comycus

Lol I hope so too! she likes the pbt! yes, this weekend was the first time she's seeing my pbt, so sad right?

Key words: Peace of mind, Less energy consumption, Over heated tank, LED

ups for u bro

Yes, can check Zorden's and Dachkie's tank builds. Both built recently by Atlantic.

I have found that in some situations, grainy is good especially in B&W, so it's really up to the photographer's creativity and what sort of story you wanna tell.

I will have to confirm later... hope to join u guys!

lol well ure photos look great make me wanna go travel NOW!

dun say that la! So many more experts out there! Me really considered noob. Just hoping such stuff help ppl

Petmart, c328 has. Just ask for biohome n they will know

. First I don't recommend putting both phosphate and carbon together. They both require different flowrates for optimal performance. But if the canister is te only place you have, then bobian I guess. I always suggest changing whatever bio filtration (in your case bio rings) to biohome. More effective. Lastly I normally only clean or replace the sponge monthly. U will prob need to change weekly initially. Phosphate and carbon change as instructed, and biohome only wash in old tank water once in a blue moon. Slimmer timing is individual preference. If you have orp problems, might wanna leave it on full day. Or ph imbalances might wanna only switch it in during lights out. You will develop a thinking as u grow in the hobby. I suggest for a start just leave it on 24/7 and take it from there.

Individual preference. No diff in terms of maintainence.

I beg to differ, not so clean and simple when they start dying... definitely NOT a nice tank.

Can do as Poomoon suggested. However, do note that true percs don't normally host bta in the wild. Pretty much depends on luck sometimes I guess.

ROFL! I knew it straightaway when I saw 'Working girl" lol And I want an alpha male to school together with the females and hopefully get along with my 2 lyretails. *cross fingers* ahh, will just have to wait for next shipment. Siang we go together! buy 10 for $300, share 5 ea.

Wait for Victor's hawaii shipment lor... you interested?

lol anyone wants to buy bartletts share with me? Thinking of getting 5-6.

lol u guys are fast! back from lunch so soon I had to sneak in

LOL have you heard of the "$3.80" fish story?

lol! yeah I think it's the same situation too for my tank! I think 30% is a better estimation for me Next time post some photography tips for us to learn on this forum too yeah? Need the experts to come in and share your 'secret manuals'

High 5 on that lol I like, but $ not enough to spend on 2 expensive hobbies... I just make do with my lousy but trusty entry level camera. With the new tank upgrade to LEDs, stronger light = more options to play around with! hehe

1. your fishes may nip at your sps. 2. I say go with sandbed. Think many bros have already answered to your query with opposing views. It's up to you to decide whether you want sandbed or not. I don't find any problems with maintaining sandbed as long as tank parameters are good. 3. I would say you should be considering a 4 ft tank minimally with the fishes you are considering. There are plenty other considerations when setting up a tank, do read up more before you take the plunge. good luck!

Shutter Speed – Bringing it Together Remember that thinking about Shutter Speed in isolation from the other two elements of the Exposure Triangle (aperture and ISO) is not really a good idea. As you change shutter speed you’ll need to change one or both of the other elements to compensate for it. For example if you speed up your shutter speed one stop (for example from 1/125th to 1/250th) you’re effectively letting half as much light into your camera. To compensate for this you’ll probably need to increase your aperture one stop (for example from f16 to f11). The other alternative would be to choose a faster ISO rating (you might want to move from ISO 100 to ISO 400 for example). http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed

What is Shutter speed? Defined most basically – shutter speed is ‘the amount of time that the shutter is open’. In film photography it was the length of time that the film was exposed to the scene you’re photographing and similarly in digital photography shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor ’sees’ the scene you’re attempting to capture. • Shutter speed is measured in seconds – or in most cases fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (ie 1/1000 is much faster than 1/30). • In most cases you’ll probably be using shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. This is because anything slower than this is very difficult to use without getting camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open and results in blur in your photos. • If you’re using a slow shutter speed (anything slower than 1/60) you will need to either use a tripod or some some type of image stabilization (more and more cameras are coming with this built in). • Shutter speeds available to you on your camera will usually double (approximately) with each setting. As a result you’ll usually have the options for the following shutter speeds – 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8 etc. This ‘doubling’ is handy to keep in mind as aperture settings also double the amount of light that is let in – as a result increasing shutter speed by one stop and decreasing aperture by one stop should give you similar exposure levels (but we’ll talk more about this in a future post). • Some cameras also give you the option for very slow shutter speeds that are not fractions of seconds but are measured in seconds (for example 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds etc). These are used in very low light situations, when you’re going after special effects and/or when you’re trying to capture a lot of movement in a shot). Some cameras also give you the option to shoot in ‘B’ (or ‘Bulb’) mode. Bulb mode lets you keep the shutter open for as long as you hold it down. • When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you’d like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement). • To freeze movement in an image (like in the surfing shot above) you’ll want to choose a faster shutter speed and to let the movement blur you’ll want to choose a slower shutter speed. The actual speeds you should choose will vary depending upon the speed of the subject in your shot and how much you want it to be blurred. • Motion is not always bad – There are times when motion is good. For example when you’re taking a photo of a waterfall and want to show how fast the water is flowing, or when you’re taking a shot of a racing car and want to give it a feeling of speed, or when you’re taking a shot of a star scape and want to show how the stars move over a longer period of time etc. In all of these instances choosing a longer shutter speed will be the way to go. However in all of these cases you need to use a tripod or you’ll run the risk of ruining the shots by adding camera movement (a different type of blur than motion blur). • Focal Length and Shutter Speed - another thing to consider when choosing shutter speed is the focal length of the lens you’re using. Longer focal lengths will accentuate the amount of camera shake you have and so you’ll need to choose a faster shutter speed (unless you have image stabilization in your lens or camera). The ‘rule’ of thumb to use with focal length in non image stabilized situations) is to choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens. For example if you have a lens that is 50mm 1/60th is probably ok but if you have a 200mm lens you’ll probably want to shoot at around 1/250.

What is ISO? In traditional (film) photography ISO (or ASA) was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. It was measured in numbers (you’ve probably seen them on films – 100, 200, 400, 800 etc). The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking. In Digital Photography ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) – however the cost is noisier shots. I’ll illustrate this below with two elargements of shots that I just took – the one on the left is taken at 100 ISO and the one of the right at 3200 ISO 100 ISO is generally accepted as ‘normal’ and will give you lovely crisp shots (little noise/grain). Most people tend to keep their digital cameras in ‘Auto Mode’ where the camera selects the appropriate ISO setting depending upon the conditions you’re shooting in (it will try to keep it as low as possible) but most cameras also give you the opportunity to select your own ISO also. When you do override your camera and choose a specific ISO you’ll notice that it impacts the aperture and shutter speed needed for a well exposed shot. For example – if you bumped your ISO up from 100 to 400 you’ll notice that you can shoot at higher shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures. When choosing the ISO setting I generally ask myself the following four questions: 1. Light – Is the subject well lit? 2. Grain – Do I want a grainy shot or one without noise? 3. Tripod – Am I using a tripod? 4. Moving Subject – Is my subject moving or stationary? If there is plenty of light, I want little grain, I’m using a tripod and my subject is stationary I will generally use a pretty low ISO rating. However if it’s dark, I purposely want grain, I don’t have a tripod and/or my subject is moving I might consider increasing the ISO as it will enable me to shoot with a faster shutter speed and still expose the shot well. Of course the trade off of this increase in ISO will be noisier shots. Situations where you might need to push ISO to higher settings include: • Indoor Sports Events – where your subject is moving fast yet you may have limited light available. • Concerts – also low in light and often ‘no-flash’ zones • Art Galleries, Churches etc- many galleries have rules against using a flash and of course being indoors are not well lit. • Birthday Parties – blowing out the candles in a dark room can give you a nice moody shot which would be ruined by a bright flash. Increasing the ISO can help capture the scene. ISO is an important aspect of digital photography to have an understanding of if you want to gain more control of your digital camera. Experiment with different settings and how they impact your images today. http://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings

Depth of Field and Aperture Why is controlling aperture important? The most noticeable one will be the depth of field that your shot will have. Depth of Field (DOF) is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away (like the picture to the left where both the foreground and background are largely in focus – taken with an aperture of f/22). Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy Aperture has a big impact upon depth of field. Large aperture (remember it’s a smaller number) will decrease depth of field while small aperture (larger numbers) will give you larger depth of field. (click on the photo to view) To illustrate, the photo on the left has shallow DOF (Large aperture) while the photo on the right has large DOF (Small aperture). So clearly, when taking close up shots of our corals, we might want to achieve a shallow DOF to get the same effect as the photo on the left. However, when taking a FTS, we might prefer to use a larger aperture to get maximum detail. It can be a little confusing at first but the way I remember it is that small numbers mean small DOF and large numbers mean large DOF. http://digital-photography-school.com/aperture