Lotsa new corals! yay!

i've been good and haven't bought anything (other than maintenance supplies) for my tank in a long time so i treated myself to a little gift the last couple of days. i apologize for the color and quality of the photos. i broke my camera and had to use my wife's crappy Kodak


the bleached out one was a freebie from Bill from Reef Ecosystems. he had a big colony you needed two hands to pick up that was just sitting in the back of a holding tank. the majority of it was crap so i just snapped off this little 2x3in piece and chucked the rest. the other was a craigslist special, the color here is terrible, it's amazing in person.


the birds nest on the left is another Reef Ecosystems freebie the sucker is a good 5 inches across and looks even better today. the polyps are twice as big. nice and happy. the pic on the left was from the same guy as the green monti above. dude claimed it was a stylo but i'm 90% certain its just a birds nest. cheap frag, i figure i'll let it grow and see what happens.


first chalice i've bought. its about an inch across and really cool coloration, it actually has a little more pink today. the dude was calling it bubblegum or blueberry or something like that. all these stupid names, it's just as bad as zoas/paly names. therefore i shall hereby refer to it as Strawberry Fields Forever (Ringo for short)


another from Bill at Reef Ecosystems. i actually paid for this one. $30 i think? maybe less. it's hard to see but there are some really cool bright green eyes in there. about 1x1 inch


one more freebie from Bill. 1x2 inches. probably Alien Eye or something like that.


i also got some zoas and rics. no good pics of the ric cuz their all pissed from me gluing them down.

 

oh, and i know i have GHA. shut up, i'm dealing with it!;D

 

lol

very nice

 

i'm TERRIBLE about testing and dosing my tank. i know my mag and PH are way down, maybe since i've got some new baby corals i'll be a better daddy

 

how do you dose Ph? lol

very good and we need a FTS

(i know about hte hair algae thing, i cnat get mine to go away and i dont even feed that much!!)

 

actually, thats a good question! i don't know how to raise ph without dosing a DkH buffer which also raises my Alk. if anyone has any good ideas let me know.

i'm PRETTY sure my GHA stems from the fact that my PH is 7.8 and my Mag is 1180 right now. other than that i've got a GFO reactor, run carbon 20% water change every two weeks, newer bulbs, undetectable NO3 and PO4. i'm getting ahead of it, i can see my rocks at least, hooray! i'll bet it's gone by this time next month.

i got a little urchin which does a really good job of keeping it trimmed nice and short

 

There are buffers available that raise pH without increasing alk that much. Seachem reef buffer is one. Their reef builder increases alk more than pH.

 

nice finds.. give them a few months and well see some growth for sure..

 

OH!! i forgot the best part of the deal (for you, not necessarily for me). this guy, Bill, hooks me up with tons of free stuff (55g reef ready tank, zoas, montis, rics, some of the corals above, chaeto) all part of this groovy "Pay It Forward" mentality. if i didn't pay for it, i'm not charging for it. therefore, when i start fragging this stuff i'm going to start giving it away. i have my one year 3reef anniversary coming up in march and i hope to have the tank up to snuff for her photo shoot and then you guys can take stock of what i've got going on in my tank. any locals who need frags, have patience....