Jessezm's quest for SPS colors/growth (blog)

[jessezm]

Man, it's really hard to tell subtle differences with my poor camera work! from looking at the pictures in my viewer (before they are shrunk for the forums), you can see a slight difference in colors. primarily, some deepening of purples, blues, and greens.

My confusa is also making a comeback, slowly but surely, from it's bleaching incident.

 

[jessezm]

Poker star: 14 days
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[purplegorilla]

I honestly can't tell except the second picture is larger and in brighter light. I think in term of 3-6 months comparison, you might be able to tell.

 

[jessezm]

Look in the bottom left corner, though, at the growth in the lavender milli. Otherwise, I tend to agree with you. Besides the zoom, the camera settings and lighting is identical.

 

[jessezm]

Here are a few shots, let's see if they come out OK.... They're from yesterday, so that's about 3 1/2 weeks. I'll try to get some more pics in a few... I think half the lights are out for these shots.
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[FutureInterest]

Wow that's a pretty impressive color change. Looks like I have to go back and read the entire thread...

 

[jessezm]

Okay, some more from today, with all lights on:
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[jessezm]

A few more side and full tank shots...
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[jessezm]

FutureInterest;100724 wrote: Wow that's a pretty impressive color change. Looks like I have to go back and read the entire thread...

Yeah, I've noticed a lot of deepening of colors in the past few weeks. The pictures look really washed out vs. in-person. I'll have to get someone to take some better pics.

I've been keeping up the routine, every night feeding aminos and then the pappone (about half of and ice-cube size). I've also started adding sugar in the morning instead of at night, but just for the past three days.

I really wasn't sure if much was happening, but Jaime came over after not being here for about a month and said there was a huge difference! I guess it's hard to tell since I stare at it every other minute...

 

[sammy33]

Which amino supplement are you using?

I was using the seachem reef complete with fair results. I have run out now and got a bottle of the Brightwell Aquatics CoralAmino. This stuff is a bit more robust with 17 aminos where the reef complete only has 5 aminos plus a bunch of vitamins and trace elements.

I am still only dosing the aminos every 4 days but plan to change to every three days as the dosage on the Brightwell aminos is more frequent than the seachem.

 

[jessezm]

I'm back to using Seachem Reef Plus. That bottle of brightwell I got from you aminos lasted all of a week--turns out it's not super concentrated like we thought...oh well! I probably dose more than I need to, which I'm sure partly explains the green hair algae I've got now (along with doing the pappone every night, too)

I would like to use something without so many other trace elements, as I'm sure the iron and other stuff really feeds the algae more than anything. Something like Elos's amino acids is very alluring, and they are supposed to be concentrated so I wouldn't have to add so much other stuff along with it.

Jaime is experimenting with some GNC amino gel tabs at the moment, so I'll be curious to see what turns up there.

 

[melissa]

Have you guys ever tried Salifert Coralline Amino Acids? I've been using that for a few years. I have no idea how many are in the formula.

Jesse, the tank looks great. You've really seen a lot of growth in there!

 

[jessezm]

Hey Melissa--thanks! I've seen it but haven't heard much about it--does it come in concentrated form? I've very interested...

 

[sammy33]

jessezm;101095 wrote: I'm back to using Seachem Reef Plus. That bottle of brightwell I got from you aminos lasted all of a week--turns out it's not super concentrated like we thought...oh well! I probably dose more than I need to...

I have been using a much lower dose than brightwell recommends. I basically dose one "squirt" per 75g every 3 days. The dropper fills up with about 3ml per squirt so my dose is about 3ml/75g. This is way less than half of the dose recommeded by brightwell (5ml/50g daily).

I have noticed an increase in color intensity on some of my acros. This is most likely from my previous rounds of feeding/dosing aminos. I hope it continues with this new product. I plan to use it for at least the next several months so I can try to see if there is a difference between CoralAmino and Reef Plus.

 

[jessezm]

Man with all the variables I can't imagine how we'll know the difference! I'm actually thinking of trying the GNC aminos that Jaime is using with his pappone once I run out of the reef plus--he seems to be getting great results.

 

[jessezm]

Two more week's progress:
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[jessezm]

A few more:
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[jessezm]

Just added six chromis and a magnificent foxface. Foxface is still too shy for photos...