# CmLaracy's ADA 75P v.IV



## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

I am no expert my any means, but I was quite skeptical of this scape when you first posted pictures of it in the aquascaping section. However, i really like what you've done with it. The moss really makes it look more like an aquascape rather than a pile of rocks. The hairgrass in the back looks super nice, and so does the HC. Nice job and i look forward to following this tank's progression! roud:


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

AzFishKid said:


> I am no expert my any means, but I was quite skeptical of this scape when you first posted pictures of it in the aquascaping section. However, i really like what you've done with it. The moss really makes it look more like an aquascape rather than a pile of rocks. The hairgrass in the back looks super nice, and so does the HC. Nice job and i look forward to following this tank's progression! roud:


Thanks :icon_smil And in my opinion, the moss still needs to engulf the rock a bit more. I'm going to have to start trimming the HC and pulling out some hairgrass to get everything balanced.

I'll be getting a school of about 40-50 cardinal tetras in a week or so to contrast all the green. Also, picked up some DARK red Sakura's today and at least half of them came berried, they let me hand pick them and I took all the preggers :hihi: So in a month or so the tank will be crawling with red! 

I'm quite nervous though, I'm going back to TCNJ on the 17th and I have class 5 days a week. Going to have to make lots of trips home on the weekend... Also going to have to teach the father how to dose and look for algae. I have a feeling dropping the photoperiod from 10 hours a day to 7 or 8 will be a wise choice once I leave.

I can't say it was all success though, had a huge problem the first 4 weeks with Diatoms and green thread algae, took forever for me to find out that I had sandy soil, and so my well water was filled with silicates. Water changes just fed the diatoms. Got a RO/DI and did a 3 day blackout with huge excel ODing and won the war after much frustration. I thought I was going to lose the scape to be honest.


Can't wait to get the school of cardinals and the DLSR, these shots really don't do it justice compared to in person. Thanks for the compliment!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Here's two shots of the tank as of today, the HC is going to need some plowing soon. Bare with me on the quality of the shots again, still from my phone. I'll be grabbing a canon t3i soon and hopefully I'll get some worthy shots out of it. Posting two shots as its hard to get the light balance correct so I tried one normal exposure and one under exposed.




















Thanks for looking


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Why don't you place the diffuser under the powerhead?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

jkan0228 said:


> Why don't you place the diffuser under the powerhead?


for one, the grass would be in the way and I'd have to have it higher up. I'd also have to bend a new glass pipe for it's different positioning.

but more importantly, it's lined up directly with the outflow of the xp3. the bubbles get thrown down into the the water column and swing towards the back by the flow of the xp3. any bubbles that get close to the surface after the xp3 "throws" them towards the back then get propelled back down into the water column and to the right side of the tank by the powerhead. the powerhead essentially catches all the bubbles the xp3 can't prevent from reaching the surface. 

the xp3 and koralia thus work in tandem to keep the bubbles in the column and circulated around the tank. these days I run slightly less than 1bps and have no noticeable algae, the diffusion rate is quite high when both sets of flow are circulating the bubbles. using strictly RO/DI water also helps


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

This tank is excellent. I love it because it is unique and well executed. 

You selling any of that hair grass anytime soon?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> This tank is excellent. I love it because it is unique and well executed.
> 
> You selling any of that hair grass anytime soon?


Coming from you :icon_redf Thanks a bunch!

As for the hairgrass, if i knew how to take some out with all of it coming out I would start selling quite soon, it's been making its way into the carpet for 4 weeks now and I have to clip the runners and pull out blades of it everyday to keep the carpet from turning into another wall of grass. I started with so little of it so most of it is interconnected under the soil. Any tips would be appreciated, if I can sell some you're first in line. Believe it or not this is dwarf hairgrass, and I'm positive of if because the place I get my plants from has little tags in the pots that were put in by the place that grows them... it was labeled dwarf hair grass, along with it's latin name. There's a possibility that the growers messed up but It was quite short when I got it, the direct halide seems to really double it's length.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

I haven't produced anything close to this quality in quite some time. 

As far as hair grass, pretty much your only options are to cut it out in chunks like sod or to completely remove it and replant.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> I haven't produced anything close to this quality in quite some time.
> 
> As far as hair grass, pretty much your only options are to cut it out in chunks like sod or to completely remove it and replant.


Figured as much with the grass, what a pain that's going to be. I'm leaving for school on the 17th, might be a good idea to remove it all and replant before I go, the stuff grows so fast It'll be back to what it looks like now in a few weeks I'd be willing to bet. It really is a weed


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

That would be a good idea. And you sell the cuttings to me.


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> That would be a good idea. And you sell the cuttings to me.


Not unless I beat you to his front door! LOL. 

Seriously, tank looks great Chris. I will get over to you to check it out before you head back into the city. I have been so dang busy lately with the holidays.

Meeting is at my place on January 28! Setting up a 50 gallon aquarium.

Let me know if you need more fert solution before you head back to school also.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Oh you bastard. First the crypts and now this!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> Oh you bastard. First the crypts and now this!


Nah, I was busting you. They are all yours. LOL!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Gatekeeper said:


> Not unless I beat you to his front door! LOL.
> 
> Seriously, tank looks great Chris. I will get over to you to check it out before you head back into the city. I have been so dang busy lately with the holidays.
> 
> ...


You guys are silly! I'm good on KNO3 at the moment, but as far as PO4 I've simply been eyeballing lumps of powder and dosing discretely, I bump it up when I see GSA forming on the glass.

Going back to school on the 17th, so I'll have to see if I can make it to the meeting or if ill be busy with class, which I have monday-friday this semester.


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## VadimShevchuk (Sep 19, 2009)

I read your three previous journals of the 75-p and im glad you came back for a fourth try! looking good


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## tizzite (Mar 28, 2010)

AzFishKid said:


> I am no expert my any means, but I was quite skeptical of this scape when you first posted pictures of it in the aquascaping section. However, i really like what you've done with it. The moss really makes it look more like an aquascape rather than a pile of rocks. The hairgrass in the back looks super nice, and so does the HC. Nice job and i look forward to following this tank's progression! roud:


+1.

At first the rocks seemed too much, but it turned out magnificently.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

VadimShevchuk said:


> I read your three previous journals of the 75-p and im glad you came back for a fourth try! looking good





tizzite said:


> +1.
> 
> At first the rocks seemed too much, but it turned out magnificently.


Thanks guys


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

tizzite said:


> +1.
> 
> At first the rocks seemed too much, but it turned out magnificently.


Agreed. I was very skeptical of this layout and it did pull together nicely. I think the taller hairgrass would have been a bit more backdrop to the setup, but it still looks great.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Gatekeeper said:


> Agreed. I was very skeptical of this layout and it did pull together nicely. I think the taller hairgrass would have been a bit more backdrop to the setup, but it still looks great.


Thanks. And yeah I was planning on using Vivipara but couldn't find any, this hairgrass seemed like it would do the trick under enough light because the AS is about 8" in the back. If the soil wasn't so sloped it wouldn't be tall enough at all.

So what type of schooling fish do you guys think I should get :icon_ques Due to the small scale plants I want to go with a very small fish. 30-40 of them. I was thinking cardinals, but even they might be a little to big and throw off the scale.


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## inka4041 (Jul 27, 2008)

Given the color scheme in this tank, I'd go with boraras or microdevario. Really loving this hard scape. Very pride rock!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

inka4041 said:


> Given the color scheme in this tank, I'd go with boraras or microdevario. Really loving this hard scape. Very pride rock!


Hmmmm :icon_idea Thanks for the compliment and idea!










Not a bad choice, I'm considering it. Do they school well? They may match my sakuras a little bit too much but thats not a big deal, I don't have many and I doubt any of their babies will survive due to the xp3. Got anything with blue in it? I know nothing in the way of fish species.


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

How about celestial pearl danios? They only have red on the fins so it wouldnt be too much abd if you get ahold of some good quality ones they are blue with awesone gold spots.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

kwheeler91 said:


> How about celestial pearl danios? They only have red on the fins so it wouldnt be too much abd if you get ahold of some good quality ones they are blue with awesone gold spots.


Based off of a simple google image search, they look a bit too large. My goal with the tank was to contrast substantial amounts of large rock with small plants, hence the HC, dwarf xmas moss, and dwarf hairgrass on steroids. The suggestion is still appreciated, as I know next to nothing about fish, and any input is a learning experience. If they are smaller than Gimages lead me to believe, let me know. It's a 40g and my goal was to make it look like a 60g+. Once I get the DSLR I'll take out the powerhead, lily pipes, and diffuser to really capture the "false" scale I've attempted to create. :tongue:

Here's two shots from my iphone 4 (not the 4S, so the camera is awful, whereas the 4S takes great shots of my tank, a few friends have it). These shots were taken about 10 minutes ago. Thanks for looking!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Chris,

Talk directly with msjinkzd.

She will guide you into the best fish that will suite your idea and she is a very respectable supplier.


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## inka4041 (Jul 27, 2008)

The boraras are like most other schoolers in that they are in tightest formation when they're scared. They do keep some sort of spatial relationship to each other, but ime, they don't school tight like some of the danios and tetras. 

Sundadanio axelrodi 'blue' - http://jmorgan.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p126978537.jpg
Microdevario kubotai - http://tinyurl.com/Mkubotai (the color is entirely dependent on the angle of the light. These things are frosted peridot green in person)


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

just by looking through a thread or two of hers I'm starting to think green neons might be a good choice, they're nice and blue... lol. If they're actually green someone let me know


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Boraras brigittae dont really shoal as was said, the males will stake out a territory and and beat up the other males. They kind of equally space themselves about the tank. Very good looking though. Idk how big cpd's appear on google but they are generally an inch long. Very "meaty" so they might seem larger. They will spawn every morning for you though, its a pleasant sight... Makes me wanna get some more


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

From last night with the iphone 4





















Hopefully picking up the DSLR before this thing is overgrown. Thanks for looking.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

I really think this tank would place very well in a contest. Nice job!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> I really think this tank would place very well in a contest. Nice job!


:icon_redf thank you so much! You're pushing me to go grab that DSLR right now


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## gnod (Mar 24, 2011)

nicely done. loving it
question is, how'd you get them mosses between the rocks?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

gnod said:


> nicely done. loving it
> question is, how'd you get them mosses between the rocks?


Bought about 2 softball sizes worth, pushed it into the crevices of the rock as well as pushed it into the aqua soil. For places where the crevices weren't narrow, I pushed it gently into the soil then tucked the outer edges of the moss "sections" between the soil and stone to keep it held down. Took a bit of finagling to get it all to stay down, but it was really just a matter of "tucking" it in wherever I could, be it between two stones, or one stone and soil. Using exclusively 'powder' aqua soil helped in this process. It was all matted down, at first it couldn't be seen without looking from above the tank, hence why it's taking the longest to fill in, it had the most growth to fulfill. You can kinda see here in this photo while planting with the tank empty, but soil moist. Try and spot the dark green in between the stones.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Well I'm quite happy to say that there are TONS of sakura babies that are now large enough that they won't get caught in the filter, and still tons of really tiny ones everywhere, so I've held off on the fish for their sake. Even at the nearly microscopic level these things are scarlet red, can't wait until theres hundreds of em crawling everywhere so I can get some green neons and finish this thing off. 

Water change and general tank maintenance tomorrow, I'll post an updated shot then. Couldn't get around to it tonight, had to rush my grandmother to the hospital unfortunately. 89 with pneumonia :/


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Things have calmed down with my grandmother, she's ok thankfully. Going back to school tomorrow, just finished showing the father how to dose the tank. Heres a shot with the filter and powerhead ON followed by one with the filter and powerhead OFF. Never got around to buying the DSLR, shots still from my iPhone. Theres a little bit of riccia in the moss front and center, which is no longer there (just took it out). Since this tank started I've had to remove riccia from different parts of the tank about once a week. It never comes back in the same spot, very strange.



















There are literally HUNDREDS of sakura babies. One interesting thing about this tank, with the water changes being once a week or sometimes once every week and a half, I no longer need to dose PO4 or N. 10 pumps of brighty K, 10 pumps of brighty step 1, and 10 drops of ECA every morning. Also, my timers died 3 weeks or longer ago and I've been turning it on whenever I feel like it and simply letting it run 10-12 hours, usually 10. I usually turn it on 3-4pm and turn it off at 1-2am, but today for example it didn't go on until 6pm, it'll be going off at 4am (yes I am a night owl). Between all the shrimp, the ottos, and the amount of decaying plant matter (its fully grown theres no where else for new stuff to grow, theres no visible decay but theres a good film of protein on the surface after about a day of completely removing it, indication of plant matter decay) I no longer need to dose N or P for it's levels to stay at appropriate PPM's


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Tank is looking great dude. You should let the moss just go wild....


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

jkan0228 said:


> Tank is looking great dude. You should let the moss just go wild....


Thanks, thats the plan! The HC will float up soon because it's getting too thick, so when it does I'll plant a new carpet. And when I do that I'll pull out all the hairgrass that has grown out of the background and into the midground and foreground. 

My only disappointment with this tank is how long the moss has taken to fill in, so I hope to remedy that by restarting the other plants and leaving the moss as is  Im not sure how feasible all this will be living 2 hours from the tank with classes monday-friday, but hopefully Ill make it work with help from the parents.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

As long as you don't let it get too thick you should e find.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Wow, 5 day away at school and I couldn't even see the scape the glass was so covered in GSA. About a half hour of work and tada. Gonna borrow a friends camera soon before the HC floats up so I can get you guys good pictures, the HC carpet is about an inch and a half thick now. This was the best I could get :icon_sad: I'll try and get some better shots with my phone later tonight or tomorrow.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Lookin good. If you have to have algae, GSA is at least easy to deal with.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Finally! Got a somewhat decent shot using my mom's junky point and shoot! No more camera phone shots. My dad says if I remind him we'll go out and get the DSLR on sunday before the giants game, then I'll really have some pictures for ya!

Here it is!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Looks alright.












LOL! Freaking solid scape bro. I was a cynic for sure.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Gatekeeper said:


> Looks alright.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I forgive you!! :angel::tongue: Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the meeting for the 50g setup! fingers crossed, hope I don't have too much work


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Finally got the DSLR, Nikon D5100. I know how to use it to the extent that I can take pictures, but not much else. Spent a lot of time messing with the ISO levels and white balance, couldn't come up with anything too great. To my surprise I had to have the ISO levels really high to get anything that wasn't extremely dark, I thought it would be the opposite.... well these are what I think are the best six (I took about 100). I'll be working with it today and tomorrow and hopefully I can learn to get some better shots out of it, any help would be much appreciated.

























































Tonight when I get home I'll work on getting brighter shots, as well as some macro and angled shots. I've never used a good point and shoot before let alone a DLSR so it's going to take me a bit, I hope you all enjoy.


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## ADAtank (Jul 26, 2011)

I like the scape do you do carbon or anything in your filter?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

xp3 with a mixture of fine media particle filter pads and an entire box of bio rio


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Here some other tries with the camera, if anyone could give me some tips on how to take a good shot of a MH lit tank would be awesome.


















































































Thanks for looking!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

no tips on how to use the D5100? I definitely need some help these DSLR's are not easy to use in manual mode


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Tickle my Elmo is a Nikon fanboy, you might shoot him a message, im sure he could help you out. He has some REALLY nice pics on here.


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## Bahugo (Apr 18, 2011)

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography

You probably have your aperture/shutter speed set high which is causing you too need too use a higher iso too allow the pictures too be brighter


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

First things first - either decide to use manual shooting mode, or use Aperture Focus. 
I use manual, but some people don't like to fiddle with too much stuff. 

If you use manual mode, first go in an set your ISO to 200 or 400, then set your aperture as wide open as you can, depending on your lens it should be around f2.8. 
Now start snapping pics, start off at a high shutter speed like 250, and keep going lower until your shadows look realistic...

Another option is to use the light meter, HC is a brighter green so if you set your metering mode to "spot" and point the central ring/square that you see when looking through the camera at the HC, you'll want the light meter reading to be 1/2 to 1 exposure towards the + side from center in the camera. 

Or you could just try Aperture focus - but I never get what I'm hoping for when I don't do all my settings myself. 

Your white balance looks off too, you'll have to tweak it till you get color similar to what you are seeing in person.

Also, your Aperture setting affects your depth of field, a very low aperture is very open, and lets in more light. But it shortens how much depth you can have in focus at once. 
Really nice for photographing shrimps and livestock and highlighting specific parts of the tank cause you can have the foreground and background out of focus. 
A higher aperture is very closed, and the higher the aperture the more you can have in focus.
The famous photgraphers in Group f/64 used a f/64 aperture on large format cameras which allowed them to get an insanely HUGE depth of field. 







The high aperture allows you to get stuff near you and far away and everything in between, in focus.


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## freph (Apr 4, 2011)

I wish my HC looked that good....holy cow. That carpet is amazing. Mine is....recovering. :hihi:


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Thanks for all the camera advise and compliments everyone! I'm going back to school tonight and busy with work and the giants game right now so the next set of pictures will be coming friday, hopefully it's not too overgrown by then. Once the HC floats up, I sell most of it and replant it and grow a new carpet but leave the moss to go wild. While the HC is out of the tank I'm going to clean up the grass, it's finally made its way under the rocks and into the carpet.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Nice shot Cholorophile! What a lush looking tank Cmlaracy! Beautiful.


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## fusiongt (Nov 7, 2011)

High aperture is great for landscapes but lenses lose sharpness when you go past a certain point (like f8). With aquariums, you need the speed to capture the fish/shrimp so I would turn it to shutter mode and go for 1/125 or 1/200+ faster. (This of course depends on how your camera's iso performs and lens speed but regardless, if you need to stop fish from moving you need faster shutter speed so no matter what lens/camera i use, I find myself going to shutter speed for aquarium photos.)


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Nice shot Cholorophile! What a lush looking tank Cmlaracy! Beautiful.


Not mine - I think its ansel adams. 



fusiongt said:


> High aperture is great for landscapes but lenses lose sharpness when you go past a certain point (like f8). With aquariums, you need the speed to capture the fish/shrimp so I would turn it to shutter mode and go for 1/125 or 1/200+ faster. (This of course depends on how your camera's iso performs and lens speed but regardless, if you need to stop fish from moving you need faster shutter speed so no matter what lens/camera i use, I find myself going to shutter speed for aquarium photos.)


Good point, you need a fast shutter for fish, not as much for shrimp. 
If you're just doing a full tank shot and don't care about fish you can throw it on a tripod and use the lowest iso and a slow shutter speed and any aperture you want.


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

well executed cm def my fav pic is this one


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Chlorophile said:


> Not mine - I think its ansel adams.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks everyone. I need to learn how to adjust the shutter speed and aperture. Only thing I've messed with so far is the ISO and white balance :icon_redf A friend of mine was just over and had been tracking the tank via this thread, he kept repeating how much nicer it was in person. Insulting my photography skills! or lackthereof lol


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## chris.rivera3 (Apr 15, 2008)

awesome tank!!! I love how simple it is...what kind of hairgrass is that in the back??? what eleocharis sp.?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

chris.rivera3 said:


> awesome tank!!! I love how simple it is...what kind of hairgrass is that in the back??? what eleocharis sp.?


Thanks, it's really grown in since the last photos, didn't get around to taking shots this weekend, almost all the rock is gone to the moss :icon_cool I have a feeling I might come back to a floating HC carpet this friday 

It's actually dwarf hairgrass, thanks for the compliment :thumbsup:


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

it looks awesome bro. man i wish i had room for a larger tank.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Thanks marko! 

This could be the last set of photos, as the HC carpet is far past an inch thick and could start floating up any day now.
































As you can see I'm still completely incompetent with a DSLR :help: I did find that planted tanks are exceptionally hard to photograph, here's a couple shots of other hobbies of mine that were a lot easier to take.


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## inareverie85 (Jul 26, 2008)

Your tank is lovely, but that bunny is AWESOME. I want one


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

inareverie85 said:


> Your tank is lovely, but that bunny is AWESOME. I want one


She's the best. 100% litter trained, so she doesn't have a cage anymore. And when we need to find her all we do is yell her name and she comes bouncing and hopping out of the woodwork! She's quite odd for a bunny too, she licks like dogs do. Only me though! I'm her favorite lol, when I come home from school on friday nights she goes ballistic, even though I'm gone 5 days of the week she remembers.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

what do you keep in there, just cherries?

how do you find the time? between lectures and procrastinating i doubt id have the time to plant HC. not that it would grow for me. i can grow UG no problem, but the "hardier" HC just yellows away and dies.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

CmLaracy said:


> She's the best. 100% litter trained, so she doesn't have a cage anymore. And when we need to find her all we do is yell her name and she comes bouncing and hopping out of the woodwork! She's quite odd for a bunny too, she licks like dogs do. Only me though! I'm her favorite lol, when I come home from school on friday nights she goes ballistic, even though I'm gone 5 days of the week she remembers.


Wow, sounds like an awesome pet!! I had rabbits when I was younger, and even bred them. Never knew they can actually be trained!

Anywho, amazing tank! HC is a bit of a frustration in my current tank, so I'm sure you can feel my envy. LOL!!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

@[email protected] said:


> what do you keep in there, just cherries?
> 
> how do you find the time? between lectures and procrastinating i doubt id have the time to plant HC. not that it would grow for me. i can grow UG no problem, but the "hardier" HC just yellows away and dies.





zergling said:


> Wow, sounds like an awesome pet!! I had rabbits when I was younger, and even bred them. Never knew they can actually be trained!
> 
> Anywho, amazing tank! HC is a bit of a frustration in my current tank, so I'm sure you can feel my envy. LOL!!


Sakura's and Otto's. I never got around to getting a school, and I tend to keep my CO2 a little high, so it'd be a bad idea. I also keep the water literally right at the verge of overflowing so I'd have a jumper or two every day.

The tank was already in "autopilot mode" before I left for school so between showing the dad how to dose and do basic maintenance (not WC's, don't trust him lol) it only needs me around once a week for a clean and WC.

Thanks for the compliments.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

CmLaracy said:


> Thanks marko!
> 
> This could be the last set of photos, as the HC carpet is far past an inch thick and could start floating up any day now.
> 
> ...


Trim the HC really low, you can still save it!

Also, your tank shots are under exposed IMO - if you are using auto mode figure out where your AE-L button is, that is auto exposure lock - you could set your metering mode to center or spot and then aim the center reticle on a rock or on the moss, press the AE-L button and hold it, then frame up the shot and take it. 
The auto exposure will try to bring what ever its aimed at to an equivalent to 18% Grey because the light sensor only sees black and white. 
Your HC is definitely much brighter than 18% grey and the camera is probably using it for the majority of its exposure calculations.
Or.. if you are using manual mode just bump the shutter speed enough to make your light meter go up +1 EV.

Also if you have a tripod use it - set your ƒ-stop to something around 8 or 9 so you can get more of the tank in focus, it looks like the front of your carpet might be out of focus.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Chlorophile said:


> Trim the HC really low, you can still save it!
> 
> Also, your tank shots are under exposed IMO - if you are using auto mode figure out where your AE-L button is, that is auto exposure lock - you could set your metering mode to center or spot and then aim the center reticle on a rock or on the moss, press the AE-L button and hold it, then frame up the shot and take it.
> The auto exposure will try to bring what ever its aimed at to an equivalent to 18% Grey because the light sensor only sees black and white.
> ...


The tank will be just about ready to be torn down as soon as the HC floats up, so I decided a while back not to bother when it would have been easy to trim... I simply can't keep the tank running the way I want it to, being 2 hours away 5 days of the week...

Not using auto-mode, thanks for the advice. I've received some pretty damn good camera advice in this thread, thanks everyone.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

CmLaracy said:


> Sakura's and Otto's. I never got around to getting a school, and I tend to keep my CO2 a little high, so it'd be a bad idea. I also keep the water literally right at the verge of overflowing so I'd have a jumper or two every day.
> 
> The tank was already in "autopilot mode" before I left for school so between showing the dad how to dose and do basic maintenance (not WC's, don't trust him lol) it only needs me around once a week for a clean and WC.
> 
> Thanks for the compliments.


ah well. they all run their course.
seeing you tank made me want a big tank again. i already worked it out with my roommates so i can set up a hightech tank next year. lol
you could see about transferring it to school, if you wanted. 

btw, where do you go to school? im in rutgers.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

@[email protected] said:


> ah well. they all run their course.
> seeing you tank made me want a big tank again. i already worked it out with my roommates so i can set up a hightech tank next year. lol
> you could see about transferring it to school, if you wanted.
> 
> btw, where do you go to school? im in rutgers.


TCNJ biochemistry

And I would never even consider setting up a tank in my dorm, I have enough things to worry about. This tank was supposed to be torn down once the semester started but it got off to a rough start and wasn't even close to finished once school started, so that's really the only reason it's still up. Oh and I never really considered this a big tank, 30"x18"x18, about 40 gal. I've always seen "big" as 60 gallon+, but that's just me


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## daphilster08 (Oct 21, 2009)

Dude your tank is a stunner! Thats exactly how I want to do mine with the grass in the back, different angle upright rocks and a beautiful foreground! Love it! Let me know if you ever have any extra trimmings or anything.. Looking to fill mine in a bit! Thanks!!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

daphilster08 said:


> Dude your tank is a stunner! Thats exactly how I want to do mine with the grass in the back, different angle upright rocks and a beautiful foreground! Love it! Let me know if you ever have any extra trimmings or anything.. Looking to fill mine in a bit! Thanks!!


Thank you! Keep your eyes on the S&S, in a few weeks there will be more moss, HC, and grass up for sale than you can shake a metaphorical stick at :hihi:


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

So where'd that big pile of rocks go?!  This is a shot mid light cycle, all equipment running and in the tank; all the CO2 bubbles ruin the shots. Tonight I'll take it all out towards the tail end of the photoperiod and get some real glamour shots lol. Thanks for looking :icon_cool


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

One of my all time favorites.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> One of my all time favorites.


I'm flattered, one of your past scapes is one of my all time favorites as well lol

Edit: figured out how to finally use this DSLR properly, I'll be taking this scapes final photo shoot tonight, expect photos around 3am eastern


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Sorry, never got around to pics, passed out on my couch lol. I'll make sure to try for tonight.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

So your breaking this down once the HC busts loose? 

It's looking so nice right now. Nice guitar btw.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

salmon said:


> So your breaking this down once the HC busts loose?
> 
> It's looking so nice right now. Nice guitar btw.


I'm going to have a decision to make when the HC floats up. Gut the tank and sell everything, or do a replant of the HC and some trimming and grooming of the moss and grass. It's all really going to depend on how busy I am at school. If I do decide to keep it going, I'll be getting a school of fish finally :icon_roll but right now, not knowing how much longer I may have this scape for, I don't see a point in buying a large school yet.

Thanks! I love my PRS, such a versatile guitar. Here's two cool shots I got using the fallout of my metal halide! Never seen the guitar this color. Hard to believe its a 1998


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## styxx (Jul 2, 2003)

*Impressive!!*



Overfloater said:


> One of my all time favorites.


 Agreed. So nice to see you still going strong in the hobby! It's been a few years but I'm back and moving up to a 50G finally! I must say so far version IV looks awesome! I love the HC, but eventually it gets to be a pain in the butt when it grows so thick, nevertheless an excellent record of progress Chris!


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

CmLaracy said:


> I'm going to have a decision to make when the HC floats up. Gut the tank and sell everything, or do a replant of the HC and some trimming and grooming of the moss and grass. It's all really going to depend on how busy I am at school. If I do decide to keep it going, I'll be getting a school of fish finally :icon_roll but right now, not knowing how much longer I may have this scape for, I don't see a point in buying a large school yet.
> 
> Thanks! I love my PRS, such a versatile guitar. Here's two cool shots I got using the fallout of my metal halide! Never seen the guitar this color. Hard to believe its a 1998


those are some sick photos CML....aquarium reflection on a nice guitar, props. really like the inlays too.

hows the HC doing?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

thanks so much for the compliments guys, really appreciated. I'm in class at the moment, but I'll be leaving for home afterwards. I have to get myself to clean it up and take a real last photo-shoot because it could be any day now that the HC floats up, my dad said its 2.5" thick now, 3" in some places, and losing grip of the dirt in a lot of places, yikes lol. Good to see you back Styxx, I took my fair share of breaks from this hobby as well.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Say goodbye to this scape, I have a 3" thick HC carpet floating, enough moss to fill a 10 gallon, and enough grass to help my dad out with the yard LOL

I only used about half of the Seiryu I bought in this scape, so I'm going to do a rescape with seiryu and the same three plants, with the goal to make it as different from this scape as possible, despite using all the same materials.

I'll start the dismantle this weekend and maybe even get the rescape done, depending on if I can use this Aquasoil again. Thanks for following everyone. In a day or so I'll find some pics I took that never found their way to this thread. Cheers


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

So... don't ask me how, I barely even know, but I got the carpet to stick back to the dirt. A little bit of clever use of rocks and lights at odd angles to hit the roots.

So I decided to finally get that school of fish! 30 cardinals are acclimating right now. Pictures to follow today.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Here's a teaser shot with the camera phone, CO2 on, filter on, powerhead on, ect. Also the fish have yet to de-stress so their color isn't the greatest. Hopefully tonight I'll take all the equipment out of the tank and do a DSLR shoot.










Where are my rocks?? lol


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Hmmm.... I seem to remeber a lot more rocks n there


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## cradleoffilthfan (Jan 19, 2009)

^ lol :hihi:


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## cradleoffilthfan (Jan 19, 2009)

lots of trimming in the future maybe, that moss really took off!


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

CmLaracy said:


> So... don't ask me how, I barely even know, but I got the carpet to stick back to the dirt. A little bit of clever use of rocks and lights at odd angles to hit the roots.
> 
> So I decided to finally get that school of fish! 30 cardinals are acclimating right now. Pictures to follow today.


my hero. 
ive sometimes delayed replants by sprinkling a handful of gravel ontop of carpets, but i never even heard of someone getting a carpet to root back into the substrate.

fish look nice. hopefully theyll school tightly for you.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

lol thanks everyone. this tank has been on autopilot for so long I havent tested any of the water parameters in months. that bit me in the butt. the seiryu stone and infrequent water changes had my usual pH of 6.4 all the way up to 7.8. Lost 4 cardinals before I thought to check the pH. their fins were rotting so I was thinking bacterial. did an 80% WC with 7.0 water, used a little bit of acid buffer, and blasted the CO2. got the pH from 7.8 to 6.6 in 2 hours. 22 cardinals remain, I have a feeling a few more will go. in a week when everything has stabilized I'll go get however many more I need for a school of 40.


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

UPDATEEE! :hihi:


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> UPDATEEE! :hihi:


Here ya go, the tank is officially done. Will be tearing it apart in a few days and doing a rescape with the same 3 plants and the Seiryu stone. Going to see how different I can make it with the same materials. I've had a vision for quite a while now and school finally ended so I can begin the first stages.

Here it is now with the filter and powerhead on after a HUGE green thread algae outbreak (couldn't see in the tank) from me being at school. Cleaned it up in a few hours quite easily actually and it never came back. 80% pure RO/DI water change with an average dose of excel after manually pulling out as much as possible. I apologize for the pictures in advance, they're from my phone and not the Nikon, the Nikon is in Costa Rica at the moment lol.












Here it is with the filter and powerhead off 












And here's what I think is this scape at it's prime many many weeks ago (I need to brighten these photos, I know)




















Thanks for looking, and thank you to those who followed the scape. Version V should be around in a week or so.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Very nice, congrats on the successful recovery.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

2in10 said:


> Very nice, congrats on the successful recovery.


Thank you :thumbsup:


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

Nice man!
Still burning the halide over this tank?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

roybot73 said:


> Nice man!
> Still burning the halide over this tank?


Good to see you back man! And yup still burning that gorgeous halide. I just love the shimmer :icon_cool


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Just took the plunge on an AFA order (always hurts, so much money for dirt), so expect version 5 to be out by the end of next week. I've got a cool idea.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Sweet. Looking forward to the new scape!


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Overfloater said:


> Sweet. Looking forward to the new scape!


thanks! so am I. I feel that what I have planned is what I should have done with all the seiryu in the first place. This was my first stone exclusive scape so I was more or less "testing the waters"


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

13+ hours of labor, its 7am here, and version 5 has just been completed. Took DLSR pics all along the way for you guys, and I finally know how to use the thing properly in manual mode... manual shots consistently come out nicer then auto shots of the same thing.

Thread will go up tomorrow, I need to sleep, getting a little loopy


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

Can't wait! Get some sleep!


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## newbieplanter (Jan 13, 2013)

The moss is just wedged between the rocks right? Did u use the substrate ferts that ADA makes, if so which ones did u use?





CmLaracy said:


> *edit*: go to the last page for DLSR shots... too bad I don't know how to use it and can't get a good shot for my life lol
> 
> Hello! Fourth iteration of this tank, decided to go with 3 shades of green and some seiryu stone. Getting a DSLR in a couple of days so bare with me on the pictures, they're all taken from my phone. I hope you like. I'll show a couple set up shots, scroll down for the up to date shots. It's about 40g with a 150w MH pendant
> 
> ...


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

Newbieplanter- Yup, simply wedged. It would be very difficult to do in a filled tank, I find it only works well in a dry tank prior to filling.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

you never posted any new photos of your re-scape, hows the tank look now?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

AquaAurora said:


> you never posted any new photos of your re-scape, hows the tank look now?


Version 5 is in my signature. Tank has been empty and dry for about a year now.


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