A Splash of Color - My SPS Peninsula Reef

[biggles]

Oh my Andrew, can't believe you got one of those :hammer: You WILL need a bigger glass box going forward. While you're in the dispensing advise mode maybe you could chime in on my MH thread?

Of course i'll come over and join in Mike

Tank is looking great Biggles. One thing that strikes me (except for the colors) is the thickness of many of your acros, especially stays. Would you put this down to high flow?

Hey Michael, i didn't think they were that thick really. 90% of the branch bases are 1/2" or under in dia. The two teal stacg pieces on the right hand island are about 3/4" and that is most definitely from flow - they cop an RW-!5 on else mode head on from 2ft away.

@#$$% that is going to become a huuuuuge fish buddy
It's going to be sooo beautiful too:beer:
I've got your back with this "uninvestegated" buy
Has happened to the very best

They grow to 2ft Mike !!!!
Now i may be an idiot but there's one thing i'm not and that is a complete idiot. I will have to ring Willy and see if they will take him back for free and if so catch him - easy as he's already tamely eating out of my hand. It's like a pet dog which is weird as hell but not really surprising since it grows as big as a pitbull..........

This is bad............. really, really bad...........:headwally:

what species?

Starts with a V, ends with a I, and has a laming in the middle. Min size aquarium rating is the *#$%^& ocean :facepalm:


Now there may be those of you out there that wonder what the combination of blue plus T5, RB & 410nm 81W LED light bar (acro light saber) looks like over freshly added white coral sand............ it's porn baby........:smokin:

Edit: As you can see Dom i have corrected the pH issue that pooped my acros out when you visited........

 

[biggles]

And btw, my acros looked like this before i tried to poison them. They sure as hell aren't pastel lol.........

 

[DiscusHeckel]

*** Exquisite ***​

I love the colours, sand bed and all that space between corals. I bet my fish must wish they were in your tank now.

 

[M007]

Spectacular Andrew, the sand looks great :celeb1: Icing on the cake :thumbsup:

 

[bibarassa]

Andrew,
glad to hear you'll change your DT…..you could go with 10ft……vlamingi thanks you..:hammer:

P.S.: Once I read spur2 is mainly fluor………..probably it'll be a cocktail of trace elements….cheer...

 

[reefmutt]

I'm ooohing and aaahhhhing, right now!!
But really this tank looks way smaller with the sand... And you've had this tank for so long, I think you should go bigger.........
With the radiums, why do you ever feel the need to add the rb/410nm litesaber?
Just for dawn dusk aesthetics?
Now I want some!
And I'm gonna change out one of my coral plus for another blue plus... But I'm gonna keep ONE coral plus, John Carter!!

 

[plyle02]

Oh wow Andrew, I love the sand, your colors really jump out with the contrast of the sand, not that color is really ever an issue, and by all means your tank looked great before the sand, but I am really digging the new look! It has been awhile since we have had some close ups of those beauties in there, more pics please Thanks for the update mate!

 

[reefmutt]

Pics, schmics... I want schematics for the next tank!!

..ok... And pics..

 

[sahin]

Looking great Biggles. You bought a Vlamingi??? For a 5ft tank? :lolspin::lolspin::lolspin: Your LFS guy proper got you mate. :facepalm: He always knew you'd be forced to buy a new tank (probably from him) and then you'd have to buy more fish and corals to stock the new tank... :facepalm: Your FLS guy is very clever. :hammer:

Now what brand is this 410nm LED light sabre? By itself, which pigments does it excite most?

 

[mhucasey]

Nicely done Andrew, now everyone can stop obsessing about when you are going to add sand- it looks fantastic!

 

[MichaelW]

Sand really completes it in my opinion.

 

[scriptdaddy]

Sand really makes the colours pop even more..... Excellent addition.

Hoping to make a trip over next weekend if that works for you Andrew. Been hectic lately with work.

Spur is a great product when used sparingly. Will definitely give you the zeo pastel look you were keen to observe.

 

[biggles]

*** Exquisite ***​

I love the colours, sand bed and all that space between corals. I bet my fish must wish they were in your tank now.

Thanks Bulent, i knew you guys weren't seeing just how large an area of the bottom remains uncovered and how little of an actual footprint the islands have. I only had half a salt bucket of sand so i need about 20lb more to get an overall depth of 3/4 - 1" throughout the display.
Seeing my bunch of colorful fish darting between islands and through the acros is what it's all about mate, the fish are shooting around like paint balls against the stark white bleached sand atm lol.

Spectacular Andrew, the sand looks great :celeb1: Icing on the cake :thumbsup:

Thanks Mike, i'm glad you guys hounded me into adding it back to the display now lol.

Andrew,
glad to hear you'll change your DT"¦..you could go with 10ft"¦"¦vlamingi thanks you..:hammer:

P.S.: Once I read spur2 is mainly fluor"¦"¦"¦..probably it'll be a cocktail of trace elements"¦.cheer...

Pretty sure the spur2 is basically weed spray in a bottle....
Even ten ft is too small imo, it's a huge fish when mature. I have to say again there's something really puppy dog pet like about the behavior of this fish. I'm sure he'd let me pat him if i spent a few weeks getting him used to my hand more lol.
The blue tang was just starting to get show a bit of that bossy behavior they get sometimes but the Vlamingi just swims over and ignores him so the blue tang has stopped all that as he knows who's the boss tang now lol.

I'm ooohing and aaahhhhing, right now!!
But really this tank looks way smaller with the sand... And you've had this tank for so long, I think you should go bigger.........
With the radiums, why do you ever feel the need to add the rb/410nm litesaber?
Just for dawn dusk aesthetics?
Now I want some!
And I'm gonna change out one of my coral plus for another blue plus... But I'm gonna keep ONE coral plus, John Carter!!

Let's be honest Matt, it's a nano in SPS terms
I stopped using the LED bar other than for 15 mins maybe once or twice a week at dusk just for the 'stand in front of the tank and giggle to yourself like an SPS crazy man' effect - right after i added the sand i stood back and did the same thing, i was quite stunned at just how dramatic the change was in contrast. I have to say i'm starting to think it looks like a veggie patch with carrots and stuff growing out of the ground, this no rock visible idea will now be referred to as 'veggie scaping' - it's my journal and i have the casting vote in ALL matters pertaining to everything, facts etc are not used in my decision making as they cloud the real issues. :reading:

Oh wow Andrew, I love the sand, your colors really jump out with the contrast of the sand, not that color is really ever an issue, and by all means your tank looked great before the sand, but I am really digging the new look! It has been awhile since we have had some close ups of those beauties in there, more pics please Thanks for the update mate!

Thanks Perry, appreciate the kind words mate. I'll try to get some piccies up today - it's Sunday so as you know all top downs are allowed to be gratuitous.........

Pics, schmics... I want schematics for the next tank!!

..ok... And pics..

I shall be seeking you guys advice on the tank layout before i get the ball rolling, if anything goes wrong there will be many i will hold accountable quite publicly so think carefully before you start offering up advice when the time comes......... physics also plays no role here btw, i'd get nowhere with my reefs if i payed attention to silly science mumbo jumbo

 

[biggles]

Looking great Biggles. You bought a Vlamingi??? For a 5ft tank? :lolspin: Your LFS guy proper got you mate. :facepalm: He always knew you'd be forced to buy a new tank (probably from him) and then you'd have to buy more fish and corals to stock the new tank... Your FLS guy is very clever. :hammer:

Now what brand is this 410nm LED light sabre? By itself, which pigments does it excite most?

The fish debacle is all my fault mate, you played a small part but i'm prepared to let that go. If i choose to listen to a goofball and something goes wrong i can't go taking swipes at said goofball reefer..... i am nothing if not fair and there will be no finger pointing regardless if they're clueless goofball's or not - let's all keep it friendly here :beer:
As i said, it doesn't contribute to my acros light schedule in any significant way. When i get a chance i want to cover the blues and see what the 410's are exciting. The bar is a cheap no name 3ft - 27 x 3W light bar. Has about 7 x 410's and 20 blue LED's. I want to get a dimmer for it as it is too strong over the 18" display depth and i think it cooks the acros directly under it.
By itself it makes anything with fluoro pigments look ridiculous, the red chalice is all fluoro as is the cynarina along with some of the acros of course. The all fluoro lime table back right looks the most ridiculous and almost fake if you know what i mean.

Nicely done Andrew, now everyone can stop obsessing about when you are going to add sand- it looks fantastic!

Thanks a lot Matt

Sand really completes it in my opinion.

I agree Michael, thanks mate

Sand really makes the colours pop even more..... Excellent addition.

Hoping to make a trip over next weekend if that works for you Andrew. Been hectic lately with work.

Spur is a great product when used sparingly. Will definitely give you the zeo pastel look you were keen to observe.

Hey Ben, Sat or Sun afternoon would be fine mate. I need to wait a couple of weeks to check that the spur2 is no longer at work and then see what i think of the colors. Pretty much gone off the whole pastel idea since chucking the sand in lol.

Here's a big tip on capturing the colors on your acros without the washed out caste you see in many pics. I turn the phone camera to the cloudy overcast lighting setting which removes some of the blue in camera. Then i turn the exposure to 2 stops under the auto exposure selected by the camera. I then brighten the pic in PS without altering anything else such as saturation or colors. That's all i have to say about creating acro porn.......... i'm also a photo expert on my journal......

Taken off the phone and nothing but resized and cropped.

After brightening in PS.

After auto color balance in nero photosnap.

And that's how you make SPS porn...........:thumbsup:

I hope you guys can see why i spend so much time messing about with placement rather than sticking stuff randomly and hoping it all grows in to show off the colors to their best. Nothing wrong with how ever you want to create your acro reef but i just like to guarantee everything is exactly where i want to view it in relation to every other acro. Some might not like a veggie scaped display. I need to get about a dozen more scollies to make a mushroom patch......

 

[biggles]

So it occurred to me that i use a couple of tools in CS5 that when used together will dramatically improve a great many of the pics almost all my friends post here. I know i'll come across as a know it all but i'm not, whilst i do know everything i don't make a point of shoving it in everyone's faces so you really, really , really need to trust me on this one.

I will be using pics stolen from some of my good mates journal as well as one of my own to show you just how easy it is to quickly color correct and brighten your pics. The more trouble you have with exposure contrasts in FTS's the bigger the solution this will be. If you can under expose 1 or 2 stops you won't blow out those really high light areas. Otherwise just turn your lights down lower. If you run T5 try taking an auto exposed pic under just the coral plus tubes or a coral plus and blue plus. Don't have actinics on, purples, or any more than one blue plus. Ignore what your eyes see and take a couple of pics and look at what the camera actually captures in regards to colors. I haven't tried it but i think 2 x coral plus and 1 x blue plus would be good to take pics under if you want to see images closer to what your eyes are seeing.

With LED's turn the blues to as low as they go and the whites down to around 70% from memory, i had a blue/white 120W unit over the sump of the 65gal for a while and doing that made the pics at least half decent. The tank will look ghastly lol but ignore what your eyes are seeing and just look at the pics the camera is capturing. You can adjust the lights however you want after checking out what the camera is actually picking up. never had colored LED's but it's easy to isolate any LED's that are skewing your pics.

Most of that was mainly applicable to reefers like me who only use their camera phones - no RAW

This adjustment tool is awesomely amazing at taking care of lighting levels and contrast and it's the best fixer upperer there is from FTS's to macros.

Off the phone with just crop and resize. Camera was set to cloudy overcast lighting and 2 stops under exposed.

After adjusting the shadows/highlights sliders in CS5. I also clicked auto color, contrast and tone. That's it and it takes about 20 secs. I know it's overs saturated and dark etc but that's easily fixed with the saturation and normal brightness/contrast tools. Adjusting the shadows and highlights alone gives you this.

Three clicks - auto color, contrast and tone and you're done. As i said the pics are not white balanced correctly at all and porny but they're a lot better than when straight off the camera. Perry's make a much better example i think.

Perry's beautiful SPS display. Just the shadow highlight sliders, nothing else.

 

[biggles]

Mike's spooky reef (awesome), shadows/highlights and auto color, contrast and tone. i know the colors are not right and better in real life Mike but i didn't touch the colors because i have no idea what they look in person.

If you don't have CS download the freeware program paint dot net as it's like a little brother of CS5. Go to adjustments - levels and move those sliders to fill in all the dark drab spots and remove the over exposed ones - same thing as shadows highlights in CS. You'll also notice all the other adjustment controls that you can play with to improve your pics if you're interested. Paint dot net is a very powerful image processing tool for freeware imo.
I'm not talking about picture stuff anymore. :reading:

 

[aggie13reef]

Andrew, It has been a while since I have checked in. First off I will say I LOVE the sand. I just love the aesthetic value the sand adds. I feel like it looks more natural. As always the acros are looking wonderful. The wife and I went to the LFS today and he had one of the Green "flubber" pieces that you have. Not sure the species or anything but it was the exact same one. I remember the first time I saw a picture of yours I loved it. Would have asked a price on the one today but flesh was receding from one side so that stopped me. Always enjoy your updates! Also my bfc is up to .92 after my new addition today. Working on getting it up over 1!

 

[biggles]

Andrew, It has been a while since I have checked in. First off I will say I LOVE the sand. I just love the aesthetic value the sand adds. I feel like it looks more natural. As always the acros are looking wonderful. The wife and I went to the LFS today and he had one of the Green "flubber" pieces that you have. Not sure the species or anything but it was the exact same one. I remember the first time I saw a picture of yours I loved it. Would have asked a price on the one today but flesh was receding from one side so that stopped me. Always enjoy your updates! Also my bfc is up to .92 after my new addition today. Working on getting it up over 1!

Thanks Nick, wasn't the green favia was it - looks like a lily pad. :reading:

Fish are good for your nutrient levels so as long as you have the water under control a few more fish won't be a bad thing. :beer:

I think this is going to be really pretty, might be A. abrotanoides but if anyone has a better ID let me know. I'd call the color a deep pinkish brown which also seems to fit - it's sulky and not growing ever since i took it out of the water a few weeks back. :reading:

The fluoro table is hard to show, this is pretty close.

 

[Wrangy]

We have lots to cover this weekend and for a change most of it will be treated in a serious manner. I've been joking around so much lately that a lot of helpful info is probably getting lost in translation so old biggles is going to start making his journal more useful to anyone looking for possible ways to improve their SPS systems. I don't mean i'm any kind of expert but i have pretty much covered every stupid goof you can make and the ways to rectify them along with how to ensure they don't happen again.
Most of you probably know a lot more than me so feel free to switch off when i'm boring you with advice that's more applicable to people newer to walking the razors edge that is SPS keeping........

Myself, Dom and Kevin will also be doing the odd LFS visit and there will be much piccy taking of all manner of things - especially acros and over the top colored flubbery bits. Kevin has been annoying the neighbors with his late night antics of late which resulted in the local council ranger coming by to catch him so we need to wait for his time out at the pound to expire before we can begin exposing the inner workings of our LFS's.
Despite my best attempts to hide him from the ranger with some camouflage board the guy somehow spotted him almost immediately.....

My new fish which is forcing me to spend thousands on a massive tank upgrade early next year - i think if i'm going to go 8ft then i might as well go 9 and be done with it. The fish purchase was a classic mistake on my part with no research whatsoever other than asking the young guy at the shop if it would be ok in my 5ft display - i have no defense to offer for stupidly not getting out the iphone and googling the bloody thing while at the shop other than i haven't ever actually used the internet on a phone despite now discovering that's actually the point of having these fancy smart phones.......:hammer:

I cannot wait to do the LFS trip with you and Kevin, but I'm not sitting next to him he was giving me weird vibes the other weekend :fun5: definitely looking forward too it though, we can start doing some acro and fish planning for the new tank!!

Now there may be those of you out there that wonder what the combination of blue plus T5, RB & 410nm 81W LED light bar (acro light saber) looks like over freshly added white coral sand............ it's porn baby........:smokin:

Edit: As you can see Dom i have corrected the pH issue that pooped my acros out when you visited........

I'm glad to hear you got the pH running right again! I think you're selling yourself short too when I visited! Even though the colours were a little off, I could still see everything for what it should have been! Seeing such health and colour really was more inspiring than you think mate! It's reefer's like you and what you do for your tank that truly inspire me, something that very few can do now that I'm wising up a little bit more lol
The tank looks fantastic with the acro-saber goodness running over it! Even you have to admit to enjoying that POP you get with a little blue led lovin' haha

 

[joshky]

I love your veggie scaping and the sand is perfect! Great update!

I will have to check CS5 or paint dot net out and play with some of my photos. :beer: