Mitten_reef’s IM30L

[ECLS Reefer]

24 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I literally just follow the steps in Dave’s tutorial I shared a few pages back.   I found it very helpful, you do need to understand photography terminology a little bit.  Other than that, it’s just about finding that good balance where your camera can work with your light (whether that is with presets of light, white balance, or some post processing settings on the computer). For example, I turned my white up just a bit and set white balance to 9000K, but I don’t do any post processing, e.g. photoshop, etc. 
 

I'll have to give that a second look. I do need to completely learn the technology, when using this camera. And learn to stop relying on the sad little camera screen to tell me how clear the picture is. It's really grainy while the stuff is turning out really well on the computer.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

10 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Trying my best at the sun coral’s 3-course meal today.  First a nice dusting of reef roid for the appetizer, given with all pumps off for 10 min. Then let that circulate for a while (went and do the dishes. Btw, anyone else sick of doing the damn dishes during this quarantine?). Came back with a nice baster full of mysis juice, again all pumps off.  Let that sit on top for another 10 min.  Then another baster full of more chunky mysis, all pumps off. Then turn on the gyre, but keeping the return pump off.  gotta say tho, this long and leisure meal method really coax out the polyps.  Here’s a pic just after feeding. 

We’ll see where this gets us in a week.  My prediction?  A tank full of algae.  

And just another gold torch update:

 

Yes!! My poor dishwasher is taking a beating

[Cannedfish]

11 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Trying my best at the sun coral’s 3-course meal today.  First a nice dusting of reef roid for the appetizer, given with all pumps off for 10 min. Then let that circulate for a while (went and do the dishes. Btw, anyone else sick of doing the damn dishes during this quarantine?). Came back with a nice baster full of mysis juice, again all pumps off.  Let that sit on top for another 10 min.  Then another baster full of more chunky mysis, all pumps off. Then turn on the gyre, but keeping the return pump off.  gotta say tho, this long and leisure meal method really coax out the polyps.  Here’s a pic just after feeding. 

 

Huzzah!! This is great news! They no longer look like puckered butth#les now they look like ravenous butth*les with yellow tentacles looking to feast on the souls of the living! What times we live in! Congratulations on your success!!

[ECLS Reefer]

16 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Huzzah!! This is great news! They no longer look like puckered butth#les now they look like ravenous butth*les with yellow tentacles looking to feast on the souls of the living! What times we live in! Congratulations on your success!!

isn't that kind of like The Tommyknockers? Maybe they should rename suns Tommyknockers

[Tom@HaslettMI]

11 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Trying my best at the sun coral’s 3-course meal today.  First a nice dusting of reef roid for the appetizer, given with all pumps off for 10 min. Then let that circulate for a while (went and do the dishes. Btw, anyone else sick of doing the damn dishes during this quarantine?). Came back with a nice baster full of mysis juice, again all pumps off.  Let that sit on top for another 10 min.  Then another baster full of more chunky mysis, all pumps off. Then turn on the gyre, but keeping the return pump off.  gotta say tho, this long and leisure meal method really coax out the polyps.  Here’s a pic just after feeding. 

We’ll see where this gets us in a week.  My prediction?  A tank full of algae.  

And just another gold torch update:

 

Try feeding the sun coral in a small container of tank water floating in the tank. I used an algae magnet to hold it in place.  Way easier to target feed and you don’t have to turn off any pumps. 

[Matteo]

12 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I'll have to give that a second look. I do need to completely learn the technology, when using this camera. And learn to stop relying on the sad little camera screen to tell me how clear the picture is. It's really grainy while the stuff is turning out really well on the computer.

I don't mess with my lights. Just the manual mode and a custom white balance setting. @Dirté Sanchez  have you seeny journal? Not to toot my own horn but you should look at the pics I take of my reef.

 

I don't touch the Bluefish settings as I want to capture the real look of what I see with my light settings. 

 

Messing with your white balance will do wonders. 

[mitten_reef]

44 minutes ago, Matteo said:

Messing with your white balance will do wonders.

100%

        

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, Matteo said:

I don't mess with my lights. Just the manual mode and a custom white balance setting. @Dirté Sanchez  have you seeny journal? Not to toot my own horn but you should look at the pics I take of my reef.

 

I don't touch the Bluefish settings as I want to capture the real look of what I see with my light settings. 

 

Messing with your white balance will do wonders. 

I do play with the white settings. What I'm seeing the most problem with is glare even with them turned down. Any suggestions on how to filter out glare? I find I don't need the colored lenses so much when I play with the manual whites, but it's still killing the picture even with both blues and whites turned down.

[Coolbreeze]

On 4/29/2020 at 9:54 PM, mitten_reef said:

One more from iPhone. Hardly ever see the sun coral this happy in my tank. 

Really Really NICE!

[Matteo]

1 hour ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I do play with the white settings. What I'm seeing the most problem with is glare even with them turned down. Any suggestions on how to filter out glare? I find I don't need the colored lenses so much when I play with the manual whites, but it's still killing the picture even with both blues and whites turned down.

For glare make sure the tank is the only light producing item in the room. 

 

Also, do your best to keep your light fixture out of the frame because it will cause extreme white out as if taking a picture facing the sun. It just doesn't come out great. 

 

@mitten_reef tried this trick and found great success! 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 minute ago, Matteo said:

For glare make sure the tank is the only light producing item in the room. 

 

Also, do your best to keep your light fixture out of the frame because it will cause extreme white out as if taking a picture facing the sun. It just doesn't come out great. 

 

@mitten_reef tried this trick and found great success! 

So what does that mean, try to take the photos in a top down aspect? I can't ever seem to get the light out of the way. Plus it only allows to swing up, or down. I'll just have to keep playing.

[Matteo]

1 hour ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

So what does that mean, try to take the photos in a top down aspect? I can't ever seem to get the light out of the way. Plus it only allows to swing up, or down. I'll just have to keep playing.

In this picture you can see how the light is slighty in frame causing a wash out in the corner. 

\

 

 

In this pic there is not fixture in the shot and no ambient light coming from it. The only light you want to capture is the light reflecting off your fish and corals 🙂 

 

These pics were taken with a Lumix GX85 manual mode, custom WB setting, and some small editing in pixlr.com (free web app, works great)

[mitten_reef]

Leaning on joining the sump club again (after last-minute pass during Xmas). Wife says do what you want, but there must only be one tank in the house. 
tank size limitation does apply as we still have to haul it down to the basement ourselves, and potentially haul back up eventually when we move. 

[DreC80]

My wife and I carried the Reefer XL425...but not down a set of stairs. 😄

[mitten_reef]

 

[Cannedfish]

Moar Charlie!!!!!!

[ECLS Reefer]

53 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

 

He’s handsome!! I love goldens but how much upkeep is their coat, really?

[mitten_reef]

23 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

He’s handsome!! I love goldens but how much upkeep is their coat, really?

his actual coat, not a whole lot.  we vacuum a lot.  i try to brush him about every couple of weeks so that he doesn't shed too much in the house (with furminator, it gets all undergrowth out like magic).  we got him groomed monthly for 3 months straight, and he looked great until COVID hit.  we didn't do regular grooming before this year, but we'll probably get back to the monthly grooming when things open back up.  it really sucks when it rains, not gonna lie.  we were told to get a mudbuster paw wash, another great tool to clean mud/dirt/sand off the paws before he comes in the house.  wow, sounds like dog tools commercial.  

[ECLS Reefer]

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

his actual coat, not a whole lot.  we vacuum a lot.  i try to brush him about every couple of weeks so that he doesn't shed too much in the house (with furminator, it gets all undergrowth out like magic).  we got him groomed monthly for 3 months straight, and he looked great until COVID hit.  we didn't do regular grooming before this year, but we'll probably get back to the monthly grooming when things open back up.  it really sucks when it rains, not gonna lie.  we were told to get a mudbuster paw wash, another great tool to clean mud/dirt/sand off the paws before he comes in the house.  wow, sounds like dog tools commercial.  

We have two Aussies, big ones. I know alllllll about the mud. Our red tri likes to swim in the fish pond and then roll in the dirt. And the wet muddy feet is a chronic pain. I have improved on it by making them dry off in the garage first before coming inside- we have a side door so they just run in. I’m a bad person and don’t brush them. But I do shave them bald during the worst of the summer.

[pokerdobe]

On 5/10/2020 at 9:28 AM, mitten_reef said:

Wife says do what you want

This is not permission. This is a dare. 

 

Don't fall for it. 

[Coolbreeze]

5 hours ago, pokerdobe said:

This is not permission. This is a dare. 

 

Don't fall for it. 

It's a trap 😷

[mitten_reef]

Tonight, these two just glow so can’t help but grabbing the iPhone pic. 

 

 

One more: inspired by @Cannedfish  

 

[FISHnChix]

Torch is looking good.. you find a place to mount it yet??

 

Had a question .. so you always have a ton of frags on the rack. How long do you typically leave a frag on the rack before you mount it up?? 

[mitten_reef]

5 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

How long do you typically leave a frag on the rack before you mount it up?? 

is that a trick question???  cuz the more obvious answer seems to be never 😂

 

real answer part 1: One thing I do want to see tho, is that the frag starts to encrust the glue/plug a bit on the rack - at least then I'll know they're happy enough in my tank.  I don't wanna glue something on the rock to find it dead a week later, cuz it's never happy.  

 

real answer part 2:  I don't have any method or reasons why they stay there for as long as they usually end up, other than me being indecisive about where they go.  I usually sit on them until I have a handful of frags to mount, like right about now, then I do all the gluing all in one shot.  this way, i can try to avoid putting similar piece too close to each other and allow decent spacing between them.  I often buy frags "with potential", and foregoing the brandname frags with known colors/growth, which means it take a bit of time to figure out what they look like in my tank too.  that might just be one benefit of seeing a whole bunch before gluing, vs gluing them as they come in.  

 

also, often, the frags were waiting to go back to LFS.  A few I couldn't part with the original plug bases and they ended up re-growing into their own mini colonies as backups.  recently, as you may have seen, 4 frags just went out to @Cannedfish.  and about 10 frags from the rack, plus some directly from the main colonies, just arrived at @HarryPotter this morning.  Huge thanks to them for taking a chance on my frags and my shipping skills..    

 

7 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Torch is looking good.. you find a place to mount it yet??

been visualizing in my head a couple of spots on the center rock - can't quite commit.  

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

On 5/13/2020 at 9:00 PM, mitten_reef said:

Tonight, these two just glow so can’t help but grabbing the iPhone pic. 

 

 

One more: inspired by @Cannedfish  

 

Damn looking good man! 🙌🙌