tas5tas' 237g Total System Build

[richgoose]

I like the way you have your rocks lay out.

I disagree there. the repetitive layout of the rocks is the only thing i dont like about the tank. barebottom is also not my favorite... JMO

however, I love how each "peak" has one stunning SPS that started small but has room to become a show colony is an theme that doesnt too often get used. Also, i know in my heart barebottom is one big reason you have such good params and growth so.... keep up the good work! great pics too

 

[tas5tas]

I hope you feel better soon.

Your images are really dark. Do you have the brightness turned up on your monitor and don't know it, or was this on purpose?

Your corals look nice and healthy.

I'm just not that good at taking pictures. That's the only setting I could use to get the colors dead on to how they actually look. Believe me.....the tank is bright as all get out, even with the 4 midday bulbs off as they were in these pictures. Here are the camera settings I use.....

Raw Mode
Iso 64
Arp 2.8
Shutter Speed between 50-80ms depending on the lighting where the coral is located.

 

[melev]

With RAW mode, you can increase the brightness in Photoshop during post processing. The middle slider in this Level's adjustment menu will make the tank lighter or darker.

Go to Levels, Adjust Levels Manually, and this is the window you'll see.

Moving the middle triangle back and forth will let you see how it changes the look of the picture.

ISO 64 is very low, but for a coral that doesn't move, that's fine (I tend to shoot all my corals at ISO 500, but 100 or 200 should be plenty). Aperture Priority at 2.8 is fine too. You just need to decrease the shutter speed a little so it gets a bit brighter.

 

[Oldude]

I'm looking forward to seeing this in another year when everything has grown out. Very nice.

 

[tas5tas]

With RAW mode, you can increase the brightness in Photoshop during post processing. The middle slider in this Level's adjustment menu will make the tank lighter or darker.

Go to Levels, Adjust Levels Manually, and this is the window you'll see.

Moving the middle triangle back and forth will let you see how it changes the look of the picture.

ISO 64 is very low, but for a coral that doesn't move, that's fine (I tend to shoot all my corals at ISO 500, but 100 or 200 should be plenty). Aperture Priority at 2.8 is fine too. You just need to decrease the shutter speed a little so it gets a bit brighter.

Thanks for the tips Marc.......I will try them out the next time I snap some photos.

 

[tas5tas]

I'm looking forward to seeing this in another year when everything has grown out. Very nice.

I can't wait to see what it looks like in a year either. Alot of planning went into the aquascaping and placement of corals. I tried to keep everything far enough apart that I could grow HUGE colonies without having to worry about warfare going on. Hopefully it will look as well I believe it will.

 

[tas5tas]

Here is what a REAL SKIMMER will do for your system!!!!!

This is only 4 days worth of skimmate and it's like this every 3-4 days!!!!

 

[melev]

Very nasty. Thanks for sharing that. :lol:

 

[tas5tas]

I had the opportunity over the last few days to pick up some real cherry pieces for my tank. Some came from the frag swap, some came for LFS's, and others came from reefers local to me here in Beaumont. Here is a list of the new pieces.........

ORA Nathan's Green Millepora
ORA Red Planet Table
Superman Montipora Danae
Purple Tip Acropora Turaki
Orange Crush Acanlord

I will post pics in a few days once everything has acclimated and opened up completely.

 

[tas5tas]

With the addition of all the new corals I had to do a complete rearrange of my tank. For the most part I took and moved my entire rock structure back around 4"-5" freeing up some much needed space up front on the bottom. With the purchase of a few encrusting montis and chalices my bottom front quickly became a crowded unorganized mess. Everything looks good now....if I can just keep my hippo tang from rearranging things on his own. I will try to snap some pics this weekend or later today.

 

[Charlie Davidson]

Very Nice! Can you get briter FTS ?

 

[tas5tas]

Very Nice! Can you get briter FTS ?

Yes, I can try to get a brighter FTS. Hopefully the tips that melev gave me will assist in taking better photos.

 

[tas5tas]

Be sure to vote for my tank that was nominated for TOTM on Aquanerd.com......

Tank 4

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2009/10/vote-on-november-tank-of-month.html

 

[enrirami]

hello my friend.
Very beautiful your aquarium.As do to put in as little coral animals and algae are not?

 

[tas5tas]

hello my friend.
Very beautiful your aquarium.As do to put in as little coral animals and algae are not?

Thanks for the compliment. Not sure what you mean in your second sentence, but I feel the lack of algae is due to the high turnover rate, large skimmer, and regular water changes.

 

[strout]

The tank is coming along nicely, congrats to you. Sooooooo are you going to share some of this wisdom that your father in law gave you on your picture taking. lol

 

[tas5tas]

The tank is coming along nicely, congrats to you. Sooooooo are you going to share some of this wisdom that your father in law gave you on your picture taking. lol

I just told him what I was trying to do and he walked me through setting the F stop, ISO, and shutter speed. He also explained the improtance of taking the pictures in RAW mode so that the camera doesn't alter the image. Now I just need to buy a better camera and a good macro lens. My camera doesn't even have a macro lens. The most important thing when taking pics of our tanks is getting the white balance set correctly, which took me forever to do. Luckily I have it stored in my camera now.

 

[tas5tas]

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Turned 33 today.

Unfortunately I received all of my presents a week ago.......but at least all of my presents were corals!!

 

[melev]

Congratulations. Now let's see some new pictures!

 

[tas5tas]

I'm currently looking at macro lenses online for my Fuji S5100. I'm torn between the Opteka 10x HD2 macro lens and the Raynox DCR-250 macro lens. I went to Best Buy yesterday and was looking at the Nikon P90.....only thing I don't like is there is no way to attach fliters or additional lenses. I don't want to drop a fortune on a new camera and lenses. My Fuji takes great photos....except macros. Here is a photo I took from the top of Diamond Head Crater in Hawaii.....

Here is another one from the top of Hanauma Bay in Hawaii.....