180 Gallon Reef Tank build!
- Thread starter Itaysworld
- Start date
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Hello jhuggins!
Thank you for your comments and thanks for reading my thread! Much appreciated. I am hoping to get back in the swing of things now that things have slowed down a bit.
Still have some family in town visiting, but after this weekend, when my 6 year old cousin leaves I will hopefully have more freedom to work with the tank and less trouble (he's a bit of a menace and I've been sweating bullets with him around the tank)
I've also had to take down the camera for this visit, but will have it back up come Sunday night (sorry about that
)Regards,
Itaysworld
Premium Member
That's too funny. Is your hippo tang also very small?
The tang is growing rapidly - it will be interesting to see if they continue to hang out together once the tang doubles them in size
Angler02
Active member
Mine is about 2.5 to 3" he also hangs out with my Vlamingi tang who is about the same size maybe a little bigger. I have been through 3 or 4 of these tangs mostly due to powerheads or jumping. It wasn't until my friend was getting out and he had this hippo from when it was about the size of yours and it was well established and made it very well in my tank so far.
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Getting back in the groove
Getting back in the groove
OK - I was able to get decent photos of the corals this morning (except for the acroporas, which for some reason I find to be the trickiest pieces to photograph well).
Here are some of today's shots:
First up is one of my first frags, its the monti cap.
This frag has been growing like crazy. Here is a picture of the same frag on August 20, 2008.
Here's the Poker Star Monti
This is my acan with all its feeding tentacles out
Next up is the Favia Brain Coral, with an awesome hitchhiker feather duster worm
And this is the lobophyllia Brain Coral
The zoanthids are growing nicely - they're spreading in a line towards the back of the rock
Here are other zoas in my tank
Here's the chalice - which is recovering from a sting at the LFS before I got it
Getting back in the groove
OK - I was able to get decent photos of the corals this morning (except for the acroporas, which for some reason I find to be the trickiest pieces to photograph well).
Here are some of today's shots:
First up is one of my first frags, its the monti cap.
This frag has been growing like crazy. Here is a picture of the same frag on August 20, 2008.
Here's the Poker Star Monti
This is my acan with all its feeding tentacles out
Next up is the Favia Brain Coral, with an awesome hitchhiker feather duster worm
And this is the lobophyllia Brain Coral
The zoanthids are growing nicely - they're spreading in a line towards the back of the rock
Here are other zoas in my tank
Here's the chalice - which is recovering from a sting at the LFS before I got it
Itaysworld
Premium Member
...continued
Next up are the milliporas
These are the acroporas, which I did a horrid job of photographing
Next up are the milliporas
These are the acroporas, which I did a horrid job of photographing
Itaysworld
Premium Member
...continued
Here's the montipora digitata
The frogspawn
... and last but not least... the spectacular Scolymia Spp. - I have to take a picture of it when it opens up. Its amazing!
That's it for now! :rollface:
Best,
Here's the montipora digitata
The frogspawn
... and last but not least... the spectacular Scolymia Spp. - I have to take a picture of it when it opens up. Its amazing!
That's it for now! :rollface:
Best,
Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Beautiful!
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Thank you Chad!
Wow - I just noticed Photobucket deleted and classified as inappropriate one of my acropora pictures. I guess it looks to phallic. Too funny. Its a pink acropora that either someone or an automated process caught and suspended.
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Macro Shots!
Macro Shots!
Hello All,
I have been ogling over the Canon 100 mm macro lens for quite some time, and today I gave in to the temptation and went for it! What an amazing lens. There is no other words to describe it.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I'm still figuring it out a little bit, but here is a sampler from tonight. Enjoy!
Macro Shots!
Hello All,
I have been ogling over the Canon 100 mm macro lens for quite some time, and today I gave in to the temptation and went for it! What an amazing lens. There is no other words to describe it.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I'm still figuring it out a little bit, but here is a sampler from tonight. Enjoy!
Itaysworld
Premium Member
.... macro shots continued
These are my favorites so far:
Great weekend to all!
These are my favorites so far:
Great weekend to all!
ReefEnabler
Premium Member
Cool Pics Itay! thats hilarious about the censored acro :lol:
are you shooting with you XSi? curious what you use for the white balance, or are you mainly shooting RAW and adjusting?
seems those cameras dont want to focus much above 10k so actinic shots can be a stretch without RAW and post processing?
are you shooting with you XSi? curious what you use for the white balance, or are you mainly shooting RAW and adjusting?
seems those cameras dont want to focus much above 10k so actinic shots can be a stretch without RAW and post processing?
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Thank you Ryan!
I'm shooting with my old school Digital Rebel 300D (the first model that came out). I really wish I had a newer camera so I could have more than 6.3 megapixels, better performance at higher ISOs , a faster shutter, and some of the features of newer cameras. However, I recently made the decision that I will invest in lens at this time and not go crazy with a new camera. With patience and some post processing the results are still great with this old clunker
To answer your question, I'm shooting in RAW and doing a lot of post processing in Aperture 2. (for those not familiar with Aperture, its Apple's photo storage and management application geared towards more advanced photographers).
Like you said, I'm having a difficult time taking good photos with actinics only. All of the pictures you see above were taken with halides on. I'm going to have to try to turn of the pumps and slow down water movement to see if I can get decent photos with actinics only and then try to work on it. So far I haven't had any luck. Either polyp movement or my Rabbit Fish have made the pics a mess when I tried it.
I'll continue to play around with it and post here!
Best,
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Webcam is back up!
Webcam is back up!
Hey All,
For anyone who may be interested, my webcam is back up!
Hi Res view:
http://www.itaysworld.com/reefcam/hirescam.html
Smaller view:
http://www.itaysworld.com/reefcam/reefcam.html
Have a great week!
Webcam is back up!
Hey All,
For anyone who may be interested, my webcam is back up!
Hi Res view:
http://www.itaysworld.com/reefcam/hirescam.html
Smaller view:
http://www.itaysworld.com/reefcam/reefcam.html
Have a great week!
Angler02
Active member
Great looking corals and pics. I have a Nikon D40, and now I'm online looking at macro lens prices HAHA. Here are a couple of pics of my hippo swimming with the clowns I just found. diregard the pics I messed around on photo shop with one of them when they were all in my GSP.
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Thanks Angler!
I can't believe the hippo actually goes into the GSP - that's so funny!
My clowns aren't hosting anything, and it seems like my RBTA didn't make it, but I'd love to see what happens when I finally get them to host something. Not to mention when the tang doubles and triples them in size!
Itaysworld
Premium Member
Hello Everyone,
Its been a while since my last update, so I thought I'd jump in here and share the latest developments in my reef tank.
Fortunately everything continues to progress very well. The fish are doing great - all 7 of them - my LFS is rebuilding their tank system and my fish orders have gotten slightly delayed. I'd rather wait and do things as I have to date, with good results, rather than risk getting fish from somewhere else, specially since I don't have my own QT tank.
So for the time being, the 7 fish continue to enjoy vast swimming space, except for the 2 jawfish which continue to fight over the prime locations in the tank. One of them spends a week in the display tank a week in the overflow. He has figured out how to jump back and forth!
To get to the one slight set back, and my real first losses, I will say this @##!@$%^&&*! monitpora eating nudibranchs!
I have no idea where they came from (well, obviously from my LFS...), but I started noticing a slight balding of my fast growning and great looking monti cap. Before I knew it it had a huge white chunk in the middle. I immediately took it out and dipped in iodine, and noticed the same on the poker star monti...
So I treated both frags with multiple dips and even tried suspending the frags in the middle of the water column to keep these pests from getting back on them, but somehow they still got back.
I lost the poker star, which is completely white, only skeleton left.
The Monti cap, which was my first frag and was growing very very nicely is still showing a tiny bit of color, but no visible polyps and I'm pretty sure its on its last day.
The nudibranchs must have been in my tank for quite some time, since I haven't had any additions in the last month or so, and all of a sudden they found and devoured 2 of my favorite corals.
The only other monti I have in the tank is a Montipora Digitata, and so far it seems to be intact, so I'm guessing they are not interested in it.
I have added a six line wrasse to my livestock plan, and will now have to wait out until these damn nudibranches starve themselves out of my system.
I spotted a few on the rocks and glass and squished the crap out them. The rabbit fish and clowns have been eating them once I squish them and they float away.
It's really a shame to lose these 2 corals, but in the overall scheme of things, they were still very small pieces, and much worse things could happen... so I'm keeping it in perspective and will move on, but I will miss those montis, specially the monti cap, which was my first coral, together with the acropora...
Any tips on how to rid myself from these unwanted pests in my tank are more than welcome.
Best,
Its been a while since my last update, so I thought I'd jump in here and share the latest developments in my reef tank.
Fortunately everything continues to progress very well. The fish are doing great - all 7 of them - my LFS is rebuilding their tank system and my fish orders have gotten slightly delayed. I'd rather wait and do things as I have to date, with good results, rather than risk getting fish from somewhere else, specially since I don't have my own QT tank.
So for the time being, the 7 fish continue to enjoy vast swimming space, except for the 2 jawfish which continue to fight over the prime locations in the tank. One of them spends a week in the display tank a week in the overflow. He has figured out how to jump back and forth!
To get to the one slight set back, and my real first losses, I will say this @##!@$%^&&*! monitpora eating nudibranchs!
I have no idea where they came from (well, obviously from my LFS...), but I started noticing a slight balding of my fast growning and great looking monti cap. Before I knew it it had a huge white chunk in the middle. I immediately took it out and dipped in iodine, and noticed the same on the poker star monti...
So I treated both frags with multiple dips and even tried suspending the frags in the middle of the water column to keep these pests from getting back on them, but somehow they still got back.
I lost the poker star, which is completely white, only skeleton left.
The Monti cap, which was my first frag and was growing very very nicely is still showing a tiny bit of color, but no visible polyps and I'm pretty sure its on its last day.
The nudibranchs must have been in my tank for quite some time, since I haven't had any additions in the last month or so, and all of a sudden they found and devoured 2 of my favorite corals.
The only other monti I have in the tank is a Montipora Digitata, and so far it seems to be intact, so I'm guessing they are not interested in it.
I have added a six line wrasse to my livestock plan, and will now have to wait out until these damn nudibranches starve themselves out of my system.
I spotted a few on the rocks and glass and squished the crap out them. The rabbit fish and clowns have been eating them once I squish them and they float away.
It's really a shame to lose these 2 corals, but in the overall scheme of things, they were still very small pieces, and much worse things could happen... so I'm keeping it in perspective and will move on, but I will miss those montis, specially the monti cap, which was my first coral, together with the acropora...
Any tips on how to rid myself from these unwanted pests in my tank are more than welcome.
Best,
Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Itay! Long time! Wish I could help you but I'm still new to SPS. I have yet to own one lol. I'm tagging along to see how you handle them.
Lowredranger
New member
very nice looking so far although i am only on page 2. I will be seeing up a 180 in the hopefully hear future as funds become available so i like to keep an eye on the 180g build threads.
Similar threads
