Mammoth Nano SPS Reef

Dugless · Mar 4, 2022

thatmanMIKEson said:
Any recent FTS's?

Just a quick phone pic. I've never really figured out how to take a good full tank shot.

thatmanMIKEson · Mar 4, 2022

Dugless said:
Just a quick phone pic. I've never really figured out how to take a good full tank shot.

Your doing great, just like that sweet tank, how do you keep that room un "destroyed" from your fish tank, thats a nice set up good job, the hard work shows

Maximus93101 · Mar 4, 2022

Dugless said:
Just a quick phone pic. I've never really figured out how to take a good full tank shot.

I love, love, LOVE the dimensions of your tank!

My next tank will be something along those lines.

Dugless · Mar 5, 2022

Maximus93101 said:
I love, love, LOVE the dimensions of your tank!

My next tank will be something along those lines.

Yeah, I keep seeing these new Red Sea and water box tanks released and I’m always disappointed by the depth. I couldn’t imagine doing anything less than 30” front to back again. If I could I’d like to get back to 36” and maybe 60” long again. Not sure I’ll ever get the wife convinced though.

Dugless · Mar 5, 2022

Speaking of bigger tanks. I've started trimming out some pieces to open up some space for some newer more impressive sticks. However, the local market here is frustratingly soft. Just sold this 3-1/2" chunk to a local for $60. I really need to start shipping stuff out in order to capture what things are worth. Felt a little bit like a hoarder letting this one go.

saltyfins · Mar 5, 2022

Dugless said:
Speaking of bigger tanks. I've started trimming out some pieces to open up some space for some newer more impressive sticks. However, the local market here is frustratingly soft. Just sold this 3-1/2" chunk to a local for $60. I really need to start shipping stuff out in order to capture what things are worth. Felt a little bit like a hoarder letting this one go.

where in Washington are you? I am also in Washington. Spokane

Dugless · Mar 5, 2022

saltyfins said:
where in Washington are you? I am also in Washington. Spokane

Oh, no longer in Washington. I moved the tank to Nebraska during the summer of 2020. Drove 24hrs straight with 3 brute trash cans full of rock, coral and fish. Then I flew back to make the same drive with the tank and the rest of the house goods. Fun times and lots of brown coral.

thatmanMIKEson · Mar 5, 2022

Dugless said:
Oh, no longer in Washington. I moved the tank to Nebraska during the summer of 2020. Drove 24hrs straight with 3 brute trash cans full of rock, coral and fish. Then I flew back to make the same drive with the tank and the rest of the house goods. Fun times and lots of brown coral.

Thats dedication, 24hrs strait, you got a little trucker blood in you

tinyfellows · Mar 6, 2022

Dugless said:
No, up in WA state. Just thought I would be creative with the name. Feels a bit like a nano tank after having much more room and real estate before.

Not to hijacke the thread but I’m in Washington and starting my first reef what stores in Washington do you shop at if any?

Dugless · Mar 6, 2022

tinyfellows said:
Not to hijacke the thread but I’m in Washington and starting my first reef what stores in Washington do you shop at if any?

I really only ever went to Inland Corals. Ron is knowledgeable and super fair. I’d try his shop.

Dugless · Mar 7, 2022

WWC Pink Panther

tinyfellows · Mar 7, 2022

I really only ever went to Inland Corals. Ron is knowledgeable and super fair. I’d try his shop
Next time I’m out east I will check out that shop for sure thanks.

Dugless · Mar 8, 2022

This guy is next on the chopping block. In my haste of moving the tank I set a chunk of this coral in a really good spot of real estate and now I regret as this one has encrusted a good amount. Once I clear the branches out, I'm not sure how to handle the encrustment. I've tried kalkwasser and scraping in the past with mixed results. Anybody have better suggestions?

Vivids Rainbow Delight

Dugless · Mar 10, 2022

CC Pink Highlighter

The yellow green highlighter color on the tips of this one is fun. This thing really glows under the blue lights, especially the random times I drag out an orange filter. Under the filter the polyps scream pink/orange.

gatorbait01 · Mar 10, 2022

Dugless said:
WWC Pink Panther

Nice shot of your pink panther! I have one and have a hard time getting a good photo of it. Is that a confetti in the background? What filter do you use? I have an orange filter filter my dslr, but I think it needs to more orange to get a better shot of this coral.

Dugless · Mar 10, 2022

gatorbait01 said:
Nice shot of your pink panther! I have one and have a hard time getting a good photo of it. Is that a confetti in the background? What filter do you use? I have an orange filter filter my dslr, but I think it needs to more orange to get a better shot of this coral.

Yes to the confetti. In fact I think the Pink Panther is losing the battle of surrounding corals.

I don't use any filters. That shot was with ISO500, f/8, 1/250. Then everything else was handled in Lightroom. Photos come in pretty dark, but I like this as it allows more room for color correction. I really think the lens goes a long way with its stabilization capability to get decent shots.

najer · Mar 10, 2022

Dugless said:
Yes to the confetti. In fact I think the Pink Panther is losing the battle of surrounding corals.

I don't use any filters. That shot was with ISO500, f/8, 1/250. Then everything else was handled in Lightroom. Photos come in pretty dark, but I like this as it allows more room for color correction. I really think the lens goes a long way with its stabilization capability to get decent shots.

I love seeing your pics and how well everything looks, I also under expose in the actual camera image, not to your skills and only a jpeg but as you said it does capture colours well, excuse the spam.

Dugless · Mar 10, 2022

najer said:
I love seeing your pics and how well everything looks, I also under expose in the actual camera image, not to your skills and only a jpeg but as you said it does capture colours well, excuse the spam.

If you can get RAW files and move them into something like Lightroom you will be amazed at the difference in editing you can achieve. JPGs are just tough to work with in my experience. Am I seeing some color variation in the polyps on the right in your photo? Kinda cool.

najer · Mar 10, 2022

Dugless said:
If you can get RAW files and move them into something like Lightroom you will be amazed at the difference in editing you can achieve. JPGs are just tough to work with in my experience. Am I seeing some color variation in the polyps on the right in your photo? Kinda cool.

Thanks, I still need to just bite the bullet and learn raw editing software, there are a series of that pic, that one polyp stands out at about three feet away.

gatorbait01 · Mar 10, 2022

Dugless said:
Yes to the confetti. In fact I think the Pink Panther is losing the battle of surrounding corals.

I don't use any filters. That shot was with ISO500, f/8, 1/250. Then everything else was handled in Lightroom. Photos come in pretty dark, but I like this as it allows more room for color correction. I really think the lens goes a long way with its stabilization capability to get decent shots.

Interesting. So what color temperature do you typically shoot your photos in w/ your camera? I typically shoot at a 10k setting. Tried to do custom white balance and doesn't really work out well in my attempts. How many stops do you shoot underexposed? When your shooting, is your tank lit w/ a full spectrum vs mainly blues? I have both the pink panther and confetti. The confetti is photogenic under whites and blues. The pink panther looks good only under blues IMO. Maybe I try your approach to do more postprocessing w/o filters.

Here is my confetti under blues with a filter.

My Pink Panther under blues w/ a more orange filter w/ my phone instead of DSLR. It won't look as good if I use my less orange filter I have for my DSLR.