History of a Blasto

[schwaggs]

I have a series of photos of my large blasto colony.

This picture was taken in March of 2003. At that time, the coral had been in my possession for at least 5 years. It had looked better than this (duh) but I was having a hard time with it at this time (also, duh).
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[schwaggs]

This picture is from May of 2004. As you can see, things were getting worse. At this time I was terrified that I was going to lose this coral. I was my favorite coral at the time. I didn't know for sure what the problem was. I was having a problem with CA and Alk (couldn't keep both up at the same time, in hindsight it was probably low mag). I tried to keep CA up around 400 but my alk was always low. Tried new lighting, nothing seemed to help...
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[schwaggs]

SURPRISE! Same coral September 2005. I found the errors of my husbandry. Low calcium levels was responsible for the decline and a new CA reactor brought everything back in line! Looking good!
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[schwaggs]

Same coral in March of 2006. Amazing what good CA levels will do for a coral. It pretty much looks like this today, except bigger.
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[smoothie]

Very nice

 

[raz0945]

Your Blasto is beautiful! I'm glad you were able to bring it back. Mine are very special to me.

 

[grouper therapy]

Beautiful!!!!

 

[schwaggs]

Thanks guys, that is probably the best picture I have ever taken of a coral... still nothing like Mojo's pictures ...

 

[acroholic]

Looks great.

 

[twocute2b4u]

WOW - that is awesome. I've learned through the last year that corals will rejuvinate themselves when their conditions are well.

You obviously made some significant changes. Nice job!

 

[chemically_balanced]

You weren't kidding when you said you had some good history on this thing at the meeting. Looks amazing and I can't belive the recovery in just a short time(in coral time).

 

[jcook54]

That's pretty awsome indeed. Photo series like that give me hope. My tank is in pretty rough shape (neglect) but I've been putting a lot of effort into bringing it back. It's good to see the potential end result! Thanks!

 

[jjw]

Blastos are my favorite coral species. Do you target feed them?

 

[ga_daisy]

So pretty....and amazing that it bounced back like that.

 

[gmpolan]

Amazing...and thanks for the hammer, it looks great

 

[mojo]

That's awesome! Nothing like having a coral for 5+ years, esp. when it came back from near death!

And my pictures are crap compared to Gary Parr's... :doh:

 

[rbredding]

GREAT!!!!

now cut it in half and sell it...