November nTOTM!

[AdriftQuasar]

Simply brilliant camera work? Are you a trained photographer?

[louist]

Originally posted by AdriftQuasar
Simply brilliant camera work? Are you a trained photographer?

Thanks

Nope, I am a self taught enthusiast I do shoot "professionally" for a fine food magazine, but primarily I just take photos for the kick of it. After all, I can't paint for crap and my sculpting skill wasn't too hot either

My job has nothing to do with photography either

I just picked up some pinkish zoanthids for $3 today. Hopefully they will look nice. I am trading for some purple/orange and yellow/blue ones tomorrow, so will update with new photos then. The tank has turned into a mess since the last update, I needed somewhere to place frags, so I made a hanging frag rack!

DIY frag rack:
1x box of Ferrero Roche (the square ones)
2x length of fishing string

1. undo 5 month of gym training. 1 box in a sitting might not be too wise
2. take the bottom 1/2 of the box and drill it full of holes like swiss cheese
3. tie fishing string through 2 of the holes and tie it to the legs of your light. Use velcro endings for a "quick release" mechanism if you wish.

Those plastic boxes are food grade PE, so will be perfectly safe to use in the aquarium.

[chrisstam]

Beautifull, awesome pictures!
Could you tell us something about the type of your camera?
Thanks for sharing...

[All Delight]

very nice tank. awesome pics.

[Alejandro]

outstanding nano reef. And obviusly you are an expert photographer.

Is it possible a general picture off your setup, lamp, etc?.

I'am wonder that you don't use skimmer for SPS.

[Chihuahua6]

Wow. The tank is beautiful, very balanced as far as form and color go. Your photos are amazing too. I truly enjoyed every one of them. I have one question and I may make a seperate post about it. How do you keep down microbubbles from the Aquaclear? Mine causes the rising bubbles to splash on the glass on the underside of my PC fixture. I am upgrading to halides next week and there is no protective lens so I can't use it until I figure how to keep the bubbles down.

[louist]

Amanda, thank you for your compliments!

Some people glue baffled into the AquaClear mod to prevent macro bubbles. I have filter floss in there which traps most of the bubbles. I still get a few though. Use the baffle mod if you are going to do the mod.

Halide without protective lens? If this is a 150w MH, I would be very concerned about the UV radiation emitted by the bulb. The splash guard also serve as an UV filter.

[louist]

Look what my tank for for xmas today!

I got this 6025 from Michael of Reefing Life. Top notch efficiency and customer service.

I like the flow. It's a gentle 2500l/h. My old AC50 was 1000l/h in a water jet. Now the tank's circulation totals 3500l/h, which equates to approx. 100x turn over........... gosh did I make a calculation mistake?

Eye candy:
1:


2:


3:


4:

[mr9iron]

Absolutely beautiful. Congratulation on nTOTM.

[cmador]

Props on a beautiful tank. I would love to see where exactly you placed the tunze in your tank. I am amazed that you do not use a skimmer and that you are using tap water. Just goes to show that there are many ways to be successful in this hobby.

[louist]

cmador: Photos of the 6025 placement will need to wait until this tank's make over. When the return pump arrives, I will be taking everything out into tubs and drilling the tank for an external durso. There will be a BIG refugium and a frag tray.

Right now, my DIY frag tray is covering the AUD$99 view

I guess using tap water is surprising to some people, however tap water in my area is very clean. My tap water has 0 nitrate & phosphate, and comes at a pH of 7. It's no RO/DI, but it's not too bad. Where I work, we get Millipore reagent grade RO on tap, and it's almost limitless! But I don't have a tanker at home, so it's inconvenient for me to transport water :P

I don't use a skimmer, but I do almost 50% water change every week. Sure, there are many ways to be successful in this hobby, but what we do still need sound logic underpinning it

[cmador]

Originally posted by louist

Sure, there are many ways to be successful in this hobby, but what we do still need sound logic underpinning it

Well said.

[Brewen]

Awesome looking tank and great pics, thanks.

[MaryBebo]

Beautiful! Congratulations !!! Great photography work too

[BigBlue187]

Awsome tank and awsome pics. You did a great job on that tank. I hope my nano turns out that good

[Duce]

Very nice.

[louist]

So, long time no update. The tank has received an overhaul. It is now drilled and plumbed with a big blue tub that I got from Bunning's.

The tank upgrade wasn't without its casualties despite the technical side went smoothly. I lost 2 Acropora colonies and a few frags from RTN due to parameter fluctuation. In addition, my mandarin was scared half to death by the sound of the glass drilling. She refused to move for about 4 days and I had to restart her feeding training.

Anyhow, a few weeks on, the parameters are back in check, and the mandarin is eating again. There are a few additions also, but I will let the photos do the talking.

1: The new plumbing has arrived!


2: "Schematics" of the external durso and return line


3: New green skirt, purple center zoanthids. I can't believe these were at the LFS for like 2 months? no one loved them....


4: Updated FTS. Please excuse the golf tee. That frag was browning out, I couldn't bare it.


5: Red Acans. Growing very well!


6: Blenny


7: More blenny

[louist]

8: Yet more blenny. Such a character this one.


9: Blue Acropora


10: Purple based, orange polyp Montipora digita


11: Pink pocillopora colony that has some coloring up to do. The center of the polyps are fluro green.


12: The ghetto sump.


13: IceProbe now on sump


14: External durso with adjustable air control


15: Closeup of external durso

[louist]

16: Top


17: Top. Doesn't the water look rendered?!


18: Return pipe


19: FTS - L


20: FTS - F


21: FTS - R


22: FTS - in situ

[CorruptedFish]

louis, how do you get so close with the mpe?
Im guessing you have to move stuff around in the tank. Mainly bring it as close to the front as possible, then move it back to where you like it?
Im really looking forward to using my Sigma 150 and mpe!

Try this if you havent already, aim a flash (I suggest 580EX) over the top of the tank facing down and use the mt-24ex directly at the subject.

[CamBarr]

great tank

[danoreef]

Unbelievable photos!

[The_Bandit]

Louis, good to see you getting some credit for your wonderful tank

[louist]

Bandit, looks like you have found my tank here on RC!

New update:

I got a nice pink stylopora this week. I also moved some corals around, but mostly they are getting glued down and won't be moved again. My new year's resolution is to leave this tank alone and just let the corals grow. I think they all deserve a break from me!

1: An Acropora crab that decided to host an abalone?!


2: New zoanthids from a fellow reefer


3: The inners of a Tubastraea polyp. You can see the mysenterial filaments and a mysis shrimp in the process of being digested by the left polyp. This photo is a combination of 2 photos to increase the DoF.


4: Latest FTP


5: FTP - top


6: FTP - bottom

[louist]

7: My tri-color branching Montipora sp.


8: Again


9: Little Acropora corner. The green one in the background has purple tips! The one to the right is purple with blue tips.


10: New Stylopora, home to 1 Acropora crab.


11: Zoanthids from Matt Richards.


12: Pink zoanthids still changing color! It's now green skirt with speckled metallic pink center and a green mouth!