SuncrestReef

I paid between $19 and $39, so basically it was right in line with local shops once you factor in shipping. They offered a few at $5 and $10, but I wasn't fast enough to get those. The highest price I saw was $1199, and it was sold within seconds. There were some high rollers out there.💰💸

Instead of using orange filters, I adjust the white balance on the camera. The biggest problem with orange filters is that they make pink corals look yellow. Send me a PM if you want to schedule a shoot.

They called it a JF Super Sonic Milli.

I love my Radion XR30 Pro's with diffusers! I like how the cords can be tucked into the RMS mount arm since I'm a bit OCD as well.

To be honest, I kind of got caught up in the competitive aspect of the live sale, where you just click as fast as possible to see if you can win the frag. In hindsight I could have passed on this one, but was just looking for one more purchase to make the $50 shipping charge seem more palatable. This was the first time I've ever ordered any corals online. Everything in my tank so far has been purchased locally, so I've never had to deal with shipping before. As for your frags, let me know what else you'd like to "give away"!!! 🙂

I ended up getting one more:

Nice bike helmet! 🤣 Congrats on the new tank and fish.

It helps if you figure out which info takes the longest to type (in my case, that's my credit card number), then copy that text to your clipboard so you can just paste it in quickly. Anything you can do to shave off a couple of seconds can help. Once you manage to get your first order completed, your browser should remember your info so the next one you can just click Submit Order.

It's addictive! Kind of like competitive speed shopping. He must really rake it in with these sales.

Are any of you following along on today's JF live sale on R2R? I snagged 4 frags, but it's not easy when you're competing with about 700 other people. I lost count, but I probably tried to buy at least 25 times and was only fast enough 4 times. I better stop now before I regret it tomorrow!

As many of you have probably seen in my recent posts, I’ve been shooting some very detailed coral photos with my new Nikon 200mm macro lens. (see examples below this post) Since my tank is relatively new and only has a handful of small corals, I’m getting bored taking the same photos over and over. I’d like to improve my photography skills, so I’m looking to do some free photo shoots of corals in other local (Portland metro area) reef tanks. These photos won’t be used for any commercial use or profit; I just want to explore the various camera settings in order to improve my resulting images. I’ll provide you with copies of all photos taken. I’m shooting these photos with a Nikon D610 DSLR camera and a Nikon 200mm f/4 macro lens, one of the best macro lenses available. It’s able to capture incredible detail, but there are certain requirements to get a good shot: Because macro lenses have a very narrow depth of field, in order to get a good focused shot showing a lot of detail requires using a high F-stop, but that also requires a long exposure time up to several seconds due to the reduced light entering the lens. In order to avoid motion blur during a long exposure, the flow pumps in the tank need to be turned off, otherwise the polyps moving in the current will just show up as a blur in the final shot. If you’re not willing to turn off the flow for a few minutes, we can’t get the detailed shots like the examples I’ve shown. It’s still possible to get a close-up shot with a quick exposure, but only with a small area in focus: Soft corals move too much even with the flow turned off, so getting a good macro shot of soft corals is impractical. I do have other non-macro lenses that can capture good shots of soft corals, but they won’t be the detailed close-ups like the macro lens. My equipment is better suited to SPS or LPS corals. Fish are practically impossible to shoot with this lens (except for gobies or blennies that just sit there motionless). I have an Avast top-down portal for the camera, but this macro lens requires a 10” working distance, so any corals near the surface of the water will not be within focus range of this lens. Anything at least 7.5” below the surface of the water should be within focus range with the portal attached for top-down shots. The long exposure times require using a tripod, so depending on your tank dimensions it may be difficult or impossible to position the tripod for certain shots. Most of the shots I take are through the aquarium glass, so you will want to clean the glass before taking photos for best results. The camera needs to be exactly perpendicular to the glass to avoid distortion of the image. If you’re OK with the limitations outlined above, then you can expect to get some pretty cool close-up shots of your corals. My camera captures each photo in both JPEG and RAW format. The RAW photos can be manipulated in LightRoom, Photoshop, or other photo editing software for enhancement and adjustment. I will provide copies in both formats to you on a USB memory stick that you provide. The Nikon D610 produces file sizes of approximately 12MB for JPEG and 29MB for RAW images, with a resolution of 6016 x 4016 pixels which can be printed up to 13” x 19” in high quality or even 24” x 36” with acceptable quality. I’m retired so my schedule is flexible, though my wife would prefer to have me home for dinner with her than out shooting coral photos in the evenings. Mornings or afternoons would be best, any day of the week including weekends. If this sounds interesting to you, let me know if you want to schedule a photo shoot. -John (aka SuncrestReef) Example photos:

Thanks! Yes, I'm pretty happy with how things are working out so far. Just trying to keep things stable, not rushing to react to any problems, but keeping a close eye on everything. I'm always up for more color, so let me know what you have to offer! I'm just dosing BRS 2-part. I started dosing in July to keep calcium at 420, alkalinity around 8.7, and magnesium at 1350. I've thought about adding a calcium reactor, but my cabinet is pretty cramped for space and I really don't want exterior equipment, so for now I'm just going to stick with 2-part.

Thanks for asking! Since I first posted this introduction, I've started posting updates with lots of photos in a separate thread in the Gallery forum. I've added a lot of new corals and my latest addition this week was a Maxima clam. Tomorrow when the lights come on I will post an update full tank video.

I vote 750 XXL!! Do you have seating in that room with the wall? I originally planned to put my tank in our entry way because it has a similar 7' wall, but I ended up putting it in our living room instead. I'm really glad I did, because I can watch the tank from the couch or chairs while watching TV or in conversation. In your subfloor photo, is that a crawlspace or a basement? Would you be able to set up a mixing station there below the tank? I ran plumbing from my tank to my mixing station for auto water changes and ATO. Best decision I've ever made.

Here’s a time-lapse video of my clam opening and closing. It’s pretty sensitive any time I walk near the tank.

I'm really excited about my newest tank inhabitant! I'd like to introduce you to my new 5" Maxima clam:

Since my table of contents is 5 pages long, I expect the final document to be at least 100 pages long once completed. This will be good incentive for my wife to resist the urge to poison my food...🤣

Here's a rough draft of my operations manual topics: 1) System Overview a) Display tank i) Pumps ii) Lighting iii) Lid iv) Corals v) Fish vi) Inverts vii) Rock viii)Sand b) Cabinet i) Sump area ii) Control area iii) Interior lighting iv) Door release and hinges c) Sump i) Filter chamber ii) Skimmer chamber iii) Return chamber d) Plumbing i) Return pump ii) Manifold iii) Reactors iv) Valves v) UV sterilizer vi) Flow sensors vii) Refugium e) Electrical i) Aquarium dedicated circuit ii) UPS iii) Generator f) APEX ii) Probes (1) Temperature (2) Salinity (3) pH (4) ORP (5) Leak detectors iii) Modules (1) EB832 (2) FMM_Leak (3) FMM_Flow (4) FMM_ATO (5) WXM (6) COR (7) DOS (8) PMK (9) PM2 (10) DOS_AWC (11) AFS (12) WAV (13) Icecap (14) Breakout box g) Skimmer (1) Skimmate locker (2) Swabbie h) Mixing Station i) Conduit between tank & mixing station (1) Water tubing (2) Electronics ii) RO/DI (1) Water supply valve (2) Filters (3) Automatic flush unit iii) Water storage tanks (1) RO/DI storage (a) Float valve (b) Optical sensors (2) Saltwater tank (a) Optical sensor (b) Heater (c) Salinity probe iv) Mixing pump v) Valves vi) Automatic water change i) Accessories i) Refractometer ii) Water test kits j) Vendors & warranty information i) Red Sea ii) Neptune Systems iii) Bulk Reef Supply iv) Premium Aquatics 2) Operations a) Apex monitoring i) Apex Interface (1) Fusion (2) Apex.local (3) Browser access (4) Smartphone app (5) Tablet in cabinet ii) Inputs iii) Outputs iv) Logs v) Alerts b) Feeding i) Feed Mode ii) Fish iii) Corals iv) Automatic feeder c) Routine Maintenance i) Water testing (1) Salinity (2) Alkalinity (3) Calcium (4) Magnesium (5) Nitrates (6) Phosphates (7) ICP testing (8) Nitrites (9) Ammonia (10) Recording test results in Fusion ii) Water changes (1) Auto water changes (2) Manual water changes iii) Automatic Top Off (1) Optical sensors (2) Float valve iv) Tank cleaning (1) Flipper glass cleaner (2) Sand vacuuming v) Filter cleaning (1) Filter cups (2) Pump filter covers (3) Refugium drain screen (4) Refugium and reactor drain filter socks vi) Skimmer maintenance (1) Emptying skimmate locker (2) Cleaning skimmer neck (3) Cleaning skimmer cup (4) Skimmer cleaning vii) Mixing new saltwater (1) Pump operation (2) Transfer RO/DI water to saltwater tank (3) Adding salt (4) Testing salinity viii)Dosing (1) Mixing soda ash (2) Mixing calcium chloride (3) Mixing Magnesium (4) Monitoring and filling dosing containers (5) Adjusting dosing quantities ix) Reactor maintenance (1) Replacing reactor media (2) Adjusting reactor flow x) UV maintenance (1) Diverting return flow for UV maintenance (2) Cleaning UV tube (3) Replacing UV bulb xi) Refugium maintenance (1) Drain cleaning (2) Refugium cleaning xii) RO/DI filter replacement xiii)Pump maintenance (1) Powerheads (2) Return pump (3) Refugium pump (4) ATO pump (5) Mixing station pump d) Lighting i) Lighting schedules ii) PAR monitoring 3) Troubleshooting a) Apex alerts i) ATO ii) Leaks iii) Power iv) Skimmer v) Refugium vi) RO/DI tank b) Salinity c) Water level d) Water temperature e) Water pH f) Lights disconnected g) UPS beeping h) Flow meters i) Apex backup/restore 4) Supplies a) Salt b) Dosing additives c) Fish/coral food d) Test kit reagents e) Filters i) Filter socks ii) Filter cup fiber iii) Powerhead protective covers iv) RO/DI filters 5) Online resources a) PNWMAS b) Reef2Reef c) Neptune forums d) Facebook groups 6) Local resources

Have any of you reefers written up a detailed operations manual for your aquarium system? My Reefer XL 425 is relatively new, only running now for five months, so I'm still learning the ropes. But for the past several months of setting up my system, going through the cycling process, testing water parameters, and fine-tuning my Apex programming, I've learned a lot about how the system works and what to watch out for if anything looks like it might be going wrong. But now that there's life in the aquarium, I've started to wonder what would happen if I needed someone else to take care of the system for me, or (heaven forbid) if something happened to me, how would my wife know what to do to keep things alive and running smoothly? There are just so many components to the system. Even the basics of how to log into Apex Fusion and what all the sensors & outputs are used for seems daunting to explain to someone who wasn't deeply involved in designing and setting it up. So, I'm starting to think about writing a comprehensive Operations Manual for my aquarium system. Everything from how to turn on the RO/DI system to fill my mixing station tanks, mixing up new salt water, testing water parameters, feeding, cleaning/replacing filters, emptying & cleaning the skimmer, replacing reactor media, maintaining the UV sterilizer, cleaning the refugium, and monitoring and controlling the Apex. There's just so much to document, it seems daunting to think about. So, have any of you written up such detailed documentation for your family in case of emergency? Once I have mine completed, I intend to publish it as a template so others can take and modify it for their systems.

So many reefing topics he could bust rhymes on: "Here to rap to y'all about Aiptasia...don't let your infestation faze ya..." 🤣

@badxgillen For those of us newbies who don't yet have much to trade, will any frags be for sale, or is this a trade-only event? I'd be interested in your Twilight Dragon, Super Blue Stag, and Rainbow Tort.

Thanks for the background info. I've really enjoyed the forums so far and looking forward to meeting more members at future meetings.

Since I'm still relatively new here, I don't know the history of this group. When was PNWMAS founded, who were the founders, are they still active in the group, and who currently runs the organization? As a techie, I'm also curious where this forum is hosted, how much storage is needed for the platform, who maintains it, and what are the average monthly hits? Just curious, that's all.

Great write up! I’ll have to look into a few of these products. Thanks! 👍

No idea. Jeff wasn't there today, but maybe he can tell us? @CuttleFishandCoral