James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 26/06/09

[LondonDragon]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Here is a picture i took today, i am useless at taking pictures.. If anyone lives near me and wants some tenellus in exchange of taking some decent pics please let me know!!

Get a tripod and don't use the flash try various manual settings, up the ISO for faster shooting
If you lived a bit closer I could come down and try, although I am not that good myself anyway lol

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Must say that is looking lush Must be great to have that amount of room to let thins just grow.

AC

 

[John Starkey]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Hi James,i absolutley love your setup,well planted and thought out with discus in mind,when my 5x2x2 is ready for a rescape i may consider something similar to your setup,well done regards john.

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Cheers, it is nice to let it grow on its own accord

Thanks John, its by far the easiest tank i have ever looked after, even compared to my Nanos

The sad thing is i used a Nikon D80, which is the office camera, but no one knows how to use it to put it to justice

 

[Ray]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

I have a D40 and asked similar question of Saintly. I'll tell you what he said, it might help, helped me. You do need to get your instruction book out set all the manual settings mind, but your tank is in the office so you can always have a play at lunchtime - handy that

Firstly, do you shoot raw OR J PEG? SHOOTING raw gives you much more room for error regards exposure and much more control over white balance.

I always shoot 2 stops under -2EV white balance, so i don't loose any detail in the highlights.

ISO is lens dependant. but if your going for a full tank shot in focus f8- f11 should be fine....any more and you sacrifice quality because you got to bump up the ISO. I'll shoot between 400-800 ISO sometimes 1000.

i think the d40 has RAW (almost certain) i cant emphasise how important RAW is in photography

I'd add, no flash and use a tripod. Might be worth putting your halides on just for the shoot.

 

[Mark Evans]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

yep, i said that. also just to make clear. when i say iso is lens dependent i mean at smaller F-stop numbers. obviously f1.4 means ISO 100 all the way but F4.5 means iso 400. that's what i mean by lens dependent before i get shot. f8-11 iso is not governed by the lens so much...only in quality of image

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Thanks!

Putting the halides on is a good idea..

I will try and get my head around it all

 

[George Farmer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Tank is looking very nice, James.

How often do you thin out the ferns and tenellus?

Regarding photography, for full tank shots, try going near as wide as possible (lowest end of focal range) if you have a zoom lens.

Use aperture priority ("A" on the Nikon dial), dial in f/5.6 or higher, ISO 800 with all your lights on.

This should hopefully give you a good balance of depth of field and fairly fast shutter speed to capture the fish. You can up the f/stop for more depth of field but your shutter speed will slow.

In Aperture Priority mode you can mess around with your f/stops and ISO and the camera will sort out the shutter speed for you. With slow moving fish you can get away with 1/50th shutter speed or slower sometimes.

A tripod is generally a must with shutter speeds less than 1/100th with regular lenses.

I hope that helps. I'm no expert, but know what works ok for me.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

I'd add, no flash and use a tripod. Might be worth putting your halides on just for the shoot.

Flash used directly above the tank, or used to illuminate the background works well. I have two flash guns I can fire remotely, but have yet to try this out (too many other things to photograph).

The underexposure Saintly mentions is important too. Post processing can pull a tremendous amount of detail out of the shadows, but burnt out detail is gone forever.

Dave.

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

I have a tripod available and will give it a go.

Thanks for the feedback and help regarding the photos, I am going to give it a good go once the cover is off the tank (having a 3 day blackout up to tomorrow)

Tank is looking very nice, James.

How often do you thin out the ferns and tenellus?

Thanks, the tenellus has been done once, and will probably need it in the next few months, its still growing sideways rather than up. It starts to go like a big mound of riccia and starts lifting off the substrate, but so far that has not happened. Ferns just get done when they are getting to near the surface, id say probably every 2 - 3 months, but i haven't really kept an eye on it tbh.

 

[George Farmer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

I'd add, no flash and use a tripod. Might be worth putting your halides on just for the shoot.

Flash used directly above the tank, or used to illuminate the background works well. I have two flash guns I can fire remotely, but have yet to try this out (too many other things to photograph).

The underexposure Saintly mentions is important too. Post processing can pull a tremendous amount of detail out of the shadows, but burnt out detail is gone forever.

Dave.

You'd need softboxes or lots of flashes, or both to get a decent spread over James's bad boy!

Salient point on the underexposing. Look out for 'blinkies' on the histogram.

 

[George Farmer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Thanks, the tenellus has been done once, and will probably need it in the next few months, its still growing sideways rather than up. It starts to go like a big mound of riccia and starts lifting off the substrate, but so far that has not happened. Ferns just get done when they are getting to near the surface, id say probably every 2 - 3 months, but i haven't really kept an eye on it tbh.

Nice one! Nice and low maintenance then.

Do you anticipate more algae with more discus and their feeding requirements, or do you think it'll be ok?

My main concern when considering these awesome fish is trapped food amongst planting, leading to potential algae issues.

BTW what do your colleagues make of it? I bet they love it!

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Yep, nice and easy to look after, other than when I need to clean the main filter

Regarding Algae, we shall wait and see. :? I haven't tested the tank for anything other than TDS in ages, the only algae I have had with this is this current hair stuff and some BBA when i ran out of co2 before i got the big BOC cylinder.

Trapped food is a problem i suppose, but I always feed over the sanded area, and they are pretty quick to scoff it down + the rummies do a good job picking and hunting the left overs However, I do need some good algae eaters, and I am trying to decide on what would work best, any thoughts anyone?

My next addition (other than the wilds) is going to be 15 or 20 Nannostomus bekfordi for some action up by the ferns

BTW what do your colleagues make of it? I bet they love it!

Generally they do yea, they all thought I was mad when I set it up lol The main question i get asked though is when are you going to add lots of different fish or why don't you add some red plants in there..

 

[Tony Swinney]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Hi James

Just a thought on the trapped food situation - I find the cory sterbai and the amano shrimp do a great job of cleaning up in amongst the bases of plants - they're like fairys that come out at night and spring clean the place

Cheers

Tony

 

[George Farmer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

I'm a recent convert to bristlenose. Awesome algae eaters and scavengers.

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Just a thought on the trapped food situation - I find the cory sterbai and the amano shrimp do a great job of cleaning up in amongst the bases of plants - they're like fairys that come out at night and spring clean the place

Shrimps are an option, i may get some amanos before the wilds arrive. I don't really want corys, i actually got rid of a breeding group of Adolfi just before I set this tank up as I wanted to keep my sand, sand, and not sand and aquasoil

I do like Bristlenoses, I have got my local maidenhead aquatics in Morden on the hunt for a sturisoma aureum, but no news yet

 

[Dave Spencer]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

You'd need softboxes or lots of flashes, or both to get a decent spread over James's bad boy!

That`s what I get for not reading the thread and realising the size of the tank.

Dave.

 

[Themuleous]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Tanks looking properly great James, bet it looks quality in the flesh.

Sam

 

[james3200]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

Thanks Sam, if your around these parts your welcome again

James

 

[jb92]

Re: James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 23/01/09

hi amazing looking tank
jb