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Tom's Mini M

Re: Tom's Mini M - Day 4, first diatoms...

Nice photo of the shrimp, the hc in the background looks good too.

Don't sweat about the wood I I picked and brush mine and it didn't return. I had shrimp in the tank so maybe once I got it down they kept on top of it.

Any more ideas on fish yet?
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - Day 4, first diatoms...

The single shrimp died overnight for some reason I haven't worked out. Maybe too much CO2? The dorp checker is constantly yellow, even at night.
Would have been sometime after the 50% water change too. No symptoms I could see, other than death. Looked really nice and bright yesterday.
 
It's been a solid yellow since the start. I notice in the NA World books Amano uses around 1bps if not less for similar sized tanks, with a mental 54w of light. I only have 18w and a lot less plants than his examples, and I'm at 1-2 bps with an inline diffuser. Determined not to get algae this time!! Am dosing slightly extra Brighty K and Step 1, as well as a squirt of Spezial N. Might have to reduce the CO2 for fish, but we'll see. I can't bear to have this tank uncontrollable too!

The diatoms from yesterday were very specifically located - in the center of the front glass/sand/bit of the stone. I wiped it off and changed another 50%, so hopefully I'm going to be able to keep on top of it this time round. Started with a mature filter too which has got to count for something.

I'm trimming HC daily at the moment too. It's carried on growing at a similar rate to before which is good. No sign of any melting. The micranthemoides is melting slightly in places unfortunately. Rotundifolia is putting out new leaves from the top.
The Glosso seems to be taking longer to get going in the Mini M than in the Do!aqua cube. My theory there is that as the Mini M has a nutritious substrate, it's putting down it's roots first. The cube however just has plain black sand so presumably is using the water column ferts to grow new green bits.

Tom
 
Hi Tom,if you look closely at some Amano,s tanks there is a lot of algae present,

John.
 
I've seen it mentioned that his HC isn't always up to scratch. In the NA World books the Marsilea never looks good either, and there is often GSA that I've noticed... makes me feel better about the world!! ;) Haven't noticed it in the more recent scapes though. I will keep an eye out!
 
You can see these much better by clicking the pictures and viewing in Flickr!

I've just taken the exact same tank shot twice - once with the 24-70 2.8L and once with the 70-200 F4L. There is no editing whatsoever, apart from cropping. It's just lit with the normal 18w light this time, which isn't ideal for ISO and speed! The images can be enlarged in Flickr for better viewing by clicking on them.

Settings were the same both times:
ISO400
F16
1/6 Second (thereabouts)

On looking at both full tank shots, it is very difficult to tell the two lenses apart. There are minor differences in the images, but nothing that really sets one apart from the other.

70-200 F4L
5475987229_9afd916e7f_z.jpg

24-70 F2.8L
5476583496_ec92e971e0_z.jpg

Looking at the cropped images of the front right corner, for me (and surprisingly) the 70-200 most definitely comes out on top in terms of clarity and sharpness. I think it would also be interesting to do the same test with my Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 55 lens too - just to see how superior these pro lenses are at set-up "still life" shots like this. It would also be good to set up the studio light over the tank and re-try the same test with higher shutter speeds and lower ISOs.

70-200 F4L
5476612412_403661683a_z.jpg

24-70 F2.8L
5476611842_1e015c71bd_z.jpg

Anyone got any thoughts?

Tom
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - L series lens comparison shots

And the Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 55 F2 (1960's lens, dirt cheap now)
5476750346_252c099d3f_z.jpg

Crop
5476750888_2d1d094f45_z.jpg

OK it's very slightly darker. Also F16, ISO400, and 1/6 second exposure. Apart from the angle of the shot, there is surprisingly little in it again. The Pentax may even be smoother, I'm not sure. 50 years of technology and £900 difference in price, and for a full tank shot I probably couldn't give a definite answer. The cropped in shot does show a slight difference but again, not a lot in it.

Tom
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - L series lens comparison shots

I love your shots mate despite the thing that L series is out of my reach :lol:
I notice a little barrel distortion on 70-200, am I right or is the other one?
The background looks nicer in the photo taken with the oldie (it really has some potential) matching the exposure may be frustrating .. btw the lens are clear? Had to UV mine due to the yellowing :)

Keep up the good work, I love your tank.

Cheers mate,
Mike
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - L series lens comparison shots

clonitza said:
I love your shots mate despite the thing that L series is out of my reach :lol:
I notice a little barrel distortion on 70-200, am I right or is the other one?
The background looks nicer in the photo taken with the oldie (it really has some potential) matching the exposure may be frustrating .. btw the lens are clear? Had to UV mine due to the yellowing :)

Keep up the good work, I love your tank.

Cheers mate,
Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks - You are right about the barrel distortion. I set up the shot on a tripod for the 70-200 first, before I thought about a comparison. It was at about 81mm focal length or close, so when I attached the 24-70 I couldn't quite fill the frame with the tank at the maximum 70mm. I didn't want to move the tripod or the perspective would be different.
This meant that in the 70-200 shot, the edges of the tank were closer to the edge of the frame, hence more barrel distortion. I cropped more off the 24-70 shot, meaning that the tank was more in the center of the frame, hence it was a much straighter image. I would imagine that if both shots were taken at 70mm then the distortion would be equal, so I didn't consider that in my comparison.

I agree that background looks nicer with the old Pentax lens - this might be to do with the lower angle of the shot or maybe not - but it looks smoother to me. The lens is perfectly clear and retains it's coatings. It's a mint condition example, passed down to me with my Grandma's Pentax S1a. I have quite a collection of old gear now!! I will say that the Pentax lens is much more susceptible to flare and weird colour casts but I'd put this down to age and technology. The aperture blade smoothness wide open is one of the best I've seen - far better than the Canon 50 1.4, not sure about the 1.2L.

Thanks again :)

George - I've borrowed a 24-105 in the past (actually for the owner's wedding - he's a catalogue fashion tog, Littlewoods etc) and I was very impressed. The IS is very nice to have and works well, and it was a tough decision between that and the more expensive 24-70. I went for the 24-70 because when shooting something moving, I would value the extra stop or two more than having the IS at F4. Also, I've got a thing for wider apertures at the moment!!
 
LondonDragon said:
Nice photos Tom, great detail on that last one, looks like you have a lizard in there! lol
Looking forward to seeing this on fill in :)
Click to expand...

I have. Doesn't look too good though, he keeps gasping at the surface. Too much CO2? :rolleyes:

I've just added a small powerhead to push more water down the back of the tank. I've noticed it's a little bit slow in the back right corner, but not any more :twisted: Just looks a bit ugly though :?
 
B7fec said:
Looking good! What power head have you put into the scape?
Click to expand...

I started off with the AquaEl one that came with my 10 liter, but I'm now using an Elite Mini filter without the media part (so just the pump). I've had to turn it down to the lowest setting. I swapped because the Elite was slightly smaller and didn't cause shadow on any of the plants.

I'm starting to see small amounts of some type of hair algae in the HC on the left of the tank. I find this odd as it gets the most flow in the tank, and in theory the most CO2. Some of the leaves are slightly transparent or slightly rough looking, but it's still local to that end of the tank. The more sheltered parts seems OK. Does HC not like lots of flow?

The Lilaeopsis is still shedding leaves, and I'm pulling out several yellow or rotten leaves daily. There are runners appearing with some new leaves, but I'm not sure whether that's the Lilaeopsis or the tenellus making a comeback after disliking the dry start.

The 2 Crypts that didn't completely melt in the last 5 weeks or so also look to be struggling putting down roots. I noticed one tiny root coming out of one of them yesterday when yet again it came loose. Could this be due to the fact the roots had been trimmed very short when shipped? I read on theplantedtank.co.uk that a P shortage could also cause poor root growth. P is the only thing I'm not dosing in this tank.

My daily dosing is:
Brighty K - 1.5 ml
Step 1 - 1.5ml
Spezial N - 1ml
FlowGrow - 1ml
AquaCarbon - 1.5ml

This is following a 50% water change every morning (and for the last 4 days, 50% evening too followed by small doses)

The good news on the diatom front is that since I wiped them stirred affected gravel etc and started 2x 50% water changes daily, they haven't returned as yet. I'm hoping the relatively small problems I'm seeing now are just due to the transition.

On a happy note, the moss is loving it! Riccia is perking up now too (also didn't like dry start), and is starting to do what I hoped it would which is creep along untied with the HC.

Any thoughts would be very welcome!

Tom
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - your thoughts on extra P?

That last shot is superb. Great creative use of limited depth of field and lovely composition.

Regarding the ferts it seems that you're overcomplicating things a little. The plants won't mind though, of course. The Step 1 won't be adding anything extra to the Flowgrow Mikro, so you may want to save that if you ever decide to go exclusive on the ADA system at some point in the future.

Extra P may help. I've never bothered as my tap water is loaded with it, and I perform so many water changes, but I can't speak for you.
 
Re: Tom's Mini M - your thoughts on extra P?

Thanks Viktor :D

George - I was originally going to be dosing ADA only, until I got hold of Tobi's ferts, and your theory that HC might like more Nitrogen. Then I thought I might as well dose Spezial N on top of the ADA ferts, as it can't do any harm. Then I had the Micros sitting there too, and what harm could a little extra do? :p Maybe not quite logical, but I thought as I've got it, I might as well dose it on top just to make sure I had enough! Paranoid for this tank!!

I've just noticed some slimy brown hair-type algae on the gravel at the front. Possibly Spirogyra? That would seem to tie in with the ammonia being released form the AS. Not quite sure what do do with it, but I'll probably nuke it with Excel after the water change.

The only thing I have done differently to the tank before seeing the algae is to add that powerhead. I've noticed the drop checker now shows green rather than the strong yellow it had done before. I haven't touched the injection rates. I also missed this morning's water change as I forgot to warm up more water, but that shouldn't cause problems in one morning, surely.

There's also a bit of GSA on one of the rocks I just noticed, and have ordered some KPO4 to dose as I don't currently have any P.

Tom
 
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