More Pictures

[sphelps]

Some more pictures I took last night. Don't forget to enter the photo contest!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0012.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0079.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0043.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0006.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0051.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0063.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0067.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0073.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%206%202008/DSC_0113.jpg

[Snappy]

nice camera work Steve.

[Chaloupa]

WOW! Absolutely gorgeous! Your corals are amazing and so are you camera skills.....!

[christyf5]

WOW! Absolutely gorgeous! Your corals are amazing and so are you camera skills.....!


Ditto on that!! :biggrin:

[dsaundry]

What type of camera are you using?? Great pic's:biggrin:

[sphelps]

What type of camera are you using?? Great pic's:biggrin:

Nikon D300 with Sigma 150mm Prime lens

[Lance]

Very Nice!

[sphelps]

Thanks!

Couple from the top tank

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/Fish/DSC_0152.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0164.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0208.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0224.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0223.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0218.jpg


The only Zoos I have that didn't get touched by the nutibranchs, guess they taste bad?
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0227.jpg

[sphelps]

Pics from the bottom tank, sorry the water isn't very clear, recently changed most of the equipment out.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0184.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0185.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0186.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0175.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0178.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0191.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0205.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2012%202008/DSC_0174.jpg

[christyf5]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/Fish/DSC_0152.jpg



Great photo(s) and fabulous fish! I've always wanted a peppermint hogfish. How do you find their disposition? Do you have any gobies in with him? I always thought hogfish were a bit belligerent. What sized tank do you have him in and what tankmates? Sorry for the twenty questions routine :wink:

Thanks :biggrin:

[Marlin65]

Nikon D300 with Sigma 150mm Prime lens

Very nice
How far from the tank are you taking these? Tripod mounted?
That lens gets nice pictures. Can you post the rest of the lens specs?

[sphelps]

Great photo(s) and fabulous fish! I've always wanted a peppermint hogfish. How do you find their disposition? Do you have any gobies in with him? I always thought hogfish were a bit belligerent. What sized tank do you have him in and what tankmates? Sorry for the twenty questions routine :wink:

Thanks :biggrin:

The peppermint hog is a deeper water fish, it took a little while for it to adjust to the lighting but seems to be more comfortable now. Seem very timid to me, doesn't pick on any other fish and keeps to itself. I believe other hog fish may be aggressive but not the peppermint.

The tank size is 3' x 3' x 2' about 130 gallons. Tank mates include; clown goby, flame hawkfish, 2 firefish, regal and yellow tang, spotted mandarin, scooter blenny, geometric hawkfish, lemonpeel angel, potters angel, bluestreak pipefish, a mated pair of false percs, chalk bass, banggai cardinalfish. May be one or two more I've forgotten about.

[sphelps]

Very nice
How far from the tank are you taking these? Tripod mounted?
That lens gets nice pictures. Can you post the rest of the lens specs?

The last pictures where taken with a 18-70mm lens, to use the 150 to get the same type of pictures I would have to stand about 8-10 feet back. No tripod.

Nikkor 18-70 (http://www.nikon.ca/en/Product.aspx?m=14328&disp=Specs)

Sigma 150 (http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3283&navigator=5)

[sphelps]

Can anyone tell me the sex of that seahorse? I'm thinking female, but I'm not sure.

[Keri]

Can anyone tell me the sex of that seahorse? I'm thinking female, but I'm not sure.


Maybe this will help? Is it an adult? I don't think the pouch or lack of pouch matters in juveniles.

http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/ext.php?ref=http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/sex.shtml

[Chowder]

Looks like a female to me. I believe the male will have a more suttle angled stomack where the female has the round bottom to the stomack. Atleast that was how I was shown when I had them.
Chris

[Bayside Corals]

Nice Pics Steve everything looks great! How is the lemon peel angel doing? Is he picking on any coral?

The Seahorse looks good and is definatly a female.

Colby

[michika]

Great photos! I just love your system and everything in it. The idea of a top and bottom tank is great.

How did you become so proficient with your camera? Classes, self-taught?

[sphelps]

Nice Pics Steve everything looks great! How is the lemon peel angel doing? Is he picking on any coral?

The Seahorse looks good and is defiantly a female.

Colby

Thanks Colby, lemon peel is good, haven't watched it too closely but it's similar to the potters not really eating food yet but eating something, maybe some coral but I can't see any damage. Except for the two gorgonians which no longer have polyps as both angles eat them, better color though and still seem to do good.

Got a mate for my female?

[sphelps]

Great photos! I just love your system and everything in it. The idea of a top and bottom tank is great.

How did you become so proficient with your camera? Classes, self-taught?

Self-taught, just practice I guess. The camera helps a little :mrgreen:

[Mikee]

Wow! I love how you have a top main DT and lower. This is what i think id like to do.. you have the best of everything mixed reef and right below it a tank for other interesting creatures you normally cant keep in a mixed reef all plumbed together! Do you have any recent FTS? great tank dude!!

[sphelps]

No recent FTS but I'll take one next time I got my camera out and post it here. It's defiantly a challange keeping the two tanks happy, basically some stuff will do good and other stuff will not. You just have to find the ballance and try to aviod the stuff that doesn't do that well.

[sphelps]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/FTS/DSC_0249.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/FTS/lower1_06_2008.jpg

[Mikee]

thanks for the FTS! thats my dream setup right there. Whats maintenance like? daily, weekly, monthly?

[sphelps]

thanks for the FTS! thats my dream setup right there. Whats maintenance like? daily, weekly, monthly?

No Problem. Pretty standard maintenance, weekly water changes (about 5%), weekly skimmer cleaning, some random dosing and keeping calcium reactor full.

I recently redesigned and constructed a new filtration cabinet, although I have to redo the sump as I need to change the pump position, it's basically done and working well.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2016%202008/DSC_0307.jpg


I got a mate yesterday.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2016%202008/DSC_0299.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2016%202008/DSC_0285.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2016%202008/DSC_0296.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/sphelps/June%2016%202008/DSC_0288.jpg

[Mikee]

Looking good SP! thanks for the pics.. man i havnt had seahorses for 4 years prob now.. everytime i see them i miss them even more! This is why id love to do a setup similar to yours.. ++ i love cube tanks its either a cube tank or 60x30x24 but i prefer the cube look..not so much a fan of long tanks.

[sphelps]

Thanks Mik, I also like the cubes but I'd really like to do a 6' x 3' foot print for a little more room.

[pewarchuk]

OMG i love ur fish, what kind of eel is that

[sphelps]

OMG i love ur fish, what kind of eel is that

It's a white or ghost ribbon eel.

[tang daddy]

great pics sphelps! Love the way everything is so neat and tidy in the sump cabinet, one last thing the scorpion fish looks like a crazy nice koi what is the proper name for those?
How often and what do you feed it?

[S.D]

I could be mistaken but it looks like Fu Man Chu.

Sarina

[sphelps]

great pics sphelps! Love the way everything is so neat and tidy in the sump cabinet, one last thing the scorpion fish looks like a crazy nice koi what is the proper name for those?
How often and what do you feed it?

Yes it's a fu man chu. I feed it mostly full krill every few days.

[Marlin65]

love that brain coral. I have never seen one in the store before.
I read that they don't collect those anymore as there is not enough left.
Do you know if thats true?

[sphelps]

love that brain coral. I have never seen one in the store before.
I read that they don't collect those anymore as there is not enough left.
Do you know if thats true?

Our local store here in town has had them in a few times, but they do seem to be hard to come by. Not sure if they are restricted or not but when I was in the Caribbean they were everywhere however they were also the size of boulders so perhaps smaller ones are simply difficult to come by.

I've had mine for about three years, pretty slow grower. I also recently got one from Australia, you can see it in the same pic to the right of the other one next to the clam. It's a little flat still but will eventually round out.