divecj5 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Makes sense on stirring, vac-ing, and cleaning I'm still all kinds of about finding the threshold of enough/too many snails. It would actually help sometimes if Reef Cleaners would actually count their snails I didn't want to toss 20-30 snails. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 yeah, i'm going to start having to tell John that while I appreciate getting my money's worth, I'd really just like to get what I asked for sometimes, lol. Link to comment
spanko Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 IMO and FWIW I don't believe what you are experiencing is a result of too many snails. But that is just me. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Exactly. He's not quite as generous with the Nassarius. With the Ceriths, I think he just looks at the number and grabs a handful Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I don't think dwarf ceriths would cause a problem. the adult cerith's maybe, if you have 100 of them in your tank, lol. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 IMO and FWIW I don't believe what you are experiencing is a result of too many snails. But that is just me. Agreed. I'm going to fall back to our first line of thinking and keep an eye on things. I agree that having too many may have caused things to get stirred up quicker than the natural biological filtration could handle. I'll just take it as an 8-month mini cycle. I'm still curious how to go about finding just the right mix/balance of snails, hermits, and microfauna. Might have to start a discussion thread. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 i'm trying to get rid of my hermits. anyone want 5 blue legs? Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 1, 2011 Author Share Posted March 1, 2011 I lucked out and the LFS ended up having several Florida Fighting Conchs to choose from. I ended up picking up a smaller one (~1" or so) and it was happily cruising the tank during lunch. I have to say, the freakishly long eyes sticking out of the sides reminded me of Crazy Eyes from Mr. Deeds Link to comment
spanko Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Yup big eyes and long snout moving along like an elephant nose looking for some hay! Here is mine. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Just wanted to thank everyone who chimed in and told me to "chill out and let the tank do it's thing." Last Tuesday I added the Florida Fighting Conch and although I'm still freaked out by it's eyes and how it can literally hop around the tank, it's made short work of the detritus that had built up on the sand bed. This past Saturday, I finally got off my butt and hooked up my TLF Phosban reactor so I'm now running Phosban and Carbon. One of the LFS had a great deal on Peppermint Shrimp so I decided to add one on Sunday. Although it quickly made a home/hiding space in the very back part of the rockwork (completely out of sight) I've seen it cruising the tank in the morning when the lights are out. I guess it just needs to get accustomed to the tank. So overall, I have to say that the condition of the sand and water clarity has never looked better. I really appreciate the suggestions and comments from everyone. That's what makes NR one of the best, if not THE best forum. The wife and I are heading up to Asheville for a few days but I plan on placing all of the zoa and paly frags this coming weekend and taking a slough of pictures then. The AOG is already sprouting a new head and the Nightmares are growing off the frag plug -Adam Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Told ya Do we all win a nightmare frag for saying be patient? Huh? Do we? Link to comment
airman_verde04 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 I'm still all kinds of about finding the threshold of enough/too many snails. hahaha.. is there even such a thing? one hermit crab can take care of a large snail population.. haha.. my snails were always getting munched my my crabs, which is why I got rid of them... ugg.. I need to go get a job at United Pet Group which is about 4 blocks from the house.. You know, the company that makes Tetra and Marineland.. I wonder if they have like a In house tank keeper job.. haha. that way I can have a reef again and not have to pay for it.. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 The hermits and Florida Fighting Conch have been going to town and doing a great job of keeping things clean. I think the population has settled out to a point where the snails have enough to eat and the hermits/conch are content as well. I finally mounted my Nightmares, Fruit Loops, Eagle Eyes and one Acan frag and they looked awesome last night. I'm not sure how the Fruit Loops and Nightmares could be any brighter. I spent the better part of an hour taking pictures using RAW at different times of night. I thought I'd try to take shots at different times as the color continuously changes from really blue, to a mix, back to blue. I may have a few keepers but I'm going to try some new settings that MonoChrome suggested tonight. Hopefully they'll result in some decent shots as this thread is starting to get LAME without pictures. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 PICS PICS PICS PICS PICS!!!!! Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 The hermits and Florida Fighting Conch have been going to town and doing a great job of keeping things clean. I think the population has settled out to a point where the snails have enough to eat and the hermits/conch are content as well. I finally mounted my Nightmares, Fruit Loops, Eagle Eyes and one Acan frag and they looked awesome last night. I'm not sure how the Fruit Loops and Nightmares could be any brighter. I spent the better part of an hour taking pictures using RAW at different times of night. I thought I'd try to take shots at different times as the color continuously changes from really blue, to a mix, back to blue. I may have a few keepers but I'm going to try some new settings that MonoChrome suggested tonight. Hopefully they'll result in some decent shots as this thread is starting to get LAME without pictures. I can't tell you how hysterical I think it is that you are taking camera advice from a colorblind guy with the screen name Monochrome. It makes my day Worst case scenario I bring over my Nikon and show you what a real camera can do! Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 PICS PICS PICS PICS PICS!!!!! Hopefully we'll be rockin' and rollin' with some new pics tomorrow morning BTW, thanks for stopping by I can't tell you how hysterical I think it is that you are taking camera advice from a colorblind guy with the screen name Monochrome. It makes my day Worst case scenario I bring over my Nikon and show you what a real camera can do! Oh...I've thought the same thing on a number of occasions . Thing is, I've gotten so used to shooting RAW with our professional jobs that I have a hard time switching back to jpg. One of these days I'm going to post some shots on FredMiranda.com and see what they pros think about color temp, lighting, and fill flash with tank photography. I wish Nikon could handle EOS lenses....we could slap my 17-40F4L on there and you'll see what some REAL glass can produce Kidding of course...I find arguments about Canon vs Nikon to be about as worthwhile as Metal Halide vs T5 vs LED "discussions." My first camera was a Canon and like everything, once you buy into it you're pretty much set unless you scrap and resell everything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the pictures turn out better tonight. Link to comment
Withers Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 I'm glad the fruit loops are doing good. I was worried they would crap out when I tried to kill that tiny aiptasia that sprouted up in the middle of them. They really hate aiptasia X (but it has no affect on everything else I had, strange). Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 I'm glad the fruit loops are doing good. I was worried they would crap out when I tried to kill that tiny aiptasia that sprouted up in the middle of them. They really hate aiptasia X (but it has no affect on everything else I had, strange). Thanks Jason. They look fantastic...along with all of the other frags that I got from you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, the jpg experiment was a failure. Although the pictures looked pretty decent on the camera back, they looked like utter crap once opened in PS. Below is about the only one that looks remotely close to anything resembling what's in my tank. I'll be switching back to RAW and trying another round tonight. Glad that I have lighting now that makes everything drop dead gorgeous in person but is impossible to photograph and share with others Link to comment
DaveFason Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Adam - I have found that turning all lights off around my tank and using RAW looks great. I will check with my settings here soon. I have the flash off too. I'm glad the lighting is working great. -Dave Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Thanks Jason. They look fantastic...along with all of the other frags that I got from you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, the jpg experiment was a failure. Although the pictures looked pretty decent on the camera back, they looked like utter crap once opened in PS. Below is about the only one that looks remotely close to anything resembling what's in my tank. I'll be switching back to RAW and trying another round tonight. Glad that I have lighting now that makes everything drop dead gorgeous in person but is impossible to photograph and share with others Clearly you're doing it wrong I'll come over and school you help you. General consensus seems to be that Nikon makes better lenses while Canon makes better internals. Wouldn't it be nice if camera companies would just make one universal thread mount? Pipe dreams, I know... Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 @Dave - Thanks for the suggestions. Let me know if you remember to jot down your camera settings. Oh, and I absolutely LOVE the light fixture. The one lonely polyp of AOG I got two weeks ago now has 4 small babies. The growth on some of the Acans has been amazing as well. I'd say things are loving the light @Kyle - I'm going to give it a few more go's before waving the white flag and having you drop by. I need to hit up PodRod to see if I can borrow her Canon 100m macro....then we can compare lenses Like all technology, it sure would be nice if companies spent more time focusing on backward and cross-platform compatibility. Here are some shots that I literally took 20 minutes ago while home during lunch. These are all with the lights off and just an external, hotshoe mounted flash. I just couldn't wait any longer to show how things look with the addition and shifting of some of the rock work. I've also listed by number where various frags are in the tank. Fire and Ice Acan (gold, orange, and red under the lights), AOG on the left Strawberry Rainbow Acan Nightmares (purty when they're open) Fruit Loops, Cali Tort, and Green Slimer (background) Full Tank Shots Paint By Numbers 1: Blue/Red Acan 2: Green Hammer 3: Cali Tort and Green Slimer 4: Fruit Loops 5: Purple/Blue War Coral 6: Armor of God 7: Recovering Red Bug Monti 8: Acan 9: Fire and Ice 10: King Midas Look-a-like Zoa 11: Blastos 12: Red Mushrooms, Blue Cloves 13: Pink Panties Chalice 14: Eagle Eyes 15: Nightmares 16: Strawberry Rainbow Acan There's some chaeto tucked away in the back but that's pretty much it. Hopefully I'll have some more success tonight taking some shots with the lights actually on Link to comment
divecj5 Posted March 18, 2011 Author Share Posted March 18, 2011 I had a little bit more success yesterday with just the Royal Blues running. They're darker than they look in person but it's about as close to a quality capture as I could get without blowing out all of the white highlights. Enjoy some Friday morning "candy" Fire and Ice Fruit Loops Fruit Loops / Eagle Eyes Fruit Loops / Eagle Eyes / Nightmares Nightmares Daylight shots coming tomorrow..... Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Stop using a flash. Did you use the hotshoe with the jpeg strategy? I've found the flash destroys things. I don't even get mine out of the bag. PS: Love the acans. Link to comment
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