I got a frag from John the other night… thanks Houndsbayman!. its my smallest coral, but the one i’m most excited about, especially after seeing that huge colony in Dr. Macs presentation! Got my new lights too…aquaticlife w/ 12 36’’ T5’s…amazing! heres a couple pics of monti, its about halfway up in the dt, on top of a huge pipe organ skeleton, so its got tons of room to grow…can’t wait for the blue! …i’ll post pics monthly to show growth progress
Nice.
Great pics.I’m thinking of ordering Aquatic Life 48 in, 6 54 w. T5’s -for my 75 gal. tank. Pls let me know if you have any problems with them. Thanks. Good luck with your tank.
The light is vey nice! i’m happy w/ it and the two lights i had on before were aquatic life. And this light is triple the watts of the old two, and runs the dt cooler! those two fans on it get the job done!
Good looking coral. i also have a superman growing, but my polyps are not out too often…
John, what coral/plankton foods do you feed again? Certain ones will help with both growth and polyp extension on “sps”, but they are also very easy to overfeed so should be used in extreme moderation. The stems on some of my acropora and coincidently also on my gorgonian, are hidden by the long swaying healthy polyps. Kind of shuts up anyone that talks about SPS not moving when they see many of my corals in person. That being said because of a little cyano outbreak do to that bacterial die off I backed off feeding a bit recently and don’t have the same extension. The length of the polyps in my healthy system are directly proportional to feeding.(that being said, of course, significant retracted polyps may be due to other chemistry, lighting, and flow conditions.)
Looks great John!
Your simple Ca, Mg, and alk consistency will help this to grow a lot with the rest of your corals 
I do agree, and feed my corals zooplankton (along with microvert, and a few others). You really don’t have to worry about it too much as your system will adjust, but don’t dose on a daily basis and give your system time to adjust to any additives you put in For the SPS, you only really need zoo and possibly phyto, but I suggest zoo
iwill have to pick some up
Question: John (Marchin band) how long did you have your super, how did it look when first got it? how long before it wouldn’t extend its polyps? I’m trying to figure out why mine looks so good without adding anything ever? and if it will stay that way w/ out? And maybe houndsbayman will chime in and let us know about his colony and what he does?
john
IT could just be other factors in my tank. Ive had it a month and it has encusted over the plug and onto the rock…
My idea as to why they might be extending well is because they are use to HQI lighting and they are now in T5HO so they need to be more extended to get the same amount of lighting. This is not a bad thing because in the end, you get to see your polyps more and, might I say again it looks beautiful
[quote=“Jcling, post:11, topic:2890”]
My idea as to why they might be extending well is because they are use to HQI lighting and they are now in T5HO so they need to be more extended to get the same amount of lighting. This is not a bad thing because in the end, you get to see your polyps more and, might I say again it looks beautiful :)[/quote]
I doubt that is the case. T-5ho is just as bright as HQI. In fact I have read many accounts where people have bleached their corals when swithing from HQI to T-5. The reason being that T-5 tubes light the entire coral without any shading like you get with the metal halide. No matter what the reason that is one beautiful coral!
Thanks for the compliments! and i’m gonna have to find out about renting the par meter soon. I would like to find out the output now, then test it again in maybe 8-10 months to see how the bulbs are still putting out. make sure i get the full life outta all 12 t5’s… 12 x $…=ouch
John (Gordonius): How are you treating the cyano. I’ve had it in the past and used chemiclean which works well, but I do hate using it. You have to do water change after and it’s a chemical.
Well the main cause of my cyano was due to whack chemistry which caused a large bacterial die off.(that’s my working theory) I’ve moved some rocks for another system to try to help restore some bacteria, I’m keeping the chemistry as stable as possible, performing frequent water changes with 0tds RO/DI, and I’m using a significant amount of carbon, phosphate absorbing media, and skimming.(normal have the skimmer on an average of 20% of the time per year and I started running two all the time)
Bottom line, the die off of bacteria released phosphates, so I’m limiting my addition of phosphates and nitrates(which influence cyano growth) and removing them from the tank asap. It takes months to remove phosphates wants they get high.(leach into rocks and sand and come out very slowly)
I’ve had chemiclean sitting in my basement for years because I get it for free, haven’t used it for years.
Thanks.
Saltcreep, super is looking good. As far as feeding goes, I feed them with Dr.Mac’s Total Reef coral food and once a week with frozen cyclopeze.
My only suggestion is, if you want, place the superman frag on a small piece of rock, because once it starts encrusting on that boulder, if you ever need to move it, might be a tuff move.
Here’s an updated pic. i had to move it to the frag rack though to keep an eye on it, found some nudibranchs on my purple and green caps, and one on superman. i dipped them in tropic marin cure 2 weeks ago. i haven’t seen any on the super again, but i just re-dipped the purple and green caps again today(they had 4- 5 each on them…better than 2 weeks ago, when they were infested… anyway, just started to see growth within the past two weeks. here it is.
nice growth…and its gotten some nice color
Ill post some pics of mine when i get back from florida