Made in Africa - A Shallow Reef V2

[teenyreef]

I know what you mean about the chalices. For me, the ones that grow well aren't that pretty when they get big, and the ones that are pretty always seem to lose their color or just eventually die in my tanks. But I love taking macros of them 

[4x5]

On 3/24/2018 at 8:43 PM, Drew11 said:

Photography is on point. Tank is awesome as well. I'm so tempted to put an ATI fixture on my 50g build. I've been running LEDs since I entered the hobby about 6 years ago. 

Thanks. I love my ATIs - they've never let me down and Acros love them.  

On 3/25/2018 at 2:19 AM, Halo_003 said:

Looks amazing!

Thanks!

On 3/26/2018 at 1:45 AM, Asureef said:

 

 

The lighting from that window, the surface of the water, the clown and anemone, that composition in that clownfish pic is .  

 

Amazing job!

Thank you, the tank looks good when the sun hits the background in the afternoon.

On 3/26/2018 at 3:16 AM, teenyreef said:

I know what you mean about the chalices. For me, the ones that grow well aren't that pretty when they get big, and the ones that are pretty always seem to lose their color or just eventually die in my tanks. But I love taking macros of them 

We don't have fancy enough ones here to be super badass when they are big like some of the ones I see online in the US but they're super interesting creatures up close at least even with the more plain colours -  I nearly threw these out the window when my Trachyphyllia got to close and it got decimated.  Thankfully it recovered totally, faster than I ever expected - they are rather mean things.  

[4x5]

 

I do love a fluffy Millepora, this new frag has really settled in well. 

[4x5]

 

A new addition to the tank, the colour is just super.

 

Never Give Up;

The Acro below has been a good lesson to me in not giving up on corals, even when they look like they are totally gone. Sometimes they start to melt and you just want to pull the coral from your tank but I left this coral and watched it melt until it eventually stopped. When it did, it was a sad, cyano and algae covered brown mess with only a little life left in it. A few weeks later it started to regain a bit of colour but was still looking horrible (image 1). Another few weeks later, it's polyps are out again and fingers crossed it looks like it will make a full recovery.

 

 

March 15, 2018

 

 

April 09, 2018

 

[Cannedfish]

Your pictures are always so amazing. I'm sure you have answered this, but what camera/lens are you using, and do you have any advice. I was thinking of picking up a macro lens (40mm f/2.8G) for our Nikon, but am kinda intimidated. 

[4x5]

3 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Your pictures are always so amazing. I'm sure you have answered this, but what camera/lens are you using, and do you have any advice. I was thinking of picking up a macro lens (40mm f/2.8G) for our Nikon, but am kinda intimidated. 

Thanks. I actually use a super old Tamron 90mm macro for my close ups. It does the job. The Nikon macro lenses are super good as well, 40mm sounds interesting - what camera do you have? Just curious if it's a crop sensor because I'd rather go 60 or 90mm on full frame to get closer but 40 could work on crop.

[Cannedfish]

1 minute ago, 4x5 said:

Thanks. I actually use a super old Tamron 90mm macro for my close ups. It does the job. The Nikon macro lenses are super good as well, 40mm sounds interesting - what camera do you have? Just curious if it's a crop sensor because I'd rather go 60 or 90mm on full frame to get closer but 40 could work on crop.

Yeah, I don't know too much about which lens I should be looking at. Up till to this point I have been using a Nikon 1 (Panasonic Lumix gx680) as I have been too intimidated (and because I don't have the right lens) to use my significant's Nikon d90. I think, however, I have about maxed out both 'small' camera's capabilities and am ready to jump to the big boy. 

[4x5]

6 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Yeah, I don't know too much about which lens I should be looking at. Up till to this point I have been using a Nikon 1 (Panasonic Lumix gx680) as I have been too intimidated (and because I don't have the right lens) to use my significant's Nikon d90. I think, however, I have about maxed out both 'small' camera's capabilities and am ready to jump to the big boy. 

Don't be intimidated, it's just a camera.  Have fun. 

[teenyreef]

Just now, 4x5 said:

Don't be intimidated, it's just a camera.  Have fun. 

^this 

 

I got a 90mm Tamron when I started getting a little more serious about taking pictures, and it's really nice on my APS cropped sensor.

 

But I rarely use it now. I use my Nikon kit lens which is surprisingly good, and just zoom in and then crop the pictures. Especially in the 10g tank where everything is really close anyway. I usually use the shake reduction filter in Photoshop to eliminate any blurriness that the lens stabilizer couldn't handle and that seems to work really well.

[4x5]

2 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

But I rarely use it now. I use my Nikon kit lens which is surprisingly good, and just zoom in and then crop the pictures. Especially in the 10g tank where everything is really close anyway. I usually use the shake reduction filter in Photoshop to eliminate any blurriness that the lens stabilizer couldn't handle and that seems to work really well.

Good point, you could actually get away with cropping quite easily on smaller tanks and now that images are generally larger than before it's also a bit easier. 

[Cannedfish]

@teenyreef @4x5 is there one macro lens you would suggest (that's not too expensive) for the Nikon d90? 

[Berkay]

How frequently do your water changes and what percentage ? ... 

[troopa]

Any updates?

[metrokat]

Hey what's up Shaun?

[troopa]

Whatever happened to this tank!

[Christopher Marks]

22 minutes ago, troopa said:

Whatever happened to this tank!

Agreed!

 

We miss you @4x5, hope you're well!

[4x5]

Hi All. 🙂I've been around, kind of - it's been a crazy year for me due to personal stuff, I won't bore you with all of it. tl;dr We bought a new house and spent many months renovating it. Once that was all done we moved along with the tank and everything was happy and thriving but then unfortunately the company who was trenching Fibre cables for the area hit our power line and our house was without power for many days in the middle of winter. Yes, once again I lost nearly everything - 99% of my tank died, the corals and fish I had cared for for, some for years were gone and it was extremely frustrating. I was going to just throw in the towel but I guess I'm a sucker for punishment so I've rebooted. 

 

[SeaFurn]

Glad you’re a sucker because I’m sure this one will eventually be as beautiful as all your others I’ve seen! 

[specore]

So clean!

[Nano_Addict]

Sorry to hear that happened, but I can't wait for V3!

[Nano sapiens]

Always heartbreaking to loose a tank, especially if it's been set up for many years.  But glad to see you have rebooted!

[Firefish15]

I can't imagine how frustrating that would be. Hopefully, this one doesn't run into any calamities like that.

[4x5]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:06 PM, SeaFurn said:

Glad you’re a sucker because I’m sure this one will eventually be as beautiful as all your others I’ve seen! 

Haha, thanks - I'm tired of drama, so here's hoping for a smooth(er) ride. 🤣

On 11/9/2018 at 4:31 PM, specore said:

So clean!

 

On 11/9/2018 at 4:47 PM, Nano_Addict said:

Sorry to hear that happened, but I can't wait for V3!

Thanks. 🙂

On 11/9/2018 at 4:50 PM, Nano sapiens said:

Always heartbreaking to loose a tank, especially if it's been set up for many years.  But glad to see you have rebooted!

Yah thanks, some of the losses were painful but this is life. 

On 11/9/2018 at 6:23 PM, Firefish15 said:

I can't imagine how frustrating that would be. Hopefully, this one doesn't run into any calamities like that.

Haha, let's hope!

[Sancho]

Seriously sorry to hear about the other tanks and such. 

 

But................

 

I can’t wait for the upcoming reef porn! 

[DaveFason]

Glad to see you back at it. Following you on IG has me updated on your life. 😛