Reef life

[FESTER665]

Oregon Blue Tort's are one of my all time favorite corals....
When I had my 180g this was in May:

Then in November:

It was growing great for me, then I downsized to the 90g starfire and it ended up dying...

 

[FESTER665]

This one might be a pink lemonade.... I remember having this exact coral and I think it was pink lemonade. I forget what frag company strain it was though.

 

[FESTER665]

Another Monti Cap that I liked a little more than the usual Orange ones were Leng Sy Montipora....

And below it to the right is a great encrusting Monti, Morningstar if memory serves....

Try to steer clear of Pocollopora unless you really like one. They are great and grow fast, but can also spawn fairly easily....

My main coral was the size of a softball, but if you look in the Leng Sy picture theres one below it to the left. That was on the opposite side of the tank after it spawned. I had Pocci sprouting up everywhere.

Also in that picture is a green slimer frag, also a really bright easy to grow coral...

 

[cap42]

View attachment 43999

This one might be a pink lemonade.... I remember having this exact coral and I think it was pink lemonade. I forget what frag company strain it was though.

Think you might be right, just looked it up and it matches what I found online. Thanks!

 

[cap42]

Oregon Blue Tort's are one of my all time favorite corals....
When I had my 180g this was in May:
View attachment 43997

Then in November:
View attachment 43998


It was growing great for me, then I downsized to the 90g starfire and it ended up dying...

This has been one of those corals that was on my wish list when I started the original reef tank. I'm hoping it does well in my tank as I have always loved it's coloration.

 

[cap42]

View attachment 44000

Another Monti Cap that I liked a little more than the usual Orange ones were Leng Sy Montipora....

And below it to the right is a great encrusting Monti, Morningstar if memory serves....

View attachment 44001


Try to steer clear of Pocollopora unless you really like one. They are great and grow fast, but can also spawn fairly easily....
View attachment 44002

My main coral was the size of a softball, but if you look in the Leng Sy picture theres one below it to the left. That was on the opposite side of the tank after it spawned. I had Pocci sprouting up everywhere.

Also in that picture is a green slimer frag, also a really bright easy to grow coral...

I liked the orange one I have because it has bright blue polyps, while they are small it still add's a nice contrast. I will be adding a green monti cap on the rear section of left rocks. I am going to keep some low light and nps corals on the left side of the tank.

I'm still looking for a pink mili and want to find some corals with some distinctive yellows to round out the color spectrum. Then I'll be looking at some more encrusting or plating coral to cover up some of the rockwork that is towards the back of the tank.

The overall plan is to have the zoa and shrooms on the bottom of the tank, might add another scoly or even a plate or meat coral. Then get some frogspawn, and torch euphyllia in the middle for some nice movement and color. then it will be sps dominantly up top. Pretty classic style setup for a mixed reef.

As for livestock the next fish will be a anthias, still deciding which genus to get as it will be singular. I'll get a blue/green mandarin dragonet once my pod population is established. I'd love to get a flame angel or coral beauty but afraid they will eat the corals. I've got room for several more fish but running into the obvious limitations of what fish aren't aggressive towards the current livestock or corals.

 

[FESTER665]

Are some of the scolys still stupid expensive? They were nuts when I was in the hobby awhile back....

I had some really pretty yumas and florida ricordia mushrooms.... Miss them.

i never had issues with flame angelfish and corals, I know they can be hit of miss, but I’ve never had issues with them with anyone I’ve known personally.

Green Dragonets are one of my favorite fish. Definitely wait for the tank to be mature had have a ton of pods. Once you do they’re great fish to add.

I had a harem of Lyretail Anthias, they were a really good fish for the tank... I always wanted a Borbonius Anthias, but the price tag is rough...

 

[FESTER665]

I really need to stop reading this thread.

 

[cap42]

Are some of the scolys still stupid expensive? They were nuts when I was in the hobby awhile back....

I had some really pretty yumas and florida ricordia mushrooms.... Miss them.

i never had issues with flame angelfish and corals, I know they can be hit of miss, but I’ve never had issues with them with anyone I’ve known personally.

Green Dragonets are one of my favorite fish. Definitely wait for the tank to be mature had have a ton of pods. Once you do they’re great fish to add.

I had a harem of Lyretail Anthias, they were a really good fish for the tank... I always wanted a Borbonius Anthias, but the price tag is rough...

Ya most scoly's are still stupid expensive but not as bad as it was years ago. The price isn't because it's the craze in the industry but more of the propagation constrictions.

I have one scoly in the tank (well I was told it's a scoly) you can see it in the previous page's pictures with the full zoa rock it's just behind on the sandbed. It's blue but completely stoney where most scoly's are fleshy. I was told it's an aussie scoly but I have never seen another one like it. That cost me a hundo last year.

Definitely going to get a some florida ricordia's, that's where I know I'll be adding some yellow coral to the tank.

 

[FESTER665]

Looked at Divers Den, and some fish prices are definitely down from before... Mystery Wrasses look cheaper, Gem Tangs look cheaper, Maroon Lightning Clowns are WAY down but guesing just because they’re able to be bred like crazy now....

 

[FESTER665]

Still always wanted a bleeding apple scoly....

 

[FESTER665]

I know this is a ton of actinic and some photo tweaking, but dayum is this from Reef Raft Canada a good looking coral..... Stupid expensive I’m sure, but they have some crazy looking stuff.

 

[SleeperLS]

All of that is freaking awesome.

 

[cap42]

There's a lot of online coral stores that have some crazy cool shit. WWC (world wide coral) is one of those go to's, they have some interesting strains and cross breading. The downside is those are those designer corals that cost insane cash. Like this one for example.



$999 for a god damn mushroom. Bounce mushrooms don't do anything for me so even if it was $20 I wouldn't buy it.

At aquashella there was a guy selling a cross bred black widow/rainbow nem for $2800 and I thought to myself who would buy that. Low and behold the guy next to me purchased it. I was like

My reef tank is not going to have any show stopper corals in it, it will just be a nice selection of mixed reef corals and fish. Items like the Oregon tort use to command serious cash back in the day but now it's a decent priced frag. If there is something that becomes a must have my inner cheap ass will just make me wait till propagation drops the price.