Great video as always and an interesting subject : Here's my take on what I observe in my acroporas : - Flow is important, but the coral placement is much more important, when I introduce new acros I place it in a open field where there are no restrictions to the flow nearby. I believe the mucus of the corals hold all the secrets and the best way to acclimate new corals is by helping it to replenish its mucus layer asap. the colours are unbelievable too. - Placing the same tortuosa coral sideways or straight will decide how well it colours up and grows. The sideways placement grows 3 times more by the end of 1 year period. with much brighter colours. obviously with stable parameters. - Stability is more important that the values (organics and elements) , a stable off values will yield much better results that unstable perfect values. - I observe good colours when I buy corals from other hobbiests or shops with the same lighting LED and if they use the same salt as I do. LFS must indicate the light spectrum, the salt they use and other additives they dose to their tanks on their websites. The percent of sucess would explode. - Regarding your question on how to judge the health of a coral? for SPS corals , I consider a coral healthy if it repairs its tissue where I fragged in less than 2 days, I see new polyps in the newly cut zone in less than 2 days, with a layer of uncoloured tissue. If this doesn't happen , the coral is most probably not staying alive for long. - Color to me is not a true indication of coral health nor is the growth . A coral can grow if the PH and KH values are high even when it is not in its best of health. Wishes from Normandie :)
Added thought with trace elements. The corals aren't the only thing in the tank. Maybe some of these traces, aren't for your corals, but for your ecosystem
I've gotten more results by doing 1/3 water change every 10/14 days then doing any supplementation besides my ca reactor. I'm getting great colors by keeping it simple. I tested my par and keep my sump water level consistent along with temp and salinity. Keeping everything consistent 24/7 allows the corals to color up amazingly with no super crazy regiment!
100% improvement because you cleaned up the sand bed! Tank looks great! Remove some of those zoo colonies and whatever else you can manage and you’ll have one of the best aquascapes around.
Yep, I have done that multiple times; especially when using a technical vocabulary. I've called a penetrometer, a "tensiometer" for almost a week before I caught myself. And I've totally botched Latin/botanical names more times than I can count; even though I was supposed to be the "expert" on site... It happens. It's also really nice to see a discussion on which ones are in our coral's. The only two I've known well of are Cryptochrome and Phytochrome, due to how they regulate plant reactions to light; and "Protein-pigment complex" may be a better way of describing them, it's the description which made it "click" when I had to learn the few which mattered to my field. I've also read up on the macro algae pigments several times (Berkley has a very good series of educational articles on them) as it helped me debate refugium lighting. But regardless, I love when you two go into things like this, as I'm not experienced with marine biology and can't begin to name the ones present in corals. Also, to possibly lend a different analogy: I can put the world greatest plant under the worlds greatest light, and if I take it out of soil and forget to water it: it dies...You can put your coral under the worlds greatest light, and if you screw up water chemistry: it's like taking a plant out of the soil.
Thanks for making this point Jake. I’ve worked at a big “coral farm” here in Ohio and let me tell you they looked SUPER different in person. Don’t get me started on macro shots as well.
That's funny what Mark said about the skimmer cup, I pull off the O rings on them all the time especially on those tanks I see once a month. I hate dropping any of the skim mate into the sump due to a very resistant O ring 😂
Great stream... about color and photos: I only saw 1 ore 2 online coral sellers where you find 2 photos- one with and one without filter/blue light. I wish I could see more of it, it is just more honest, at least you know what you get. Plus, I run my lights more white and "natural" than other hobbyists like.
I had more algae "issues" when the nitrates and Phosphate are 0.0000 then when I elevated those levels the algae went away and the coral's colors became vivid and predominant. I had briopsis, hair and turf algae growing, the moment the nutrients rose up, they disappeared and haven't seen them since! I do water swaps every 10 to 12 days instead of dosing minor and major elements, besides what my ca reactor adds in. I've had great results doing that over no water swaps and dosing all kinds of stuff from red sea and britewell
This podcast was super helpful and informative, everything you guys talked about in this episode applied to everything that I’m currently going through with my tank. Love you guys, keep them coming!!
With acros u won't see the results from any changes or issues from those changes a good two weeks later at least if not more! Keeping da shiznit consistent is MAJOR!
You should do a reef therapy on the negative effects of amino acids can be had on your stony coral. My system is a great example, if I dose acropower, brightwell aminos, or redsea ab+, within 24 to 48 hours I'll start experiencing both RTN and STN in my SPS. Through some semi-quick googling I am not the only one to have this phenomenon happen. What really made it obvious that it was amino acids to me was I was given a bottle of acropower and my mindset was everybody uses acro power, why not, let's see what this will do. That was the only change and within 24 hours rtn nd STN started. The general cure is lots of repetitive water changes for the next week and carbon, for me, seems to be what stops it.
I would like to know how much amino acids are in the protein of the frozen food we feed, how much does the fish utilize, and how much of that is getting put into the water column. I'm sure it would be a very involved experiment. Just curious.
BRS covered the fundamentals for so long that I got burned out listening and now just want to hear about the snake oils. 🤓 I can say that having a recipe of many things dialed in makes the cake shine! You might even say shine under the moon. 😉
In my opinion does PAR Measurements helps beginner, or not so much experienced Reefer, like me, a lot. Because I don’t have any Idea what is much or less light. This is very important because you can blast your coral with the modern LED light easily. Certain Corals like Cyphastrea cannot adapt to very strong light even with a long term acclimation. They need really less light, which I have learned the hard way. I couldn’t believe how less light is enough for Cyphastrea. And yes, I can watch my corals and read a lot about lightning. Anyway, even a cheap PAR-Meter can eliminate the guessing of your eyes. And it does not matter how accurate the PAR-Meter are, with this device you have controller in your hand. I guess experienced Reefer does not need a PAR-Meter. As a beginner you just have no idea about the right intensity. I agree with Jake‘s opinion about trace elements. Sure they all important like vitamins for humans. But also human does not die if the don’t get their daily recommended dosis. Some people have a really bad diet and don’t die. Probably it is like you said, some trace elements from time to time prevent a lot and reach maybe 90% of the possible coloration. I don’t care about trace elements because my tank runs with a Balling system which contains all the necessary elements. All important trace element are not zero in my ICP analysis. This is more than enough. Anyway, I am sure to have other basic problems. Because micro lords, Wilsoni, Acro Horrida…die after a couple of months. But some other corals are driving and keep me up in the hobby. Maybe I will have a nice tank in the future like one in the reef studio.
Was a day early on my question lol thank you for your feed back Jake. Great session guys honestly, so if you guys were to recommend 3 novels to start someone on there way to coral biology what would they be? That everyone should have to start
Loved this long detailed session, occupied my time while working:).. I am wondering if you can you can help I have an acro which I cannot tell you the name of it sorry. Started with green base and red tips. I have placed it quite high in the tank the par maybe around the high 300. The coral is now all brown and reddish in colour. It has excellent polyp extension very hairy looks really healthy. I am just not sure what is causing it to change to this colour. Could it be the high par levels. As per your video all the basics have been covered and have good ICP test back everything is normal. Nitrates 4 and phos 0.04. Everything is very stable in the tank.
@Mark van der wal What fly reels are those behind you? Also im a fishing guide and I flat out did the word thing talking about Sonar and Hydro one day so ya, I get it. Running primarily lps tanks I have found when my phosphate goes to low they just do not look so good. And to me "look good" is when I have the tank on more a daylight look for maintenance, Blue though they look great it seems to hide stuff that you can see with the whites on.
Great discussion as always! Mark, I'm in the planning stages for my upgrade and I'm leaning towards regular glass since listening to you talk about it several times. Is the clarity that obvious between your regular glass and your low iron glass? Does it make an obvious difference?
IMO, it makes almost no difference unless perhaps you had them side by side. I mean, not only is one tank regular glass and the other low-iron, but the low iron glass is half the thickness of the regular glass(3/4"). And even then the perceived difference isn't really that noticeable in my experience. I hope that helps.
@@PazLeBon is it that much easier to scratch the low iron glass? I would really like to avoid scratches even if it means giving up a little bit of clarity.
@@fishybizzness1592 They are 'either' easier to scratch or they h=show finer scratches more, either way Ive seen about 5 at mates and they all have noticeable scratches. I suppose the clue is in iron itself and added hardness or summat :)
Dispar anthias are a difficult fish to keep. I've added a few groups of them to several tanks and they all landed up withering away. They just don't do well so don't take it too hard Mark. Bimacs too I've had a few and they need alot of daily feedings. A friend of mine has a group of Omans and a few bimacs and he feeds the tank several times a day with manual and auto feedings. He also runs a denitrater along with other components ti keep the nutrients in check. Unless ur willing to spend money on more equipment a d testing and all that good stuff, anthias are not the most ideal fish.
@@bumpsmcgee4733 I wasn't aware that they have cb pink squares. That's pretty cool! One thing tho I have with cb fish like that, is they may have genetic issues as far as being inbred fish. I've noticed with their yellow tangs, that a few I have sourced for some clients, have poor growth and fin/body deformation. It wasn't with just one animal. I also had a few that dropped dead for no conceivable reason. I'm not saying that their tangs are low grade but rather I have witnessed some issue with their animals. It happens with other cb fish especially in the fw hobby namingly stingrays and those with certain spot patterns and colors. It is known that they do breed back the offsprings to the parents to secure a pure bloodline as is in with albino fish. If it is done with fw certainly SW isn't inconceivable either.
Definitely have seen positive results with acropower but even at smaller doses I seem to have cyano pop up here and there. Anyone else have that problem? It is mostly a visual thing for me as it does not hurt anything. Tank usually at 20.2 NO3 and .08 po4. Any ideas?
Jake, top video once again ang glad to see that others from the other side of the world thinks the same as I. By the way, can you tell me where I can get that book also please ? Thank you: #mayTheTortBeWithUs
I've had more success doing the frequency water swaps over dosing the red sea colors program. I have a 63 gal with 47 individual sps/acro corals, chalices, blastos etc. I have screwed myself on dosing over water swaps 10/1.
Mark (and Jake too): have you ever tried White Worms (Enchytraeus)? I feed my colony some Aquanix Cool Mysis (recommended by Jake). My Banggai Cardinal doesn't eat frozen nor flakes/pellets, so I've been feeding it White Worms along some BBS. My captive bred Mandarin seems to enjoy it quite a lot. I think that Paul B has used both for a long time...
I haven't tried white worms. I did tinker with black worms. Right now I'm feeding Hikari Frozen Mysis, Enriched frozen Brine, Arcti-Pods, and then various sizes of pellets from TDO and New Life Spectrum. I think dispars just need a constant supply of food perhaps?
Damn right about PO4. No sub. assuming everything else is on point. My system CONSUMES phosphate. I only run the skimmer for 6 to 8 hrs a day to keep some nutrients in the tank. On a 100 gal sps dom. system, I feed 6 times a day, and dose 15 ml of neophos to keep it at .01 ppm! Colors have improved to say the least.
No need to apologise or anything. I bet that it was Jakes "Mr perfect" i know the real name of corals guy" idea that you record the first part of the video -_-
"sounded bettter to me in my brain" lol less funny "good one inch frags" ain't anything good about one inch frags, its almost an insult :) Sorry about the anthias
