Neil's 60cm ADA inspired Nature Aquarium

[planter]

Hi Neil,

This is the tank that insipired me to set up my opti white rimless. Saw it a long time ago back on TFF. Great tank and a real achievment esp. as its still running (and looking good) after all this time.

which tubes are you using over this tank?

 

[oldwhitewood]

Thanks very much. Glad it has inspired someone.

Regarding the lighting I use the Interpet Daylight Plus power compacts. These are rated at 36w and I think the colour temp is 6500k, it's a very clean white light.

The idea behind this was ADA use 2 of these dual tubes over their 60cm tanks so I wanted to have the same thing. It was either this or 150MH but i decided on the T5s because I didn't want to use MH on a small tank like mine and I was worried about the heat and power consumption. Over a 90cm tank you could probably use one ok. So T5's seemed to be the logical choice.

My issue with them is I have always wanted to use the 8000k ADA power compacts, because that colour temp is mean't to be brilliant, replicating a cloudy overcast sky which is if you think about it what you would have most of the time in the jungles and rainforests we take our inspiration from. Well I do anyway. So that's why I'm trying to find out how much the ADA lights are to buy. I think they'll be too expensive though.

I know what you mean though about the Arcadia lights. The ones they supply with their luminares looked bad to me, too pinkish. So I actually bought 4 Giesemann tubes, although they were OK I still didn't like the colour. Hence retrofitting my Arcadia 100cm Luminaire to a 60cm one with interpet T5's!! but that's another story.

 

[oldwhitewood]

Love the photos.

Clearly you have grasped your DSLR and nice prime lenses, Neil...

Thanks for sharing mate.

Been to TGM yet?

Exposure Compensation + EV, White Balance set to +2 etc etc, that's before it goes into Adobe Lightroom!!! it makes my head spin but all I can say is we are lucky we have the option of using digital and hence making mistakes, so we can try everything out. I don't know much about post processing at the moment, I try to get things right on the camera first and then just do a bit of cropping if needed, but again it's something I would love to learn more about. I mainly use iPhoto for a bit of tweaking but I've got Adobe Lightroom and I must say it looks awesome.

In many ways though I think maybe there is too much tech in the way of photography and too many settings to worry about. With film I guess you have less settings to tweak but the flipside is it's less forgiving, and more expensive to process!

I thought I was working this weekend but i'm not now so I might go over to the shop on Saturday to check it out.

 

[PM]

On the topic of 8000K lighting, do you think these would work?

http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bu...b2c5bbb38be66b72.e3eSc3qPbN0Te34Pa38Ta38Mahv0

Or these for that matter:
http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bu...l/T5-Fluorescent-Tube-24W-880-Philips-24-Watt

They are both the correct size for my 600MM arcadia fixture, I might order some, what do people think? Anyone tried them?

 

[oldwhitewood]

The phillips ones might be better as they state 'Full spectrum with extra blue supports S.A.D. treatment' which you would think is the more type of natural light. I think I remember George saying even though certain things are listed at a K such as 8000k you cannot assume all the colour temps will be the same, the differ from manufacturer to manufacturer apparently. For the price though I think you have to try them!

 

[PM]

Just ordered two of each

 

[oldwhitewood]

Respect, like the thinking there.

 

[Mark Evans]

for sure im going to change mine . after reading georges write up in pfk kinda helped too.

which one would i opt for on a arcadia 60cm luminaire? bit confusing

 

[oldwhitewood]

I would think both of the tubes PM posted here would work fine. Power compacts like I use of course wouldn't fit you would have to get the screwdriver out and start messing with your luminaire.

 

[PM]

I post some shots of the difference when I receive them in my journal thread.

Sorry to hijack your thread Neil!

Good luck with the re-scaping

 

[Mark Evans]

would think both of the tubes PM posted here would work fine. Power compacts like I use of course wouldn't fit you would have to get the screwdriver out and start messing with your luminaire.

ahhh, i see. ok i'll wait till pm post some pics. hurry up pm

 

[JamesM]

Yup, I switched from compact T5's to linear recently, and I'm not totally happy either. I thought I was going mad, so I'm glad other people notice a change too

 

[oldwhitewood]

Not long left for it now, plans are in motion for my new layout.

 

[JamesM]

Beautiful

 

[Mark Evans]

yep, class!.... and not a skull in site (just kiddin james)

those tubes seem to make a massive difference to the appearence.

 

[oldwhitewood]

It might also be the WB settings on the camera mind you. But the image pretty much matches the colour of the tubes.

 

[Mark Evans]

It might also be the WB settings on the camera mind you

i did think that, but the ambient light looks naturel which tells me that your tubes do give off this light. when i experiment withWB in raw mode, i can get that colour, but everything around it(ambient light ) looks unatural, if you get what i mean?

I need new tubes!

your becoming an inspiration to me too!

mark

 

[PM]

Any updates?

Re-scape going well?

 

[TDI-line]

Original shots look lovely Neil.

 

[oldwhitewood]

Any updates?

Re-scape going well?

Wood is soaking as we speak, hardware for temp tank ordered so I'm getting there, hoping to do it next week. Thanks for the interest.