Let me know what you think of my 54 gallon reef

[nlreefguy]

This is my 54 gallon reef system. No sump! All HOB equipment right now including eshopps psk-100h skimmer, 2 TLF reactors with carbon and NP biopellets, Eheim 1262 on a hang-on closed loop returning water to the system via two Sea Swirls, Tunze 6045 powerhead (adding a second next week), and all controlled by an Aquatronica controller.

Though you can't see them, there's a fair number of fish in there including a yellow tang, green mandarin, 2 yellowtail damsels (damn them!), 2 ocellaris clowns, one-spot rabbitfish,and a longfinned fairy wrasse. There's 35 coral colonies I think, of over 30 separate species. The idea I'm going with there is a mixed reef setup dominated by SPS.

I've been thinking about adding a sump via a HOB overflow to give me more skimmer options because my eshopps is not really doing it for me and I find it a little on the loud side (not that it's all that loud, but I just dream of an absolutely silent tank, and when the skimmer is off I almost achieve it!)

Sorry about the crappy pic (no photo skills). Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions!

[hillegom]

It looks good. More pics please
A sump would be good. More water in the system and you can add filters, refug, Bad crabs etc

[nlreefguy]

Here's some more pics. These are not very representative of he colors of the corals. For some reason, I don't seem to be able to take a good pic of the tank. Anyone have any easy tips for picture taking with a typical point and shoot? I'm using a Canon Power Shot SD1000 Digital Elph. Anyway, these pics show you the right and left sides of the tank, as I said the corals are actually a lot more colorful than this with the naked eye.

[nlreefguy]

Oh yes, i forgot to mention that it's lit by a 250 watt metal halide (right now has a plusrite 14000K) and supplemented by a DIY dimming LED actinic strip (works great, by the way, and very cost-effective).

[christyf5]

Tank looks really nice! Maybe try using a tripod and making sure that the focus confirmation is on (or back off a bit and use the highest quality photo setting, then you can zoom and crop later). As well you could try using the white balance. Find something white (say a piece of PVC or something) and take a photo of it in your tank using the white balance setting, that should help with the colors

[scherzo]

The tank looks great.

As Christie said, Don't zoom in just move closer or crop later and check the white balance.

I often find just setting the camera to a "SUN" setting for the white balance works for my bulbs (14K Phoenix)

-jeff