treesprite

I'm pretty sure it does, but no matter how far back things are, there is still a reflection of stuff in the room. It seems from pics on the internet, that a lot of people have the same issue. I just set this tank up, so it would be nice to take FTS of it that don't have reflections.

I'm talking about shots of the tank standing back from it.

I've tried turning off all back lighting and it doesn't work, hence the thought that I should have lights on that are about the same brightness as what is in front of the camera. It would be nice to have FTS that doesn't make it look like I'm in my tank, or that I use furniture for tank decorations. What I have left in the way of corals isn't really worth taking pictures of :( . I miss the tank being able to pay for its own supplies (just sell some coral here and there when needed). It is really only an expensive hobby when starting up, upgrading big time, and after bad circumstances wipe out coral growth. It is going to take at least a year to get back to that point, even if I can keep the cat from peeing in the sump again.

I didn't even know there was a photography board... where the H have I been? How can I take pictures of the tank without getting a reflection of myself and the room behind me? I'm just using my phone (rear has 16mp+2mp). Do I need to put broad area lights on behind me or... what? Sorry I sound stupid.

I just did this the other day (rock needs to be treated before going in the new tank). Be careful though with the angle of the screwdriver, otherwise a big chunk might break off of the rock.

Works great, thanks for the advice Tom!

Wish I could get a half price yellow zebramosa!

I got mine for free at the WAMAS sponsored MACNA. Had to carry it on the metro to get home, which was a huge PITA. Be aware that Liferock color will change to brown if you use certain methods to treat the rock. Things like vinegar and peroxide will take away the pretty artificially-applied color, though it will color up once it is in the tank for a while. It won't break as easily as liverock from the ocean. I've had some really nice but old pieces of liverock break a number of times, ruining their aesthetic usefulness. Liferock has never broken on me except from very aggressive purposeful chiselling of surface spots to get off some mushrooms.

I think some fish are like typhoid Mary. They carry the disease but do not themselves get sick, at least not unless stressed. It has been years since I saw ich in any tank of mine, but the last couple times I just maintained a good routine and the fish recovered on their own. I qt new fish, but stopped doing it with copper probably a decade ago due to the inherent problems with use of copper, especially for certain kinds of fish. I guess if a fish came in to me with ich, I would use a treatment, but seeing the fish doesn't have signs of disease is another reason to buy from a LFS when possible.

Nice. Also I like your log walls.

Great idea, I'll give it a try.

Whatever you do, make sure you don't let a pet pee in it (or the sump).

The hole is precisely at but above the waterline.

Btmdweller, thank you. I wish I could come out there, but it's too far for as busy as I am. Wildcrazyjoker81, thanks for the information! I'm actually not particularly fond of pinks and purples, I guess I just didn't realize what exactly I was ordering. Those bulbs probably were used less than the other. I have a decent led fixture I could use for a while, but would still have to supplement it with something because it isn't enough for this size of a tank (it was given to me with the 50 I was using, which is only a 30" tank). I actually had trouble adjusting it with the dials and burned corals, then I didn't trust it and stopped using it.

The siphon-break hole in my Sea Swirl output is too high, so a stream of water is kind of spurting out above the surface of the water, causing spray and bubbles, and making the only water noise I can hear (because of better overflow setup - I'm so happy!). It wasn't too high in use in the 50g, because that tank had the water level scarily close to the top of the rim. I didn't want the water that high in this tank for which I had the option of putting my overflow lower, so my water level is just above the bottom of the trim so I can't see it, but there is an inch of room so water isn't going to go on the floor if a snail sits over a single gap between 2 overflow teeth. So, what do I do about it? I have enough space in the sump to take up what looks like would be about 5g of back-siphon water should I decide to block that little hole. There isn't really anywhere else to drill a hole lower, since that would just be where the water comes out. I don't feel like putting a longer fitting on the SS just to be able to drill a little back siphon hole a quarter of an inch lower.

Main question is: is changing blues/purples/pinks after a given time as crucial as whites/daylights? It has been almost 3 years since I had a 48" tank running. I need to put bulbs in an 8 bulb fixture. Can't really afford new bulbs right now. I found 24 bulbs between 3 fixtures and a box of random bulbs in the junk room (all different brands), and tested them all. I don't know how long they were used, so I had to judge by the color when lit. I'm tossing at least 11 of them - 10 are yellow-looking daylights, and the 11th was crazily close to red when lit. That leaves me with 13 bulbs, only 2 of which are daylights. The rest are blues, purples, and one pink. There are 3 blues and one 10k in a fixture from which I can't remove the shield so the bulbs are staying there, but it's okay since I'm using that fixture until my Tek light is up (those bulbs are the only ones that I know for a certain were only used a few months). The bulbs I put in the Tek light are 4 blues, 2 purples, a pink, and one questionable 10k. There is a 3rd purple with no purpose. There are actually 2 more bulbs (making 26 bulbs not 24) which I found after I tested and sorted the others, but I'm not going to bother with them right now, I'm tired of playing with bulbs (one is in a single-bulb fixture in the junk room, the other was in a corner behind some other junk all by itself and I have no idea what it was doing there or for how long). I really can't be buying new bulbs right now. I've helped other people recently to the point of being temporarily broke myself, so there won't be any new bulbs until probably January. I did want to go heavy on actinics, but I think having only one day is kind of over-doing the idea. I am really hoping that the useful life of blues and purples can actually be longer than daylights - I'm just thinking, with as little as I know about light, that even if the spectrum is shifted, it might make the actinics less blue but at least won't make them yellow and red (I admit it, I am really ignorant about light stuff). Any thoughts on this would be appreciated! BTW, does anyone know if HD or MOMs take this type of bulb?

Yes, you can't mess with the WAF (wife acceptance factor).

Beautiful!

Good luck with the new pump. I hope that solves the problem.

When I took down my 50g a few days ago, I discovered unquestionable evidence that a cat was peeing in the sump (one of the 2 sumps was behind the tank, because the stand is too small inside for anything bigger than a 20). There will be two small sumps under the stand for the 75, closed in and not accessible to any cat, so hopefully the new tank will not get messed up like the old one.

Maybe you have a nerve problem, carpal tunnel or something that would cause a tingling feeling when hand/wrist is used in certain positions (another thing that happens to me).

Yeah, I can't see those pipes ever coming apart. I don't want a leak that I can't get completely sealed. Regarding pipes coming apart or joints leaking, is there less pressure in a horizontal run part of a return, or a vertical lift, or are they the same?

Oh, you have it split between two overflows. I almost forgot some tanks have those kinds of overflows.

Looks like you only have two drains, while a Bean Animal is 3 drains.

Here's an example of how things don't go right for me. I'm right now in the middle of painting the back of the tank, but I need to let the coat dry. Well, looking at the tank from the front, there is a big area and a few streaks that look faded out. I cleaned the glass before painting, but there must have been some kind of residue (I'm certain it isn't inside the tank). I can't take off the paint and start over, so the tank will always look that way. It will be harder to see once I put more rock in the tank, but I'll know it's like this (still gotta scrub most of my rock from the 50g, but I have other rock that was in another tank of just rocks, which was soaked in peroxide for a few months before I changed the water and put rock from my sump in it to seed it back into being liverock again several weeks ago). (Yes, it is crazy waiting until now to paint. I was going to just put some black backing on it because I have a whole roll of it, but I couldn't find it and the can of paint in the junk room was yelling "choose me, choose me"). Now double this. I went to do another coat and dropped the lid from the paint on the carpet (it hit a step stool, hence went that far). Thankfully it landed on the back and just a dot of paint got on a plastic container. On a better note, I actually think the faded area is decreasing as the paint dries.... time will tell.