Brian's(Old Scales)Rescape Journal "Yikes!"

[Billbug68]

Keep it going man. My original 12L thread had 1037 posts! Haha

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah, as Bill said, just keep this one going! I think Max's thread on one of his tank builds is super looooong... I recall Convict's thread getting long too... ain't nothing wrong with that. lol

And I'm not sure about converting RAW to JPEG to post online. I'm assuming you do. I haven't shot RAW yet... I'm still learning and comfortable in JPEG. But I bet my photo class is going to make me shoot in RAW format. Can't wait to see your Nikon pics!

 

[Old Scales]

Brian,
From all the research I've done, All the serious photography guys recommended learning RAW format and the post processing involved. From what tiny bit I've done, the raw does let you do more things with your pics. I still haven't decided whether its worth the trouble over jpeg. LOL. As good as your pictures are I just assumed you were in raw as they look so good! Brian.

 

[DragonFish71]

Wow OS, that looks great. Certainly needs a haircut.

I'm going to try and get pictures tomorrow of my 40 to show my progress.

 

[Old Scales]

Oh yes! Please do Dragon. Can't wait to see them. OS.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Brian,
From all the research I've done, All the serious photography guys recommended learning RAW format and the post processing involved. From what tiny bit I've done, the raw does let you do more things with your pics. I still haven't decided whether its worth the trouble over jpeg. LOL. As good as your pictures are I just assumed you were in raw as they look so good! Brian.

You're absolutely right. RAW is best practice for any photographer to learn. You have the most control over it in terms of post processing. You'll be able to get details out of a RAW image if something were to be under or over-exposed in its jpeg variant.

Thanks for the compliment on the photos. I think it's the camera's tech that's helping me out. I didn't take them in full manual mode. By choosing something like Aperture Priority, I get to decide how "wide open" I want the lens to go (to get the blurry background and subject isolation) and the camera chooses the other settings (i.e. ISO, shutter speed, etc.). I do, however, adjust for contrast and brightness by adjusting the curve in photoshop. You'll be able to do that as well if you get photoshop elements... I'll PM you regarding that.

 

[Old Scales]

OK Thanks Brian. Yeah, I really like to shoot with aperture priority more and more also. A fun exercise is to shoot a lit ceiling fan with the fan on low. Try and get the lights dim enough but yet shutter slow enough to show blur in the blades. LOL. No filters, naked lens. It ain't easy. OS.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah I want to try those slow shutter speeds eventually... I want to try one of those waterfall shots, or steaming car lights on a busy city road, or even one of those light tracing in the air. Looks like fun stuff... didn't really think photography would be this fun and engaging.

 

[Old Scales]

My New Avatar!

Oh Wow Guys!
A great guy and great friend here in AA just made and gave me this awesome avatar to use. I am so tickled and proud to use it! Proof again, you guys in AA are the best!!!! Brian(OS)

 

[Autumnsky]

Oh Wow Guys!
A great guy and great friend here in AA just made and gave me this awesome avatar to use. I am so tickled and proud to use it! Proof again, you guys in AA are the best!!!! Brian(OS)

Wow, that looks awesome!

 

[Brookster123]

OS is an official brand now! I like the avatar! Very official looking.

 

[Kittykat364]

Nice avatar. And wow! Does it become a jungle after a week! What are you feeding the plants?!? Growth hormone? Lol.

 

[Old Scales]

Thanks Kitty,
As far as the growth, I credit that to Dragon's Voo Doo growth chant she did for me earlier in this thread. LOL. OS.

 

[Kittykat364]

At one point I tried to help, but it brought unexpected consequences to my tank. Like overgrowth and too many baby fish. Loo

 

[Old Scales]

LOL, watch out Kitty. You may have done the fertility Voo Doo chant. I've heard it works on humans too! lmao. OS.

 

[Kittykat364]

I might have, cuz my amazon sword had 7-9 buds that all grew up into babies.

 

[misterc007]

HI EVERYONE!
I'm finally settling down and getting the update pictures posted for you. The party last night went to 1am this morning. The gals(my wife's friends) were a lot of fun. I was the only man present so I got a lot of guff. But I gave back plenty too! The pictures I'm posting now are with my old camera BEFORE the WC and plant trim down. I wanted you to see how fast it all is growing and how high the Glosso gets before trimming down. As you can see, the L. Cuba on the left is massive. It has to be cut down by half and will be back like this in eight days. LOL. The little Bonsai "trees" are a little too tall for the look I want so the tallest ones will be trimmed down to match the others. I'll be trimming the Glosso back to half the height shown here. The AFTER pictures are with my Nikon in RAW mode. I'm post processing them in my new Lightroom program that I'm just learning. I keep messing the masters up so I start over. As soon as I learn even the basics I'll post the after pictures. Brian_Nano. I'll have to convert them to jpeg to post in here won't I?
I still am fighting green dust algae. I can't figure out what will stop it yet. I've got the light period down to 5 hrs and I raised the CO2 level a little more. I also have a mystery with my Nitrates! I tested right before the WC and it is at only 5 ppm. Weird! I have exactly the same fish as before which AqAdvisor says is 121% stocked. Before the rescape my NO3 would start at 10ppm and be at 30ppm after 7-8 days. With this new scape it's not raising above 5ppm still. I suspected the new NO3 test kit I bought was bad so I bought another. It showed the same level, 5 ppm. I'm "guessing" the new Eco fine is still absorbing NO3 and PO4 or the Glosso is a real nitrate user. That would be nice. But I wonder if part of my algae problem could be a too low NO3 to PO4 ratio. I like my NO3 to be about 10-15ppm for the plants. I guess time will tell. Here's the BEFORE trimming pictures:

Hey tank looks great. I've been messing with my fert's quite a bit lately. Would you be willing to try what I did and see if it works for you as well? I had my nitrates up to about 40 I raised my po4 to 5 (by dosing) and my GDA went away. So did the GSA. but then I ran my Nitrate down to 10 ppm with po4 at 5 still and both came back. Of course this could be something else that I have no idea about but I thought if you tried it too maybe we could confirm something LOL probably not. Anyway I would guess that your no3 levels are remaing so low because you changed out the substrate and there's not that much mulm in there any more. I would bet that over time it will build up.

 

[Old Scales]

HI mister,
Yes I agree. I mentioned in a post way back that I suspected the new strate was absorbing the ferts until it gets to its max holding capacity. LOL Like you I don't have any scientific fact but just what our seats of the pants tells us. Yes it will be a good chance to confirm it. I just did my WC and plant trim last Friday so all is reset as far as fert level. I'm going to start adding NO3 again(4ml daily) and back off the PO4 also(4ml daily). I want to get my 10:1 ratio back again. The 5 hr light period works against the GDA but it's making my Glosso reach for the light and get leggy. I up'd it back to 6 hrs. Hopefully getting the ferts back to 10:1 will keep the GDA away. I'm still having to work at getting my CO2 drop checker to true green. I raised the bubbles per second to just a little more than 2 BPS. Increased CO2 will help fight algae also.
I am posting the after trimming pictures in the next post. Thanks all, Brian(OS)

 

[Old Scales]

After WC and Trimming Pictures - Much Nicer!

Hey all,
I worked on these pictures in a processing software that lets you correct exposure mistakes. They start as a RAW format then you correct and change to jpeg so they can be seen in AA. I also have my first ever macro shots done and will post them also. They are REALLY hard to get right as focus depth is very tiny and fish like to move, LOL. It was fun. Mr. Serpae totally did not want to cooperate but I finally got him. Note how nice the mini fissedens moss is greening up. Hope you enjoy them.
Here's the tank shots:

 

[Old Scales]

Here's The Macro Close ups.

These are with the Nikon 5300, 18-140mm, and 12+20mm extension tubes.
Had to shoot in mostly manual mode as macro is CRAZY. The close up of the Rummy nose is my favorite. OS.