Rick

LOL, I was getting ready to tell you what to look for. (One of them being to check the switch) I've picked up half a dozen or so of these ballasts and repaired them and it is almost always due to either a bad switch or bad connection. I did find a bad capacitor in one however it had split open and was quite obvious once I had the cover off.

Well, I couldn't resist so I went back today and picked up the Blue Face Angel in the pics above and grabbed a few more pics today.

I was trying to remember a member user name. I was going to simply look through the list of forum members for it and couldn't find it anymore.

Will do. I don't really have many high end corals so I'm not too concerned if it decides to nip a few. I think the only really rare one I have that I would be dissapointed about losing is the Pachyseris Rugosa (Elephant Skin Coral). In general I prefer corals that move around in the flow (softies and lps) however the Elephant Skin is my pride and joy. It took 3 frags from Calvin (Kilmca) before I got one that took off. It's grown from a 1/2" or so frag to about 2 1/2" now (enough that it curved around and is overlapping itself).

Some of you may have seen the picture review I did for Ocean In a Box yesterday (If not check it out). I was able to capture some stunning pictures of this Blue Face Angel. After a bit of thought I decided the risks to the corals are worth it since this is a beautiful fish so I went back and picked this up today. It's in a drip bucket right now. Can't wait to see it in the tank.

I have one (about 2 1/2") however you should be able to find something closer. If your interested in the one I have shoot me a PM

Okay here's my second one.

Finally had a chance to get by OIAB to see what the new owners have done with the place. While I was there I decided to take the opportunity to take a few pictures. Well as it turns out I ended up taking a bunch and made a return trip a couple of hours later to take a few more. (I actually made the return trip to get a beautiful Gold Rim Tang I had seen on the first trip but grabbed some more photos while I was at it) I can say that the business model has changed considerably and for those that were there under the previous ownership these may serve to get an idea of what changes have been made, for those that have never been there then perhaps these will get you headed that way. I have to say I'm impressed. They have a large variety of both common and unique fish rarely seen in the LFS which I found refreshing. There is still a large selection of corals as well however it is no longer limited to just high end stuff. There is now a decent selection for those of us that just want to spend a few dollars as well. (Though you may find it hard to refrain from spending more) Anyway here are the photos. Some of these turned out great however a few were plagued by light reflections and cloudy water. (They were cleaning the glass on the tanks while I was there) I'm including some of these shots anyway so everyone can still see the great selection.

Mandarin Dragonet Purple Mushrooms w/Blue Speckles

Here are some updated pics I grabbed today. Clarkii Carpet Anemone RBTA and Cinnamon Clown Purple Tang

The first picture appears to be a star polyp. The second one is aptasia (bad). I can't see the last one. Unless the zoas/palys are something really neat looking I would suggest entirely pulling the rock/rocks with aptasia out so it doesn't take over the tank and then kill the rocks. (Torch off the aptasia and then let them dry out for a couple of weeks) You can put the rocks back later. The bristle worms are not the reason for the star polyp dieing. More likely it's due to the tank cycling. If the bristle worms are around it then they are eating the dead flesh from it (which is a good thing). Generally speaking the same is true for hermits although they occasionally do eat live corals. FWIW, you can't get rid of bristle worms. Any healthy tank will have them (even if they are never seen).

I've managed to keep it in check somewhat by limiting what I feed it. It did manage to eat my long spine urchin though. (Still doesn't have the record of my RBTA though which ate my dwarf lionfish a year or so ago and then my niger trigger last week)

Are you looking for both a canister filter and a protien skimmer or are you under the impression that the protein skimmer is a canister filter? Your going to want a protein skimmer but I would avoid the canister filter.

I'm impressed. Not so much because of the Zoa's (though they are nice) but rather because you stepped out of the box and provided a bonus pic that appears to be a reasonably accurate color corrected representaion of them.

Now cut the shutter speed to 1/240 or 1/320 and set the ISO to 1600. That should get rid of some of the ISO grain in the last pictures and the shutter should still be fast enough for handheld shots. Any faster than about 1/240 on the shutter though may start getting tricky with a macro shot. A general rule of thumb is to start with (1/lens focal length) as the lowest safe handheld shutter speed and then make adjustments from there. (Some will get away with slower while others need to shoot faster)

I'll bring my tripod over thursday to try a few shots with it. Most of it is focus I think though. You should still be able to take a decent handheld pic with 1/640 shutter.

BTW, If 1/160 let's in too much light then you can try a narrower aperture which will give you a deeper depth of field. Not sure what you have the lens set at now since it isn't being reported but it look like it's between f2.8 and f4 based on the current depth of field. If you close it up a few stops to about f8 or f11 the picture will be darker however you will also get more of the picture in focus. (Make the shutter speed adjustment first so your getting more light in)

Your shutter speed (1/3200) is way too fast for pictures in this light. Try 1/160 and see if that works better. Your focus looks good in the first picture of the zoa but it looks like the focus was too far in front of the zenia (it starts out out of focus and just gets worse the further back you go so it must be focused somewhere closer to you). You can also try an ISO speed of 3200 instead of 1600 to deal with the light but only do that if you still don't have enough with the slower shutter speed.

I would go broke having them come out every other day. I cleaned the front of mine last weekend for pictures and it's already covered again.