last one , Sanjay's Red Photon

tnyr5 · Jan 18, 2018

If anyone looked in my "catalog of my sps" thread, they probably noticed a completely insane pic I posted for New Years Day:

Well, this pic is under blue leds with an orange filter, so although all those colors are there, it's a bit overblown.

Problem is, this acro is in a bad spot, very close to the surface, so Sanjay has never been able to get a decent pic, until a few days ago when I went to visit and we tried every trick we could think of.

So, at last, here's the Red Photon under Daylight.

I just love this coral; the more you stare at it, the more colors you see!

nashorn · Jan 18, 2018

Nice!
Where did you get it from?

Abhishek · Jan 18, 2018

Wow !!! First time I see a proper pic of the photon . Its insanely beautiful. The color and structure indicates it needs pretty high light - quite a lot to keep the colors .
Amazing !!!!

Regards,
Abhishek

tnyr5 · Jan 18, 2018

nashorn said:
Nice!
Where did you get it from?

Sanjay got this as a frag from a friend who was tearing down his system. The friend purchased it as a wild colony. When he first got it, it was "just another purple acro", but over time (and under 800 par), it turned into something crazy!

tnyr5 · Jan 15, 2019

It's time to revisit this coral. I've now been growing the red photon in my tank for nearly a year from a small frag, and, after much tinkering and cooking (and insane light levels), I have it looking pretty close to the original actinic picture under normal daylight spectrum. edit: Daylight means Radion gen2 pro, white at 70%, both blue channels at 65%, purples at 100%, greens at 70%, reds at 100%

Graffiti Spot · Jan 15, 2019

Man thats a nice humilus, purple with red polyps and a green base on such a beautiful thick branching coral just makes me happy. Very hard coral to keep too. I love seeing the nubby stuff with different colorations, not many people really go out of their way to collect them which I think needs to change. It would be nice if we could figure out why these types of acros are more finicky.
Props to Sanjay for not putting rainbow in the name of this coral even if its deserving of it

And thanks for sharing the updates with us tnyr5!

Daniel 123 · Jan 15, 2019

That last photo is gorgeous, thank you for sharing. Nice work growing the frag, yeesh Ive managed a month with an sps frag let alone a year.

A question, does it make sense to spend your time finding the proper distance from your light source to keep the coral happy or adjusting spectrum that suits a certain number of corals positively and others not so much whether it be to accent a corals colors or light intensity, but obviously different spectrums will determine different intensities on the coral as well. Where should I spend my time?

tnyr5 · Jan 16, 2019

(Synthesizing a response to both of you)

Tricky question to answer, because the correct answer is "it depends" (But that's not helpful, so I'll try.)
I think it's better to strike a balance between what most Acropora want (whiter light) and what we like to see (bluer light), favoring the Acropora as much as one can stand. From there, it helps to have at least a guess as to the species. In my/Sanjay's opinion, the reef crest acros, such as humilis, gemmifera (what we think the red photon is), samoensis, robusta, etc., basically cannot be overlit, provided there are some nutrients in the water (NO3 at least 10, PO4 at least .1). It is also our opinion that in the presence of very high light and flow, these are some of the most forgiving corals you can grow. They handle temp swings, pH swings, even alk and salinity swings like champs. (Remember, these are corals that sometimes get rained on when exposed at low tide). They just need that crazy light and flow.
Gemmifera is my favorite acro. They come in dazzling color combos that tenuis can only approach with special glasses. Sadly, with Fiji closed, they are very hard to find (since most people underlight them and kill them lol).

reef lover · Jan 16, 2019

;Drool;Drool;Drool

therman · Jan 16, 2019

Can't say I've seen many gemmifera at all persisting long term in the hobby. Very nice!

I just took a quick shot of my only humilis the other day, the BC Bonsai humi. I've lost a few over the years but this one has been extremely durable too, like you say, grown out from a 3/4" frag. It is only in ~380 PAR. Reef crest Acropora are great!

RamsReef · Jan 16, 2019

Pedoconfuego said:
Man thats a nice humilus

That's what he said

tnyr5 · Jan 16, 2019

therman said:
Can't say I've seen many gemmifera at all persisting long term in the hobby. Very nice!

I just took a quick shot of my only humilis the other day, the BC Bonsai humi. I've lost a few over the years but this one has been extremely durable too, like you say, grown out from a 3/4" frag. It is only in ~380 PAR. Reef crest Acropora are great!

Haha, crank up the juice on that baby & see how intense the colors get!

Graffiti Spot · Jan 16, 2019

Yea it does look more like a gemmifera now that I look again, either way just as special. I agree with what you guys are saying about that type of coral too. But even with high light and flow some of those species still give us all trouble even when we are picking from healthy fresh corals. And for sure there are some really crazy color patterns in that category, its sad that its overlooked with all the tenuis crazed people out there. I can't remember the persons screen name but someone posted a thread a few years back with a tank full of these reforest acros and most of them were tricolored at the least. I asked how they picked such beautiful colors and they said that the special ones normally brown up real easy and so they just picked the ones that were brown in the bunch. I really wish I could find that thread...
Therman, that colony is beautiful, such natural tight growth! A plus for you sir. You really don't see many colonies grown out naturally in tanks like that, although I would say one of the best keepers of these corals I have seen recently is Jack (I think its his name) who has the skimmer less tank.

tnyr5 · Mar 11, 2019

Starting to go berserk

RamsReef · Mar 11, 2019

very nice

TX_Punisher · Mar 11, 2019

Super nice. Great job. Need to find me a piece.

tnyr5 · Apr 17, 2019

As I've increased the light, the photon has developed an intense pearlberry-like glow to its tips. Really gorgeous, although impossible to photograph.

tnyr5 · Jun 10, 2019

I've been experimenting with getting frags of this to develop red polyps right away (Frags brown out and lose the polyp color when cut). I think I'm getting the hang of it. Photo under the 10k setting of the Radions, full blast.