40B Build/Test Tank

TaylorPilot · Apr 27, 2016

Oh, and ignore all that fuzzy green stuff on the rocks. It must be some weird artifact from the camera. ;)

hybridazn · Apr 27, 2016

Shooting in heavy blue is pretty difficult for me as well. I MIGHT have figured out a decent setting for it and then finish it in post editing, but I'll let you know how it works out haha.

d2mini · Apr 27, 2016

Taylor, those are actually pretty good for shooting under blue T5's.
I almost always shoot under my normal full intensity daylight lighting so the light is much whiter.
And I only shoot in raw format because the camera hasn't applied any of it's own setting to the images like it does with jpg. And all the pixel information is retained, unlike with jpg.
This way when I bring the images into Adobe Lightroom, I can use the white balance sliders (along with saturation, contrast, etc) to tweak the color to how I see it with my own eyes, and it doesn't degrade the image.

The other thing you can try is setting a custom white balance (check the manual for your camera) using a plastic gray card submerged in the water under the same lighting.

So it's really not about settings (outside of choosing the correct aperture, shutter speed and ISO for good exposure) but all about white balance and being able to tweak it in post.

TaylorPilot · Apr 27, 2016

Yea, those were pretty much what I tried. Except I don't have an 18% grey card. I just used the sand as a white balance and it ran the slider all the way to the edge. I guess there just isn't enough spectrum coming out of those lights to render good colors. But the timer had turned off the MH before I got the camera out last night. I may try again tonight. This kit lens annoys me, I really want to get a macro lens, but I am unsure what I want to do. I am really looking hard and the mirrorless Sony Alpha series. That A7RII looks awesome, and it seems like the are making new impressive lenses every few months. They just came out with a really nice 24-70 2.8. They also have a nice 90mm macro I want. Too many hobbies and not enough money! LOL

TaylorPilot · Apr 27, 2016

Oh, and the rose had moved this morning. When I got up, he was in that Tupperware container attached to a little piece of rubble. He was fully extended and living the good life. Hopefully he will get comfortable with my lighting and let me put him somewhere more visually appealing. I think I may want to go a little more blue with the next bulb. The 14.5K is a nice white, but it drowns out my two t5 entirely. I may switch from the coral to the crystal in September.

TaylorPilot · Apr 27, 2016

I took a few more today with the lights on and they came out better. I need a sharper lens! LOL It is crazy how the Rose climbed into the container overnight on his own and attached to the rubble. There was a mushroom in there....

Of course Harper wouldn't let me take pictures of the fish until I took one of her.

TaylorPilot · Jul 12, 2016

Well while I was on vacations for 12 days, my brother-in-law was feeding the tank and unfortunately we lost the firefish, the fire shrimp and the BTA let go and got eaten by a power head. Only good new is that over that same time I got my algae scrubber delivered. After being super sick for 2 weeks I finally took a moment to get my Turbo Aquatics L2 algae scrubber installed.

My sump is fairly small so I had to shoehorn it in. The only place to fit is was to the left of the skimmer straddling the skimmer baffle.

I drew out a plate that would fit inside the lip of the tank and had two holes for the two drains to fit through. I even notched it for my emergency drain line.

Here is the scrubber with the pipes cut to length.

Here it is in place. It is very quiet. I was thinking I was going to be some rubber feet on the bottom to help isolate any vibrations, but using the soft silicone tube kept that from being an issue. From a few feet away it is silent.

After 5 days we have started getting a decent amount of green "stuff" on the screen. I have actually had it up for 7 days now, and every day the algae gets a little thicker. I am impressed with how fast it has started growing, the mortar screen seems to be helping to get it going pretty quick.

Once this bad boy starts growing in thick, I think I'll be able to feed as much as I want!

TaylorPilot · Jul 12, 2016

OK, you talked me into it. Here is a day 7 photo. LOL

benapilot · Jul 12, 2016

Bummer about your BTA! Mine has been cowering in a corner while the tank is going through it's "season of neglect"- no skimmer, Ecoxotic LEDs are failing left and right, can't bring myself to change the GFO/Carbon on a tank "that's going away soon, anyway!" Summer has been so busy, I haven't had the time to get my new 75 moved in!

I'll be curious how your scrubber works out!

TaylorPilot · Jul 12, 2016

So am I. I think it is a great simple means of nutrient export. Don't have to change out media, or dose anything. It also removes allot of other stuff like heavy metals, buffers PH if you run on a reverse daylight cycle. Looking at the amount of algae others are growing with this setup, I don't see how there could be any nutrients left to grow algae on the rocks! LOL

hybridazn · Jul 12, 2016

Bummer about the losses :(

But the scrubber looks nice! I keep going back and forth on if I want to build one or not for my tank

Wiz · Jul 12, 2016

Great update. Sry for the losses. Im Interrested in how the scrubber works out too. :-)

TaylorPilot · Jul 12, 2016

Well give me 4-6 weeks and I'll have some opinions for you! LOL I also got some Aquaforest Reef Salt to try out. My LFS got some and I figured with all the hype lets give it a try. When you first open the container there is a sheet of paper with all the numbers for that batch of salt. All I can say so far is that it mixed up really clear. Price seems reasonable as well. We will see.....