TheDoogan's Shallow Rimless Reef

[freddy4130]

Could you tell us how you mounted the light mount? Is it drilled to the stand from behind? That thing is sweet to death.

[ward827]

Damn dude! That is simply awesome!

I want that in my place!

[thedoogan]

Could you tell us how you mounted the light mount? Is it drilled to the stand from behind? That thing is sweet to death.

There is a picture of the back of the stand somewhere in the thread during the construction. Two bolts into the main stand frames 2x4's

 

Damn dude! That is simply awesome!

I want that in my place!

 

Thanks!

[Leatherneck3755]

Any new pics? I need my fix.

[thedoogan]

Any new pics? I need my fix.

Haha yeah here yah go.

 

This is my favorite m-acropora shot so far! zingggggggg taken late at night when the polyps are out looking for a good time.

 

They are getting pretty pale in my QT, but they came in VERY dark brown. I've been feeding coral frenzy frequently to try and help with not having fish to deliver nutrients in the QT. The first acro I put in there is doing good and actually coloring up and putting on some new growth.

 

Some blue LED macro shots of a Cyphastrea japonica and Zoa frag fluorescing. These ones glow like crazy under blue led. It's hard for the camera to pick up on the non flourescing areas as the blue tones get totally crushed.

 

I got a thin fan for the refugium...and I guess /frag area now installed. It's thin and fits between the lights and the frame easily but puts out a lot of air flow. It keeps most of the bulbs cool to the touch as well as the apex module which is right beside and was my main concern. Only three bulbs near the far side remain hot to the touch, but not so much that you have to remove your fingers after holding it for a few seconds.

 

 

I also ripped a hook switch out of an old phone and wired it up to the apex to turn the refugium lights on when the front panel is open.

 

 

Both tanks are doing well, all except for the green birdsnest which seem to STN near the tips if I even look at them wrong. A large area of my city had a random 6 hour power outage the other day and I was completely unprepared with the QT tank! I ran out and bought a battery operated air pump and struggled to keep the water temp up with warm bottles of water sitting in both tanks. It was a tedious nightmare but both came out with no problems.

 

I did however discover how screwed I might be with the display tank as the sump level slowly continued to rise and would have overflowed if I was not home. Water continues to slowly leak down into the sump from the DT, probably somewhere through the return line.

 

 

Either from where the loc-line screws into the bulkhead, I forgot or didn't wrap enough teflon tape around the threads. Or it's coming from the elbow piece at the top side of the photo which is not glued into the bulk head. That or worse it's coming from the bottom of the stand pipes/return lines where they screw into the threaded bulkheads I did wrap a good amount of teflon on those though and screwed them in pretty tight.

 

Any ideas?

[Lalani]

Fancy setup!

[JR!]

dat pe.

 

love that acro

[buddythelion]

 

Geezus! If you ever make a poster of this I'd be definitely interested! That's one my favorite (if not, the favorite) photo of a coral of all time now.

[thedoogan]

 

Geezus! If you ever make a poster of this I'd be definitely interested! That's one my favorite (if not, the favorite) photo of a coral of all time now.

 

Wow thanks! that's a good idea. I hope they color up so I can get some more colorful photos. Here's a video taken during the same shot.

 

http://youtu.be/hFq5DNhPuvk

[Leatherneck3755]

Ohhhhh myyyyy gaaawwwddd!!! Love it. Sorry to hear about the leak. I hope you can figure it out. Im sure with your attention to detail you will find the culprit. Love the small fan on the fuge lights. Thanks for the fix, I can rest at ease for the time being.

[Deleted User 4]

Wow, the stand with the doors prove a huge difference in appearance wise.

Glad you finished it to that point. Very classy.

[Looselyhuman]

Gorgeous, all around.

 

Did you drill a hole in the return nozzle to break the siphon?

[thedoogan]

Gorgeous, all around.

 

Did you drill a hole in the return nozzle to break the siphon?

 

Thanks. Yeah the return nozzles are placed right at the waterline and breaks siphon right after the return pump turns off.

[Looselyhuman]

Thanks. Yeah the return nozzles are placed right at the waterline and breaks siphon right after the return pump turns off.

 

Oh ok, they are breaking siphon - guess you would have noticed a rapid overflow situation like that. Duh.

[Reefmaster1996]

I would put a check valve on the return line, that's what I'm going to do with my similar setup.

[thedoogan]

I would put a check valve on the return line, that's what I'm going to do with my similar setup.

 

Yeah I was considering that during the build but could never find a good 1/2" check valve to fit in. I was hoping the returns near the water line would be enough when the siphon breaks. I'm going to check those elbow fittings and threaded fitting of the loc-line first.

[rdubled]

Not sure what I like more... your tank setup or your bike. Is that a Specialized Demo? Looks like you mainly ride downhill. I mostly do cross country here in NC and ride a Gary Fisher Hifi.

 

Your build caught my eye because I have been researching and making a list of equipment I would want if I started my own build. Well your equipment list is almost identical to mine. You've done a great job and it gives me something to aspire for... if and when I start mine.

Thanks for sharing, I'll be following fo sho!

[Spirofucci]

Just love this whole set up! Incredible.

[rovster]

First of all, your build is incredible. Second of all, your photos are doubly incredible. Would you mind divulging what white balance setting you use when shooting under blue LEDs, and your typical post processing routine. The pic of the acro is amazing, but I'm even more impressed with the zoa pic, because I know how hard it is to get that kind of contrast and color representation. Any tips would be appreciated. I can get super crisp pics, just can't get any color or contrast under blues. And under whites, things just look washed out. Thanks in advance!

[thedoogan]

Not sure what I like more... your tank setup or your bike. Is that a Specialized Demo? Looks like you mainly ride downhill. I mostly do cross country here in NC and ride a Gary Fisher Hifi.

 

Your build caught my eye because I have been researching and making a list of equipment I would want if I started my own build. Well your equipment list is almost identical to mine. You've done a great job and it gives me something to aspire for... if and when I start mine.

 

Thanks for sharing, I'll be following fo sho!

Thank you. My bike is a 2011 Specialized Demo 8, LOVE this bike. DH is another passion of mine and ride mostly Vancouver north shore cypress and beautiful Whistler bike park in the summers. Now I have to post pictures!

 

This is after I bought it, still with reflectors haha

Whistler BC

Some shots in action! This is taken by a guy who does trail side photos and sells them online, he does an amazing job.

This is the view from my GoPro from the time of the actual photo above. You can see the photographer in the yellow. The landing from this drop is about where the guy infront of me is in this photo. right into a sharp left turn!

I think i should actually purchase this one.

Me in the beautiful Whistler bike park

And some GroPro action

 

These are some of the non technical machined jump type trails

A-Line

http://youtu.be/NoF7GkkCMCI

Fade to black

http://youtu.be/uqmh9G-7Hi8

Freight Train

http://youtu.be/tYA3sZ6O4EQ

 

 

Sorry for the massive mountain bike splurge I'm addicted to that too.

 

Just love this whole set up! Incredible.

Thank you!

 

First of all, your build is incredible. Second of all, your photos are doubly incredible. Would you mind divulging what white balance setting you use when shooting under blue LEDs, and your typical post processing routine. The pic of the acro is amazing, but I'm even more impressed with the zoa pic, because I know how hard it is to get that kind of contrast and color representation. Any tips would be appreciated. I can get super crisp pics, just can't get any color or contrast under blues. And under whites, things just look washed out. Thanks in advance!

Thank you so much for the kind words. I will give you some tips on that particular shot of the acro.

[rdubled]

Dude, nice riding. I don't have the skillz or balls to even attempt that kind of riding. I wiped out on a little 8' drop about a year ago. Went OTB and ended up with a shattered collar bone, 3 broken ribs and a broken thumb. Needless to say my wheels stay on the ground now. I also ride a rigid single speed 29er which is a great workout.

 

Quick question... how is the noise level of your setup? Is the loudest thing your overflow into the sump?

[thedoogan]

Here's some tips on editing with Photoshop. unless i'm doing a time-lapse all of my photos are taken in RAW format, which is the only way to go! It allows you to save a ton of information in an image and recover details in a higher dynamic range (lights and darks) I usually shoot in AWB mode or shade mode with my Canon which still never comes close to proper white balance. That I do in post.

 

The overall goals are

1. to recover lost information and detail in the image

2. create a proper balance between and interesting appealing photo and a truthful representation of what the coral actually looks like to the eye.

 

First I save all the RAW files to my pc and browse through them in adobe bridge to find one I like.

 

Double clicking the photo in bridge will automatically open photoshop and load it into the CameraRaw plugin. This is where you can truly take advantage of the raw format and recover lights and darks. This becomes especially important when photographing coral which is usually in an extremely high dynamic range situations. Notice the histogram graph in the top right. This will graph colors,lights,darks and intensities of your image. The left side being blacks and right side being whites. If you have a spike in the furthest left or right sides it means the image has zero information in those areas of lights and darks and there is over or under exposure in your image. Clicking the yellow and blue up arrows will highlight those areas for you in the image.

 

The first window it opens up with are going to be your main tools. Usually the first and most major thing I do is adjust the color temperature which is the very first slider. Looking at the photo it's obviously washed out in blue. I'm Usually shifting it to the warm right side to recover the natural look of the coral, away from the intense blue lighting. Maybe play a little tint as well.

 

 

Usually next to adjust is the exposure tool in combination with the recovery tool. Exposure tool is very powerful with the RAW format and shifting it around you can see how much information is stored at each ends of light and dark. This tools becomes important when working with intense reef lighting. Recovery tool will bring back some of the information lost in the extreme whites and over exposed areas (usually coral tips) The fill light tool is always very useful as it recovers a lot of information lost in the extreme darks but tends to leave an image grainy when used to much. Because of this I find it better to recover the dark information with the exposure but sometimes it's necessary. The recovery tool typically leaves the photo looking a little drap as it tends to eat away contrast. This tool I always follow up with upping the contrast and then upping the blacks slider a little. It's always important to use the preview check box at the top after each step, toggling it on and off to gain some perspective on where you came from and where you are going with an image. It's easy to get carried away and become acclimated to an image and not realize you have pushed it too far.

 

 

The contrast slider almost always intensifies the saturation of an image to unrealistic levels when upping it. This tool is almost always followed up with bringing down the saturation slider.

 

 

After you are happy with the adjustments make sure you are set to a decently high resolution setting. This is at the bottom center of the screen in the blue URL looking lettering. Mine's set to around 18mp. This determines the resolution of the image and it's usually better to work in higher resolution in Photoshop and then shrink it down when you are done. Clicking open image will bring it into Photoshop for final editing.

 

 

A great tool is the sharpen more tool. This will bring out a lot of clarity in your image.

 

Adjust the amount slider up followed by the radius slider, don't get carried away this can destroy an image.

 

 

Looking at this image I can see the extended blue tentacles are a little over saturated with blue from the lights still.

 

 

Bring up the Hue/Saturation tool under Image>Adjustments>Hue Saturation. Change the second drop down box to Blues, you can see the color sliders at the very bottom have created a targeted box on the color spectrum. Cranking up the saturation all the way I can see on the image the areas that are being targeted. This will not do as its targeting areas of the purple tips and down into the body of the acro.

 

 

Pulling the far triangular shaped sliders in closer to the center away from the purples will help pinpoint more of just the blue areas of the spectrum i'm looking for. These will be the areas that taper off and will be the areas that are less affected by the tool. Next bring in the main bar of the tool which will pinpoint the color further. This is done by pulling in the light grey bars on each sides of the dark grey box. Next click the center of the dark grey box and drag it left and right along the color spectrum while watching the image to see the areas its affecting. It's also helpful to crank the hue slider to a different color to see more clearly the areas it's targeting. Here you can see I have targeted just the blue tentacles.

 

 

Next set the Hue and Saturation sliders back to zero, and make the saturation adjustment. I brought the saturation down.

 

 

The images usually look better when saved off at 50% and 25% their size when working with high resolution. This is done under Image>Image Size. Change the first drop boxes from pixels to percentage and then width and height to 50 or 25 and press OK.

 

There are always different techniques for every situation in an image but these are some of the main ones.

Another VERY useful tool before Photoshop in the first CameraRaw area is the Virbrance slider towards the bottom. This is especially helpful when dealing with blue LED lit images. Usually these images come in with HIGHLY over-saturated crushed out blues and bringing this slider down will help recover the image.

 

Always remember the balance between interesting appealing image and realistic representation of what we see with our eyes. It's easy to get carried away with over saturation and changing hues.

 

I hope this helps!

[thedoogan]

Dude, nice riding. I don't have the skillz or balls to even attempt that kind of riding. I wiped out on a little 8' drop about a year ago. Went OTB and ended up with a shattered collar bone, 3 broken ribs and a broken thumb. Needless to say my wheels stay on the ground now. I also ride a rigid single speed 29er which is a great workout.

 

Quick question... how is the noise level of your setup? Is the loudest thing your overflow into the sump?

 

Ouch! man that sucks! Thats intense. How much travel did your bike have? I've gone over the bars more than a few times. It's all about knowing how to fall properly. Some falls there is no hope though

 

Noise level is great, it's a very quiet setup. The loudest thing would probably be the skimmer or fans on the back of the stand. The overflow is dead silent, it makes absolutely no noise. That's because of the herbie setup with a gate valve on the main overflow pipe to dial it in perfectly.

[Deleted User 4]

Dude, that biking video looked soo fun!! You really got some balls to ride on those kind of trails...lolol

[rdubled]

 

Ouch! man that sucks! Thats intense. How much travel did your bike have? I've gone over the bars more than a few times. It's all about knowing how to fall properly. Some falls there is no hope though

 

Noise level is great, it's a very quiet setup. The loudest thing would probably be the skimmer or fans on the back of the stand. The overflow is dead silent, it makes absolutely no noise. That's because of the herbie setup with a gate valve on the main overflow pipe to dial it in perfectly.

Just 100mm of travel, it's set up for cross country riding. I must have blacked out because the last thing I remember is the ground coming towards my face, and the next thing I know I'm laying on my back and can't breath. It wasn't a bad drop at all, I'm just not experienced at them and I went flying off it and nose dived onto the flat. But the bike didn't get a scratch so it's all good!

 

Here's my bike...