dshnarw

Waterfalls. Was quite rainy during the trip, so the waterfalls were generally outstanding...hard to get in the ocean with all the brown water alerts, but not a bad substitute staring at the waterfalls. Except for Secret Falls and the Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens (names are shown in the slide show), they were taken with 30-second exposures to get the silky water feel and to effectively remove the annoying people that swim/walk through the middle of the photo. Waterfalls Slideshow

Went to Kauai for vacation and thought I'd share some photos. Unfortunately, nothing underwater since my sister borrowed that setup for her vacation. I'll post some favorites from each set and the slideshow link for the rest... First up...The Plane(s). Mostly from in/around LA area. Windows could have stood some Windex, so I just did some retro film-look processing for the fun of it. The rainbow effect in the one photo is in-camera (birefringence). Plane Slideshow

heh, no need to be. it is a very nice shot

Currently, it isn't paired with flow changes in the pumps. The new AI Sol versions came with some changes in programming that created errors with the Reefkeepers, and it's taken them an excessive amount of time to reverse engineer the new software to pair with their module. Until that is working sufficiently, I'm using the AquaIlluminations controller. Eventually, I'd like to get the Vortech synchronized with it. IME, mini carpets will take pretty much any lighting as long as you feed them enough to cover their nutrient needs in lowered light. I used to leave them in the sump of the biotope when they found their way down the overflow and never had any problems - they would attach to a rock and pick up enough loose food to be happy in the dark. They tend to lose color or turn brown, but they'll live quite happily. The only way I know to tell male/female in mini carpets is to see it during spawning, and even then it can be difficult. The males are obvious with their big plumes of sperm, but the females and "unknowns" (nonparticipants in the spawning event) are more difficult because the eggs aren't released in such an obvious fashion, especially in smaller spawning events, so you really have to look hard for the females amongst the crowd.

Thanks! Mini carpets have spawned again. Got a video of one of the males releasing sperm at the same time that the AI went into thunderstorm mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wiGWnE6mU

looks great! love the flower nem. Which angel were you thinking about getting?

also, better video of one of the males: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wiGWnE6mU

28 days later... A new spawning cycle seems to have started. Unfortunately, the timing looks like it won't work out this time to collect eggs since we're about to go on vacation...so here's hoping for June 20th.

Thanks! I put the glass top on the tank. I doubt it would jump since it stays so close to the rocks and in the bottom half of the tank but, given the difficulty of finding a well-acclimated specimen, I've no interest in taking that risk.

FTSs... Front: Viewing angle from my chair:

always love your DIY work. that rock wall is no exception.

The mix is just about right for my taste once you power them all up to the same level. I like a 12000-14000k color for the majority of the light cycle, and even levels for white/blue/royal blue seem to give me that mix. And you can set it to pretty much anything you want from 6500k to well over 20000k with the controller and a little bit of experimentation, so it'll really work for anyone's tastes. As an example - my sunrise setting ramps the blues, then the whites, so I get a spectrum from nearly pure actinic to 12000k, and then backwards for sunset.

Thanks! I'll see what I can do for a FTS tomorrow when I get a chance to clean the glass (something I haven't done since starting the tank - still doesn't look too bad either). Yup, that's the light. So far, I like it pretty well - it's a pain for photography because of the nature of LEDs, but that's not much of a concern for most people. I would warn you that even in a 24" deep tank, I'm only running the lights at 60% max for all levels to avoid bleaching, so in a 20g, it may be a bit of overkill. If you go that route, I would at least change out the optics for all 70* groups, since you won't need the penetrating power of narrower optics. The Caribbean spotted cleaner shrimp found the LTA today:

Thanks guys! It's nice that mini carpets are fairly accessible now, with only a couple of exceptions ($200 atlantis red...). It was so much of a pain to even get one of them a few years back that it wasn't worth starting over at that point. Updates...got a purple LTA off DD: And then later, picked up the golden pygmy angel: ...which has required me to setup a new tank to house the LPS. I was hoping it wouldn't, but it rather enjoys the Lobos and Fungiids.

Thats a bit of a loaded question I think digital cameras are still in the stage of rapid development that we saw in computers a few years back, so most things are improved and outdated by the time they hit the market right now. ISO range is definitely the first thing I noticed - on the order of 3 stops difference between 3-year-old tech and current tech. With processing, I could use ISO 6400 now, and I was limited to ISO 800 previously. Pixel density without quality loss has also improved - both Canon and Nikon have increased by about 6MP in the last few years. Ultimately, the difference between 12 and 18 megapixels doesn't matter much unless you want to print big images, but it is nice to have the ability to crop more of the image without degrading the quality, even for web photos. Processing speed has improved, depending on the model you look at. I know that Canon is getting about 2 fps faster out of the current processors than 3 years ago. My Class 4 SD cards are useless for anything but landscapes because they can't keep up with the shutter in burst mode on the new camera. Dynamic range has improved, usually on the order of 2 stops greater range, and the processing for dynamic range has improved to avoid blowing out highlights or clipping darks as easily when shooting JPEGs. Auto-focus sensors have improved quite a bit - greater spot density, and a greater percentage of more precise cross-type sensors. The newest group to come out has integrated wireless capabilities for flash setups, which is a pretty neat solution for needing an off-camera flash and only having a speedlight since you aren't limited to hooking it directly to the hotshoe. But the biggest change that may or may not be of interest is the addition of HD video to pretty much all the new camera bodies, along with the huge improvements that Canon/Nikon and others have made towards making it user friendly on the DSLR.

Garden shots and a few of the pups to try out the new lens...

I just looked at some of the most recent photos in your tank thread. It looks to me like the focus is slightly behind the subject in several of the photos. You might consider adjusting the focusing system to spot focus rather than any evaluative focusing system for the closeup shots if you can. I also see what I suspect is a bit of motion blur, so I'd definitely recommend a tripod or some steady surface and either a remote shutter release or use the timer function to allow the vibrations from pressing buttons to die before the photo is taken. As far as camera settings, it looks like you've got a pretty good handle on it already.

Thanks everyone. The new camera is vastly improved in the ISO range over my old XSi, so these were a breeze compared to what I used to be doing - especially in low light aquarium setups. For settings...the generic setting for these pics (ignoring the red epizoas and the caribbean spotted cleaner shrimp, which used flash) would be ISO 2500, f/9-f/14, 1/40 to 1/150 (all manual settings, so all slightly different apertures and shutter speeds). I don't use a tripod very often, but I tend to put the lens hood directly on the glass and use a bit of pressure to hold steady when the subject is far enough away that I can still focus, and tend to have steadier hands than most, so I would still recommend using the tripod when practical. If you can't manage ISO 2500 because of noise, I used ISO 400 on my XSi at f/4-f/9 and got usable shutter speeds by underexposing by a stop or so (EV -1) and increasing the brightness a bit in processing. You won't quite get as much in focus with the limited DOF that way, but as long as the fish eyes are in focus and you try to situate the subject generally parallel to the camera lens, you should be okay.

First aquarium photos using a new Canon 60d and my old Sigma 150 macro lens...

Thanks again, Mike! I will definitely be moving the anemones as they spawn (all of them are in a rubble pile on the sand for easy moving anyway). Seems like a much better plan than trying to play catch in the display, though the eggs are slightly positively buoyant. I've got water mixed, containers, and pipettes, as well as a pile of rubble at the ready. I think for at least the first attempt I'm going to use the static bin approach to avoid having a Kreisel project to go with the new tank and mini carpet hatching projects. Hopefully the dissecting scope (been meaning to get one for a while now) will arrive in time, and I'll have baby brine ready to go. Maybe I'm overly confident on fertilization and my ability to wake up constantly to stir the tank, but I think the first feedings are my greatest concern right now. I ran through Google Scholar and the UMaryland databases (thanks to them for not turning off my account as they should have!) and turned up nothing on zooxanthellae uptake, as you suspected. I'll have updates as soon as something happens. I saw a report on RC that they spawned on a weekly basis for one guy, so hopefully I won't have missed my only opportunity.

A few observations from the spawning events: The first spawning that we noticed was April 18th by only the large blue male in one of the videos I posted. The next spawning event was the one April 25th that resulted in this thread, 2 large males, 3 females. 2 of the 3 females were not in the tank at the time of the first spawning event (added 2 days later), so it seems that they have no issue with settling in disrupting the "mood". Last night (April 26th), the same blue male was spawning again by himself, although a very weak effort. Based on the one event I've seen with the females, I think a couple of females were interested, but never released any eggs. Each spawning event has started about an hour after the lights go out. Though I have no long-term predictor for spawning events, I think I can predict whether a spawning event will occur within 10 minutes of the lights going out (my chair is within 2 feet of the mini carpet garden, so there's no lack of observation). At that time, the mini carpets usually shrink up a bit and fold over themselves for the night. Each time the blue mini carpet spawns, he stretches out to full size and makes nearly a perfect disk shape - to the point of pushing the anemones next to him out of the way - and stays in roughly that position through spawning. The other male and the females I observed had similar reactions pre-spawning. The males are very obvious when they are ready to spawn - the oral disk becomes cone-shaped like a volcano well before spawning actually occurs. The females are less noticeable, essentially just puckering their lips.

Couple more photos...blue/red lobo and a tiny (3mm-ish) baby snail that was running up the glass. Also gonna link the mini carpet spawning thread for my own records and in case someone finds the thread down the road and needs a reference point for the inevitable future talk of spawning/rearing: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/43167-mini-carpets-spawning/

It seems fairly common now for tapetum, but I haven't seen anyone attempt to keep the eggs yet. I had been planning this as a long-term project, wasn't prepared for them to go crazy quite this quickly (the females have only been in the tank for 5 days). Thanks, Chad. I'll see what info I can dig up there. Thanks, Mike! I was hoping you'd come along and have some advice since you've done this before. Look forward to the rest of your write up!

I was up a bit late last night, and noticed my tank clouding up. Turns out, I had a substantial spawning event in the mini carpet garden of my 60g. At least 2 males (a large blue one and a large pink one) continued for about an hour, followed directly by at least 3 females (a blue/green, rainbow, and red/tan) for half an hour or so. Quite literally thousands of tiny eggs floating around the tank. Short videos here: http://s1191.photobucket.com/albums/z471/danielhawkinsphotography/60%20Cube/Spawning/ Sorry about the bad quality...still waiting on that camera with video upgrade, so I was attempting to use the phone in low light. So the bigger question here is...anyone have a clue on raising anemone larvae for when this happens again?