Jack's EXT-50 Lagoon

[jservedio]

A photo I took of my rainbow Maxi Mini was used as the cover for the Q4 2021 Reef Hobbyist Magazine and just got announced last night!

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/reefhobbyistmag/posts/4982223325140759

[mitten_reef]

9 minutes ago, jservedio said:

A photo I took of my rainbow Maxi Mini was used as the cover for the Q4 2021 Reef Hobbyist Magazine and just got announced last night!

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/reefhobbyistmag/posts/4982223325140759

Congratulations!!!  Love the colors on that maxi-mini.  

[debbeach13]

How wonderful! Congratulations. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Congrats! I remember when you put that up for POTM and smoked everyone. It’s such a terrific picture. 

[mitten_reef]

20 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Congrats! I remember when you put that up for POTM and smoked everyone. It’s such a terrific picture. 

I def don't enter POTM if he has an entry submitted....lol

[jservedio]

9 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

How wonderful! Congratulations. 

Thank you!

4 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Congrats! I remember when you put that up for POTM and smoked everyone. It’s such a terrific picture. 

Haha I wish that photo was high enough resolution for the cover! That was by far the best photo I've ever taken.

 

They actually saw that photo and wanted me to take higher resolution stuff for the magazine. With my entry-level camera gear, I couldn't get that level of zoom since I couldn't crop. It's a good incentive to buy a proper macro lens!

 

Thank you!

4 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I def don't enter POTM if he has an entry submitted....lol

Lol thanks - but all of the photos you take that you spend time on are all fantastic and you've got so much nice stuff. You have to break out your good camera again and shake off the blue glow!

[mitten_reef]

43 minutes ago, jservedio said:

 

Lol thanks - but all of the photos you take that you spend time on are all fantastic and you've got so much nice stuff. You have to break out your good camera again and shake off the blue glow!

There are so many thing I need to do to bring this tank up to shape, 😩. 

[jservedio]

56 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

There are so many thing I need to do to bring this tank up to shape, 😩. 

You and me both these days. Not having every surface of the tank covered in years of life is a pain. Every rock in the tank is pest algae free, yet the back glass and seams just love growing hair algae soaking up all the nutrients and starving the SPS. It feels like things are still limping since adding the new rock. It's getting there and coming back slower and slower, but with nutrients all over the place, nothing looks too great and I hate doing maintenance outside of quickie water changes without getting your hands wet.

[A.m.P]

14 hours ago, jservedio said:

They actually saw that photo and wanted me to take higher resolution stuff for the magazine. With my entry-level camera gear, I couldn't get that level of zoom since I couldn't crop. It's a good incentive to buy a proper macro lens!

Imo, cheat the resolution if you can, the results can turn out better than the additional pixels sometimes.
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/0727694641/here-s-how-to-pixel-shift-with-any-camera

https://petapixel.com/2015/02/21/a-practical-guide-to-creating-superresolution-photos-with-photoshop/

Granted, if you're already focus stacking that makes this method much more time consuming (multiple slightly-different shots per each shot in the stack).

[jservedio]

3 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Imo, cheat the resolution if you can, the results can turn out better than the additional pixels sometimes.
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/0727694641/here-s-how-to-pixel-shift-with-any-camera

https://petapixel.com/2015/02/21/a-practical-guide-to-creating-superresolution-photos-with-photoshop/

Granted, if you're already focus stacking that makes this method much more time consuming (multiple slightly-different shots per each shot in the stack).

Thanks! I've done this before and actually tried both stitching and focus stacking, but with the nem it just moves around waaaaayyyy too much to do any real focus stacking or stitching even with every pump turned off. The picture I took that won the PotM a while back would have only been 1895 x 2453 when cropped to portrait (rotated it looked really weird, I tried!), and just not crisp enough. The new image I took is 3000x4000, so almost double the resolution and printable at the DPI you need for a print of that size. Though, it really isn't as good of a shot.

 

Here is what the attempt at doing a stack ended up looking like with only 5 images. This is right off the camera before I did any editing to tone back the blue and overexposed and oversaturated areas - there's just too many artifacts and messed up tentacles for something like a magazine cover because of all the movement between shots. To do it right, I would need to have taken maybe 8-10 shots, but in the 2-3 minutes it takes to get them, the nem would have expanded or contracted, folded somewhere, or done some other weird nem thing. Plus, it's only like 3.5" across, so those tentacles are tiny and it's never sitting still. If I want a 1 second exposure, I have to take it 8 or 10 times to get lucky with no movement.

 

Plus, even though I've got a lot of resolution to work with (6000x4000), it's still an entry level consumer grade camera with a much smaller sensor than a pro camera, so it's just not as crisp. A 40mm "macro" lens makes it even more difficult since 1:1 is only about 2" from the front of the lens. If I had better gear (or at least a longer lens), it would have been so much better! It's pretty awesome though to actually be limited by my gear instead of ability...for once in my life...

 

[A.m.P]

You've probably tried this, but you could set up a single-press rapid-shot for 5-8 (1/4-1/2 a second exposure?) and then stack them just for extra fine detail, similar to how some of the multi-lens smartphones handle super resolutions. But that would require really, really messing with f values, iso's, and shutter speeds or even a different lens setup if you're exposing for that long.

In any case your photos already look incredible and, while I definitely see what you're saying, I personally like artifacting and slight ghosting. It's as charming as artistic depth of field choices, but blokes looking to put something on a magazine probably want near-perfect, crisp, full-frame contrasty and sharp images so the point's a bit moot there lol.

I saw you'd mentioned exposure stacking a while back and figured I'd throw the links at you in case they were something new you could try out, had guessed you might already be aware of the tricks.

[Pjanssen]

Congratulations! 

[jservedio]

20 hours ago, A.m.P said:

You've probably tried this, but you could set up a single-press rapid-shot for 5-8 (1/4-1/2 a second exposure?) and then stack them just for extra fine detail, similar to how some of the multi-lens smartphones handle super resolutions. But that would require really, really messing with f values, iso's, and shutter speeds or even a different lens setup if you're exposing for that long.

In any case your photos already look incredible and, while I definitely see what you're saying, I personally like artifacting and slight ghosting. It's as charming as artistic depth of field choices, but blokes looking to put something on a magazine probably want near-perfect, crisp, full-frame contrasty and sharp images so the point's a bit moot there lol.

I saw you'd mentioned exposure stacking a while back and figured I'd throw the links at you in case they were something new you could try out, had guessed you might already be aware of the tricks.

I've never done burst mode when taking multiple shots and since at very close range vibration is a killer (with a lightweight tripod at least), though I would imagine pixel shifting could eliminate most of that. I'll have to give it a try some time. Thanks for the article and I'm glad someone likes my photos!

 

But yeah, there are so many clever ways of getting more resolution, more detail, and more depth and I've played with many of them, but definitely not all of them. I am always interested in learning new techniques so feel free to use my build thread if you've got cool photography ideas, I definitely want to hear about them! For landscapes, pixel shifting and stitching are awesome and I do use them from time to time, but with macros it's not quite as effective unless you are shooting something that isn't alive and can't move. If you really like doing macros, you should take a look at borrowing a StackShot or something similar. Basically, it's a motorized and computerized macro rail that you set the number of steps, distance between steps (down to something like 0.1mm), and the number of exposures per step and then just press a button. As you would expect, they are very expensive and like $600-1200. Does everything I spend an hour on in seconds. I make do with my $30 Amazon Special!

 

I do lots of stacking, but never played with a stackshot in my own tank. I'm going to see about getting a longer 85-105mm macro this year, but my other hobbies make me want to get the 10/12-24mm zoom lens and it's a LOT cheaper!

 

I think this is my favorite stack that I've done since it came out very sharp with little noise, even though the zooxanthellae look like noise!

 

[jservedio]

The reef gods giveth and the reef gods taketh away...

 

It was like the thunderdome up on my SPS rock the last week or so and my Bubblegum Digi got the worst of it during a 5-way battle triggered by me being careless when fragging (it would have happened no matter what eventually...). I clipped a small piece of monti confusa that was encroaching on my slimer and it fell onto the digi and I made the mistake of just leaving it there like I always do when trimming pieces too small to mount. The digi attacked the confusa sitting on top of it and killed it. That triggered the big confusa colony, the slimer, the pinky, and my red robin to all go into attack mode. Two days later the entire core of the bubblegum digi is dead. It looks like the fighting has stopped for now and all the acros are looking great (no damage), the confusa is not looking great, and I'm just hoping the digi survives. There are two small pieces of it behind the rest of the colony that are entirely separate and will survive thanks to me being lazy when trimming, but I'm hoping I don't need to chisel out 5" of dead monti.

 

Here's what's left of it, and the confusa lost a lot of color as well:

 

 

 

On the other hand, the slimer is looking better than ever and has fully beaten back the confusa that has been smothering it for years now. Every time it would grow a base, the confusa would grow right over it and kill it. The base is now a bit more than 2" higher than where I first glued it down:

 

 

 

On the opposite side of the SPS island, the Boomberry is growing super well right out of the ex-monti cap it's been invading for a long time:

 

 

 

On the other side of the tank, everything else is doing fantastic. The GHA is all but gone now, entirely off the rocks, and receding back in the sand and my back glass even with the extremely heavy feeding to keep the nutrients up along with the AB+.

 

My ancient platygyra has now completed making a ball and is quite a bit bigger than my fist now around 4x3x3". It only took...8 years from a 3/4" frag

 

 

 

My Utter Chaos on my newest rock in the tank are spreading very, very quickly and are just over 30 polyps now:

 

 

 

And my blasto island is starting to grow little new red/teal polyps out from underneath the green/purple blasto! That's not a new frag that I got.

 

 

 

Maybe it's time to run some carbon!

[jservedio]

One of my RFAs decided it didn't like it's spot so it crawled right up into a garden of zoas and surprisingly, is being extremely well behaved! The last remnants of GHA are hanging on, but I haven't cleaned anything or done a water change in a few weeks and it isn't getting worse. Hopefully another water change or two and one more cleaning and I'll be totally through with it. Skimmer has been off for a few weeks and the algae is still getting better, so hopefully the SPS that lost color will start coming back again. I may end up losing the front half of the monti (it's still looking rough and being beaten on), but the back is totally fine, polyps out, and not terribly colored up.

 

 

Here is where my orange RFA walked to - hopefully it stays put there since I really like it where it is now. The acro has almost been entirely cut out, so there is some algae growing everywhere I cut, but I'm waiting for things to color back up before cutting the rest out. Having a "new tank" again sucks! I do not miss this phase.

 

 

 

My big favia keeps on getting bigger and bigger and is doing extremely well.

 

 

 

While these aren't great pictures (no tripod or anything and the pumps were on), I just wanted to get a progress shot for some of the acans I glued down a few months ago. Tons of new polyps! This red/pink frag started with just 3 polyps back in May:

 

 

 

And this standard red/blue acan has blown up as well from just 5 polyps back at the very end of May with even more polyps on the back side:

 

[SeaFurn]

On 10/21/2021 at 1:32 PM, jservedio said:

One of my RFAs decided it didn't like it's spot so it crawled right up into a garden of zoas and surprisingly, is being extremely well behaved!

Funny how they just up and move, right? Mine behave with zoas - but do not tolerate ricordea. Complete warfare. 
Many of my nems do tend to move right before a spawn. Trying to find the optimal position if you know what I mean! 
 

Everything is looking amazing as always! I wish my Utter Chaos looked that good. 

[jservedio]

On 10/29/2021 at 10:16 PM, SeaFurn said:

Funny how they just up and move, right? Mine behave with zoas - but do not tolerate ricordea. Complete warfare. 
Many of my nems do tend to move right before a spawn. Trying to find the optimal position if you know what I mean! 
 

Everything is looking amazing as always! I wish my Utter Chaos looked that good. 

Thank you! I'm actually kind of surprised the UC are doing as well as they are since the other zoas/palys on that rock are not growing nearly as quickly. Thankfully it's easy enough to remove for some quality fragging.

 

I've actually never really had my nems move around much at all. The only time I've ever had them move was due to the BTAs getting a little too big/aggressive and forcing the smaller nems to run for the hills. Other than that, they've stayed remarkably consistent in their locations for the past 6 or 7 years. These RFAs definitely like moving far more than BTAs and Maxi-Minis! Thankfully they play really well with everything they touch. I'd be shocked if they spawned since I've never had any of my other nems or corals spawn in more than 10 years (and never attempted to do get them to), but it'd be a cool surprise.

[TheKleinReef]

just doom scrolled through this entire thread.

Holy moly this tank is gorgeous. Can't wait to see it progress.

[jservedio]

17 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

just doom scrolled through this entire thread.

Holy moly this tank is gorgeous. Can't wait to see it progress.

Thank you! It's slowly coming together - just much, much slower than it needs to! I'm still dealing with keeping my nutrients stable and the remnants of the GHA, but it's starting to bounce back pretty well. Hopefully by the new year everything in the tank will be moving in the right direction once again. Every time I do a water change I am pulling out less and less algae, so at least I'm seeing improvement.

 

Unfortunately our garage has been out of commission for a few months because of construction delays on a screened in porch, so my QT tank has been dry and my big 55g ATO system has been on hold for a long time. As soon as that is done I can start QTing fish again which will hopefully help with the low nutrient issues! It's definitely not easy to keep my nutrients up through feeding alone with only 2 clownfish with 3x the volume of my last tank and probably 8-10 pounds of new dry rock soaking up phosphates. I really can't wait for this tank to be mature and the sump to fill up with detritus so I don't have to worry about pale coral ever again.

[jservedio]

I'm super glad I didn't attempt to add cyphastrea to my 20g. I've only had this for 5 months and it's already more than 3x the size it was when I got it. It's growing so fast the new growth is basically entirely translucent and then filling in with color after a month or two. Never saw an LPS grow this fast before. I'm really happy I put this on it's own rock...

 

[A.m.P]

Cyphastrea are frequently referred to as Sps, not that it really means anything in particular lol.
They just, depending on who you ask, have a reputation for growing very quickly and are known for totally-devouring rockwork and smothering out neighbors.
 

Granted they're merulinid's, but in the context of our bizarre reefing terminology they can branch, they form a thin plating skeleton, grow extremely quickly, and I've seen larger acro feeders than a cyphastrea polyp.
If anything I'd place them as stlyoconiella which can adapt to higher light, grow as quickly as a monti, and beat the stuffing out of anything near them like a favia.
Which makes quite a bit of sense when you consider they're in the same family as hydnophora (which we also classify as an exceedingly-fleshy sps) and largely behave the exact same way.

[jservedio]

19 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Cyphastrea are frequently referred to as Sps, not that it really means anything in particular lol.
They just, depending on who you ask, have a reputation for growing very quickly and are known for totally-devouring rockwork and smothering out neighbors.
 

Granted they're merulinid's, but in the context of our bizarre reefing terminology they can branch, they form a thin plating skeleton, grow extremely quickly, and I've seen larger acro feeders than a cyphastrea polyp.
If anything I'd place them as stlyoconiella which can adapt to higher light, grow as quickly as a monti, and beat the stuffing out of anything near them like a favia.
Which makes quite a bit of sense when you consider they're in the same family as hydnophora (which we also classify as an exceedingly-fleshy sps), which largely behave the exact same way.

 

Interesting, thank you! I never even bothered to look them up in much detail since they are so easy to keep, but that makes total sense. I've got two other merulinids with a platygyra and a merulina ampliata, which is similar in that it'll plate, encrust, and branch (with a much thicker skeleton). The one thing they definitely all have in common is how stupidly aggressive they can get. Not a terrible trade off for how easy they are to keep and are among my oldest corals - both colonies are 9 years old now.

 

I've got the cyphastrea placed more like a chalice in low light/low flow and it seems to be doing well. Though, I'm sure it'd be just as happy in high light and high flow. I guess I'll have to decide sooner than later what else is going on that rock so I can get it down while it still has a chance to establish itself!

[jservedio]

I feel like I am almost through the "new tank" issues now that this tank will be 1 year old tomorrow (though most of the dry rock is several months short of that) and I'm hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. As the GHA falls away from the dry rock, I am seeing lots of purple underneath. The bleached confusa colony didn't recede at all and is slowly starting to get it's color back , though it'll be a long road like any bleachibng. While I need to cut away a bunch of dead skeleton from my digi after it's fight with a bunch of acros, everything else is growing like mad. I'd slacked off on testing alk since I figured growth was slowing down from the algae issues and it'd slowly creep up and then back down after recovery, but I was way off - growth actually sped up quite a bit and I was down at 5.9 dkh - oops! After Thanksgiving, I will be picking up a few new acros finally - found a great source locally with a vivid confetti and and orange passion and some others I was looking at!

 

Anyway, here's the pictures!

 

My Boomberry is has almost entirely finished off and overtaken the red cap it's colonizing. It's tough to get scale, but the cap is maybe 2.5" across and the new branch coming up is like 1.5":

 

 

 

 

My Pinky the Bear is still growing base after...3 years...and has now entirely grown over the 1.5" tall frag neighbor it killed a few years ago and is looking like it'll throw out some branches off it. Hopefully as color starts returning to the acros, this and the boomberry won't look exactly alike! Pretty interesting growth:

 

 

 

 

While certainly not at the peak of color, the Bowerbanki is back on the growth train and I see a few new polyps and a whole load more skeleton. Can't wait until the void underneath is totally filled so it starts growing quickly for once.

 

 

 

 

My blastos are doing pretty well and growing quickly and I need to find a couple more interesting ones to add to this island. It never looks good in pictures because of how flourescent the red and green ones are, but the purple colony in the back is pretty big at 4x4x2"and actually half-way decent in person under white lights.

 

 

 

My big favia continues to grow and grow and grow... Scale is hard with macro-ish shots, but that thing is a solid 4" ball of skeleton. No idea why it didn't just encrust the rock undernath.

 

 

 

 

And finally, in the dark back corner of my tank where GHA still grows well, my zombie stunner chalice is almost back!

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

I thought I was lucky and the GHA  went a few months in.. but since July I have been having periodic cyano, which has contributed to killing off my SPS (not that I had much anyway but it just covers anything in its way)

[reefist]

I love my 50 EXT! Yours is beautiful, nice work comrade!