Never Give Up

[AcroNem]

*Too long, didn't read, don't give up on corals because they might just look awesome*
This is another story of why you should never give up on a coral even when it comes in looking like a sad piece of poo. Especially when it comes in looking like a sad piece of poo. I've actually heard the line "it looked brown when I got it so I just threw it out". It's astounding hearing something like that. Here's my most recent "sad piece" transformation. Several months ago I added a few acros to my new propagation system. One of them just wasn't doing well from the start, nice and brown, with a few patches of STN starting already.

Lovely right? Not at all. Only being labeled "Acropora Tenuis" certainly didn't help in this situation because I had zero idea of what it was actually supposed to look like. After almost a month of that garbage it started to just melt away, RTN started in fast. Several consecutive dips later I managed to slow it down and eventually stop it. It also no longer looked like a regular piece of poo, it was a piece of poo with a hint of purple, but not much more impressive than a half dead Acro.

I then forgot about it as more things came in, other projects started and the flat got more full. This weekend while doing maintenance I remembered the sad little acro I had seen (and forgot, I know I know, it's a big tank okay) a month ago. By now I thought I'd find nothing but a chunk of skeleton. But instead found this beauty, starting to show something awesome, PINK. Like real pink. This is why you keep pieces no matter what, you might just end up with something like this. It isn't very big anymore, but it's really starting to shine.

 

[Elricardi]

might

Never give up

 

[Bob Escher]

I have a dumb question. Why do we see so many pictures that are mainly blue in color. I can't see where the coral is brown. ( and at last check I was not colorblind -LOL)
Why don't we see these in regular light. No offense to anyone just wondering why we see so many aquariums in a blue light rather than a full white light

 

[Elricardi]

I have a dumb question. Why do we see so many pictures that are mainly blue in color. I can't see where the coral is brown. ( and at last check I was not colorblind -LOL)
Why don't we see these in regular light. No offense to anyone just wondering why we see so many aquariums in a blue light rather than a full white light

Good question...

 

[AcroNem]

I have a dumb question. Why do we see so many pictures that are mainly blue in color. I can't see where the coral is brown. ( and at last check I was not colorblind -LOL)
Why don't we see these in regular light. No offense to anyone just wondering why we see so many aquariums in a blue light rather than a full white light

Which is kind of funny because the first and last pictures were taken under T5's all bulbs on, so those are pretty close to normal lighting. The middle I believe was taken in the evening under only blue plus. Also as with most pictures of aquaria, I took these with my cell phone which most are known for "bluing out" photos.

 

[aaron23]

haha love it! awesome

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have a dumb question. Why do we see so many pictures that are mainly blue in color. I can't see where the coral is brown. ( and at last check I was not colorblind -LOL)
Why don't we see these in regular light. No offense to anyone just wondering why we see so many aquariums in a blue light rather than a full white light

its not "pretty"
also most tanks are 8 to 20,000 kelvin rather than the 5,6000 kelvin of daylight. and cameras don like that much

 

[Bob Escher]

Which is kind of funny because the first and last pictures were taken under T5's all bulbs on, so those are pretty close to normal lighting. The middle I believe was taken in the evening under only blue plus. Also as with most pictures of aquaria, I took these with my cell phone which most are known for "bluing out" photos.

So then it's the phone problem? But what color is your substrate? And my stuff doesn't blue out when I use my iPad? Please don't slam me I wondering why and yes I'm a newbie to saltwater

 

[AcroNem]

The color of the sand in my flat is black, which seems to help a bit on its own. Not necessarily the phone but more mine, my S6 has an amazing camera for being a phone but for half of the pictures I take with it I don't bother adjusting the white balance. For most other pictures I care about I'll either use an actual camera or adjust it a bit.

 

[Bob Escher]

Now that makes a lot of sense my freshwater had black substrate also but I think white or Fiji Pink will be for my saltwater

 

[Graffiti Spot]

To get back on topic... When you see enough coral you can look at a brown acro and know if it's going to be beautiful or not. I noticed that a number of acros that come in brown turn out to be beautiful. I think some species brown easily especially when the colors are rare, the shipping process and most holding facilities don't help keep the colors. I tend to pick up the cheap brown colonies and have got a number of gems that way.

 

[AcroNem]

I've noticed that as well, quite a few SPS will lose a bit of color especially right after a 30 hour plane ride in a box. In this situation it was pretty severe so I wanted to use it as my example, I'm also thinking it makes sense it lost that amount of color because it ended up being a thick pink and purple, that kind of pink is a color I don't usually see in Acros. I think it definitely has more progress to make it's only been happy for a month. So we'll see where it ends up.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

There is a difference in browned out fish store acros and a wild beauty that looses its more rare colors in the process of coming to the states. I don't really see this in maricultures too much though, they seem to hold their color better in the process. But there are thoes that change once captive and change for the better, but you gotta know what to look for.