lanman

Unfortunately - she wants to use the images to show color changes over time. So adjusting the color isn't a good option. The best bet would be a manual camera, set up on a tripod, with no changes to anything including location between pictures. Of course - over a longer period of time, you would have changes in the lighting itself - from aging of the bulbs, reflections from other objects nearby, etc. bob

I assume your Nikon coolpix is fully automatic. You don't get to adjust the F-stop (aperture) or shutter speed? Here is what happens - and I 'cheat' with my automatic camera, to adjust the 'color' of photos: Your camera, while probably center-weighted for adjusting itself, also looks at the amount of light coming from the background. When the averaged-out (foreground with heavier weighting, background with less weight) subject matter in the picture is BRIGHT, the camera closes down the aperture, so that less light reaches the 'film'. This makes the subject darker. If it didn't do this, some things in the picture that should be 'light' colored, will be WHITE. Take your camera, and aim it at something very light colored in your tank, and push the button halfway down to do the focusing, lock in auto-exposure, etc. While still holding the button down - move the camera to point at something darker - and it will be VERY dark. Same in the opposite direction. In the good old days (and I really have to say I took a lot better photos when it was mostly manual) - if you had a backlighted subject, or a subject standing on a beach, for example - you would walk up to the subject, and adjust your exposure so that the lighting was correct for that subject, when it was the only thing in the picture. Then - with that exposure manually set and locked in - you would walk back to the point you wanted to take the picture from (to include the beach, sailboats, etc.) and take your picture without changing the exposure. The subject would come out properly lighted, and the beach would be 'white'. Usually you would bracket a few f-stops over and under that, to try and find one that would print with both the subject and the background having good exposure. In our tanks, we run into this a lot. The sand on the bottom is very bright colored, the rocks are very dark. If you try to take a picture of a small coral on the sand with automatic exposure, the coral is dark, and the sand is properly exposed. If you take one of a coral in the rocks - the rocks will be properly exposed, and the coral will be too light. The upshot of this is - if you want to take color comparison photos, you have to have nothing but the coral in the picture - and from the same distance and direction, so that your automatic camera will always adjust for the same thing. -OR- find a 'manual' mode on your camera, and set for the same exposure (f-stop, film speed, shutter speed) every time. At least you don't have to worry about the difference between Ektachrome and Kodachrome!! bob

One of the problems in planning aquascaping and coral placement is the 'unknowable' factors - just how fast is that coral going to grow, and in what direction? Some you have a good idea on to start with (green slimer grows fast, plate corals grow in a defined pattern, etc.) - but others will be completely different in different tanks. My 'Leishman red tabling acro' is now a little over 14" across, and about 10" front-back, in a wild multiple-table form. Completely blocking the view of any of the corals behind it, of course. Same thing happened with my blue-tipped staghorn; it got about that same size, but more 'spherical' shaped. Nonetheless, completely taking over the left side of the tank. I got lucky on my purple-tipped acropora nana - it is up fairly high, and toward the back - so when it got a foot across, it was in the perfect location for it. Best of luck! January 2008: August 2009: bob

Yeah... actually it is growing very nicely; it just hasn't formed a 'plate' yet. bob

I don't blame him... bob

oh... so now you have a dog named Fishtank, eh? This guy has been my vet for 20 years... but I only visit him about once every 5 or so. Not much of a relationship. bob

GREAT timing!! Weatherman says it is going to be COLD next Wednesday! High's in the 40's. I recommend getting your house a little warmer than usual before the power outage - say 75 degrees. Might even warm the tank up a few degrees. Be more watchful of water flow, or bubblers, than temperature. Battery powered air bubblers would be a big help. Most corals will survive without damage down to about 70 degrees. Open the window shades on the sunny side of the house bob

True in this case - they do not carry the stuff. So they wouldn't make a nickle. They carry a competitive brand. He suggested I try PetSmart. bob

Spoke to my cats' vet tech today about getting some Interceptor; the vet apparently wasn't there. He wouldn't give me a prescription, unless I could bring him a dog for a check-up. Will have to find another. Or borrow a neighbor's dog, and call him 'Acropora'. Heeeere, Acro!! Good dog! What's interesting is - I'm not the first person to ask him for Interceptor to treat redbugs; someone else was in with the same request about 6 months ago. He didn't get any, either. bob

What a depressing idea!! All of my heating, cooling, water, etc. is electric. No gas, oil, etc. anywhere on premises. bob

That guy is safe - and probably helpful to your colony. I recently had one just like it in a small acro colony that died; I found him a new home - in a colony that I REMOVED a BAD acropora crab from. They are not all safe for the corals. I have had two now that ate polyps. Both of the bad ones were similar to gorilla crabs - fuzzy little things with pointy black claws. I don't know about that one (I usually remove them for dipping) - but the BAD one lived through 30 minutes in Revive without any problems. bob

Hey... three of my skimmers have your name on them! bob

Thanks for pointing me to that website... good entertainment for a Friday morning. Now I can get to work on my tanks, firm in the knowledge that I need to add 100 pounds of macro-algae to my sump to reduce nitrates. bob

At least they are up-front about it. From their website: "As a business owner we have "the right to refuse service to anyone" and we do practice it often." bob

What an excellent day for doing that! I'm off today - and last evening i put a powerstrip where it could get wet, so I might be hanging one myself. bob

atlantic deer cowrie is 'Cypraea Cervus' ... they can get pretty big (4") - what size is yours?? bob

Okay - I found some. Oddly enough - I changed the search from cowrie to cypraea, and found a place that has several of the ones I want!! Mind you the pictures do not match the text... They have a picture of a cypraea arabica labeled as a 'Tiger cowrie' ... Gold ring labeled as 'money' (moneda), and Snakehead (caput serpentis) labeled as 'Reef Cowrie', etc. I sent them e-mail asking whether they were selling the text or the pictures, so I would know what to order. bob

I rarely see them locally - and would like some different ones; FYI - I bought 4-5 gold ring cowries about 2 years ago, and they are still running around the tank. I'd like to find some Moneda, Arabica, Snake-head, etc... Suggestions on where I might find them online? Or even just a good search phrase? I find lots of dead cowries for sale... bob

How is the cowrie? What kind?? To remedy the water problem: Put the tank, stand, and everything else in a room in the basement with a drain. bob

I set up a separate system for 'dipped' acro's. One of them (psychlone) is just running on my 'rock tank'. Longer-term goal is to combine the frag systems, and get rid of the 'rock tank'. I'm just kind of 'stuck' right now because of the AEFW's. Even sicker... I have another very nice skimmer still in a box! sick... sick... sick... bob

Okay - does anyone have more skimmers running in their house than me?? I have 5 running as of this evening. They range from a large Deltec to a psychlone! And yes - that would be on 5 different systems... my 24G Aquapod has no skimmer. No - this does not fit in with my long-range plans... bob

At the end in the water - add a 90, short section of pipe, a 90, and a short section of pipe to get the water draining out JUST above the water level. I did that with one of mine - and it still 'flushes' - but it does it quietly. bob

I got a 2" frag about 3 months ago - and it's already 2.125" in diameter!! bob

No kidding - if they hadn't all decided to appear at once, and on a coral where they showed up as bright yellow - I might still not know I had them. On most corals they are hard to spot, even with magnification, until you know what you are looking at. I have not dipped corals in permanganate, except a few small pieces to test what it would do to the flatworms. Those pieces of coral were in bad shape, and died after I put them in a 'QT' - perhaps due to water quality or something, perhaps due to the permanganate. I will try the potassium permanganate again - including on the redbugs. Now that I've calmed down on these things, and don't feel like i've been 'invaded', and have to act quickly; I am taking my time, making sure I know exactly what the situation is before I do something crazy and kill off my corals, fish, inverts, or anything else. First words of advice: Don't Panic! bob

I know nothing about the life-cycle of a redbug. Are they live-bearers, then? Just from scanning around that piece of coral, and observing another piece; it seems that however they start life, they are inside those little depressions, then they crawl out looking like a grub worm, attached on one end, and waving around. Then they start actually moving around on the coral. This seems to happen pretty rapidly - over the course of an hour or two. bob