I See Dead People *whispered*

[MarLooney]

as some of you may know, our resident ghost here at SDReefs has recently come back from the dead. [G]h0s'][', or Mel to those that know him, just got back into the hobby again and has decided to rejoin the world of San Diego reeftards... he's even posting again! this guy was the 16th person to join SDReefs way back in Nov of '03... ten days after "San Diego Coral Classifieds" was started. he was very active on the boards in the early days of our forum but then vanished outta no where. well, it looks like he's making a come back. i finally got an opportunity to visit his house last night on the way to My 10gal Tank Away From Home (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2847)... i should've dropped by there sooner... he's only around the corner from her. either way, the tank looks great and i was able to snap a bunch of pics. so here i go....

right side of the tank SPS area.

[MarLooney]

left side SPS area.

[MarLooney]

on to the close ups :D.

the orange cap in there is still looking great. you can compare it to an older pic of the coral (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14567) i posted on a thread of his tank (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1618) July 12, 2004.

[MarLooney]

here's a new colony that found it new home since he's gotten back into it. brahm, is this one of the SPS he got from you?

[MarLooney]

i was also surprised to see more shrooms in his tank. :eek:
but i guess when a colony is this cool... you can't just pass it up.

[MarLooney]

here's a close up.

[MarLooney]

i'm not sure if this is new... or he had this one already... either way. lookin good http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

[MarLooney]

since his angel (RIP :() died he was able to get zoos again... here's a nice combo rock which includes some zoos. i always liked the way his HQI's made zoos look. they just look much more crisper or something... idunno... but it's cool.

[MarLooney]

this mofo has taken off! it's supposed to be green w/ orange polyps but it turned white and kept on growing as if it was completely healthy... so i guess that's just it's color now. you can compare to an old pic (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=15091) i posted on July 15th by clicking the link.

[MarLooney]

idunno if he had these rics before or what... but their coloration is just amazing. he's got some other pale oranges in there to compare. so i know these aren't your avg Atl rics.

[[G]h0s'][']

You're having too much fun with that digi cam takin pics of peoples' tanks, Marlo. :p I'd have to say, upgrading to DE HQI 10K's was a good move...but hurt the pocket book when I first got em. :D

[ejocam]

Yeah, Mel those 2 Digitatas came from Exotic Reefs a year ago. They have both taken off in my tank. It does have a green body with super orange polyps and the other is a true lavender/purple with green polyps. Welcome back Mel, thanks for the pics Marlo' see ya guys at the swap in Encino! Eric We sure wish you diego's were not so far from each other up here. There are a lot of quality reefers down there:D The hobby is exploding down there, we'll soon be traveling down there for some swaps. Everyone welcome up here. For those who have been up here, they can tell you what a blast it is up here. Hope to see ya!:D Eric

[sdwrx]

looks great! you've got some very nice colonies.

[[G]h0s'][']

Thx guyz. Yea, Eric, I'm working on suckering someone to work for me that weekend so can go hang out at the swap up there. Im gonna need a cattle prod to zap a path through all those reefers at those Encino frag swap...heh heh. I saw a pic of your pink monti digi on the RC thread, sweet! -Mel

[chilly05willy]

Mel, you got a sweet looking tank. Those rics are awesome!!

[MarLooney]

Originally posted by ejocam
Yeah, Mel those 2 Digitatas came from Exotic Reefs a year ago. They have both taken off in my tank. It does have a green body with super orange polyps and the other is a true lavender/purple with green polyps.

oh you mean this one :D? click here (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=15091) to see what it looked like in a pic i posted on July 15th. it doesn't seem to grow anywhere near a fast as his other digis.

[MarLooney]

Originally posted by [G]h0s']['
You're having too much fun with that digi cam takin pics of peoples' tanks, Marlo. :p I'd have to say, upgrading to DE HQI 10K's was a good move...but hurt the pocket book when I first got em. :D
oh yeah... big difference. the 400s were brighter but the over all look of the HQI's are much better. some day i hope to have enough $ to invest in some.



Originally posted by sdwrx
looks great! you've got some very nice colonies.
and the cool part is he grew a lotta those from either small colonies or frags. i think mel said he doesn't wanna get wild collected anymore... but sometimes i think the vibrant colors get the best of him. :D



Originally posted by [G]h0s']['
Im gonna need a cattle prod to zap a path through all those reefers at those Encino frag swap...
sounds like a good idea... now if only i can find a way there... yes Eric, i'm still working on a ride to get you your frag =T.



Originally posted by chilly05willy
Mel, you got a sweet looking tank. Those rics are awesome!!
here's another for will.
mel, did you have those already and they just turned brighter than the others or did you just get those. i'm thinking they're new.

[elgordoinavw]

those rics are awesome

[chilly05willy]

gorgeous :)

[T. VO]

After the ricordea crash of 2004 in my tank. I didn't want anymore. But now.. I want them. A LOT of em!!

[PonE619]

Nice orange rics Mel!

[MarLooney]

seems like there's more softie fans here than SPS freaks.

here's some GSP for you :D... LOL.

[MarLooney]

you'd think you'd get more comments on stuff like this...
i think this one's new too BTW. from you brahm?

[Drea]

Originally posted by SoKaL ReeFiN
After the ricordea crash of 2004 in my tank. I didn't want anymore. But now.. I want them. A LOT of em!!

What happend?


BTW nice tank, luv the shrooms

[[G]h0s'][']

Thanks guyz n galz, you're too kind. OK...who's gonna rent the SUV so we can all carpool to the encino fragswap at Dave B's. Lotz o rare stuff can be found on that RC thread that treylane posted here on sdreefs. I'm tryin to sucker one of the other nurses to work for me that weekend. heh heh.

[T. VO]

Originally posted by Drea
What happend?


BTW nice tank, luv the shrooms

I was ricsitting a bunch of ricordeas for a fellow reefer while he upgraded his tank and his rics had some kind of disease and wiped all mine out. :(

[Eternal780]

awww that sux they were Mikes wernt they? Shame on you Mike hehehe jk:D

[MarLooney]

booo... ya'll are stealing the thread and turning it into ricordia discussion. that'd make sense if mel had a ric dominated tank... but this is an SPS tank.

so... staying in line w/ what you guys are talking about. here is something from Mike that didn't some w/ "some kind of disease." this green cap has seen amazing growth since mel got it from mike. it started out as a boomerang and now it's turned into a cool spiral colony. the pic i took in early July can be seen here (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14578). it's purple rim (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14580) has faded a bit since it's been moved... mel said he should be getting around to replacing his bulbs soon. it doesn't look like his tank needs it... but i bet w/ new bulbs you'd see a huge difference.

[MarLooney]

woo hoo... something from me mel actually kept alive. a lotta the corals i put in there didn't do too well since he wasn't paying attention to his tank. 1 oxy lost, 1 looking like turd, 2 caps gone, a few softies gone, all the zoos eaten by his angel... this guy made it through mel's off time. it hasn't grown as much as i'd expect it to... but i'm just glad it's alive and healthy. it looks a lot better now that it's not upside down. everytime i'd visity mel i'd find it knocked over till one day i had epoxy and stuck it where it's at now. it's been doing great since then.

...and this also was originally from Mike.

[reefsoul]

you've got my thumbs up, mel.

[WanaLeime]

WoW....Awesome.....one day...I will have a tank like that...:D

[MarLooney]

we all hope to have a tank like this one day. :D

here's a nice yellow leather. i like how he mixes SPS, LPS, softies, & polyps.

[MarLooney]

and a close up...

[MarLooney]

i remembered this cap as a brownish tan cap that was just sitting in his tank cause a friend gave it to him. now it's a blueish grey cap that's looking real sweet... still in the back of his tank though. LOL :D

[MarLooney]

his colony of purple tip frilly shrooms used to be so purple that the green base wasn't even visible. when mel took some time off from paying attention to his tank they browned out a bit. as you can see they're making a great come back.

[MarLooney]

this acro has to be one of my fav in his tank. i don't know why. it isn't some flashy color or anything. i think the way it grows is cool and just the over all coral is pretty IMO. here's a pic (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=19710) of what it looked like back in August. it still looked as good as now but it's grown more since then. i wish i had a pic of when he first got it. it was no where near the condition it's in now.

[MarLooney]

beautiful frogspawn. http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

[MarLooney]

colony of pink zoos...
it's too bad all his zoos were eaten by his angel when it was alive. it sucks it died, but i'm glad to see these zoos one's won't suffer the same fate.

[MarLooney]

zoos close up...

[MarLooney]

not sure what acro this is... but it grows slow as hell.