Third Time's A Charm!
- Thread starter dascharisma
- Start date
dascharisma
New member
I finally transfered over all of my corals into the new tank. Unfortunately, "all of my corals" is not as many as it used to be. Over the last few months, I really hadn't been doing much to maintain the holding tank. I let things deteriorate because I kept saying to myself that any day now and I would be ready to move things into their new home. Well that of course leads to corals that aren't perfectly healthy. And wouldn't you know it, that is when disaster always strikes.
So about 10 days ago I come home from work and go downstairs to check the tank. While I'm walking down the stairs I was thinking to myself, "dang it is so pleasantly quite." That of course meant that the tank wasn't running. I checked, and the GFI had been tripped. It turned out that the feed pump to the skimmer had shorted out. So I reset it and turned everything back on. When the aquacontroller awoke from its slumber, it informed me that the tank was 10 degrees colder than normal. TERRIFIC! Over the next few days everything remained closed up. A few things showed some recession, which got worse by the day. I ended up deciding that rather than let everything waste away in their dirty home, I would just go ahead and move everything over to the new tank.
My guess is I will lose about 1/3 to 1/2 of the sps. I will get pics of everything once the lights go on in the big tank. Normally I would be pretty ****ed, but I will be heading to JJ's soon and placing a couple big orders with Atlantis. So, it is hard to be down with all those new corals in the near future.
Brad
So about 10 days ago I come home from work and go downstairs to check the tank. While I'm walking down the stairs I was thinking to myself, "dang it is so pleasantly quite." That of course meant that the tank wasn't running. I checked, and the GFI had been tripped. It turned out that the feed pump to the skimmer had shorted out. So I reset it and turned everything back on. When the aquacontroller awoke from its slumber, it informed me that the tank was 10 degrees colder than normal. TERRIFIC! Over the next few days everything remained closed up. A few things showed some recession, which got worse by the day. I ended up deciding that rather than let everything waste away in their dirty home, I would just go ahead and move everything over to the new tank.
My guess is I will lose about 1/3 to 1/2 of the sps. I will get pics of everything once the lights go on in the big tank. Normally I would be pretty ****ed, but I will be heading to JJ's soon and placing a couple big orders with Atlantis. So, it is hard to be down with all those new corals in the near future.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
I also have added some fish to the tank. The current list is:
4 Blue Chromis
5 Blue/Green Chromis
1 Royal Gramma
1 High Fin Perchlet (I don't actually know if I still have this fish since it is always hiding)
1 Chevron Tang
1 Clown
2 A sweet pair of hawk fish. (I got them off LA diver's den.)
1 Fine Spotted Fairy Wrasse
Total = 16
For future additions, I am thinking of the following:
1 Copperbanded Butterfly
3 Yellow Tangs
1 Naso Tang
6 Lyretail Anthias
2 Clowns
3 Purple Fire Fish
Total = 16
That will give me a couple more than 30 fish. I think that is around the number I will keep long term. I really like the idea of doing pairs and groups of fish, and I don't like expensive fish. I also won't do anything that isn't usually reefsafe (flame angels etc). If anyone has any suggestions for other additions, I would love to hear them.
Brad
4 Blue Chromis
5 Blue/Green Chromis
1 Royal Gramma
1 High Fin Perchlet (I don't actually know if I still have this fish since it is always hiding)
1 Chevron Tang
1 Clown
2 A sweet pair of hawk fish. (I got them off LA diver's den.)
1 Fine Spotted Fairy Wrasse
Total = 16
For future additions, I am thinking of the following:
1 Copperbanded Butterfly
3 Yellow Tangs
1 Naso Tang
6 Lyretail Anthias
2 Clowns
3 Purple Fire Fish
Total = 16
That will give me a couple more than 30 fish. I think that is around the number I will keep long term. I really like the idea of doing pairs and groups of fish, and I don't like expensive fish. I also won't do anything that isn't usually reefsafe (flame angels etc). If anyone has any suggestions for other additions, I would love to hear them.
Brad
Double-J
Premium Member
suggestion:
Cross hatch trigger pair (awesome!)
Regal Angel
Pyramid angels (pair)
regal tang
different wrasses's
get about 20 anthias
Dude your tank is huge and you don't have that many big fish listed, plus you are getting a big skimmer. Don't be a wuss.... It all benefits your corals to have that many fish as long as you can export the waste which you can. However I do think you should add stuff slowly and check your parameters often.
Another suggestion would be to get the fish that are prone to ICK first (tangs) buy all those at once so if they do get it they won't infect your entire tank... I've never had to deal with it but people do.
JMO
ADD MORE FISH WUSSSSSSSS!!!! YOU HAVE A BIGGER TANK THAN ME AND I HAVE 5X THAT AMOUNT AND BUYING MORE!!!
Cross hatch trigger pair (awesome!)
Regal Angel
Pyramid angels (pair)
regal tang
different wrasses's
get about 20 anthias
Dude your tank is huge and you don't have that many big fish listed, plus you are getting a big skimmer. Don't be a wuss.... It all benefits your corals to have that many fish as long as you can export the waste which you can. However I do think you should add stuff slowly and check your parameters often.
Another suggestion would be to get the fish that are prone to ICK first (tangs) buy all those at once so if they do get it they won't infect your entire tank... I've never had to deal with it but people do.
JMO
ADD MORE FISH WUSSSSSSSS!!!! YOU HAVE A BIGGER TANK THAN ME AND I HAVE 5X THAT AMOUNT AND BUYING MORE!!!
dascharisma
New member
Maybe while I am at it I should pull a Dan Hinch. He put 28 blue tangs into his 210. So that means I could add 56 into my 420. Hmmm..... Imagine what that would look like. Of course, as I recall, the ending to that story was that they all died. But, it was cool while it lasted.
Anyways, point taken. I should expand the list. Good point about adding the tangs first, right now I don't have that much money in fish, and obviously if I had an ich outbreak it would be survival of the fittest, since I couldn't ever get all the fish out of the tank. I like the idea of more anthias for sure, but I haven't been impressed with how long they live. Haven't you been having problems keeping anthias alive?
Speaking of big skimmer, its time to call Spazz.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
Here are a couple pics from today.
Some stuff came through pretty well.
Other stuff looks pretty terrible.
Some stuff just got tossed in the trash.
Brad
Some stuff came through pretty well.
Other stuff looks pretty terrible.
Some stuff just got tossed in the trash.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
When I stop by this week, I will try to remember to bring it up. That pic was taken with my macro lens and everything set on manual. Only the halides on the opposite side of the tank are on, so the actinic pop really shows up well. I think that is the absolute best trick to getting really good coloration. The f stop is set pretty low (8ish) to let enough light in for a reasonably fast exposure setting. The low f stop also blurs the background, which makes the object in the pic seem more in focus than it really is. I know a lot of people see pics like that and assume it is just photoshop, but that one is straight out of the camera.
Brad
Double-J
Premium Member
When you say ISO your setting that at 800-1600?
When you say F-stop you saying 1/8 at F5.6?
Whats your Focus set at: one shot, AI focus, AI Servo?
What is your White balance set at?
I think I'm getting it, Also I assume you using a tri-pod having a 1/8F stop
What F stop do you use when the camera is in your hand?
You da man. Also I'm using the same Macro lens
When you say F-stop you saying 1/8 at F5.6?
Whats your Focus set at: one shot, AI focus, AI Servo?
What is your White balance set at?
I think I'm getting it, Also I assume you using a tri-pod having a 1/8F stop
What F stop do you use when the camera is in your hand?
You da man. Also I'm using the same Macro lens
dascharisma
New member
The following is my advice for taking good pics. Obviously I spend a lot of my picture taking time with everything on auto, just snapping pictures and hoping for the best.
ISO
I set my ISO at 800. ISO used to describe the film that was in the camera. For digital cameras it is setting the sensitivity of the capture device. The higher the ISO the less light is needed to take a picture, but the quality of the image is also worse. If you use a higher ISO you will be able to take pictures with a faster shutter speed. In a reef tank, even though it seems like a very bright object for a picture, it is actually pretty dim. To get good pics that aren't blurry you need a fairly high ISO.
F/stop
When I mention an F/stop of 8ish, I am only talking about the size of the opening on the lens. The macro lens that we have can go from F2.8 to F32. A small F/stop means that the opening of the lens that light goes through is large (it is exactly the opposite of what you would expect). A large hole means you need a shorter exposure time in order to get enough light. A large hole (aka a small f Stop) also makes things in the background seem blurry. Sometimes you want the effect and sometimes you don't.
I usually pick my F/stop before I pick my shutter speed. I usually use an F/stop of 11 or less. On the other hand, if you are taking a full tank shot, you probably want the foreground and the background to be in focus, so you would use a higher F/stop.
Shutter Speed
Once I have my F/stop set to what makes sense for the shot, I set the shutter speed. To do that I hold the shutter button down half way and the camera's light meter shows you on the horizontal bar whether you have not enough light, the right amount, or too much light. Then I adjust it until it is just under where it thinks it the right amount. I have found that the camera gets tricked by the tank and tries to get you to make things too bright. At this point I check to make sure that the shutter speed isn't too long. If it is 1/16 or longer (1/8, 1/4 etc.) then I usually lower the F/stop(1/32, 1/64 etc), because 1/16 or longer is going to be blurry because there will be too much motion. Once the shutter is fast enough, I start shooting. As I said I usually end up with a little faster than what the camera recommends, but as I am shooting I will take one pic with the shutter where I think it should be, then I raise it and take a pic, then I lower it and take a pic etc. Then once I have everything on the computer, I just pic the one that looks the best.
Focus
Generically when taking tank shots, my focus is set to AI Servo. I normally let the camera do all the work of focusing. However, if I am trying to take a true macro shot, I flip the switch on the lens from AF to MF and do all the focusing myself. When doing that, I usually take a picture that looks in focus to me, then I tweak the focus by as small of an amount as I can and take another picture. I do that over and over so that hopefully one of the shots will turn out to have perfect focus. I do this because I find it very difficult to try to focus something when you are only looking through that little viewfinder.
White Balance
I set my white balance to AWB. In my opinion the camera does a good job of figuring things out. There are some corals that look a little better with the camera's white balance, and some that look like crap, but all and all I find it good enough to go with. In the future I might mess around with white balance, but up to now I have been too lazy.
Tripod
If I want good pictures I use a tripod. You pretty much can't get great detail shots without one. Also I use a remote to take the pics. If you are manually pushing the button, it is going to be a bit blurry. I know it is a pain to haul out the tripod to snap a handful of pics, but it really does make a huge difference.
Angles, Movement, and Lighting
Lastly, here are a couple of things to remember. You can't take an in focus pic from an angle. You need to shoot straight on, otherwise the glass/acrylic distorts the image. This is a pain, because some things in your tank you can't see from straight on (oh the woes of a giant tank lol), and also we both know that sps look better from above, because that is where all that light blocking pigment is located. That is why a lot of people take top down shots.
Also, corals are a lot easier to photograph than fish, because fish are disobedient jerks. You tell them to sit still for 1 minute and they simply ignore you. But keep in mind that most corals DO move. That means you have to keep your F stop low, or your shutter speed fast, or your ISO high (or some combination of those) if you want good pics.
Lastly, mess around with the lighting. In my opinion the best shots are where you have all your actinics on, and a halide on, but not the halide that is directly over the area you are taking a picture of.
Brad
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Double-J
Premium Member
Nicely done, I'll have to read it a few times over. quick quesiton since we have the same camera. On the top of the screen it reads:
1/8 F5.6 ISO 800
I can't seem to figure out you you change the "F5.6"
I can change the ISO and the 1/40 (not sure what this is anyways)
Thanks homey
1/8 F5.6 ISO 800
I can't seem to figure out you you change the "F5.6"
I can change the ISO and the 1/40 (not sure what this is anyways)
Thanks homey
dascharisma
New member
There is a button on the back that says AV and has a plus and minus sign. Hold that in and spin the wheel that is next to the shutter button. That is how you change the F/stop. When you just spin the wheel without holding in the button you are changing the shutter speed.
Brad
Double-J
Premium Member
Also.. on the macro lens itself do you have it set to "limit" or "full"?
I think I'm getting it a little. The first part on the top screen is basically the amount of light the picture needs to be perfect. So that can change from 1/4000 to "bulb" which is changed using the scroll wheel by the "picture button" So that is nothing to do with the Fstop right?
So how the heck do yo change the F-stop?
I think I'm getting it a little. The first part on the top screen is basically the amount of light the picture needs to be perfect. So that can change from 1/4000 to "bulb" which is changed using the scroll wheel by the "picture button" So that is nothing to do with the Fstop right?
So how the heck do yo change the F-stop?
dascharisma
New member
If you are using the auto focus, I usually move the dot so that it focuses on exactly the area I am interested in. If it is a full tank shot, I set it to all the dots. Obviously in manual focus, the dots don't matter.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
I don't shoot in Raw, because for stuff on the web, you really don't need to. In fact all of the pics I post are reduced quality from what I took them at.
I am thinking of doing some macro shots and then getting them professionally printed and framed and hanging them around the house. For those I will shoot in Raw.
Brad
PS I just picked up smash brothers brawl, I will bring it over to your house some night this week.
dascharisma
New member
I just love taking pics of ricordea. It is almost too easy to get sweet shots.
Brad
Brad
