Jon Lazar Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 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 Link to comment
GravyReef Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 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
iball1804 Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Amazing. Future TOTM if the updates keep coming! Link to comment
thadscottmoore Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 that is one sharp looking rock scape! nicely done! Link to comment
Corocora Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 The future of this tank is something for us all to look forward to, especially with the quality of your photography. Thanks! Link to comment
Jon Lazar Posted December 27, 2011 Author Share Posted December 27, 2011 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. Link to comment
picoreef78 Posted December 27, 2011 Share Posted December 27, 2011 Welcome. Beautiful tank. Great photography skills, too modest. Link to comment
Jon Lazar Posted December 27, 2011 Author Share Posted December 27, 2011 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. Link to comment
basser1 Posted December 27, 2011 Share Posted December 27, 2011 Welcome to Nano-Reef..... And as others have already said, great pics and tank! Looking forward to see updates! Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Beautiful! Love the scape and the pics, of course! Link to comment
Dan. Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Your tank looks great! Excellent aquascape and the colours look brilliant. Look forward to watching this tank develop. Link to comment
Jon Lazar Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 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) Link to comment
GravyReef Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 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
MLazar Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 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
Jon Lazar Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 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
Spirofucci Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 That's by far the best DIY LED for the RSM I've ever seen!!!! I guess I know the answer, but how do you like it??? Link to comment
siwelk Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I don't have any special photography skills or advanced equipment. I shoot macros with a Sigma 105mm. Link to comment
GravyReef Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 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
RedStang Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Nice tank and great photography! Love the tailspot! We have one and it's one of our favorites. Link to comment
MLazar Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 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
Needreefunds Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Maureen, Jon- Welcome and Thanks for sharing this wonderful RSM! Following along. Link to comment
Jon Lazar Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 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. Link to comment
metrokat Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Very nice! Question: how often do you feed the anthias and are they aggressive? Link to comment
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