Taqpol's 120 gallon All in Stand Reef Build

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I assume you guys are talking about the Mimic Tang back on page 5, cause the fish pictured above is a Sargassum Triggerfish.
 
FTS Update time. Hint hint, I changed something.
111709FTS1.jpg
very nice tank... :)
 
Well, I had a pretty crappy day at work this last week and my fiancee thought that if I opened my Christmas present early I would feel better. She was right, she got me a freakin underwater enclosure for my SLR camera!!!

Expect more FTS, pictures, and UNDERWATER PICTURES this afternoon!
 
Well, I'm wet up to my armpits, but at least I didn't break any corals off or scare any fish to try carpet surfing.

Give me a little bit to edit all the pictures and we'll see how I did!
 
Lets start out with some normal pics.

FTS
121309FTS.jpg


Side shot. Maybe this will help show some more of the depth.
121309FTS3.jpg


Angled FTS. I kinda like this format.
121309FTS2.jpg


Recently my cousin got a really nice photo printer, so I decided to showcase some of my favorite shots in the "fish cave". I also have 13"x19" pictures of my three favorite coral macros, but they're being framed right now.
121309Room1.jpg


Speaking of the fish cave, heres a really wide shot that shows the entire setup.
121309Room2.jpg


The mandarin was really out and about during this photoshoot, even swimming up into the water column multiple times.
121309Mandarin2.jpg


121309Mandarin1.jpg


I think this shot looks really natural, Copper Band Butterfly in a "forest" of corals. Speaking of my CBB, every single aiptasia in my display tank is gone.
121309CBB.jpg


Overall I'd say my tank is really settling down and quite healthy. I even had my blue tuxedo urchin spawn last night!
121309UrchinSpawn.jpg
 
Both my Occ. clowns actually host inside this head of frogspawn now! Kinda interesting except the female has black dots all over herself now. I'm still gonna try and re home these two as I think my DT looks a bit crowded.
121309ClownCorner.jpg


He's another wider shot of my "Zoa corner".
121309ZoaCorner.jpg


121309Zoa.jpg


Blue Acro in its permanent home. Its already shown some growth since I purchased it.
121309BlueAcro.jpg


My maricultured *something* colony is going to take over where my toadstool was because its sort of yellow-ish.
121309Mari.jpg


Pink Digi has also put on some growth.
121309PinkDigi.jpg


This Favite brain was one of my first corals ever. It didn't handle the two tank transitions very well, but its stopped receding and looks nice and fluffy.
121309Favite.jpg


This coral was sold to me as Acropora loripes. I think it has cool color/shape.
121309Loripes1.jpg


121309Loripes2.jpg


Heres a new coral Macro, Duncanopsammia (bought as a single head frag).
121309Duncan.jpg
 
His favorite hiding spot, right at the front of the tank!
121309Tailspot1.jpg


I promised I would take some better pictures of the Sargassum trigger, so here they are. He didn't eat a single piece of food for the first three days, but now he chows down on mysis every single time I feed the tank.
121309Sargassum1.jpg


121309Sargassum3.jpg


Look at those teeth!
121309Sargassum2.jpg


I've also made another fish purchase. This is the last fish that will go into this tank unless something dies or gets traded away, especially since I definitely overspent my reef budget this month.....

Here he is!
121309Chevron2.jpg


121309Chevron3.jpg


121309Chevron.jpg


Both picassos decided they like hosting this absurdly small RBTA. Sometimes they beat it up so much I have to chase them away and but a net over the nem for a day or two...
121309Clowns.jpg


The Chevron is literally the size of one of my picassos!
121309Clowns2.jpg


I also picked up this cool pincushion urchin to help control the ramapnt coraline growth in my anemone tank.
121309Urchin.jpg
 
Here we go, I'm finally to the underwater pics! This stuff really blows me away, I can't believe how well some of these turned out. It was a little different as some of my corals are really close to the surface of the water and the focal depth on the lens I was using is not that great so there were some corals I was physically not able to get a good shot of (like my Red Planet :( ).

Before when i would take top down the best I could get was something like this:
121309Top1.jpg


Or when the fatty fish gets in the way:
121309Top2.jpg


While I think both of those pictures are good, you have a lot of trouble with the lights reflecting off the surface of the water, the water not being perfectly still and distorting your pictures, or getting salt water on your expensive camera when the freaking trigger tries to squirt at you.

Compare those pictures to this one.
121309UBonsai.jpg


Not only is the picture much crisper, but DANG! I've never even seen that side of the coral!

Green Birdsnest
121309UGreenBirds.jpg


Cali Tort + Red Birdsnest
121309UTort.jpg


Green Digitata
121309UGreenDigi.jpg


Maricultured Colony + ORA Spongodes
121309UMari.jpg


Purple rimmed Monti cap
121309UMonti1.jpg


121309UMonti2.jpg
 
Zoa corner
121309UZoa.jpg


Picasso hosting + Chevron Tang
121309UClown.jpg


ORA Birds of Paradise
121309UBOP.jpg


The only good picture I've ever been able to take of my ORA Borealis:
121309UBorealis.jpg


I still think the main reason to be able to take top down/underwater pictures is for clams.
121309UClams.jpg


121309UClam.jpg


These last two are my absolute favorites.

Chalk Bass: "What the ___ are you doing?"
121309UChalkBass.jpg


My Sargassum trigger now has a buddy, his reflection.
121309USargassum.jpg
 
Lets get some closer shots of that candy cane mess thingy.... looks cool
As you might be able to imagine I'm a little bit tired of taking pics right now, but next time I break out the camera I promise I'll get a shot of the candy cane colony. Don't know why I haven't before, Its in the perfect area for taking through the glass shots of.

WOW! That's really all I can say! Great shots and beautiful
Thank you!
 
I highly recommend it! The one my fiancee got me is the universal enclosure that looks like a fancy zip lock bag. A little bit scary maybe, but it does its job perfectly (up to 30 ft), and costs significantly less then the $1500 custom enclosures. Just make sure you have a lot of head room in your canopy, it will get crowded :) .
 
Now, lets see if this works......

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3PNrOqGfT5A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3PNrOqGfT5A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

This is the first movie I have ever taken of my fish tank using the video feature on my Canon T1i. I have no idea how to adjust the white balance of the movie, and focusing can be kind of a pain (you have to do it manually), but overall I think it turned out pretty good.
 
I took this one during feeding time.

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AZvMccZQz58&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AZvMccZQz58&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

Both of the above videos have HD options (720p off the camera) if you go to their actual youtube page.

If someone can suggest a good video editing program, especially one that controls temperature, I would be really grateful!
 
Very cool! Where do you get most of your corals from? There are slim pickings between Pets are People too and Palouse Pets :-/
 
Very cool! Where do you get most of your corals from? There are slim pickings between Pets are People too and Palouse Pets :-/
Yep, very slim pickings in the Pullman area. I take it you must have got out of here?

The only coral I've ever got from Pets are People too is my really cool frogspawn, and all I have ever got from Palouse Pets are my three chalk bass and some snails covered in red planaria flatworms...

For the most part I get my corals from Aquatic Dreams or Aquarium Solutions in Spokane. I've also found some good deals at Bob's Pet and Pond in Lewiston, ID and made the trek across the state for the Barrier Reef Aquariums 3rd anniversary sale.
 

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