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GQLMAO'S SPS Tank Zoa Update November 2015


gqlmao

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Oh I think most people use it just as a dip, then you can rinse them in tank water and then again if you're extra paranoid. I use Bayer dip for all my incoming corals regardless of type for 10 min then 10 min rinse/swish and never had any issues. If you're extra worried and your acans are worth it, could do a dip then into a QT tank to recover/observe? I'd say it's worth it to at least dip one of the colonies suspected of worms and if nothing comes out then you can skip doing the rest...just a thought since it seems you've tried everything

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Thanks for the advice, I will try it and see if it works. I wish we had Bayers in Canada, that seems to do the trick for most things.

 

Oh I think most people use it just as a dip, then you can rinse them in tank water and then again if you're extra paranoid. I use Bayer dip for all my incoming corals regardless of type for 10 min then 10 min rinse/swish and never had any issues. If you're extra worried and your acans are worth it, could do a dip then into a QT tank to recover/observe? I'd say it's worth it to at least dip one of the colonies suspected of worms and if nothing comes out then you can skip doing the rest...just a thought since it seems you've tried everything

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As requested, I busted out the camera and snapped a few pieces, enjoy :) Some are RR, some are not.










































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You might've mentioned it before but what camera/lens are you shooting with and how do you set your white balance?

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Thanks guys, hopefully my tank will be a SPS forest in 2 years at this rate.

 

 

I have a Canon T5i with a 100mm macro lens. I left the white balance on auto for this shot since my T-5s aren't too blue. I adjust the balance afterwards in Photoshop. When I shoot heavy actinic I have a custom white balance since my photoshop can't adjust the heavy deep blues. You can stick a white card inside the tank, take a picture of the white card and use that picture to set custom white balance. I like my balance set so you can actually see the true colors of the corals rather than hiding them in heavy actinic and relying on the florescence of the corals which most of the time look better.

 

The pictures are slightly blurry because I had to hold my camera above my tank without any tripod. My hands shake while juggling the camera, holding the coral viewer in place and pressing my remote at the same time. When I use a tripod the difference in quality is night and day.

 

You might've mentioned it before but what camera/lens are you shooting with and how do you set your white balance?

 

 

Yes sir, it is the third one from the bottom, its growing like mad right now and the base is actually a dark green.

 

Is that RR wolverine?

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Oh nice I have essentially the same setup with my T3i and 100mm macro I just picked up. How do you adjust the WB in photoshop after, just with hue etc sliders or do you use Lightroom/DPP to set the WB manually? I've tried it a bunch of different ways and still have yet to settle on the best/easiest option.

 

I've tried custom white balance as well, I used a piece of white pvc held underwater but I noticed the custom white balance without any color/phase shift (menu option on my camera, probably same for you) was very orange/red/warm. Sliding the shift all the way to the top left corner, green+blue gave the CWB picture a very close to real life representation. Do you have to tweak anything when you use CWB or does it shoot true even under actinics? Thanks for the info, I'm constantly on the hunt for info to help me improve my photos.

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Um when I take the pictures, I make sure there isn't too much blue in it already. What I do is go into the scale with the yellow and blue and adjust accordingly, there isn't that much adjustment before the picture turns wacky.

 

If I do the white card in the tank method for WB, I get close to real life representations, maybe even a little closer to the warm yellow/orange you are talking about. Then I go into my WB color option and move it towards the blue to get a small amount of blue hue to the picture. It seems like what you have tried is exactly what I have done as well. Under my T5s I keep it at auto WB because Photoshop can bring back out the original colors since they aren't far off. For actinic I have to do the custom WB and then add the blue hue through the WB color editor feature on the camera, then Photoshop for the final touches.

 

 

Oh nice I have essentially the same setup with my T3i and 100mm macro I just picked up. How do you adjust the WB in photoshop after, just with hue etc sliders or do you use Lightroom/DPP to set the WB manually? I've tried it a bunch of different ways and still have yet to settle on the best/easiest option.

 

I've tried custom white balance as well, I used a piece of white pvc held underwater but I noticed the custom white balance without any color/phase shift (menu option on my camera, probably same for you) was very orange/red/warm. Sliding the shift all the way to the top left corner, green+blue gave the CWB picture a very close to real life representation. Do you have to tweak anything when you use CWB or does it shoot true even under actinics? Thanks for the info, I'm constantly on the hunt for info to help me improve my photos.

 

Thanks, I say the color is 60 percent there. Once the frag grows some more the colors should be nicer with a green/blue base. The funny thing is that I leaned the tank off Zeovit. Now its pretty much feed the fish like crazy for nutrients. I have not noticed any color changes after leaning off zeovit for a month now. I am glad I did because it was expensive and tedious.

 

 

impressive, most RR wolverines don't have good color

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Awesome, appreciate the info, I guess I'll just have to keep tweaking till I find the best combo for my lights. I just installed my Bluefish LED controller so I have free reign over my RB/HV/NW channels in addition to my two Coral Plus ATI T5 so I might end up messing w/ my color blend anyways. Your SPS pictures have motivated me to break out the tripod, turn off all the flow and get some top down shots of my SPS as well.

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Thanks! I just use a coral viewer, I dont turn anything off I find even the smallest surface movements distort the picture whether its caused by a fish or just a small vibration. Yes tripod and a remote can me a macro lens' friend :). Have fun I will be looking forward to those pictures.

 

 

Awesome, appreciate the info, I guess I'll just have to keep tweaking till I find the best combo for my lights. I just installed my Bluefish LED controller so I have free reign over my RB/HV/NW channels in addition to my two Coral Plus ATI T5 so I might end up messing w/ my color blend anyways. Your SPS pictures have motivated me to break out the tripod, turn off all the flow and get some top down shots of my SPS as well.

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Here is some pictures of some of my zoas, I am keeping them under mostly actinic leds at low settings, I noticed that the zoas were a lot bigger because they needed to absorb more like and the florescence has dropped somewhat due to the bigger sizes. These pictures were taken with the whites on to help balance out the colors, there wont be as much "pop". Some of the pictures have glare in them, I had no way to avoid that since my Radion is right above of my coral viewer and the plastic reflects a portion of the light back.


Big thanks to March at Fragbox for hooking me up with the majority of these zoas a few months back :)


I know people are going to ask about the names so I will post them with the pictures.


The God Father:




Darth Maul:




Staircase to Heaven:




Jolly Green Monsters:




Unknown:




Pink Hippos:




Rainbow Raptors:




Emeralds on Fire:




Fruit Loops:




Orange Oxides:




LA Lakers:




Miami Vice:




Vivid Rainbows:




Space Monsters:




Rastas:




Blue Agave:




Candy Apply Oranges:


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  • 1 month later...


Oh this thread yearns for an update. Well after all the neglect this summer and severe heat waves. Summer = cars :). I live in the basement and my tank got up to +30C, my normal temp is around 24C so that was a big jump. 3 pieces experienced RTNing and I lost one piece so far. The other two pieces are recovering so it is not a big issue. I plan to get back on the weekly water changes and feeding the corals at night to get them to get full polyp extension and color back.

 

One of my ATI ballasts blew, therefore I am running on 6 bulbs right now, which is fine since my tank is so shallow. But I am disappointed, this is my second ballast blowing. I thought ATI would be more reliable than this. Currently working with the LFS to get another ballast under warranty.

 

I fragged about 30 zoas :)

 

I will post pictures sometime this week of the zoas.

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  • 1 month later...

Well I have been away for quite some time and will probably disappear for another couple of months but I would like to show and document the things that happened.

 

First of all, 2 months ago I fragged a ton of zoas.

 

Fullshot_zpse07aaf48.jpg

 

 

After 4 months of neglect over summer and no water changes. I started to get back into my normal routine, 10 gallons every 2 weeks. My vodka and vinegar dosing was kept at a minimal during this time, my nitrates rocketed to over 40 ppm.

 

Some updated pictures:

 

RRPinkFloyd_zps7563841d.jpg

 

Birdsnest_zpsc67da16d.jpg

 

PurplePlanet_zps40ef1028.jpg

 

MiyagiTort_zpsfa99a1a7.jpg

 

RRRedDiablo_zpsf9acc667.jpg

 

RRBlueMatrix_zps35b242b7.jpg

 

RROrangePassion_zps0c72babe.jpg

 

OrangePassion_zps61dabe7e.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Time for some updates, here are some growth pictures :) Comparison was done to to jan/july of last year

 

 

PinkFloyd_zpsdfd3c897.jpg

 

 

Pink%20Floyd_zps8k4vookw.jpg

 

GreenAcro_zpsfe12d92a.jpg

 

unknoiwn_zpslfxfgqcp.jpg

Candlelight5_zps0ab3bebd.jpg

 

CandleLight_zps47be0de7.jpg

 

 

Candle%20Light_zpsjje2mizz.jpg

 

 

OrangePassion_zps43fb9451.jpg

 

orange%20passion%202_zpsr77djjci.jpg

 

BlueMatrix_zps5d64c9e8.jpg

 

BlueMatrix_zps77fa7b99.jpg

 

blue%20matrix_zpslnl7akcw.jpg

 

Wolverine_zps9a072f98.jpg

 

Wolverine_zps71qbxbsy.jpg

 

Sarmentosa_zpsfc989f48.jpg

 

Fiji2_zpshjjiddfc.jpg

 

FijiColony_zpsbb9c4b27.jpg

 

fiji3_zpsddse1pa8.jpg

 

BirdsNest_zps65d6f020.jpg

 

Tripled in size...

Birdnest_zpszxjrktfz.jpg

 

RedDiablo_zps0df903d1.jpg

 

red%20Diablo_zpshbrwuhu0.jpg

 

No comparison on these ones

Pink%20acro_zpsjicgmsco.jpg

 

rainbow%20sty_zpsz9iliozc.jpg

 

fiji1_zpscyhqwvk1.jpg

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