Belac Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I keep thinking I am going to drumm up my microscope and look at the things living in the sand.Polar have you ever tried double lenseing with you DSLR you can get some crazy insane macro shots that way, if you have a tripod and a strong enough light. I couldn't belive how much magnification power I got when I used my 100-300mm with my 25-45mm lense. I would have thought it would take a microscope. Quote Link to comment
gena Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Catchy tank thread title! I had to come and check it out Glad I did. Awesome little tank you have going here. I hope everything settles down for the SPS. Love the kitty video too! Sorry about your dog. Our oldest is 9 and we were just talking tonight about his lifespan. He should live to about 16. My two cats are both 16 now. That's the hardest thing about pet ownership...the short amount of time we have with them. Anyways...love your tank Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Aww, thanks! The microscope is just one of those cheap Amscope models but I was too lazy to hook up the DSLR so I just shot down the eyepiece with the iPhone. I purchased it with the intention of adapting the 4x and 10x objective lenses to the DSLR for super crisp macro images, but it's turned out to be more fun to look through the scope at the itty bitty critters living in sand and water. The macros are from the DSLR plus a 100mm macro lens. Tack sharp! Very cool! Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 I'm so sorry to hear that. Are you alright? I am now. It was pretty tough when you bond so tight to a pet but I kept coming back to the way she -- Clover -- always lived in the moment. She didn't hold on to sadness, but was always up for joy and adventure. So I'm trying to be more like my dog in that way and appreciate what is here and now. She was healthy until the last few weeks so I feel pretty lucky to be able to have her companionship for so long. Whenever I miss her, I go hug something else and spread her love around. I keep thinking I am going to drumm up my microscope and look at the things living in the sand. Polar have you ever tried double lenseing with you DSLR you can get some crazy insane macro shots that way, if you have a tripod and a strong enough light. I couldn't belive how much magnification power I got when I used my 100-300mm with my 25-45mm lense. I would have thought it would take a microscope. Oh, you should! It's crazy the things living in there. I wish there was a guidebook for what we're seeing and how everything lives together. I haven't tried stacking lenses - do you have pics up somewhere? Would love to see them. Similar: I saw a tutorial for attaching a lens in reverse which turns it into a pretty good macro. I did try a 200mm extension tube baffle. It does a great job, but it takes sooooooo much more light to get a decent photo that I got frustrated and put it on the back burner. Catchy tank thread title! I had to come and check it out Glad I did. Awesome little tank you have going here. I hope everything settles down for the SPS. Love the kitty video too! Sorry about your dog. Our oldest is 9 and we were just talking tonight about his lifespan. He should live to about 16. My two cats are both 16 now. That's the hardest thing about pet ownership...the short amount of time we have with them. Anyways...love your tank Yeah, they're with us for a short time and they're so easy to love. All we can do is care for them the best we can and enjoy them while they're with us. Thanks for stopping by! I'll take a peek at yours in the morning. :-) Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Bookmark: blueberry gorgonian success story and 5 months later • skimmer on tank, polyfilter surface skim • spotfeed 2-3 time a day: Baby brine twice a day every day, either Kent's Zooplex or Marine Snow following the baby brine (I alternate KZ and MS in the am/pm feedings), DT's phyto randomly every few days or so, and I also replenish the water with Seachem Fuel every single day • 2 coralia nanos on 20 second intervals w/ wavemaker. High flow, not direct, but very close! The powerhead kinda behind it hits it so that the flow loops back around to the left, therefor getting the other side of the gorg. It's been perfect for it, so far! When I had the powerhead directly behind and on it, the polyps were too pissed to come out and feed. When i had it one more inch to the right, it didn't give it enough and started thinning almost overnight. Update: The back coralia is on nonstop, while the other two are on 20 second intervals Advanced Aquarist Gorgonian care page Most don't make it past 6-12 months in aquarium. Quote Link to comment
Rain24 Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I really like how you bookmark things and make notes within your thread so the rest of us can read along. Quote Link to comment
Belac Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Oh, you should! It's crazy the things living in there. I wish there was a guidebook for what we're seeing and how everything lives together. I haven't tried stacking lenses - do you have pics up somewhere? Would love to see them. Similar: I saw a tutorial for attaching a lens in reverse which turns it into a pretty good macro. I did try a 200mm extension tube baffle. It does a great job, but it takes sooooooo much more light to get a decent photo that I got frustrated and put it on the back burner. We could always try and start a guidebook on here. Not just the microscopic but also the very tiny like some of my feather dusters that are bairly visiable. Yeah the lense in reverse is what I did, well sorta. One lense goes on nomral and then the other goes on that lense backwards. Check it out here. I didn't use any adaptor becuase two of my lenses nested pretty well so I just held them in place. I will throw some pictures up after while and send ou the link. They are rather dark even with flash and a flashlight pointed at the spot. I need to buy/build a ring flash. Would make macro so much eaiser. I have a billows macro adaptor I need to get up and running one of these days. Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 We could always try and start a guidebook on here. Not just the microscopic but also the very tiny like some of my feather dusters that are bairly visiable. Yeah the lense in reverse is what I did, well sorta. One lense goes on nomral and then the other goes on that lense backwards. Check it out here. I didn't use any adaptor becuase two of my lenses nested pretty well so I just held them in place. I will throw some pictures up after while and send ou the link. They are rather dark even with flash and a flashlight pointed at the spot. I need to buy/build a ring flash. Would make macro so much eaiser. I have a billows macro adaptor I need to get up and running one of these days. If I have time this weekend, I'll try this out. There are some really cool copopods/arthropods (how do you tell the difference?) on the glass that would make great subjects. One type has a tail longer than an inch on a body less than 1/8 inch long. My guidebook is going to be something along this format: here's a picture. someone tell me what it is! Quote Link to comment
buddythelion Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Thanks everyone for taking a look! I've been reading through your tank threads. Lots of drooling and inspiration happening today. I've never played with custom white balance on the camera and gave it a shot tonight under the LEDs. Here's a macro of a hungry banana rainbow acan. grow! grow! grow! Amazing acan! I'd love this piece, envious of you. Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 My cat just turned 13 and I'm lucky that he is in good health. I don't know how I would cope with him not being around. I am now. It was pretty tough when you bond so tight to a pet but I kept coming back to the way she -- Clover -- always lived in the moment. She didn't hold on to sadness, but was always up for joy and adventure. So I'm trying to be more like my dog in that way and appreciate what is here and now. She was healthy until the last few weeks so I feel pretty lucky to be able to have her companionship for so long. Whenever I miss her, I go hug something else and spread her love around. Quote Link to comment
Belac Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Sounds like a plan for a guide book. I shall contribute pictures when I get some taken.For the life of me I can't find my macro shots and its driveing me up the wall. Going to keep looking I know I have them some where. Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share Posted January 7, 2013 Phosphate test kit and Chemipure elite came in the mail, but the media basket upgrade is still on the way so I just put the filter floss and chemipure in the stock basket for now. Hoping it will clear up the water. Tested the water which came back 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphate. With nutrients low, I was at a loss for what was causing the cloudiness. All I know is it started with the sexy shrimp passing a day or two after treating for flatworms. So I took a few pics of water sample under microscope to see if anything was visible. TONS(!) of single celled algae in the water column. Yikes! The blue tone of the LED lights must have concealed the green tint in the water and the algae has probably taken up any free nitrates and phosphate. Did a 70% water change to export algae and it's locked up nutrients. Water was more clear this morning, but could still be better. Guess I'll keep letting the algae bloom until it uses up the sexy shrimp nutrients and keep doing massive water changes to export unless someone tells me it's not the best solution. Wow. Rethinking the SPS in an 8 gallon idea now that it's clear how quickly things can go south in such a small volme of water. Here's the water column pic. The central creature is an ameoba and the little dots around it are the algae. Sorry for the blurry pic. It's at 400x without immersion oil since it's living in water. Creatures living in the sand from 2 weeks ago. Not sure what they are. 100x A string of algae cells living in the sand from 2 weeks ago. 100x 1 Quote Link to comment
Belac Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Phyto isn't a bad thing. Although if your water is cloudy it could be a bit to much. Love the microscope pictures. Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Cloudy water is starting to clear! Yay!!!! I learned a lot this week about hidden nutrients locked up in algae and also that the Nuvo 8 stock pump just doesn't have enough flow, even on high, to properly circulate water. Here's this week's upgrades: Replaced Innovative Marine sponges/filter media with filter floss and Chemipure elite. Replaced stock pump (90 gph) with Cobalt mj-900 (280 gph). The flow difference is dramatic! First thing it did was stir up a bunch of gunk off the sand bed. Whoa, the amount was a surprise. Now it's all getting trapped in the filter floss. Changing that out each day for now. Corals perked up and immediately extended their polyps in the flow. Very happy so far with this upgrade. It was a little noisy vibrating and humming against the walls, so I put filter floss as a cushion. Noise is gone. Coming in the mail from World Tools are these 1/4" black loc-line pieces. It was tough tracking down BLACK 1/4 inch loc-line, but these folks have it specifically for aquariums. Plan is to replace the single nozzle with a Y nozzle so that one will aggitate the surface and one will send more flow over to the SPS column of rock. Maybe the acoropora just might pull through. check out the 90 degree bend on this nozzle. Sweet! Quote Link to comment
Rain24 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 New stuff. Yay!!! :: Whew. Glad to hear your water is getting clearer. What a difference a new pump makes, eh? Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Green Clown Goby Food: Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes, frozen Mysis, freeze dried cyclopeeze. Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I ordered that red macro. thank you for the link. oh oops. wrong thread. Gosh what is happening, my ipad is going crazy on me wherever this message ends up : POLAR THIS MESSAGE IS FOR YOU! Thank you for the link to the macro. Quote Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Wow impressive Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 I ordered that red macro. thank you for the link. oh oops. wrong thread. Gosh what is happening, my ipad is going crazy on me wherever this message ends up : POLAR THIS MESSAGE IS FOR YOU! Thank you for the link to the macro. Message received! Pics when it arrives! I love, love, love your display refugium. Keep trying to figure out how I'm going to make one for the little 8 gallon. Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Just look at that face! Jasper was being adorable again. 2 Quote Link to comment
Bakenn Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 You take some nice pictures and I love your cat! Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I might have to catnap the feline. This thread is full of cute. Carbon for cloudy water. Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Troubleshooting flesh color fading on monitporas: stabilize alkalinity--keep above 7. Ideal is 7-10. Frag origin conditions: reef fusion 2-part, salinity salt, ecoray LED lights. fading on some coral if Alk drops below 7. Lots of talk about light spectrum in LEDs. Is this personal visual preference or for coral color/health? If greater spectrum required for health, stunners look like an option to broaden spectrum. Maybe build light cap and stand for display refugium? Notes from web: White LED can burn coral if too high power. Blue and royal LEDs are for color phosphorescence and can go higher power without hurting coral. Article on lighting and reef chemistry related to color: http://reefworks.co.uk/articles/obtaining-the-best-colours-from-your-corals/ Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Reading through threads, it looks like my green toadstool leather may not play nice with SPS corals, even with carbon. Is everyone in agreement with this? Kinda bummed — it is one of my favorite corals — but if it has to go, would a duncan play nice in its place? Current SPS are various montiporas and pocilloporas and would like to add birdsnest or acoropora at some point. LPS are chalice and acans. Softies are zoas/palys, GSP and pulsing hand xenia. Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 I have a reasonably big fiji leather next to my acros. I run carbon in a reactor for all chemical warfare issues. So far so good. Quote Link to comment
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