BattleAthletics Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 TOTM! Oh wait you got it! Lol congrats man, your struggles have paid off, now go get the big cube set up and transfer! Link to comment
TeamIM24 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Great looking tank and congrats on TOTM! Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 Hahaha working on it, working with a local guy to build acrylic inserts for the 40b sump. Photos once I get them installed. Link to comment
Ecospire Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Great build! Quick question, what do you have your vega set for as far is your maximum percentages during a photo period? Everything looks fantastic! Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 Great build! Quick question, what do you have your vega set for as far is your maximum percentages during a photo period? Everything looks fantastic! not exactly sure what you mean. You mean while I'm taking pictures of my tank? It varies, depending on time of day. I always take a test shot first and set custom white balance on the camera. I've tried several different ways of doing this from using plastic white or grey cards placed inside the tank, but I've found the "frosted" lens cap works the best. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I'm very late to the party but congrats on TOTM! Awesome tank . Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Still one of the most amazing tanks around! Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 Shameless plug for a POTM CONTEST. vOTE IF YOU LIKE MY PIC! http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/photography-forum/185050-****vote-now-december-2014-photo-month-poll****.html Link to comment
jamescstein Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Just had to say.. beautiful tank. I hope mine looks as nice in 2 1/2 years. Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 New FTS http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6453_zpsf3502015.jpg.html'> Link to comment
ew_fish Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Tank has came a long way! Love those chalices Link to comment
reefernanoman Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Still looks awesome! Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Agreed with above, an inspiration for my 29. So much win right here! Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 It was time for an upgrade, I was noticing much better growth dead center of the tank where the 2 center pucks had the red and green LEDs not just white and blues like on the 2 outside pucks. On top of that I was looking to get rid of the disco effect on the sand bed. So it was time to go shopping....http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_181737_zps7dnochhf.jpg.html'>kit came with new fan, power supply, plastic cover, pucks and lenses.http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_181805_zpsy0s1evkk.jpg.html'>Started with thishttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_181812_zpsjlegnk8t.jpg.html'>Removed the cover, lenses, motherboard, and disconnected the fan,http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_182409_zpsnppwawdm.jpg.html'>removed the fan and installed the larger fanhttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_183538_zpsridfyr3q.jpg.html'>Once the fan was installed, used the glue gun to squirt some into the hole to seal around the cord.http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_184234_zpsmcy0nhmg.jpg.html'>Mounted new puckshttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_185105_zpsphmnsb6o.jpg.html'>Connected the fan and installed the new motherboardhttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_185408_zps4wj0jsye.jpg.html'>Pushed in the new lenseshttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_185505_zpsgixw3ub2.jpg.html'>New cover and voila, new LED fixture. Start to finish, 15 or 20 minshttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/20150116_190243_zpstab9acgd.jpg.html'>I'll try and get a new FTS this weekend, took a little while to find a new setting (color) I liked and write the program into the director. Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Ready, Set, Photo-bomb.......Under the new LEDshttp://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6686_zpsc9053f7d.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6675_zps369d4585.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6681_zpsdf0aff86.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6674_zps359b1146.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6668_zpsa0119b11.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6667_zpsedf370a6.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6644_zps2b65065f.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6640_zps22c9a04f.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6633_zpsb5b426a0.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6626_zps90d119f1.jpg.html'> http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6621_zpscad967f6.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6620_zps54673994.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6617_zps3f2b08ae.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6614_zps170e3074.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6608_zpsfc973e39.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6606_zpsb7b65f5a.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6600_zpsa89b568f.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6597_zps4a6d014b.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6593_zps22fd7f66.jpg.html'>http://s609.photobucket.com/user/paul1965/media/HQI%20Biocube/IMG_6578_zps1f9b1044.jpg.html'> Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 stunning, absolutely stunning Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Your photography skills and tank are insanely awesome. Let's see and updated FTS! Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I have two questions.... What camera? What settings for the macros? And how did you get your monti up in the back wall corners? Nothing I ever glue/putty down ever stays put. How is your's glued up there? I would love to do that for mine so he has lots of room to grow away from others! Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 I have two questions.... What camera? What settings for the macros? And how did you get your monti up in the back wall corners? Nothing I ever glue/putty down ever stays put. How is your's glued up there? I would love to do that for mine so he has lots of room to grow away from others! Squishy - First, thanks for checking out the thread, second, I use a Canon T3i, an assortment of lenses including the 100mm (2.8) Macro lens. Since the Bio-Cube is acrylic, shooting through the front is a PITA, it's slightly curved in front so getting super sharp closeup images just wasn't working. Shooting through the sides worked a lot better. I also shoot under LEDs so even though colors looked good through the acrylic, it wasn't as "true to life" as they looked from top down. So I invested in a port hole for the lens so I could shoot below the water line for clarity and no reflection. White balance is also a royal PITA to set under LEDs and back in the day we used to use the lids from a pringles potato chip can to place over the lens to set white balance. Now-a-days you can buy a lens cap that does the same thing and that's what I currently use. I've tried [with mixed results] to use the plastic WB cards and just take a "test" shot with it in the tank to set WB, the lens cap is much easier. As far as settings go, it varies depending on the shot I'm looking for. I always shoot in aperture mode, and always in .raw I set the aperture according to the depth of field I want. The 2.8 setting lets me get a very narrow DoF. As for mounting the monti's, it's super simple. I would first break the edge of a monti as straight as I could get it. Then using aqua-scape putty [or equivalent 2 part putty] just roll the putty between your hands until you get a thin "snake" just larger then the monti's edge. Place the "snake" on the flat edge of the monti, and push it onto the rear wall. The tricky part is to try and have the monti on the top edge of the putty so that when push it on the excess is under the monti to help support it. Looking at the side, the putty would be in a "L" shape. Leave the pumps off for 30 mins to let the putty set up. Never had a problem with them sticking. On the larger pieces, I would run my finger along the underside of the monti to "smooth out" the putty for better support. Hope that helps! Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thanks so much. I just found a mini mag frag holder so I ordered 2 one for each side of the tank. The monti is sitting on a square frag that I snipped the shank off of. And then I tried to putty it to a rock so the putty does what you said only in reverse. It looks like the 'L' but upside down and the short port of the 'L' hangs on the rock cuz I can never get the putty to stay on a rock even if I smush it in At some point it always pops loose from some hermit or snail. Anyways thanks for answering all my questions. Now Todd can work on his shots, he has a Nikon D5200 Link to comment
Tinpanva Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 Well, the new lights have been on the tank just over a month now, love the lights, hate making changes. Even though I knew better, I still set the Hydra's too high and suffered some bleaching on a few corals. Mostly to the high dollar CB chalices. I've knocked them down quite a bit, so I'm sure they will recover just fine, actually have colored up a little already. I've also started carbon dosing to drop my year long high No3 levels from 16ppm to closer to 1 ppm. I've never really chased numbers with my tank, just let the corals tell me what they needed or if something was going wrong. Several of my larger pieces were starting to brown out, and had one coral RTN in a matter of days. The only thing I could think of was the No3 or maybe the high Mag from fighting bryopsis. From what I've read, high mag shouldn't really be that horrible, but higher levels of No3 are know to brown out corals from excess nutrients. After much reading and a false start with biopellets (long story) I decided to go with Vodka, easy to find and cheap. Followed the recommended dosing plan and in a matter of weeks dropped from 16 to 0. I was warned that I shouldn't wait until I reached 0 before backing off, but me being the hard head that I am, ignored the good advise and shot for 0 anyway. Well, it took a little longer than I thought to raise the No3 up to where I wanted it, somewhere near .25ppm or so. During the same time, I also left my rowaphos online as I've read time and time again, it takes longer for it to get reduced so many continue to treat for Po4. I wasn't exactly sure where my Po4 really was, I knew a had small patches of algae here and there so I must have Po4 in there. I have several Po4 test kits, the seachem read 0 so I used my Hanna and it came back at 0.00, doubting that, I bought the ULS Phosphorus hanna and test with that, 0.003 ppm, JEEZUS, practically no Po4 and 0 No3 = starving corals, for a couple of weeks. Stepped up feeding, added reef energy to my list of junk to dose and it's rising now. .15 No3 last week. Had some STN, some others fade, so long story short, tank is in a rebound mode. So far, only the one loss from RTN that I couldn't stop because it was so fast, the STN'd corals are hanging in there and the faded ones recovering. So much for tank running smoothly on auto pilot, I'm sure it will be just fine in a week or two more and I'll post up some new pictures once it gets there. Been a lot of chatter in PM's lately on my feeding and dosing plan, so I thought I just put it out there. Just keep in mind, this is what works for my tank, your results may vary. Red Sea Reef Energy A&B - 3ml each/daily Red Sea Reef Colors ABC&D - .5ml each/daily Vodka - .8ml/daily LRS Reef Frenzy (Nano) - Daily (I do not rinse, I want all the good "stuff" in) Reef Chili - Spoonful every Wednesday mixed in with my energy A&B Coral Frenzy - Spoonful every Saturday mixed in with my energy A&B BRS 2 part for alk and calk. Currently not dosing for Mag, letting that drop back down to normal levels then will raise it again to 1700-1800 ppm to shock the last of the bryopsis. Link to comment
SquishyFishy Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 When did you remove your HQI top? And why. I'm learning lot about the differences in tanks for BioCube, whether Oceanic or Coral Life and whether or not HQI.....now I'm bummed cuz I think I woulve liked the glass top. I'm having such a problem with opening the dang top to do anything and being blinded! Link to comment
kimberbee Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 When did you remove your HQI top? And why. I'm learning lot about the differences in tanks for BioCube, whether Oceanic or Coral Life and whether or not HQI.....now I'm bummed cuz I think I woulve liked the glass top. I'm having such a problem with opening the dang top to do anything and being blinded! Yes, this is quite annoying with my BC as well! And then there's no light in the tank to see what's going on!! Best solution would be to remove the lid and de-rim the tank to hang a light above. I don't wanna mess with mine like that though, worried I'd mess it up. Link to comment
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