Reefers Cafe Forums

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by johnmaloney

I didn't know the resized them for you, thats great! I have been over cropping photos and scaling....

they have a bulk loader as well,. where you can uplaod lots of pics in no time.

[johnmaloney]

I did another round of aquascaping. Here is the link to the zip package:
http://www.reefcleaners.org/images/round2.zip

[johnmaloney]

Here is a FTS pic from the project. It has now become a Florida Macro biotope tank with a few zoas and some sponges. This mixture is now like the shallow reef I dive, mostly macro with a few corals. (Although at night the corals get much larger, or at least are more visible.)



Here is an updated list of the tank specs:

The tank:
Birthdate: March 6, 2008
10 gallon kit at Wal-Mart
No liverock, but has about 3 lbs. of base rock that might have some life by now.
Seawater from a "beach reef" (Couldn't use Instant Ocean and stay under $100)
Mangroves for filtering
After cycling, 4 mangrove sprouts and some chaeto were added. Within days, parameters are near perfect, and we are now going to dose nitrates, silicates and phosphorous, to test growth rates and so forth. (To noobies: don't do this).
2 20watt 50/50 Coralife compact fluorescents keep everything growing.
1 outside light for the mangroves,
The tank was jump started with used filter media, and some live sand seed from an established tank.

The inhabitants:

2 Rock boring Urchins (Small)
3 Seargent Major Fry
1 Pinfish Fry
1 Wrasse Blenny Fry
1 Goby
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
2 Shore Shrimp
1 Sea Hare (Small)
1 Spotted Sea Hare (Very Small)
1 Thorny Oyster
3 Feather Dusters
2 Chitons
10 Dwarf Ceriths
5 Nerites (1 tesselated, 1 antillean, 1 four tooth, 1 bleeding tooth, 1 virgin- still need an emerald nerite)
2 Florida Ceriths
2 Stocky Ceriths
3 Fly Speckled Ceriths
5 Zig Zags
5 Planaxis Snails
1 Orange Encrusting Sponge
1 Crayfish

Macros:
Halimeda Incrassata
Halimeda Monile
Bryothamnion triquetrum
Codium Isthmocladium
Codium Sp.
Penicillus Capitatus
Caulerpa prolifera (when it isn't wiped out by the sea hare)
Caulerpa mexicana (when it isn't wiped out by the sea hare)
Chaeto
Grape Caulerpa (when it isn't wiped out by the sea hare)
Sargassum
Scroll Algae
Dictyota ciliolata
Gracilaria verrucosa
Bostrychia montagnei
1 yet unidentified "red bush algae"
1 yet unidentified "red twisting kelp looking thing" algae
1 yet unidentified "light pink bushy stalk algae" it is my favorite red algae, a camera in my hands never picks up the detial of this beautiful macro.

I will be adding Udotea spinulosa and turbinaria turbinata soon.

[johnmaloney]

Added 2 marginellas. I know they aren't reef safe, but they look so cool. I will be watching them though.

[Deepwater]

Sweet little macro tank john.

[johnmaloney]

thanks deep. do you know any tricks to getting glare down when you take photos? a link will suffice. appreciate it in advance. (now you have to give me a link)

[EliteTwit]

No flash. When you take pics you're supposed to only have the daylights on. Turn actinics off and with a 10k daylight it's like using the flash. True colors of the coral. If you are getting glare from the lighting outside the tank take the pics in the dark. They'll still come up in the tank.

[gsago1979]

Great job on the tank...really impressive collection of inverts too...Cant wait to see this down the road a ways..

[Psychographic]

Originally Posted by johnmaloney

do you know any tricks to getting glare down when you take photos? a link will suffice. appreciate it in advance. (now you have to give me a link)

Try taking the pic at a slightly downward angle, this way the light is'nt coming at you. Something i just found on my camera (after 5 yrs.) is the "Exposure Compensation" When I turn mine down, it takes most of the glare out.

[johnmaloney]

Thanks a lot for the tips. The tank has changed now to a coral tank. I like it, but it is getting broken down again. I like the building part more that the final part. I will see if I have any pics from the changes I made to the tanks.

[eklikewhoa]

Awesome looking tank!

[johnmaloney]

Thanks! I got the names for the algae now:
red bush -apraragopsis taxiforma
red kelp looking thing- titanaphora

This tank now is a coral tank though. I will get some new pics. I always change my tanks like after two weeks of it looking good. It went through another two rounds of aquascaping before I got rid of the stuff. (The rocks are still there though) Addded Halymenia, Ulva and some rare macros before I did though, should have taken pics.