals are a magnet for algae growth. That, however, is not what happened. It stayed clean, day after day. Below are two pictures I took on April 27th, about 1.5 months later. These are un-touched iPhone pictures, under 10,000K lighting.

You can see a hermit crab in the branches, and a little bit of valonia. No hair algae, nothing else.

And on May 1st I took this picture (below). A few asterinas, a hermit crab, a baby brittle starfish, and coralline algae growing on the skeleton.

This is so odd, so I asked a couple of SPS-keepers if they'd seen something similar. One suggested my fish are pecking at it to keep it clean, but I haven't seen any such activity. My water test showed nitrate at 45ppm, phosphate at .75ppm -- so technically this thing should be a hairy mess. I'm glad it's not. I still need to remove it but wanted to document this first.

This week, I'll remove it, trim some other branches that need pruning, and plant a couple of healthy frags in its spot. It's a shame this coral didn't live as the mother colony was lost earlier this year.

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Pretty corals

melev — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 11:39:33 +0000

Pretty corals melev Mon, 06/25/2018 - 14:39

Here are a few pictures I took over the weekend of my reef. Everything is running smoothly, and I've decided to begin dosing vodka to lower nitrates in my system. I used to do so years ago, and I'm ready to do it once more.

Drew's Acropora

Unknown acro, but it may end up being something that tables beautifully. Lobophyllia polyps in the background:

Sunset montipora adds vivid color to the tank, but encrusts real estate I could use to plant other corals. Don't care, I love this one too much. :)

A couple of acroporas from Duane, and the green one is called Lime In The Sky.

Milka coral (Stylophora) from Joe's 20,000g reef in Long Island.

Pink chalice I got from a hobbyist a couple of years ago.

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Unknown coral update

melev — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 10:50:02 +0000

Unknown coral update melev Mon, 06/11/2018 - 13:50

Back in February I purchased an unknown acropora from a local store at our frag swap. I thought it was interesting, that it had potential. I had no clue what it was, but something grabbed my interest so I bought it. Looking back at it today, I don't know what I was thinking. lol

Under white lighting:

As you can see, there were hints of blue. Here it is again under 20,000K lighting.

Lots of corals look better in blue lighting but that can be misleading. White light lets me study corals, especially their health. I'd urge you to look at your reef under whiter conditions often, as this will allow you to correct any issues before they spiral out of control.

And here's the coral today... it's doing great!

Maybe one day I'll know what it is, and can stop calling it The Unknown Acro. ;)

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Corals viewed from above

melev — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 11:14:52 +0000

Corals viewed from above melev Fri, 03/23/2018 - 14:14

I'm behind on blogging - and that's not good. Overall, things are just growing quietly. I took a bunch of pictures, primarily from above. That's because the best view is from that vantage. If you aren't making it a point to look down on your reef from time to time, you're definitely missing out.

All pictures were taken with a Nikon D90 and a 35mm lens with a low f-stop.

They say good things start small. Below are two very small bits of Walt Disney acropora. This is the third time I've had to relocate this fragplug, it keeps getting knocked around. I puttied it into place, and if all goes well it will turn into something big and pretty one day.

Here's a closer look. This is under 10,000K lighting, so not as vivid as those pictures you see on the web.

The Shadowcaster is encrusting wherever it touches rock.

And in the next picture, you can see some of the yellow/green that peeks out of that red acropora. This is only visible from above, especially under blue lighting.

This little acropora came from the club's Fragging Demonstration last January. It's much prettier from above...

This maze coral has been with me for 13 years. It comes and goes, just like the tide. Currently it's happy, and spreading onto a nearby rock to its left, but a lot of its tissue has perished over the years. It's a slow grower, so any losses are more frustrating to me. Above it, the lobo is looking picked at; that's because the Copperband butterfly keeps picking at it. I wish that fish would leave this coral alone.

It's a good thing I glued a frag of the Lime In The Sky acropora to this rock far away from the sebae anemone, because the main colony is really taking a hit from that 'nem.

This coral is named because of the blue hue within the tissue between all those green polyp structures.

Here's the parent colony and its NEMesis.

The purple grape montipora hides behind the rockwork in my reef, visible only from above, or from the backside of the aquarium.

The green and purple looking monti in the bottom of this picture is all that remains of a frag I got from Sea World San Antonio. It may be the Appleberry Monti. I'll need to cut it and relocate it to a safer spot, away from the Sunset Monti.

I'm going to name this shot "Spock and friends"

And finally the unknown tort I got at our club's frag swap recently, under 10,000K and 20,000K lighting.

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