Urbanek's ADA Trio

[Rain24]

Your photos are so gorgeous that I want to try drawing or painting them! Only with your permission, of course. Your coral "canary" looks so nice!

[urbaneks]

Just now, Rain24 said:

Your photos are so gorgeous that I want to try drawing or painting them! Only with your permission, of course. Your coral "canary" looks so nice!

Not only do I not mind but if you want a higher resolution photo to work from let me know.  I'm happy to send you one via email.

[gone_PHiSHin]

2 minutes ago, Rain24 said:

Your photos are so gorgeous that I want to try drawing or painting them! Only with your permission, of course. Your coral "canary" looks so nice!

 

pretty sure he's not going to deny you permission for that!  only I request you share your work with us when done!

 

i don't have a good camera, only my iPhone 6s...so I always love when people take incredible shots of their tanks.  I've always wanted a good camera but that's a whole other hobby I can't afford right now!

 

I'd be more inclined to finally start a build thread if I could take a good picture of my tank!  damn LEDs 

[Rain24]

6 minutes ago, urbaneks said:

Not only do I not mind but if you want a higher resolution photo to work from let me know.  I'm happy to send you one via email.

Thank you! You have a message waiting.

 

1 minute ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

 

pretty sure he's not going to deny you permission for that!  only I request you share your work with us when done!

 

i don't have a good camera, only my iPhone 6s...so I always love when people take incredible shots of their tanks.  I've always wanted a good camera but that's a whole other hobby I can't afford right now!

 

I'd be more inclined to finally start a build thread if I could take a good picture of my tank!  damn LEDs 

He didn't! Hurray!!! And yes, if it turns out looking like a fish, I'll share. LOL.

 

It's photos like these that make me drag my camera out to try to make friends with it again. I *just* found my white balance setting and I'm playing with that.

[urbaneks]

Rain - Here's an alternate exposure of the same Blenny photo.  I added a bit more light to this shot.  I prefer my photos a bit under exposed but this may help with some of the finer detail.  I hope to see your artwork posted here one day soon.  No pressure though. 

 

[gone_PHiSHin]

this is making me want to get a starry blenny 

[teenyreef]

11 hours ago, urbaneks said:

Rain - Here's an alternate exposure of the same Blenny photo.  I added a bit more light to this shot.  I prefer my photos a bit under exposed but this may help with some of the finer detail.  I hope to see your artwork posted here one day soon.  No pressure though. 

 

Love this picture! I just got a picture of my Starry Blenny posing for the macro lens earlier this week. I had the same decision to make about underexposing it too, the colors in their eyes are so beautiful when the exposure is reduced.

[urbaneks]

16 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

this is making me want to get a starry blenny 

A Starry Blenny should be a right of passage into reefing.  

 

4 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Love this picture! I just got a picture of my Starry Blenny posing for the macro lens earlier this week. I had the same decision to make about underexposing it too, the colors in their eyes are so beautiful when the exposure is reduced.

Thanks for the view and comment.  The Starry has garnished some serious attention!

[Rain24]

You're right...there's just a little bit more detail with added brightness. Thanks!

 

Such a handsome fish.

[spectra]

4 hours ago, urbaneks said:

A Starry Blenny should be a right of passage into reefing.  

 

 

 

 I like that...... I wish mine would pose like that...... It sees me come in the room and goes and hides in a rock.

[urbaneks]

April 1st, 2017 - Photo Update

Here are a few more pics of my coral additions.  I'm going to try and get regular shots of these to show some growth rate.  (Good or Bad)

 

ORA Green Slimer - Like the Starry Blenny, you don't have a reef unless  you have Green Slimer. 

 

JF Champage Acro

 

Oregon Tort - One of my all time favorites

[teenyreef]

Excellent choices

 

The picture of the green slimer is really nice, it can be hard to capture that vivid green without blowing everything out. Can you share what settings you used?

[choss]

14 hours ago, urbaneks said:

April 1st, 2017 - Photo Update

Here are a few more pics of my coral additions.  I'm going to try and get regular shots of these to show some growth rate.  (Good or Bad)

 

ORA Green Slimer - Like the Starry Blenny, you don't have a reef unless  you have Green Slimer. 

 

JF Champage Acro

 

Oregon Tort - One of my all time favorites

Stunning pics! I love how these how the slimer pops against the blue background. Very inspiring.

[urbaneks]

April 5th, 2017 - Update

In one of the 3 tanks, I want to keep an anemone with the pair of clown fish.  The clown fish were the first thing to go in the tank and I've been on the search for a nem that is a bit out of the ordinary.  One of our LFS has a beautiful BTA that I did not want to pass up.  It's still a rose color but very deep in color with some blue highlights in it.  The nem went in on Sunday, and the clowns have pretty much ignored it.  I was happy to find this site this morning.  A match has been made. 

 

[urbaneks]

April 5th, 2017 - Update

I can't get enough of this.  Here's another shot with some blues on in the tank.  You can see the blue highlights in the nem. 

 

[gone_PHiSHin]

woohoo! 

[Pjanssen]

[urbaneks]

On 3/29/2017 at 1:21 PM, Rain24 said:

You're right...there's just a little bit more detail with added brightness. Thanks!

 

Such a handsome fish.

Rain - Any progress on that painting?  Thanks again for checking in on the thread.

 

On 3/29/2017 at 5:47 PM, spectra said:

 

 I like that...... I wish mine would pose like that...... It sees me come in the room and goes and hides in a rock.

That's odd.  I've had a few over the years and they always come front and center. 

 

On 4/1/2017 at 5:00 PM, teenyreef said:

Excellent choices

 

The picture of the green slimer is really nice, it can be hard to capture that vivid green without blowing everything out. Can you share what settings you used?

Thanks.  I set the camera to aperture priority mode.  Set the aperture to 4, under exposed by 1 stop and let the camera chose the shutter speed.  That's pretty much my go to settings and then just adjust the aperture based on how much of the shot I want in focus. 

 

On 4/2/2017 at 6:57 AM, choss said:

Stunning pics! I love how these how the slimer pops against the blue background. Very inspiring.

Thanks!

 

9 minutes ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

woohoo! 

back at you!

 

3 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

 

[kimberbee]

Oh. My. Goodness... 

[urbaneks]

April 5th, 2017 - Update on Hemlock Bar Top

If you've been following along, you know that I recently moved.  In fact the move was a downsize for us.  Our oldest son went to college and our 2nd is a year from his departure to college.  My wife and I wanted to get into a smaller house, with less maintenance, no pool and new everything.  One of the trouble that we ran into when moving is that furniture that we really loved didn't work in our house.  One such piece was a project table that use to sit next to the 250g tank.  In fact, you can see the project table in it's first life sitting in front of the old tank. 

 

 

Not willing to give up on old table, we decided we'd reconfigure it to work with the new house.  This would require building a new top for the table.  I knew I wanted to do something reclaimed but wasn't set on the lumber.  I made my way to Porter Barnwood where I came across some nice 2.5" thick pieces of  Hemlock.  After talking with the folks at Porter, I came to learn that the boards were used as flooring in a cattle barn.  It's fun to think that I'm building a table out of a board that was used as a bathroom for cattle.  Here is the shot I took at the lumber yard of the lucky piece of wood that was going to get a new lease on life. 

 

 

Two quick chain saw cuts and the once long board is now able to fit in the car.  Take note of the dirt, grime, hay, etc that are embedded into the wood.  This should be fun.

 

 

I didn't take may photos during the build but here are a few to walk your through the process

 

In this shot, I had strait lined one edge on each board and started cleaning up the top each board with the planer. 

 

Here are the boards after I got them glued and clamped

 

This was a shot I took during the sanding process.  I wanted to leave the worm holes, knots and cracks pretty raw.  The table has a story to tell and I wanted to make sure it could still tell it. 

 

Another shot taken after I had put a coat of pre-stain on the wood.  Hemlock is a type of pine so it really soaks up stain and will blotch on you if you don't pre-stain. 

 

Here's the final product with 2 coats of stain and 4 layers of top coat

 

Stain is General Finishes Antique Walnut over Nutmeg.  Top Coat is General Finishes Armor Seal (Satin)

 

Another shot of the table with a few of my other fun projects (Bonzai that needs a trim, Kokedama and Terrarium)

 

Now this is a thread on my aquarium build so here are some shots of the room so you can see how the table ties into the room.  You will also notice that the old project table base has been reconfigured and reused in our new house. 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Masterfully crafted as usual! It looks incredible with the stained finish. Did you just plane it by hand or do you have a big machine you run it through?

[Rain24]

2 hours ago, urbaneks said:

Rain - Any progress on that painting?  Thanks again for checking in on the thread.

 

Haha...not yet. I am notoriously slow at getting started. I'm also in the middle of training classes right now that seems to have taken over my life. Don't worry, I'll post pics when I get around to working on the drawing (or painting).

 

That latest reclaimed wood project is gorgeous. Can't even tell what it was used for in its previous life.

[spectra]

That table looks great! also looks like you need a truck  

 

I am with Cristopher on that one what did you run it through? Had to be a big belt sander by the way it looks. I know my neighbor has a nice 36" sander in his garage that does wonders..........

 

6 hours ago, urbaneks said:

 

That's odd.  I've had a few over the years and they always come front and center. 

 

 

Yeah mine takes off and hides in his rock  all I ever see is a head sticking out..........

[DAP]

Add another person interested on how you planed it.

how thick was the wood after planing?

it looks great!

[teenyreef]

The table looks great - thanks for posting the build pics. But I really like how it turned out next to the tanks. Between the yellow light of the lamp, the natural sun through the window, and the blue light of the tanks, it makes for a beautiful room.