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Mitten_reef’s WB55.2


mitten_reef

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6 minutes ago, jservedio said:

The FX Nikons have this - I know it comes on the D850. I have HDR bracketing built in, but I've still got to do focus stacking the old fashioned way by hand. My next camera body will be a used FX, so maybe in like...10 more years I'll be able to do it automated!

yeah, with the features that I think I want, i probably can't afford any of it new.  i still need to buy that amazon tripod i have in my shopping cart 😂 

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30 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

yeah, with the features that I think I want, i probably can't afford any of it new.  i still need to buy that amazon tripod i have in my shopping cart 😂 

That tripod will be the best investment in photography you ever make - $13 to change everything 🤣

 

Honestly, even if my camera had built in focus stacking I would still be doing it manually for macros. When doing macro photography, you aren't even using your camera's autofocus because it's hot garbage at super close distances (even with the $2500 cameras), doubly so when shooting through glass or a porthole. For macro you typically set your focal distance and then move the camera itself to get what you want in focus. With focus stacking, you are never touching the focus ring and physically moving the camera along the rail so the entire subject has been captured in focus for at least one shot. On the D850 and other cameras with built in focus stacking, the camera never moves and it is using it's AF sensor to take a bazillion shots so everything in the frame is in focus. For non-macro photography (think wide angle landscape shots with something in the foreground), it's awesome. For macro, it'll end up being really soft. When you've got like 50mp, it doesn't matter when you shrink it down, but if you are trying to use 100% of the sensor, you've got to use a rail.

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On 10/22/2021 at 2:12 PM, mitten_reef said:

So, it isn't in my tank.  But it's in a tank of someone I actually know, so close enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow amazing. quick question about this, did this just happen with happy corals? Or is there some moonlight technique used?

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13 minutes ago, pal said:

Wow amazing. quick question about this, did this just happen with happy corals? Or is there some moonlight technique used?

I'm gonna confirm with him.  I think he mentioned something about not having specific lunar cycle on an instagram reply.  but whether or not he runs any night light vs full dark, etc, I don't know.  

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29 minutes ago, pal said:

Wow amazing. quick question about this, did this just happen with happy corals? Or is there some moonlight technique used?

I was able to confirm that he runs "dark room" at night.  The only light source in there would come various equipment status indicators.  

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2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

probably got burned out after the BRS saga and tank didn't recover from the move, I suspect.

 

on a different note, lost the pygmy angel yesterday.  it jumped, found behind the tank this morning, sigh

🤔 There was a BRS saga? I missed that. And I sure hope his tank is okay because a loss like that would he devastating

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9 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

🤔 There was a BRS saga? I missed that. And I sure hope his tank is okay because a loss like that would he devastating

Yeah, there was that reefpack thing. 
 

and I just like to spam the thread with my scoly’s and clam977FB2C3-FF3C-4F98-A23D-086E091BF3E5.thumb.jpeg.f89473f0f8fea1b75e0e0d0c97eb6806.jpeg

 

B560C71D-EBC9-4E04-AF6D-2850B312DE3D.thumb.jpeg.53794c58bafeb2042bbfacb068e0626a.jpeg

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21 hours ago, jservedio said:

Every time you post those pictures I nearly change my stance on scolys and definitely want a clam! Those scolys are fantastic.

Both "scoly" and bowerbanki have been reclassified as close relatives under the Homophyllia genus, H. australis and H. bowerbanki - with one being more single-polyp and one is more colonial in growth.  So you actually sort of have one already, and yours is a spectacular piece as well.  Bowerbanki is def on my secondary want list along with maybe one more nice scoly, primary list being acros, goni, and torch, of course.    

 

As for the clam, get one!  My opinion is if you can grow acros in the tank, you can keep/grow clams.  Their light, feeding, flow, parameters, etc requirements are quite similar - strong lighting being an important factor IMO.  I'm deciding whether to get a second one from LFS current stock. 

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2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Both "scoly" and bowerbanki have been reclassified as close relatives under the Homophyllia genus, H. australis and H. bowerbanki - with one being more single-polyp and one is more colonial in growth.  So you actually sort of have one already, and yours is a spectacular piece as well.  Bowerbanki is def on my secondary want list along with maybe one more nice scoly, primary list being acros, goni, and torch, of course.    

 

As for the clam, get one!  My opinion is if you can grow acros in the tank, you can keep/grow clams.  Their light, feeding, flow, parameters, etc requirements are quite similar - strong lighting being an important factor IMO.  I'm deciding whether to get a second one from LFS current stock. 

Clam is definitely on the list once I get the nutrients stable, fill in the rest of the acros and other corals I want, and then finalize the layout of the tank - probably early next year.

 

As for scolys, I absolutely love scolys and other homophyllia corals (obviously!), I just don't like that they are almost entirely wild collected and new reefers have no clue. Seeing scolys in your tank and other experienced reefers tanks is awesome since I know they are being taken care of responsibly, you'll keep them alive indefinitely, and you actually know what you have. What drives me absolutely crazy is how popular they've become with new reefers who have no idea how they are impacting real reefs and just dropping a handful of them into new tanks and killing them like it's no big deal or no different than killing a handful of acro frags.

 

When my bowerbankii reaches the bottom of the tile, I can cut a frag for you. I just don't know if it's going to take 1 year or 5 years 😆

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2 hours ago, pal said:

Rainy day here, so I just read through your whole thread with my coffee. tank looks great! Are you dosing all for reef? If  you are I  have some questions 

no, I haven't gotten this tank to the point of requiring any dosing yet, sigh.  But I have so much ATI essentials two-part left from the IM30L that i'm planning on keep going with that.

 

but this topic has some pretty good info on it.  https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/414176-tropic-marin-all-for-reef-users-thread/

 

 

 

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NoOneLikesADryTang
3 hours ago, pal said:

Rainy day here, so I just read through your whole thread with my coffee. tank looks great! Are you dosing all for reef? If  you are I  have some questions 

Not to take away from Mitten’s thread, but we dose it on four tanks currently (including an SPS dominant nano, and our 80 gallon mixed reef). Feel free to shoot me a question with any questions you might have.

 

Side note - I’m a little surprised you’re not needing to dose yet.  

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6 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Not to take away from Mitten’s thread, but we dose it on four tanks currently (including an SPS dominant nano, and our 80 gallon mixed reef). Feel free to shoot me a question with any questions you might have.

 

Side note - I’m a little surprised you’re not needing to dose yet.  

Spam away!!!  The more the merrier!  I’ll let you know when it’s too far off track, lol 😂 

 

and yeah, been religiously doing water change weekly for replenishing and things had been looking better than mid summer already.  Alk did drop all the way down into mid 5’s about 2-3 months ago?  That’s when I started doing more frequent, but small (think 10% twice a week) wc to bring it back up with RSCP. 

 

 

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No fts today. There’s a big rock sitting in the middle of the display. 
 

The “dragon” type acros don’t get enough love they deserve. This one is coloring up nicely, sorry it’s a little blurry.  The best part is it’s good under both white light and blue light. 

1B400E80-175B-4101-B1B7-228EAFF70255.thumb.jpeg.1c553c870e4ab8db855e8067fee6d17d.jpeg

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8 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

No fts today. There’s a big rock sitting in the middle of the display. 
 

The “dragon” type acros don’t get enough love they deserve. This one is coloring up nicely, sorry it’s a little blurry.  The best part is it’s good under both white light and blue light. 

1B400E80-175B-4101-B1B7-228EAFF70255.thumb.jpeg.1c553c870e4ab8db855e8067fee6d17d.jpeg

Agreed! Love the mix of red and yellow on that piece! 

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17 hours ago, joshthebox said:

Gorgeous clam! And that blue maxima is amazing. 

Thanks!  The more I look, the more I like the pattern on the new one. Hoping this one will make for a stunning piece with possible 3 colors, pink center, blue lips, and cyan rims. 
 

There was also a peachy color one that I was debating on getting, below is the LFS pic of clam I was also looking at. If it’s somehow didn’t get picked up at the local swap this wknd, I might have to get this one too next time I’m in the store, lol. Don’t let his “egg crate” fool you, those are 1.5-1.75” squares, can’t remember exactly. 

image.thumb.png.1a1f86d7dce6ef44fda4ac40b32b9448.png

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Well, the little one looks to be coloring up if that’s even applicable to clams.  it's also rather not fair putting it right next to that intense blue on the big one....but it needs a role model, 🤣

 

1B328E2E-F409-4D9D-9C11-B3059DC54323.thumb.jpeg.22223a1472751f83c38aa8730ca924af.jpeg

 

i also just figured out I’ve been adjusting “tint” the wrong direction, causing the torch to show pinkish purple tips, when they should be neutral gray. 
 

697B615F-1F72-4349-A7AE-3B318029FEB7.thumb.jpeg.1ee8af58d8a08691bc411339e5091593.jpeg

 

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On 10/25/2021 at 2:47 PM, mitten_reef said:

@jservedio and @ECLS Reefer you're the only two camera nerds I know on here.  i'd normally also share/consult with @Cannedfish, but he's doing his disappearing act again.  I came across a new feature for newer-model Olympus cameras.  They now have built-in focus-stacking and bracketing.  so you no longer need a macro slide rail.  There are a few other blogs of their site that discuss the feature - but this one seems most applicable/related to our hobby.

 

https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/learn-center/photography-tips/macro/autumn-mushrooms-focus-stacking-bracketing

 

I thought you might want to keep an eye out for your respective brand of camera equipment to see if they release some similar feature.  or something to keep an eye out for for future... 

 

On 10/26/2021 at 7:25 AM, jservedio said:

The FX Nikons have this - I know it comes on the D850. I have HDR bracketing built in, but I've still got to do focus stacking the old fashioned way by hand. My next camera body will be a used FX, so maybe in like...10 more years I'll be able to do it automated!

 

I have a nikon d610 and a nikon z6, both have the focus stacking features. I tried it on my z6 on a hydrangea bloom. It was quite insane how well this worked. If I remember correctly, the z6 organized the stack into a folder, then it was photoshop that did the work of masking/stitching. the picture ended up being like 2GB before rendering/compression. I can't believe i've never thought to do it with coral macro. I usually just drop the iso, SS and boost the exposure time. that, or i go full lazy mode and boost the iso and ss for lazy boi macro.

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So I had a fun exercise with phone camera the other night.  iirc, one Coral+ T5 bulb, one Blue+ T5 bulb, and one 460nm blue led bar.

All photos were taken straight from the phone, no editing.

 

all 3 lights, phone only

68957099-53A6-458C-975F-596F88EBCC57.thumb.jpeg.bae38ba87b403dd2b80e429302049175.jpeg

 

all 3 lights, with polyplab coral lens filter,
CD92147A-3819-434E-9BD6-1D54E8F0BB10.thumb.jpeg.a4dda810c8e1f50270969f1a168f4560.jpeg

 

turn off the led, just the two T5s

AB3CDB30-6164-424F-8E40-C0B9523EE96F.thumb.jpeg.7f2e7384200df5c0daa60df25b19a053.jpeg

 

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I think I have my holiday shopping plan.

LFS = lps, nps, gorgs etc

Sticks = probably a small pack from FarmerTy if I don’t spend too much on LFS.

I’m no longer in a hurry to add more sticks at this time....

 

I'm also contemplating on redoing the scape slightly before placing more sticks on there.

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  • mitten_reef changed the title to Mitten_reef’s WB55.2

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