animalmaster6 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 The tank looks awesome! Moar macro shots Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Did you bought the Avast skimmer? Looks like fun to assemble and very well designed I'd like to see some review Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 The tank looks awesome! Moar macro shots haha, thanks, ill take some topdown macro shots sometime this week. everything is growing well. i might need to trim some of them back. Did you bought the Avast skimmer? Looks like fun to assemble and very well designed I'd like to see some review i wont have the skimmer till christmas. i have a friend whos going back this dec and will pick it up for me. i cant wait to put it together. all the reviews ive read online are nothing complements. thinking of switching skimmer since your pump exploded? Beautiful tank! thanks = Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Don't think I'll switch just because of the pump but I really like the look of these skimmers. A friend of mine is looking for a skimmer and he saw Avast's and asked me about them but I don't really know anything except how cool they look Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 psk1000 pumps are known to be excellent skimmer pumps. paired with the recirculation model its gonna pull some nasty gunk. Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 (edited) as promised, here are some top down pics took some pics of my fish too, not a lot came out as nice theres only a few Edited November 20, 2011 by disaster999 Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 awesome pictures! I wish my SPS were as colorful. What's the first picture? Candlelight? Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 thanks =) they arent THAT colorful i still have some brown sticks which is struggling to regain their colors. seriously considering changing to LED next year. gotta gather up the supplies. the sps in the first pic is called Acropora nana Quote Link to comment
reefrook Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Nice! You got some beautiful pieces. Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Woah that's a Nana? lol I have a frag someone gave me but it needs some serious color. At least I know is on the right track Quote Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Nice corals! I love that Millepora. Those photos are incredible. Do you do any sort of editing? They are so crisp! You're one of my favorite photographers on the site. Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Thanks i do a little editing, shoot in raw, crop, rotate, adjust colors and exposure in photoshop and convert to jpeg. i try to adjust it so that it matches as close to its natural color as possible. i dont do any crazy saturation. Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 good news and bad news good news is, my friend ordered and received the skimmer!! bad news is i have to wait 2 more weeks to get it. Quote Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Thanks i do a little editing, shoot in raw, crop, rotate, adjust colors and exposure in photoshop and convert to jpeg. i try to adjust it so that it matches as close to its natural color as possible. i dont do any crazy saturation. I NEED to learn how to do this! Any tips on shooting in general and any good programs to get? (I'm hopefully getting a laptop soon so I can finally get decent programs). Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 YAY! and boo!!! can't wait to see this skimmer Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 I NEED to learn how to do this! Any tips on shooting in general and any good programs to get? (I'm hopefully getting a laptop soon so I can finally get decent programs). if you are shooting with a DSLR. its best to shoot raw, dont worry about white balance or the scene, you can change all that later. i shoot with center weighted metering. its nice if you have a macro lens, but you dont need to. if your shooting it through the glass, keep the camera as perpendicular as possible to the glass. a tripod helps. if you can press the lens right up the glass is even better since you know for sure thats 100% perpendicular. thats how i usually shoot and i dont need a tripod. but usually that wont work for kit or zoom lens since the minimum focus distance is still pretty far if you are shooting from top down its best to turn of all pumps to eliminate all surface agitation. using a camera box would be better since theres no deflection from the water surface, and wont have any ripples from the surface. you can buy or make one easily. get a couple acrylic sheets and glue them together. use the camera's tripod mount screw to secure the box to the camera so you dont have to worry about it flopping around. lastly just practice and practice. you will get the hang of it. as for programs. i use photoshop. ive tried capture nx and lightroom, but i gotten so used to photoshop thats the only thing i use right now. there are free ones like picasa but you wont get as much options. hope this helps, let me know if there are other questions YAY! and boo!!! can't wait to see this skimmer your telling me. i went ahead and got a 2 little fish reactor just for this skimmer. Quote Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 if you are shooting with a DSLR. its best to shoot raw, dont worry about white balance or the scene, you can change all that later. i shoot with center weighted metering. its nice if you have a macro lens, but you dont need to. if your shooting it through the glass, keep the camera as perpendicular as possible to the glass. a tripod helps. if you can press the lens right up the glass is even better since you know for sure thats 100% perpendicular. thats how i usually shoot and i dont need a tripod. but usually that wont work for kit or zoom lens since the minimum focus distance is still pretty far if you are shooting from top down its best to turn of all pumps to eliminate all surface agitation. using a camera box would be better since theres no deflection from the water surface, and wont have any ripples from the surface. you can buy or make one easily. get a couple acrylic sheets and glue them together. use the camera's tripod mount screw to secure the box to the camera so you dont have to worry about it flopping around. lastly just practice and practice. you will get the hang of it. as for programs. i use photoshop. ive tried capture nx and lightroom, but i gotten so used to photoshop thats the only thing i use right now. there are free ones like picasa but you wont get as much options. hope this helps, let me know if there are other questions Awesome, thanks! Any tips for shooting raw? I always use the preset settings Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 raw, as it name states, basically the raw image file from the sensor, it didnt go through the processing within the camera to produce the jpeg files. what the sensor sees is what you get. this gives far more adjustability than jpeg. what camera are you shooting with? Quote Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 raw, as it name states, basically the raw image file from the sensor, it didnt go through the processing within the camera to produce the jpeg files. what the sensor sees is what you get. this gives far more adjustability than jpeg. what camera are you shooting with? I've got a Canon Rebel T1i. I am having some success with the ADEP setting. Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 not familiar with canons, nikon person myself. but whatevers working for you keep at it. practice more and expereiment with different settings, youll get the hang of it. Quote Link to comment
disaster999 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 so i know ive been talking about switching to LEDs for a while but i think i will definitely make the move sometime next month. ive already did my research online and found a place that sells cree LEDs and meanwell drivers. my design will be based on the AI SOL fixture without the fancy controllers. i dont need the sunrise and sunset function nor do i really need to individually control each channel. my tank have been running 2 timers simulating the sunrise and sunset effect and things are growing nicely. i will be running 2 modules with 24LEDs on each module. 8 clusters of 3 leds laid out like the AI SOL. XPG whites with XRE royal blues and regular blue. 60degree optics on all LEDS. will be driven by meanwell 60-48 dimable drivers. my local reefer friends all reported that their tanks are missing some colors while solely running on LEDs so i will keep 2 T5HO bulbs for added spectrum. the entire fixture will be wrapped with black acrylic to finish off the look. this should be the final modification to my tank. ill probably not mess with it for another year until i bit the modding bug again and start upgrading/swapping out equipments. stay tuned. Quote Link to comment
sammy113 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Sounds like a good plan to me! Your tank isn't too long, why not go for a one pice unit? kinda like I did in mine. An AI long version. My tank is 36" long and I built the lamp 24". If yours is 40" you could easily go with 28"~30" worth of heatsink and that will help a lot for cleaner look and ease of wiring everything and building an acrylic housing Quick sketchup oh nice... now that I post the images, the dimensions are useless... anyway, if you like it and need them I can send you higher res image to you or the original skp file Quote Link to comment
Arkayology Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 my local reefer friends all reported that their tanks are missing some colors while solely running on LEDs so i will keep 2 T5HO bulbs for added spectrum. Why not add some red/green leds? My 60g is doing well with the new Radion. The colors look great and the tank is doing well. Quote Link to comment
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