Can’t keep torches…

[VintageReefer]

I suppose I could run the halides on a shorter duration and work up to my 6.5 hours over a week or so with the T5s supplementing. Good idea.

You could also do my old school method when I had halides. Layers of window screen. I’d start with like 10 layers and remove one layer a week.

 

[Formulator]

All of my torches were shipped to me

Hammers are crappy shippers.
Torches do ok if they package well
Frogspawn seems to me most resilient

My grail the day I got it. The knicks next to it I got about 2 weeks prior

Current torches

Ohh lord now I must try again. Stunning!

 

[VintageReefer]

Ohh lord now I must try again. Stunning!

Yea you got to figure this out. You’re missing out

You also have one of the top players in the game posting in your thread…

Coral Kai

Fully conditioned healthy corals

coralkaireef.com

 

[Formulator]

Yea you got to figure this out. You’re missing out

You also have one of the top players in the game posting in your thread…

Coral Kai

Fully conditioned healthy corals

coralkaireef.com

Just stop I can’t take anymore

 

[Taralynn23]

Yea you got to figure this out. You’re missing out

You also have one of the top players in the game posting in your thread…

Coral Kai

Fully conditioned healthy corals

coralkaireef.com

How do you take such beautiful pictures? We have a Kessel light and anytime I use my brand new Samsung phone it is just VERY blue and not a good picture. Any suggestions?

 

[VintageReefer]

How do you take such beautiful pictures? We have a Kessel light and anytime I use my brand new Samsung phone it is just VERY blue and not a good picture. Any suggestions?

Cell phones cameras are more sensitive to blue leds than our eyes are. It will come out oversaturated with even a hint of blue led being on

You need this to counteract the cameras sensors:

The kit comes with a number of lenses to play around with different lighting setups.

What works best for me for true to life pictures and colors is using the solid orange lens and having my blue, royal blue, and violet channels at 50%. White at 0-10%, and very important - all ambient light eliminated. I take the best photos at night when the sun is down, there’s no light from windows, and all room lighting is off.

Amazon.com

a.co

 

[VintageReefer]

If you want your reef to really jump out, get coral viewing glasses

https://a.co/d/1B8JZGP

 

[officialreefbros]

I feel your pain! The best I got was about a year with one where it grew to 5 heads then boom died

 

[PeterC99]

Which type of torches have you tried? Some are much easier than others. Below is an indigo gold torch that I’ve had for 4 years.

 

[VintageReefer]

Mine are a mix of Malaysian and Indonesian. I’ve heard rough stuff about Aussie torches

 

[Kodock]

Is this the only one you’ve attempted? You said torch(es). 1 instance may not be a good depiction of the success, but some torches can be sensitive, parasites or uniques conditions that turn them BJD quick.

Was this an aussie? It’s well known that aussie torches are not hardy. You also have halide and t5. Did the place you get it from have it under LEDs?

You want to get and aquacultured, home grown indo or malaysian torch. Pictures of the membrane underneath. It should be good and fleshy.. I’d say at least 1”+ down the skeleton, if not more. Start with 2-3 cheaper torches and see if you can get at least 1 new head on them, then venture out into getting more or higher end ones.

I found the best consistency at averaging 150-165 PAR. This would be ramping up to it, in it and ramping down.. whatever your best variation of that may be. Torches can handle much stronger PAR (wouldn’t recommend more than 250), but it should be acclimated to such over time. Anecdotally 1400 Mg and steady calcium. Can endure high phosphate. Enough flow to get it moving, but not so much to where your can see the mouth skeleton and where they don’t look like one of those car dealership blow up guys .

Salinity swings, phosphate swings from correction attempts seem to be big culprits.