Haz's 65G In the Making.

[HaZRaTTy]

Hey,

Feeling like I have conquered the Freshwater world and Planted aquariums I figured that it was time to move on to big and better things, So I decided a SW Reef was the way to go.

After being around Canreef for a little while, learning, researching, reading and trying to take it all in and remember it, I have finally gathered all the equipment and knowledge to start my Slice of Ocean.

Thanks to many of you who answered my many questions and provided me with information I needed or where to get it. Thanks to Steve, and Marine Aquaria as well.

Equipment:

Tank: 36'' x 18'' x 24''
Sump: 30'' x 16'' x 16''
Skimmer: Vertex in100
Powerheads: MP10wES
Lighting: Super Blue AI Sols x 2
Return Pump: Quiet One 3000

Stand / Canopy

Stand: Big Al's Special
Canopy: DIY - Myself Unfortunately I didn't log or take any pictures of the process of building my canopy, but I can show you the finished product and add that the total cost was 85$

Pictures So Far - I'm not sure what the best settings are to put my SLR too are but here's an attempt.

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2274/031ch.jpg

Sump is a little tight in there, The skimmer isn't coming out without a fight. Also need more sand for the DSB but all in Time.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3341/030qa.jpg

A few pieces of base rock in the tank, I think i'm going to have to fight some micro bubbles as it looks so far. Any Suggestions? From Skimmer Breaking ?
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/8553/011gm.jpg

Rock Work / Cave

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4439/008ej.jpg'

Another FTS

[HaZRaTTy]

Stocking Suggestions??

Clean up crew?

I'm thinking since we're likely moving into a house in the next year and I will be upgrading before the Tang police come and Spout their WONDERFUL Information.

Juv Yellow Tang
2 Snowflake Clowns
Royal Gramma (Gf's choice ugh)
Some Type of Blenny? Lawnmower?
Flame or Long Nose Hawk. < Need to do a little more research into these little buggers. But again GF's Choice)

Lots of the stocking of fish is going to be left in the hands of the Girlfriend, Seeing a Happy Wife is a Happy life and then the amount of money going towards this tank is a little more acceptable, but she is like a kid on Christmas waiting and asking me every dam day when I figure we can get fish.

I would like to get some nice Softies, Few LPS -- Not really interested in the SPS world yet.

[HaZRaTTy]

Well here is the 15 day update with Pictures.

I've seen some Diatoms forming on the Sand bed, and Sides of the Tank. I'm sure I have went through a Mini cycle due to the amount of Live Rock I added.

There is a Small crab that I have only seen once that is making a Home for Himself on the Left rock work, Along with about 5 Brittle Star Fish that are Throughout the Tank.

The front rock has Sponge growing on it along with some Feather Dusters and Mushrooms.

I added some Pulsating Xenia to one of the Top rocks. It's currently mad at me for the Swing of Environment and Tank change so we will give it a week or so to Open up.

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2356/012jg.jpg
Full Tank Shot

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/4598/038zi.jpg
Left Side Cave / Flat

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/8509/041dx.jpg
Another Full Tank Shot.



**Ps I have an SLR Cammera with a 40mm Zoom lens on it, Anyone know the best settings in regards to tank photos of your Tank?

[HaZRaTTy]

:twised:Few Updated Pictures. Jan 16/2012


http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/288/046tt.jpg
Full Tank Shot!

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/7906/033io.jpg
Frogspawn and my Toadstool Shedding it's Mucus Lining after I introduced it into the tank!!

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5686/031fu.jpg
Another FTS With the Tang

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6074/014fb.jpg
ID Anyone?

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/2418/013py.jpg
Yellow Tang

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/7421/012pcj.jpg


http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1285/007memj.jpg
Candy Cane Coral

[mr_alberta]

Looks like you are off to a good start Jordan.

[JBen]

**Ps I have an SLR Cammera with a 40mm Zoom lens on it, Anyone know the best settings in regards to tank photos of your Tank?]

New here, my set up just went live on the weekend, so I can only comment on the above.

Addressing some of that, sort of depends on what your comfortable with, and what hardware you have. At the least.

1) Use a tripod, especially if not using all your lights. If all your lights are on hand holding is more than possible.
2) Shoot in Raw. This allows you to adjust the white balance in post. I myself am just starting to play with this, now that I've got water in my tank and 5 actinics on it.

You can likely use any of the auto modes and get acceptable results. It's always better to shoot full manual or one of the semi auto modes (P,TV or AV). A camera will always make mistakes relative to what you want. For example, if your in an auto mode and its blowing highlights, there's little you can do. If your in control and its blowing highlights you can make a small adjustment.

3) If your unfamiliar/uncomfortable with full manual, shoot in AV. Your setting the f/stop, either for the Depth of field you want, or to control how much light is getting through the lens. The camera will determine SS.

4) Set your ISO as low as you can and yet still maintain good SSs. If you want to stop down for more DoF, you may need to raise your ISO to accommodate that. How far you can comfortably raise your ISO depends a lot on the body you use and it's high ISO capabilities.

5) Depending on the lens your using, and it's maximum aperture you might be able to open it more to allow more light in,if you find your SS is too low. However this results in a shallower DoF. Not a bad thing at all if your trying to isolate a specific subject vs a FTS.

Based on my own initial test shots and slight fooling around.
ISO 200
F8.0
1/60th rendered a proper/good exposure for a FTS.

However unless the light is exactly the same, those settings are immaterial, but might serve as a starting point for you by shooting in AV at f8.0 and then adjust as needed for more/less DoF, more/less SS. Example if you find the highlights (sand) getting blown, reduce the SS either by stopping down or dialling in some exp comp.

All that said, most of your shots look fine.

[HaZRaTTy]

Looks like you are off to a good start Jordan.

Thanks.

The ToadStool I think has grown near 2inches in the past 3 days or just extended from when it was at the store.

[HaZRaTTy]

]

New here, my set up just went live on the weekend, so I can only comment on the above.

Addressing some of that, sort of depends on what your comfortable with, and what hardware you have. At the least.

1) Use a tripod, especially if not using all your lights. If all your lights are on hand holding is more than possible.
2) Shoot in Raw. This allows you to adjust the white balance in post. I myself am just starting to play with this, now that I've got water in my tank and 5 actinics on it.

You can likely use any of the auto modes and get acceptable results. It's always better to shoot full manual or one of the semi auto modes (P,TV or AV). A camera will always make mistakes relative to what you want. For example, if your in an auto mode and its blowing highlights, there's little you can do. If your in control and its blowing highlights you can make a small adjustment.

3) If your unfamiliar/uncomfortable with full manual, shoot in AV. Your setting the f/stop, either for the Depth of field you want, or to control how much light is getting through the lens. The camera will determine SS.

4) Set your ISO as low as you can and yet still maintain good SSs. If you want to stop down for more DoF, you may need to raise your ISO to accommodate that. How far you can comfortably raise your ISO depends a lot on the body you use and it's high ISO capabilities.

5) Depending on the lens your using, and it's maximum aperture you might be able to open it more to allow more light in,if you find your SS is too low. However this results in a shallower DoF. Not a bad thing at all if your trying to isolate a specific subject vs a FTS.

Based on my own initial test shots and slight fooling around.
ISO 200
F8.0
1/60th rendered a proper/good exposure for a FTS.

However unless the light is exactly the same, those settings are immaterial, but might serve as a starting point for you by shooting in AV at f8.0 and then adjust as needed for more/less DoF, more/less SS. Example if you find the highlights (sand) getting blown, reduce the SS either by stopping down or dialling in some exp comp.

All that said, most of your shots look fine.

JBen,

Thanks so much for the reply on the Camera and the shots. I have an Olympus 410.

I will start on the numbers you have gave me and play around with it from there. I do have different scene modes and what not and I believe most were shot with the "Underwater Wide Lens Mode"

I have tried with the A, and S,P,M Modes and playing around with the Shuttle and Ap speeds but I found that I can't get it close enough to looking half decent as just the pre set mode.

[JBen]

Hazratty.
Do you shoot in Raw? Doing so allows you to alter/adjust the white balance in post for accurate colour reproduction.

Using scene modes is a lot like shooting in A (aperture priority) or T (Shutter Speed priority) depending on which is the critical aspect. My body only has manual functions so I can only guess at what settings might be chosen when in scene modes (no way to choose and see). Typically technical aspects remain the same though.

Sport
Your telling the camera you want to shoot action and want stop action settings. So the camera sets a factory default high Shutter speed. You can do this in TV by setting the SS to 1/500th, 1/1000th or 1/2500th.

Landscape:
Your telling the camera its a landscape and the camera will by default choose a small f/stop for Depth of field. Little different than setting your f/stop anywhere between f11 and f16 in AV

Portrait.
You want only your subject to be in critical focus. So the camera will open the lens as wide as it can. You can do this in AV by setting the lens to f4.0 or f2.8 or f1.4 etc

Underwater.
My Canon S95 does have this scene mode and from what I recall the priority in this mode is White Balance where it tries to accommodate the light spectrums.

The technical aspects and principles of photography remain the same no matter the genre. By trade Im a professional (and freelance) photographer in the outdoor lifestyle markets. I shoot for a few magazines as well as freelance. Whether Im shooting people camping, fishing, hunting, whatever I can apply the same principles to Weddings, Sports (hockey etc) or underwater aquaria. The "artistic" side is what sets one wedding or landscape etc photographer apart from another and that largely comes with time, practise, etc. I know theres a few here who already have this down pat and hopefully they'll see and chime in on this for you.

If you have no means of altering White Balance in post and have to shoot jpeg, Id stick with underwater mode for truer colour reproduction, landscape mode for FTS and portrait (possibly) mode when shooting individual fish/corals etc. If you can shoot in RAW and have the editing software, do so and try using AV/TV to start. Really the only difference (well not really, theres different ways to meter etc) between the scene modes and the semi auto modes is that in Av/TV "you" can fine tune the shot based on what your seeing, and then take another where-as in a scene mode you can't.

Cheers,
J

[Nano]

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6074/014fb.jpg
ID Anyone?



Green brown Paly, pretty common

[HaZRaTTy]

I knew they were super common I've seen them everywhere.. I just couldn't put a name on them haha.

Thanks Nan

[HaZRaTTy]

New Tank Shots

Toadstool
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6883/005nho.jpg
Zoa
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9599/063aov.jpg
Zoa
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1999/064ii.jpg
FTS
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5902/065ae.jpg
Side Angle FTS
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8558/070do.jpg