You aren't going to be lacking for light, that is for sure. Your Attenborough comment made me laugh, maybe you can invite him over to film a segment, starting to look BBC documentary worthy already
Good to hear your experience with the RW8, I just received two RW4s in the mail today
You aren't going to be lacking for light, that is for sure. Your Attenborough comment made me laugh, maybe you can invite him over to film a segment, starting to look BBC documentary worthy already
Good to hear your experience with the RW8, I just received two RW4s in the mail today
Hi mate, i'm sure you'll be impressed with what you get for so little money. I'd still go with Tunze any day but the prices in Aus are ridiculous for such equipment which is a shame. Even with expensive international shipping charges it's still cheaper for me to buy say a 6095 and controller fitted with an Aus plug from Germany than the cheapest online price in Aus........ what a joke.
Hey mate lol, i seem to spend more and more time looking at the non SPS sale tanks these days so i think you're right and i'm getting soft..... i still pick out all my acros BEFORE i look at any other stuff so i'm not completely gone yet.......:worried:
I'd pinch that orange acan if i got the chance Rory :wave:
Anyone spot Dave.........
Dave thinks i'm an idiot and can't spot he's not a commensal crab.....:facepalm: So far Dave hasn't done anything naughty that i can see so he and i are still mates.......... for now......
It's no longer funny guys.........
I made a short video at night and i want everyone to watch it full screen in HD. Pay particular attention to the top left edge of the picture because i think i was photo bombed by a creepy possessed Dave the crab
The tank is ticking along well and the colors in real life are pretty cool to see - love my wrasses
I bloody told you didn't i........... i'm fairly certain Dave is an Amityville sp. crab after watching his antics last night mate.
This red/pink milli is shut down and not growing simply because it's in low light and needs high light. It's healthy and encrusting but the tips are rounded and cream colored rather than sharp edged and white when it's in high light. I'll make sure it's placed much higher in the peninsula because even in low light you can still see it's going to be pretty when it's looked after correctly
Biggles I'm not sure which you are better at; getting the absolute best out of your corals or your photos.
Both are fantastic!
Corals are super healthy and rich in colour and you are adept at getting excellent cri while still achieving amazing colour pop in your corals.
Love it!
Biggles I'm not sure which you are better at; getting the absolute best out of your corals or your photos.
Both are fantastic!
Corals are super healthy and rich in colour and you are adept at getting excellent cri while still achieving amazing colour pop in your corals.
Love it!
Thanks Matt I know i get it wrong at times but i do try really hard to show the colors as true to life as i can. All my pics are taken with a camera phone so the pics require post processing to correct the colors etc. I use photoshop along with a couple of freeware apps to fix up my pics and was thinking of doing a little tutorial to show anyone interested just how easy it can be to fix those washed out blue images and actually show off your acro colors better.
I quite often color correct yours and everyone else's pics to see the real colors of your corals and 99% of the time they look a whole lot prettier when white balanced closer to real life
Btw Matt, i need to chase you up about that gyre thingy as it might be just the thing for my new peninsula with a few other stream pumps - i'll annoy you in your journal though
Night top down with the flash
As silly as this sounds, i'm actually unimpressed that the Speciosa is turning from blue and white to all blue. You can see the purple tip pigments 'bleeding' onto the branch tissue in this night top down. And yes i know i sound whiny but an all blue Speciosa will not pop like a blue and white one would so i'm going to whine........
Thanks Sahin, i wouldn't mind if they just went to bed in one go but the idiots have four or five practice digs prior to actually going under the sand and throw stuff everywhere I actually turkey baste the corals after the wrasses go to bed to get all the sand off them each night lol. :fun5:
That blue acro is the most expensive acro i've ever bought. I normally pay $50- on average for most stuff but i walked into Willy an hour after a new box of cool SPS had arrived, nothing was even priced on the tank.
I spotted that acro which was reddy brown branched with ink blue tips just like blue echi's and speciosa's look after shipping so i knew it was going to be either all blue or blue and white - this all went through my head in the ten foot walk from the front door to the SPS sale tank lol. I am deadly serious when i spot primo SPS in a LFS.......
The young sales girl who works at Willy part time and isn't as geeky as me and the shop guys about SPS walked straight up to me and smiling asked ' can i help you with anything today ? ' probably expecting ' my hammer is all closed up and i'm really worried ' or some other boohoo nonsense.......
She got instead, ' hi i'll take that one, that one and that one thanks '. She sort of giggled nervously as i think she thought i was joking since i'd been in the store about 5 seconds. 'Heeheehee.... oh you're serious, umm i think that one is really expensive (blue acro) do you want to know how much it is before i bag it ? ' ' No that's ok ' i said with a smile about to walk away. ' Don't forget you get 10% off with five or more coral purchases ' she reminds me. ' I turned in a flash and went ' i'll take that one and that one as well ' - now i'm smiling like an SPS idiot that has hit the jackpot and she's smiling because she's probably glad she doesn't have to listen to someone umm and ahhh over which stupid $10- shroom color would look best beside the browned out one they already have......... this is the SPS forum so no one should take offense at my flubber slurs.........
The blue acro turned out to be $90- and i giggled my arse off the whole drive home while i patted the poly box full of treasures on the front passenger seat....... i bet some of you know exactly how i felt that day don't you - like if i knew i was about to be hit by a truck i would have thrown myself on the box to protect them - that's how slightly SPS insane i was that day with acro euphoria :crazy1:
Carried out another night time acro check last night to see if creepy Dave had moved on........... nope.
You are so correct. Don't forget the shroom idiot will talk to her for a half an hour until returning next week to maybe buy it. I like how you state the obvious!
now i'm smiling like an SPS idiot that has hit the jackpot and she's smiling because she's probably glad she doesn't have to listen to someone umm and ahhh over which stupid $10- shroom color would look best beside the browned out one they already have..
The fish are going to love you Mark, i'm going to dump a cube of mysis and a big pinch of freeze dried cyclop-eeze into the display shortly and video the flow for you mate - i just cleaned the glass in readiness.
There's a freeware app called Paint . net which has many of the features photoshop has but is much more noob friendly. I use it and then finish up my pics in CS5 but using just the freeware app gives you surprisingly nice images with no hard work at all. I hope everyone who's frustrated by their blue phone camera pics will give it a try rather than the old ' sorry for the phone camera pics' line, as you can see below it's so easy to show a much better color representation of your corals and tbh i don't care if you post over saturated/over contrasted pics as long as i can at least see the colors without the blue fog
If you're using all LED lighting then turn the blues to no more than 10% and the whites up all the way - you want the tank to look crappy and yellow to your eyes because your phone camera will capture a much nicer color image than your eyes show you and there'll be much less annoying blue highlights on everything prior to taking the image into your free photo manipulation app.
That's enough of my knowitall piccy tutorial lol - i really have no idea about this stuff and just wing it until i work out a way to make the app work, i know the colors aren't always perfect but they're usually pretty close. There's heaps of stuff in the app that i haven't ever used simply because i'm used to CS5 but take the time to experiment with things and let me know if you find any handy adjustments i haven't shown.
Open up the blue skewed image in paint and simply click 'auto-level'
Then use the same drop down but select 'levels' and drag the middle slider on the right bar down to reduce the in your face brightness of the image.
I then pulled the contrast back a touch
I then adjusted the hue & saturation a bit to end up with something that isn't perfect but it's a lot more true to life than the silly blue image i started with.
I pinched one of your pics Mark.........
After paint
I cheated and used CS5 to give that green stag the shimmer i know it would have in person, hopefully i got it somewhere close because it's a bit hard having not seen your tank in person lol.
You are so correct. Don't forget the shroom idiot will talk to her for a half an hour until returning next week to maybe buy it. I like how you state the obvious!
That's why i like Jack's straight cut approach, i ask him if i can have a particular fish and he just says ' nope ' - no messing around and now i don't even ask why not. I should point out if you're reading this Jack that i haven't killed either of those wrasses so i reckon a queen angel might be on the cards mate........... :beer:
I can give your latest set of acro pics the BFNACT if you really want me to Greg.
Biggles Finding Nemo Acro Color Treatment
Please be aware Matt that you won't be allowed to buy any frags of any acros i 'paint' for Greg - just wanna get that out there so everyone knows the rules up front. :thumbsup:
I can give your latest set of acro pics the BFNACT if you really want me to Greg.
Biggles Finding Nemo Acro Color Treatment
Please be aware Matt that you won't be allowed to buy any frags of any acros i 'paint' for Greg - just wanna get that out there so everyone knows the rules up front. :thumbsup:
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