Jump to content
SaltCritters.com

Maureen & Jon's Red Sea Max 130D


Jon Lazar

Recommended Posts

We’re new to NR and wanted to share some pics of our RSM 130D with the community here. The tank has only been up and running since August 2011, but overall has been doing well and we really enjoy having a tank in our day-to-day living space.

 

Here's our current stock list:

2 Barlett's anthias

2 neon gobies

Blue stripe pipefish

Tailspot blennie

Yellow watchman goby

Bullseye pistol shrimp

Peppermint shrimp

Emerald crab

Assorted small snails and a couple of hermit crabs

 

 

2637369580042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2665670050042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2315091930042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2588428280042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2216358640042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2944806820042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2303468620042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2902195320042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2961298340042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2220355140042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2919822080042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2166837040042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2009438890042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2485915010042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2158060980042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2299093810042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

 

2090693620042290226S500x500Q85.jpg

Link to comment

Very nice. The two pieces of rock that are pillars for your arch are excellent...beautiful color and I really like the caves.

 

Spectacular photos of the fish and coral as well. Someone has some photography experience? :)

 

Thanks for sharing them!

Link to comment

Thanks for all the kind comments, and we'll keep the updates coming!

 

I don't have any special photography skills or advanced equipment. I use a few techniques that are either just basic photography or were learned through trial and error and which are most helpful when taking aquarium pictures. My camera is a Nikon D40 and I use a 35mm f1.8 lens for full tank shots and fish pictures. I shoot macros with a Sigma 105mm. But you can get great pictures from point and shoot cameras too. Here's a couple I took at the Monterey Aquarium with my old Nikon 4500, a point and shoot with all the advanced technology that 2001 had to offer.

 

2820103210042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2100634510042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

Link to comment
Very nice. The two pieces of rock that are pillars for your arch are excellent...beautiful color and I really like the caves.

 

Thanks for the comments on the aquascaping. We wanted to have an arch, caves, and pass-throughs in the rock for fish and critters to swim through, while still leaving room for coral placement. We were after a lot of open space, and enough room around the rock to keep the walls clean. Our other tank is much larger and has a lot of sps corals, but acans, zoanthids, and mushrooms don't do as well there. This tank was to be different and feature those types of corals.

 

We cherry picked a bunch of live rock from the refugium of our other tank and laid them all out as we assembled the structure. The pieces actually all fit together puzzle-style and are quite stable, although there's a couple of places where I improved the fit with a bit of underwater epoxy. The other advantage of using refugium rock is we got a jump start on creating a more mature biotope. There's lots of encrusting yellow sponges, micro stars, and pods in general. I admit though that it was hard to put the rock in the tank and reassemble it just the way we had it arranged on the counter. I think we got pretty close though.

 

2262909870042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

Link to comment

We’ve been getting a bit of cyano on the sand bed, so I added an MP10 today. I’ve got it set on short pulse mode up to about 70% strength every three seconds. That makes our extra equipment list include:

 

MP10es

Tunze 9002 w/ Stevie T cup

Mediarack with floss, purigen, and chemipure

Tunze osmolator ATO

ACII (That’s right, REAL old-school)

DIY in-hood LED retrofit (http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=289004)

 

 

2017416720042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2735554750042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2260021190042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2788639070042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2457235940042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2922092250042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2283302870042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

Link to comment

Another great set of photos Jon. Excellent camera work again. You outlined above the cameras/lenses you use...any additional tips? Do you make any color corrections/enhancements/changes with photoshop or a similar editing program?

 

Also, what is that in #2?

 

Happy New Year!

Link to comment

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and comments.

 

We're expecting an order of zoa's and ric's from Coral Morphologic on Tuesday (hoping for some great pieces - our first order with them but they seem to have a good reputation) and will post updated pictures as soon as we get them settled and into the tank.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Maureen

Link to comment
You outlined above the cameras/lenses you use...any additional tips? Do you make any color corrections/enhancements/changes with photoshop or a similar editing program?

 

Here's my five top tips for better aquarium photos.

 

1. When shooting pics of moving fish, I make sure the camera shutter speed is fast enough to keep the fish from being blurry. For a P&S, I use Action or Sports mode. For DSLR, shutter priority set between 1/200 for slower fish and 1/500 sec for faster fish.

 

2. Keep the camera lens parallel to the the plane of the glass to avoid distorsion. For example, if you're standing up and eye level with the top of the aquarium, but pointing the camera down to take a pic of something on the sand bed, the picture will be noticeably distorted.

 

3. Clean the glass before you shoot.

 

4. Turn off pumps and powerheads before you shoot.

 

5. Optimize the white balance so the picture is not too blue. IIRC, the Fluorescent setting works well for both my Nikon P&S and DSLR. A little trial and error will show you what works best for your camera/lighting combo.

 

I use Picassa for basic cropping and adjusting the brightness. Picassa doesn't have a good color adjusting tool, but with the right white balance setting I don't need to tweak color.

 

 

Also, what is that in #2?

 

I think you're asking about a yellow encrusting sponge that arrived with some live rock. It adds some nice color, and looks neat in a macro picture.

Link to comment
Here's my five top tips for better aquarium photos.

 

1. When shooting pics of moving fish, I make sure the camera shutter speed is fast enough to keep the fish from being blurry. For a P&S, I use Action or Sports mode. For DSLR, shutter priority set between 1/200 for slower fish and 1/500 sec for faster fish.

 

2. Keep the camera lens parallel to the the plane of the glass to avoid distorsion. For example, if you're standing up and eye level with the top of the aquarium, but pointing the camera down to take a pic of something on the sand bed, the picture will be noticeably distorted.

 

3. Clean the glass before you shoot.

 

4. Turn off pumps and powerheads before you shoot.

 

5. Optimize the white balance so the picture is not too blue. IIRC, the Fluorescent setting works well for both my Nikon P&S and DSLR. A little trial and error will show you what works best for your camera/lighting combo.

 

I use Picassa for basic cropping and adjusting the brightness. Picassa doesn't have a good color adjusting tool, but with the right white balance setting I don't need to tweak color.

 

Thanks for sharing these tips Jon!

Link to comment
Nice tank and great photography! Love the tailspot! We have one and it's one of our favorites.

 

 

Thanks! The tailspot is one of my favorites to watch too. I love how he changes color when he feels threatened or insecure. Almost like he's putting on war paint.

 

The yellow watchman goby's behavior is concerning. I find him the overflow several times a week. This is unusual as I rarely see him swim above the bottom 1/4 of the tank. He's small, a juvenile, so perhaps he's being threatened by something else in the tank. I've never actually observed him jump into the over flow, but he's usually pretty stressed (won't eat and goes into hiding) once he's returned to the main tank.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Identified a cause?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Maureen

Link to comment
  • 5 weeks later...

Time for a photo update. We ordered a slew of critters from coralmorphologic back in January, and they’ve settled in well in their new home. We selected a few WYSIWYG ricordea and zoanthids, as well as a bundled package of each, and we’re very happy with the size and colors of all of them. Our yellow watchman goby who was always jumping into the overflow disappeared a few weeks ago. I searched through the AIO chambers and no goby, so it appears he died and was eaten. On a positive note though, the MP10 is providing just the right level of extra flow to clear up the cyano we were getting, and the pipefish seems ok with it.

 

 

 

2648296090042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2104663250042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2173102880042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2176824850042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2137478660042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2085133900042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2222457200042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2219996910042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2251492620042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2577615070042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2935721710042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2566425440042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2151159060042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2075901970042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2605910380042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2821342510042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2268913900042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

 

2106451950042290226S600x600Q85.jpg

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...