My 280g Custom upgrade.....

[SPotter]

Looks good Steve! Glad you got the "Big Boy Camera" out to play with:thumbsup:

I like to remove the cyano with a baster just to make sure it does not land where I don't want it to. Increase that flow a bit and play around with the dead spots. Once those are dialed in and your Nitrates/Phosphates are in check they will lose the battle

Thanks Dustin. I am going to visit some of the infamous "electronics" stores here in NYC to see if I can get a good deal on a macro lens.

 

[nightOwl]

Thanks Dustin. I am going to visit some of the infamous "electronics" stores here in NYC to see if I can get a good deal on a macro lens.

Steve,
Glad to see you pulled out the real camera. Next step tripod . Right now canon is running its spring rebate sale so if you are looking for a macro now is a good time to buy. I have the 100mm 2.8 great lense. I am thinking about getting a flash before the sale ends.

 

[SPotter]

Thanks Henry. I found a site that rents out all kinds of lenses by the week. I am going to try a couple of them out first before deciding. I can rent the 100mm 2.8mm IS for about $90 for the week. My niece has the one without the IS so I want to see how much of a difference there will be. I might not have the right amount of room for a tripod but we will see.

 

[Dustin1300]

Thanks Henry. I found a site that rents out all kinds of lenses by the week. I am going to try a couple of them out first before deciding. I can rent the 100mm 2.8mm IS for about $90 for the week. My niece has the one without the IS so I want to see how much of a difference there will be. I might not have the right amount of room for a tripod but we will see.

I'm in the same boat and would like to pick up a 100mm macro soon. I'm in no way a professional, but from my research....I've found that reef shots are typically made with image stabilization turned off so no need for it if you are using it for reef only. If you have other shots you'd like to make with the macro, it may be worth the few hundred extra to get the IS version. GL!

 

[SPotter]

I just rented the IS version and it will be here tomorrow. It ended up being $76 bucks for the week. I will be taking a lot of pictures

 

[SPotter]

Misc Updates.....

Misc Updates.....

I am finally getting the odds and ends finished in the fish room.

I moved the 80g frag tank over to its new home and tied into the system. For now it will be a new fish holding tank and then slowly transition over to a true frag tank. I am thinking about selling my t5's and go with something a little less powerful. 8 t5's over a 16" deep tank is a little too much. I did paint the back and bottom of the tank black. I am thinking about covering the side panel as well to limit light spilling into the sump.

The water storage tanks have been moved to their permanent spot and I was able to fix the leak from the fittings into the bulkheads of the container. I will use the old stand that I built for the frag tank as a work bench once I get a piece of plywood for it.

Heat in the fish room is becoming an issue as temps in the room are hitting 79 degrees and the tank is hitting 80. Since this is only May, I am working on better exhaust and possible portable ac units for the room.

 

[nightOwl]

Thanks Henry. I found a site that rents out all kinds of lenses by the week. I am going to try a couple of them out first before deciding. I can rent the 100mm 2.8mm IS for about $90 for the week. My niece has the one without the IS so I want to see how much of a difference there will be. I might not have the right amount of room for a tripod but we will see.

Steve - I have the 100mm 2.8 without IS and have shot with the IS version. I do most of my macro work with a tripod so IS is really not needed. The only reason I purchased the macro in the first place was for shooting pictures of my tank. I use the Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod and you can configure it in just about any way you want. The bokeh and sharpness is going to be better on the IS but if you not planning on doing a lot of hand held macros you will be fine with the 100mm f2.8. The money you save you can buy a good tripod and ball head.

 

[Dustin1300]

Looks great Steve. What is the fantech unit in your fish room? Humidity/heat are something I'm going to have to start considering soon so I've been looking at adding a dedicated de-humidifier to the fish room (already have a basement de-humidifier) and possibly adding an air exchanger. My basement runs ~40-45% since adding the water volume currently in circulation.

 

[SPotter]

Looks great Steve. What is the fantech unit in your fish room? Humidity/heat are something I'm going to have to start considering soon so I've been looking at adding a dedicated de-humidifier to the fish room (already have a basement de-humidifier) and possibly adding an air exchanger. My basement runs ~40-45% since adding the water volume currently in circulation.

Dustin, thats one of their HRV units. I got it because my basement was air tight before the renovation and I knew that with the added insulation, the new windows and the creation of the closed off fish room it would only get tighter. Before the renovation I was having chronic problems with low ph. I was hitting levels in the 7.5 range and no higher than 7.7. I started using a co2 scrubber which helped bring it up about .10 pts and then started adding kalk with my ato which helped a little. I started adding additional kalk and while that got my ph into the 7.9 to 8 range it was throwing off my dkh. Now with the Fantech I am ranging 7.9 to 8.1 without using the CO2 scrubber or adding kalk. We also installed a Santa Fe dehumidifier system that is solely for the living area in the basement. The humidity in my fishroom stays around 50% with air temps reaching 79 degrees. Its extremely quiet and you dont even know its running unless you stand under the vent. Now, its not the cheapest solution at about $500 for the equipment and thats definitely a fews worth of kalk and scrubber media but it also does help with keeping the room odor free. One of the things we are thinking about doing is adding a 4" inline exhaust fan to help draw some of the heat out. I already have the fan so all we need is a "y" to split the exhaust line on the HRV and the 4" to it. If that doesnt work, then I will look into portable AC unit or a small mitsubishi wall mount ac system. I am really hoping that one of the first two options will work because the third puts me into chiller price range.

 

[Dustin1300]

Sounds fair, I've been looking at one of the Fantech Air Exchangers and once I get my dedicated 100 amp panel in basement, it'll likely be one of my first purchases.

I'm staying in the 8.1-8.15 range on PH since turning on the doser so I think with the air exchange and export of CO2 that I could get it to that sweet spot of 8.2-8.3. Time will tell and let us know how things go with your experimentation

 

[SPotter]

I played around with the macro lens tonight but I definitely need to reed the directions and clean my camera. I did get some decent shots but I could see all of the dirt in my camera. I also need to reed the owners manual to understand the different settings on the camera. I should have more time tomorrow night to play with it.

 

[Dangerwill]

The best part of finding an already finished build thread is not having to wait for the conclusion! Thanks for the great and inspiring read, you have a truly beautiful setup!

 

[Dustin1300]

Conclusion? Big tanks are a never ending project! That's what makes them so much fun...right, Steve?

 

[nightOwl]

I played around with the macro lens tonight but I definitely need to reed the directions and clean my camera. I did get some decent shots but I could see all of the dirt in my camera. I also need to reed the owners manual to understand the different settings on the camera. I should have more time tomorrow night to play with it.

Steve - You probably already know but turn off all pumps and let things settle for a bit. Use tripod. Set your ISO to the lowest setting you have. Set your camera to Manual mode. Take tons of pictures...LOL.

 

[SPotter]

Conclusion? Big tanks are a never ending project! That's what makes them so much fun...right, Steve?

They are so much fun!!!!!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SPotter]

Originally Posted by SPotter<br />
I played around with the macro lens tonight but I definitely need to reed the directions and clean my camera. I did get some decent shots but I could see all of the dirt in my camera. I also need to reed the owners manual to understand the different settings on the camera. I should have more time tomorrow night to play with it.

Steve - You probably already know but turn off all pumps and let things settle for a bit. Use tripod. Set your ISO to the lowest setting you have. Set your camera to Manual mode. Take tons of pictures...LOL.

ummm...yeah i knew all of that. whats iso again????? in search of what????? looks like i need another user manual. im not one for reading directions.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SPotter]

New shots

New shots

So thanks to my good friends at Aquatic Obsessions in Avenel, NJ I made a few new additions to the tank yesterday. I picked up a pair of Japanese Swallow Tail Angels and a trio of Bimac Anthias. I spent some time this afternoon reading the owners manual for my camera and played around with some of the settings tonight. I was able to take some nice pictures of the Angels and some of the corals. The Bimacs are still a little camera shy.

Enjoy the pictures.......

Male Angel....

 

[SPotter]

Female Angel.....

Male Bimac

 

[SPotter]

Misc shots......

 

[Dustin1300]

Nice shots Steve...I'm thinking a 100mm macro is in your not so distant future Are you using the image stabilization or not?