Zibba's Reefs -- ADA 90P & Envision 100g

zibba · Jun 9, 2014

nova65ss said:
Goodness gracious you take amazing photos beautiful tanks!

Saw you had some hydroids did you have any luck with them? I had the same ones for a bit at one point they were out of control. I added some peppermints and while I still have some they have lessened. I have not seen the peps eatimg them and really only catch them out at night anyway.

Beautiful tanks again!

Thank you for the encouraging compliment!

Yes, have been battling the hydroids for a really long time. While they come and go for most reefers, they've taken a stronghold in my tank and it's been a tough fight. Manual removal was a waste of time. The bounced right back. Lowering the amount of feeding and reducing the amount of "coral food" that we put in the tank didn't seem to do much either. I added 8 peppermint shrimp (4 in the Envision; 4 in the ADA) about 2-3 weeks ago. I haven't seen them eat the hydroids and only see half of them (the rest probably died or are hiding really well). So, I guess to answer your question, "no, I haven't had much luck with them." Sounds like we've had a similar experience!

zibba · Jun 9, 2014

Here are a few more pictures that were taken last week.

ZOAS!

ORA Red Planet Sequence:

Chromi-cover by ..:.. EZ ..:.., on Flickr

Red Planet by ..:.. EZ ..:.., on Flickr

Kiss my tail by ..:.. EZ ..:.., on Flickr

Recovering Chalices

Recovering Chalices by ..:.. EZ ..:.., on Flickr

Arnie · Jun 9, 2014

Dang nice shots.... what lens do you use and if you dont mind what`s your settings at... im a noob on photography... and I have a canon t3i.. with 2 lenses..

zibba · Jun 9, 2014

Arnie, thanks.

I use a Nikon 105mm f/2.8 lens. When photographing corals, I manually focus the lens -- if you're not taking top downs with a photobox you need to be sure that you're shooting directly though the glass. 90-degree angles will be your friend.

Here are some other settings (or ranges) where I usually shoot:

Mode: M (Manual)
ISO: 320-800
Aperature: f/7.1-18 (sharpest around 9-12, in my experience)
Shutter Speed: greater than 1/40 sec (ideally in the 1/100-1/160 range and will increase ISO to get there if there's not enough light). Anything less, and I usually get a blurred image even with Vibration reduction on the lens.

Most important: take a lot of pictures with different settings to see what works best for your set-up!

I post-process using Adobe Lightroom.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll try to answer them.

revhtree · Jun 10, 2014

Looks awesome buddy! Great job!

zibba · Jun 10, 2014

revhtree said:
Looks awesome buddy! Great job!

Thanks Rev!

I should add that I have been running without GFO for the past 2-months and without carbon for 2-weeks. Trying to keep things simple and have gotten back into a 20g WC/week routine but I'm still dosing Acropower [one 1-L bottle cap-full ~ 7-mL/day]. Sometimes, when I miss a day or two, I add a few cap fulls. It's not very exact, but it's the system I've been running since January.

The water change routine has, in my opinion, helped more than anything. For the last 3-weeks, I've been dosing iodine [4-6 drops/week; 6-drops week 1, 6-drops week 2, 4-drops week 3] with the intention to increase the health of zoas. Too early to comment except that zoas are growing now when they weren't before.

Besides upgrading the size of the tanks, only thing I'm planning is add a second Hydra52 over the Envision. I'd imagine I'll add another fixture long before increasing the water volume!

Nicktam · Jun 11, 2014

Amazing shoot! Really enjoy the photos!

zibba · Jun 11, 2014

Thank you Nicktam! And, welcome to R2R!

Arnie · Jun 11, 2014

Thanks Zibba i will play around with camera....

prime8reef · Jun 11, 2014

Iam totally blown away by this tank. So much diversity and COLOR!!! Truly a beauty to behold. Keep up the great work...and great shots too. This is my inspiration for my envisioned Philippines reef tank

Reefer831 · Jun 11, 2014

Quality evrything! I love this build!!!!!! I need some photo tips from you

What lens are you useing for your top downs? My 24-70L is brok right now and I find it supper hard to use my 100mm for them....

Diesel · Jun 11, 2014

................ My Silence is a source of your great success.

revhtree · Jun 12, 2014

Need. More. Photos.

zibba · Jun 12, 2014

Arnie said:
Thanks Zibba i will play around with camera....

That's really what it comes down to. You'll always learn new tips and tricks as you go along. I am embarrassed by some of the pictures I first took but I know that one day I'll look back at even the most recently posted pictures with a much more critical eye. Again, let me know if I can help.

prime8reef said:
Iam totally blown away by this tank. So much diversity and COLOR!!! Truly a beauty to behold. Keep up the great work...and great shots too. This is my inspiration for my envisioned Philippines reef tank

Thank you very much!

I hope you start a build thread here when you start your new reef tank!

Reefer831 said:
Quality evrything! I love this build!!!!!! I need some photo tips from you What lens are you useing for your top downs? My 24-70L is brok right now and I find it supper hard to use my 100mm for them....

Really appreciate that! But I know you don't need tips from me!!!

I'm using the Nikon 105vr f/2.8 for the topdowns. For some though, the working distance is just too short and I wish I had the 60mm macro. I use the Avast Marine topdown portal, which does have some limitations but is the best product I've used for top downs. The 105mm is difficult to work with in some situations though and I think the best thing I could add to my "camera bag" would be an extension to the tripod that holds the camera steady so I can get a deeper depth of field. Handheld, I can only go to 1/25 sec. at best (and I'm not a fan of shooting with high ISO -- just don't have the post-processing power to handle even small amounts of noise).

Diesel said:
................ My Silence is a source of your great success.

D, you're too kind. Thank you!

revhtree said:
Need. More. Photos.

So, here's the thing...I have a bunch of pictures on my camera but my 7-year old laptop that has my photography software on it died. The last batch of pictures were edited on my Kwoww's laptop, which has a really terrible screen that makes accurate color reproduction nearly impossible. On top of that, it (just like my old laptop) is slow. I'm in the process of trying to decide on a new computer (typical "apple v. pc" debate) but when I finally make the decision and get the computer hooked up, I'll be sharing a lot more pictures (that are hopefully more accurate!).

But....I just looked bacand realized that I didn't share this picture that was taken for the purpose of monitoring growth. It's the Miagi Tort and it has really taken off since I started dosing AcroPower about 5 months ago.