I took a few top down pictures of the new acroporas that Duane planted in my reef three months ago. All of them are doing very well, showing new growth around the base as well as new branches bursting out. These will look really great in another six months or so.
I had to park this picture here as one of those times you know you'll likely not re-live later. Holding a massive colony before it has a chance to break up into smaller chunks was a fun time. Plus it puts into perspective the size of the colonies that had grown in my 400g reef over a 3.5 year period.
It's funny about Chalice corals. People often referred to the mouths as eyes.
When you bought a coral, they'd say it comes with "x amount of eyes" when really they should have said "x amount of mouths" on that frag. As mine grew out, I was constantly amazed at how beautiful the skin of chalice corals was, and my nose would virtually be pressed up against the glass to take it all in. Here are three mesmerizing pieces I grew out.
This is an Orange Ball Anemone, supersized with a macro lens. Usually they are about 3/8" in diameter from tip to tip. This was a bigger one, maybe 3/4" in diameter. I have them throughout all my tanks, and they are opportunistic filter feeders. I think they are quite pretty, and study the rockwork after lights out with a flashlight to find these little guys wide open. During the daytime I hardly see any.
These fat corals are Dendros, or Dendrophyllia to be exact. And they look incredible with a macro lens. Open during the day time, they are hungry looking for food while absorbing some photosynthetic magic as well. Look at the texture of each tentacle.
