Sometimes some of my acros just grow in a direction that is not flattering for viewing. So I have done a little "plastic surgery" on my corals before but today was a little different.
Here is my palettes pink tip and this view is obviously through the front glass and all you can see is its bottom. I like bottoms but prefer a different view of my acros.
I did the first set of pictures from my iPhone with t5 lights on so excuse the blue tinge but coloring is not the point of this thread for now at least. There is a recovering chalice in the picture, please do not get distracted by my recovering chalice, it is sad though.
So I was planning on using my big bone cutters to simply cut the colony at the base and reglue it at a different angle. I have done this before and its worked out perfect. The problem was that I could not get my bone cutters to fit in at the base, the bone cutters were blocked out by the growth of the colony.
I also tried and failed to reach it from the bottom. And I had seen a video post of a reefer I think from Holland that used a chisel so I thought why not. What is the worse thing that could happen----right. Well, Im not much of a handyman so no chisel but I have this really long screwdriver and a hammer so it seemed like a good idea.
Here are my surgical instruments of the day (make sure they are sterile, or at least rust free, I settled on just a little rusty:
So the most exciting part, i took my first reef video. I taped my iPhone to the front tank glass (Scotch tape just in case you wanted to know), climbed onto my ladder to reach down into the tank and proceeded with my "surgery". Something I want to warn you about, make sure you can see what you are doing so that your strikes are precise and you do not keep going after your successful amputation because you could injure the base of the colony. I did not turn off my pumps, so looking top down, I saw nothing. Oh and one more thing, when you talk to yourself out loud, apparently that is recorded on video--another lesson learned.
http://youtu.be/gAyfL36zXz0
This first picture of the amputated colony came out dark, but my tank looks really cool, so its included.
This is a better picture of the amputated colony
So then I decided to also amputate that other little branching of the colony. I can't believe I said what I did on the video, but I want to be clear, I was referring to the coral and I forgot video includes audio. And, I don't know how to edit out audio yet. But it probably would be a good idea if I learned quickly.
http://youtu.be/iC-4xObLn6o
This is a picture of the little branching and I am going to place it in my frag tank for now.
Its in the center of the picture glued in its new angle. I angled it probably more extreme than I planned on. Trying to glue colonies back in a position that you want is a wee bit challenging. I, nonetheless, prefer the results of my post-surgery than the pre-surgery images.
Here is my palettes pink tip and this view is obviously through the front glass and all you can see is its bottom. I like bottoms but prefer a different view of my acros.
I did the first set of pictures from my iPhone with t5 lights on so excuse the blue tinge but coloring is not the point of this thread for now at least. There is a recovering chalice in the picture, please do not get distracted by my recovering chalice, it is sad though.
So I was planning on using my big bone cutters to simply cut the colony at the base and reglue it at a different angle. I have done this before and its worked out perfect. The problem was that I could not get my bone cutters to fit in at the base, the bone cutters were blocked out by the growth of the colony.
I also tried and failed to reach it from the bottom. And I had seen a video post of a reefer I think from Holland that used a chisel so I thought why not. What is the worse thing that could happen----right. Well, Im not much of a handyman so no chisel but I have this really long screwdriver and a hammer so it seemed like a good idea.
Here are my surgical instruments of the day (make sure they are sterile, or at least rust free, I settled on just a little rusty:
So the most exciting part, i took my first reef video. I taped my iPhone to the front tank glass (Scotch tape just in case you wanted to know), climbed onto my ladder to reach down into the tank and proceeded with my "surgery". Something I want to warn you about, make sure you can see what you are doing so that your strikes are precise and you do not keep going after your successful amputation because you could injure the base of the colony. I did not turn off my pumps, so looking top down, I saw nothing. Oh and one more thing, when you talk to yourself out loud, apparently that is recorded on video--another lesson learned.
http://youtu.be/gAyfL36zXz0
This first picture of the amputated colony came out dark, but my tank looks really cool, so its included.
This is a better picture of the amputated colony
So then I decided to also amputate that other little branching of the colony. I can't believe I said what I did on the video, but I want to be clear, I was referring to the coral and I forgot video includes audio. And, I don't know how to edit out audio yet. But it probably would be a good idea if I learned quickly.
http://youtu.be/iC-4xObLn6o
This is a picture of the little branching and I am going to place it in my frag tank for now.
Its in the center of the picture glued in its new angle. I angled it probably more extreme than I planned on. Trying to glue colonies back in a position that you want is a wee bit challenging. I, nonetheless, prefer the results of my post-surgery than the pre-surgery images.
