Watchguy's SPS Addiction (photo intense)

[watchguy123]

Very nice.

thank you, I enjoy following your thread

Thank you for sharing. Awesome pics

I get so much fun out of taking and sharing pictures.

Can anyone articulate the differences between CC Full Tilt, TGC Favia of the Gods and JF Yellow Submarine.

 

[watchguy123]

This is a close up view of an unusual monti, a friend shared it with me. Check out the color of the polyps, crazy.

Another pretty acro just beginning to show some colors

 

[Rakie]

those both have a ton of potential mark!

 

[aquavista99]

Very nice updates, Mark! Mother Nature can turn our lives upside down quickly. Watching a new reef grow out can be very rewarding. You are off to an amazing start/rebuild.

 

[watchguy123]

those both have a ton of potential mark!

Thank you, Rakie.

Very nice updates, Mark! Mother Nature can turn our lives upside down quickly. Watching a new reef grow out can be very rewarding. You are off to an amazing start/rebuild.

Hey, thank you. It is fun watching things develop and grow.

I really like this little frag. Blue growth tips which are large and a pretty pink body.

In the past, I didn't have much success with acans but in my reincarnation, I seem to be doing better. I have this growing on a polymer, Reef Welder. The polymer is interesting and it is developing coralline algae where it is getting light. I have this piece half shaded. It will be interesting whenever I frag this to see what the polymer is like cutting it.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wowie zowie!

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Watchguy all I can say is wow! I have kept salt tanks for 27 years. Your shots are stunning. As is your coral coloration. You sir have set the bar. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of the restocking.

 

[watchguy123]

Wowie zowie!

Yes, that is one crazy looking monti

Watchguy all I can say is wow! I have kept salt tanks for 27 years. Your shots are stunning. As is your coral coloration. You sir have set the bar. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of the restocking.

Your comments are truly flattering. You know I have been shooting under my blue reefbrites which maximizes color and fluorescence but that is my favorite viewing time. I have metal halides and t5's but nothing really compares to the blue leds for enjoying the colors aglow.


This is a pretty sps that I am not sure how it will develop. I don't know if that yellow around the corallite edges is going to blossom or not. I have a rule that I have to see the mother colony before i purchase a frag but this is just another example of a rule broken.

The one below although it has some similarity to the acro above, it really is very different in color and morphology. I have a lot of purplish acros and I think there are a lot of variations of purple or purplish/pink to purplish/blue. Plus I like to think that most of these acros have different morphology and growth patterns. I will let you judge.

Acans seem to be happy in my tank which is very exciting. These are Yuki's perfect 10 that survived my power outage somehow. Plus you can see some more LPS scattered about as well as a pretty SPS colony to the right.

 

[watchguy123]

Cherry Bomb, really large corallites.

Z's USC Favia, when this recently cut frag matures, it will get a rich yellow gold border/rim. I cut it in order to have two colonies growing.

 

[justingraham]

I’m really enjoying ur updates

 

[watchguy123]

I’m really enjoying ur updates

Thank you, I am also glad that I have been able to reboot. A lot of friends helped me out one way or another to get started again.

Another pretty addition although a small one

I have two pieces of this chalice, the bigger one is in a difficult spot to get a good photo so this is the smaller one. I think the BPC Flame Thrower Chalice is really pretty.

A few more LPS scattered about:

 

[watchguy123]

A couple more blastos

My original RR USA Pink Floyd is the middle frag. A friend gave me two pieces to help kick start my colony.

 

[maxwell]

Hi watchguy
Love the pictures can you tell me more on the photography what equipment and setting you use and also I read an article on which salt you used and are you using it on the new system. thanks Bill

 

[watchguy123]

Hi watchguy
Love the pictures can you tell me more on the photography what equipment and setting you use and also I read an article on which salt you used and are you using it on the new system. thanks Bill

Thanks, Bill.

This last batch of pictures are all under reefbrite blue leds. I use a Sony A7riii mirrorless camera with a Sony 90 mm macro lens and a 85B orange lens filter. Although I sometimes use the camera's AWB, for this batch I set it at a 9900K. My camera settings are typically shutter speed 1/60, F 8 and ISO 400 -800 depending on shading. I use lightroom for post, and I generally adjust the temp to 20,000 plus K, I also will slide the tint slightly to the right, positive, increase exposure, I reduce the highlights and shadows, and I reduce vibrance into the negative--around -13, I leave saturation at zero. The post adjustments in lightroom are my best effort to get correct color. I am aiming for mirroring what I see in the tank under blue leds. The rock work always seems to come out funky though. I have acquaintances that use Canon and it is different from either Sony or Nikon in that Canon seems to be much more capable of handling the blue led lighting with its AWB. I have considered switching to Canon for that reason. Bottomline, blue leds are really challenging to get accurate color rendition which is exactly what I aim for. I hand hold the camera and shoot through a top down viewer. I use to use an Avast marine but somehow got a drop of super glue on it--hobbyist hazard and so now I have been using the Building an Obsession top down viewer that attaches to the camera to shoot with.

When I take photos under t5s and/or metal halides I don't use the orange lens filter. I still use lightroom for post but usually only to adjust temperature to 20k with some very minor tweaks.

Cameras and reef lighting are tough. I hope my information on what I do is helpful. I really wish my pictures were better. Hopefully along with whatever criticism I get on my technique, maybe someone will also share some helpful tips to improve.

The Samsung phone (I have an apple iPhone), seems to take really good pictures and deals well with reef lighting. I have friends that use it and I like their pictures.

I don't think salt brands make much of a difference in a reef tank unless there is a hiccup. The hiccup typically is that sometimes there are inconsistencies, i.e. some component(s) is way off, and then things can go haywire.

I use Fritz in their pre-measured bags so I can mix abut 43 gallons at a time. I like their dKh value. I think as long as you understand what parameters the salt is supposed to provide in terms of dKh, they all work well. If you are doing 10-25% water changes, then the salt's dKh doesn't really change your tanks dKh very much anyway. Nonetheless, I simply have chosen a salt with a dKh close to what I aim for. So far, I haven't had any hiccups with Fritz. I do about 20-25% water changes every two weeks in my 180 gallon tank. So I mix the bag into 43 gallons of RO/DI water and use the whole batch of new saltwater on the same day of mixing. I usually mix for a 2-4 hours, let it sit for another 2-4 hours or so and then utilize it. I focus on dKh with my salt choice and not on Calcium, Magnesium or other elements.

 

[najer]

Thanks, Bill.

This last batch of pictures are all under reefbrite blue leds. I use a Sony A7riii mirrorless camera with a Sony 90 mm macro lens and a 85B orange lens filter. Although I sometimes use the camera's AWB, for this batch I set it at a 9900K. My camera settings are typically shutter speed 1/60, F 8 and ISO 400 -800 depending on shading. I use lightroom for post, and I generally adjust the temp to 20,000 plus K, I also will slide the tint slightly to the right, positive, increase exposure, I reduce the highlights and shadows, and I reduce vibrance into the negative--around -13, I leave saturation at zero. The post adjustments in lightroom are my best effort to get correct color. I am aiming for mirroring what I see in the tank under blue leds. The rock work always seems to come out funky though. I have acquaintances that use Canon and it is different from either Sony or Nikon in that Canon seems to be much more capable of handling the blue led lighting with its AWB. I have considered switching to Canon for that reason. Bottomline, blue leds are really challenging to get accurate color rendition which is exactly what I aim for. I hand hold the camera and shoot through a top down viewer. I use to use an Avast marine but somehow got a drop of super glue on it--hobbyist hazard and so now I have been using the Building an Obsession top down viewer that attaches to the camera to shoot with.

When I take photos under t5s and/or metal halides I don't use the orange lens filter. I still use lightroom for post but usually only to adjust temperature to 20k with some very minor tweaks.

Cameras and reef lighting are tough. I hope my information on what I do is helpful. I really wish my pictures were better. Hopefully along with whatever criticism I get on my technique, maybe someone will also share some helpful tips to improve.

The Samsung phone (I have an apple iPhone), seems to take really good pictures and deals well with reef lighting. I have friends that use it and I like their pictures.

I don't think salt brands make much of a difference in a reef tank unless there is a hiccup. The hiccup typically is that sometimes there are inconsistencies, i.e. some component(s) is way off, and then things can go haywire.

I use Fritz in their pre-measured bags so I can mix abut 43 gallons at a time. I like their dKh value. I think as long as you understand what parameters the salt is supposed to provide in terms of dKh, they all work well. If you are doing 10-25% water changes, then the salt's dKh doesn't really change your tanks dKh very much anyway. Nonetheless, I simply have chosen a salt with a dKh close to what I aim for. So far, I haven't had any hiccups with Fritz. I do about 20-25% water changes every two weeks in my 180 gallon tank. So I mix the bag into 43 gallons of RO/DI water and use the whole batch of new saltwater on the same day of mixing. I usually mix for a 2-4 hours, let it sit for another 2-4 hours or so and then utilize it. I focus on dKh with my salt choice and not on Calcium, Magnesium or other elements.

I know I am a lazy reefer, great reply, if I did water changes that sounds good. I use a Nikon camera, the "overcast" wb setting fits my light well.

 

[bubbaque]

Did you lose your Shazam colony?

 

[maxwell]

Thanks, Bill.

This last batch of pictures are all under reefbrite blue leds. I use a Sony A7riii mirrorless camera with a Sony 90 mm macro lens and a 85B orange lens filter. Although I sometimes use the camera's AWB, for this batch I set it at a 9900K. My camera settings are typically shutter speed 1/60, F 8 and ISO 400 -800 depending on shading. I use lightroom for post, and I generally adjust the temp to 20,000 plus K, I also will slide the tint slightly to the right, positive, increase exposure, I reduce the highlights and shadows, and I reduce vibrance into the negative--around -13, I leave saturation at zero. The post adjustments in lightroom are my best effort to get correct color. I am aiming for mirroring what I see in the tank under blue leds. The rock work always seems to come out funky though. I have acquaintances that use Canon and it is different from either Sony or Nikon in that Canon seems to be much more capable of handling the blue led lighting with its AWB. I have considered switching to Canon for that reason. Bottomline, blue leds are really challenging to get accurate color rendition which is exactly what I aim for. I hand hold the camera and shoot through a top down viewer. I use to use an Avast marine but somehow got a drop of super glue on it--hobbyist hazard and so now I have been using the Building an Obsession top down viewer that attaches to the camera to shoot with.

When I take photos under t5s and/or metal halides I don't use the orange lens filter. I still use lightroom for post but usually only to adjust temperature to 20k with some very minor tweaks.

Cameras and reef lighting are tough. I hope my information on what I do is helpful. I really wish my pictures were better. Hopefully along with whatever criticism I get on my technique, maybe someone will also share some helpful tips to improve.

The Samsung phone (I have an apple iPhone), seems to take really good pictures and deals well with reef lighting. I have friends that use it and I like their pictures.

I don't think salt brands make much of a difference in a reef tank unless there is a hiccup. The hiccup typically is that sometimes there are inconsistencies, i.e. some component(s) is way off, and then things can go haywire.

I use Fritz in their pre-measured bags so I can mix abut 43 gallons at a time. I like their dKh value. I think as long as you understand what parameters the salt is supposed to provide in terms of dKh, they all work well. If you are doing 10-25% water changes, then the salt's dKh doesn't really change your tanks dKh very much anyway. Nonetheless, I simply have chosen a salt with a dKh close to what I aim for. So far, I haven't had any hiccups with Fritz. I do about 20-25% water changes every two weeks in my 180 gallon tank. So I mix the bag into 43 gallons of RO/DI water and use the whole batch of new saltwater on the same day of mixing. I usually mix for a 2-4 hours, let it sit for another 2-4 hours or so and then utilize it. I focus on dKh with my salt choice and not on Calcium, Magnesium or other elements.

Watchguy ,thanks for a great reply I use a Nikon d7000 on a full led tank and always struggle with pics but at some parts of the day pics are better than others and I bought lightroom but not had the time or experience to use it .I asked on the salt because I read an article ref your tank and I have just started to use fritz rpm as I was finding the blue bucket mag and calc very low and having to use a calx reactor and a doser to supplement ( tank rammed with sps nothing special like you have in the usa as we are limited in the UK) so trying the fritz early days yet only 2nd 25l gone in and another 25L tomoz ,thanks again Bill

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great, Mark! I'm excited to watch this reef bounce back!

 

[watchguy123]

Did you lose your Shazam colony?

I did lose virtually all of the Shazam colony but I salvaged about 4 polyps plus a friend gave me a very small frag so not totally gone.

Watchguy ,thanks for a great reply I use a Nikon d7000 on a full led tank and always struggle with pics but at some parts of the day pics are better than others and I bought lightroom but not had the time or experience to use it .I asked on the salt because I read an article ref your tank and I have just started to use fritz rpm as I was finding the blue bucket mag and calc very low and having to use a calx reactor and a doser to supplement ( tank rammed with sps nothing special like you have in the usa as we are limited in the UK) so trying the fritz early days yet only 2nd 25l gone in and another 25L tomoz ,thanks again Bill

Hope whatever I offered provided you with some helpful info

Looking great, Mark! I'm excited to watch this reef bounce back!

Thank you. Although, itt doesn't feel exactly like it is bouncing back. More like I replanted a new crop for a new season. A few pieces are still there in one form or another but it all should grow out happily eventually.

I had this frag before the fires. It wasn't very big then but it did survive. It seems to be coming around. It doesn't grow very fast.

This is CC Neptune's Crown acans. They seem to be happy

 

[snipersps]

What others CC acans do you have ?