Honest SPS pictures

[BackToTheReef]

This is what you say that the environment color of the tank such as rocks is more in reality.

What is the killer orange guy in the upper left?

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a few for you

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

The problem with picture comparisons like this is that those colors were produced under bluer LED settings. 14k lighting is not going to produce most of the washed out coloration shown, especially in that main tank shot.

The people that grow out their corals under say 14k lights for most of the daily duration would be a much more accurate representation how the corals will look in person, especially if a DSLR camera is set right with a correct white balance.

To the OP--
Some corals will color up the same and some better/different depending on your lights. The corals that look great without the fake reflective coloration from overly blue lighting are the true high enders and are only defined by price if they are rare or have slow growth rates.

Nah

 

[CCauthers]

What is the killer orange guy in the upper left?

Thats another montipora setosa

 

[lemonade]

Having 6500k bulbs makes accurate photos much easier. These are raw, no edit. Exactly how I would see them looking down in the tank

 

[Mhart032]

My whole flickr album has unedited photos under 14k Phoenix MH with no supplements (mostly - there are a few pics in there that are not mine). That gold millepora is really that gold.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dveqP4]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dqR4B1]

This is a perfect example of what things will look like, good old fashioned MH with a Phoenix 14k. It was the gold standard for sps for a very long time, before leds and I still think looks amazing. Even better in person I'd bet.

 

[Johniejumbo]

Here’s a purple Stylophora and a green pocillapora under 14k. These pics look almost identical to naked eye.

 

[Mhart032]

Here is what I believe is RR the Vinh under as bright of whites as I can get with the xr15 blues and a camera flash shot with the Samsung note 20 ultra unedited

 

[Mhart032]

Here is what I believe is RR the Vinh under as bright of whites as I can get with the xr15 blues and a camera flash shot with the Samsung note 20 ultra unedited

same mini colony under xr15 blues unedited for perspective.

 

[Danghost22]

Thank you bro, this is just a normal 40 gal , I don't have much nice species acro.
My water is natural sea water, and do water change 10 gal every week.

My parameters is just following the natural sea water below:
Alk:6.7
Ca:410
Mg:1320
Nitrate:0.2
Phosphate:Hanna is undetectable
I love whole spectrum look because it's much more comfortable for my eyes.

I’ve seen that many people seem to have great coloration with lower alk and almost 0 nutrients.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

A few of mine under 2 radion g4 on the high growth preset.
Being accustomed to mh the ab+ preset is too blue for me.
24k millipora

marvin the martian

red planet

 

[Da8]

Hope you like them.

 

[Juan Encinas]

I got this acropora for free it's around 2 1/4 inch size and when i get it it was fully deep brown, now its starts to become light brown and the tips starts to pull out a very fluorescent green, and good pollyp extention.

 

[James Johnson]

Looks like we have a lot of reefers who have never dived before, the deeper you go in the ocean the more broad spectrum sunlight gets filtered out leaving only the blue purple spectrum that can penetrate deeper water due to its wavelength, most corals are used to blue light in nature hence the blue lighting

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Looks like we have a lot of reefers who have never dived before, the deeper you go in the ocean the more broad spectrum sunlight gets filtered out leaving only the blue purple spectrum that can penetrate deeper water due to its wavelength, most corals are used to blue light in nature hence the blue lighting

Oh boy. You’re about to get scolded by the old schoolers. Good luck to you sir

 

[jda]

I don't want to get into old and new school, but I went to collect in the coral sea and nearly nothing in the hobby is collected with any more than masks on one breath - 3-5 meters is about the limit with a whole bunch in waist deep water. The equipment to go deeper is used to catch fish which bring 10-100x more money than corals. Even if you go deeper, 25 meters is pretty deep for a collector and violet to red gets to this depth with a pretty white look. I am not saying that collecting corals with rebreathers and expensive equipment does not happen, but it is not likely that any of us have anything that was gathered this way.

Also, keep in mind that coastal waters have a lot less blue penetration and even at 5 meters, the water is much more yellow if you are near land.

There are a lot of reasons that somebody might want to use blue light, but diving to see corals at 150+ meters where only blue is around is not one of them. If you like your blue, then cool, but this junk about replicating light in the deep ocean where few corals exist was a bunch of BS from CoralLab or whatever faux publication put it out. I like a nice 12-14k look, but I just like it because I like it and don't make up some garbage about this is what corals look like a 17.89450 meters at 13:24 o'clock a the equator on the summer solstice

 

[JPergamo]

Love me some daylight stix. Nothing better no foolery.

 

[adobo]

Anyone willing to post some pictures of some more “high end” sps without heavy blues on or editing of pictures?
I’m just starting to get really into SPS and would love to know what to actually expect. I see all the pictures online but I know that isn’t necessarily what they will look like in person

What they look like in person will have a lot to do with the lights you put on them when you look at them.

I personally hate a lot of how tanks look with the way they are lit these days. Every single tank I see in the LFS look really gawdy to me because they all have way over exaggerated blues. I am sure they are lit this way because the people who set up the lighting are trying to maximize coral growth. To me, its like a woman wearing 10lbs of makeup.

Corals in nature typically exist deep enough that the water filters out a lot of the reds from the ambient light. Therefore, everything tends to look blue or bluish green under water (in the tropics). Seeing corals and other animals during daytime in the wild can be a very mono-chromatic experience. Divers who photograph underwater animals in the wild will usually bring a super powerful flash to get more "natural" look in the photo.

So if you are anyway going to have an over-exaggerated bluish look to your reef tank, either to maximize coral growth or to make the coral look like they are flourescing, then maybe some of the photos you are seeing are not an unfair representation of what the coral might look like in your tank. If your are going to light your tank with a "mid-day" look, then yeah, these photos look nothing like what the corals will look in your tank.

 

[Sheripie]

Under filter but no edit.. Also don't have high end stuff

 

[jda]

That A. Echinata is very high end to me (or whatever it is). Takes more skill and looks better than most of stuff that some consider high end. Well done.