What to view and photograph very very small critters with?

[Smokey Stover]

Title sums it up pretty well, I started looking closer at what is crawling around on the acryllic in my small Pod Farm tank. OMG! I need something to view and possibly take pictures of all these things. I'm not sure I want any or all of them in my DT yet.I have been searching Lionfish Lair among other sites trying to identify them. There are so many different things I hadn't noticed just casually looking at the things I can see with my eyes and a 10x glass. There's a whole new level of microscopic life in there.
I believe I have even seen some large Ameobas and things many many times smaller.There's no way to take a photo with the zoom and autofocus on my phone. Is a camera with a special lense required or a microscope with a built in CCD? OMG the wife is gonna kill me when I open up this can-o-worms LOL.

 

[gogo7]

harp copepod

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=9215&pictureid=70094
pompom crab zoa

definitely use a celestron microscope with a celestron digital microscope imager.
basically take the eyepiece out of the microscope and slide in the camera piece. plug it into a usb and away you go... amcap software.
as for what the wife will do....lol..... i told mine i wanted one and i had to save my allowance up.... lol....
i make sure i'm using it all the time where she can see me using it...

 

[Ron Reefman]

gogo7, ballpark cost?

Smokey Stover, a 'good' camera with a macro mode (and some even have 2 macro modes) can get pretty darn close in on small stuff. But noting like a microscope.

Somebody also sells a magnifying glass lens /glass cleaner porthole. The glass cleaner is inside the tank and the magnifying lens is outside. It ain't cheap, it kind of cool, but nothing like a microscope or even a good macro on a camera. And don't leave it in the tank all the time. The inside half of mine, and of a couple of other people I know, had them break down. Take it out of the tank when you are done with it and wash it on fresh water and dry it off.

 

[gogo7]

hey ron...i found the microscope at the local telescope/camera shop... the microscope was about 350$cdn.... the digital imager about 120$..
not cheap...but it blows away the plastic microscope i was using.....i use a 42 inch tv as a monitor so the images are nice and big. also the image files are massive...