TWOLITREmedia's 75g BowFront Reef!

Quick updated from earlier yesterday morning of some maintenance to the tank....

Made some RO water

Maintnence Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Mixed 10 gallons of salt water....

Maintnence Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Re-calibrated my Reefkeeper Elite ph Probe

Maintnence Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Ready for some old water to drop!

Maintnence Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Here is what the reefleeper looks like when looking for it's "magical" numbers....

Maintnence Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

For anyone interested in what I will be dosing alkilinity with it's this Kent Marine stuff recommended by Don. Can't wait to see it's effects, it's my only slightly out of whack parameter...

Maintenance Time! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

 

Alrightttttt here is a nice JUICY update for all of you....first and foremost as I mentioned I took a trip with my camera gear to Don (Crazy4Coral) my local coral dealers house and shot some stuff for him. I am totally stupid for not taking any photos of his personal 180 gallon display tank, but here are some shots of the tanks he has all of his live stock for sale and display in! I could stare for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours........

Super clean, all tanks built by him. I can get more info on his lighting, but I know he runs halogens on everything with some amazing pop!

Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Thought this was a cool abstract shot from the top of one of the shallow tanks...

Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

$5 dollar frag bin! How could I leave without taking something every time ?!?!?!?!


Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

$10 sps frags that are just gorgeous!

Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Really nice chalice....it was a hard choice, but I chose one over this you will see :-D New feature item in my tank for sure!

Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

I also grabbed a torch tonight and it was a hard choice between this one and the one I got.

Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Crazy4Coral! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


I will make sure I take many more photos next time as today I was SHOPPING!

Check out the new stuff...I am in LOVE with my teal /w neon pink "eye" chalice! As I said it was a hard choice between this one and the red, but in the end this one won no question let me know what you think (I will shoot some photos under the light tomorrow, it's amazing...

Addiction Problems.. by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

My new torch! Dark purple with neon green tips

Addiction Problems.. by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Now I was about to go, and he mentioned he had one frag left of his rare red gonapora. I looked at these babies and it was an easy decision. They're all closed up here but I will shoot some stuff tomorrow in the day with the polyps open, quite the wild colouration.

Addiction Problems.. by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Oh remember the Zoas from the other day....here is a really bad, blurry shot of them placed in the garden in-tank! The blue is very nice and rich.

Addiction Problems.. by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

 

Congrats on the new adds! Those are awesome deals for $5 & $10 frags! A word of caution, I would be VERY careful with the pH reagents near your tank. I know they are hazardous to humans, so I can only imagine the same for a reef tank.

 

Wow! I want a friend with a tank like that!!!

Congrats on the new adds! I love 'em

 

Oh his frag bins are AWESOME. I am super careful when floating the probe in the PH mixture. Problem is I need to float the PH solutions with them open while calibrating the probe to make sure the temp of the liquid stays as close as possible to tank water temp. Those clips you see me use are super handy!

Hahahahahahaha, thanks I love em too


Photos to come later today of everything placed in the tank!

 

Nice one!

What sand do you have in your DT?

Good macro shots. What lens do you use?

I been playing around with my 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Sigma Macro lens, but dont have any shots as great as yours.

 

In my 72 gallon bowfront DT there is about 60lbs of thriving live argonite in there and thats about it. I didn't even have a diatom bloom after purchasing and moving the tank, and my clean up crew keeps it super nice and white. I just need to make sure I give the occasional scrub right at the line of the bed to keep any pesky green off there.

For my macro shots I am using my Canon 135mm f2L and my Canon 70-200 f4L all through a Canon 5DmkII. On top of this I attatch what's called a EF12 Macro Extension tube which essentially allows me to cut the minimum focus distance on whatever EF lens I am using in half! This is amazing as it allows me to stand almost half a meter from my tank glass zoomed at 200mm! Usually I would need to be almost 4-5 feet away without it.

To be completely honestly I am totally unsatisfied with my macro stuff of my personal tank due to the bowfront. I will surely never be building a bowfront again although they are beautiful the curvature of the glass acts as another lens element when shooting my coral. This confuses the way the camera focuses and creates almost a tilt-shift effect due to the plain of focus being stretched vertically.

Thanks for the positive comments though!

 

Bowfronts are great to keep where a lot of people who know nothing about this hobby can see it, since the tank is visually better looking than just a rectangle. However, for a reef tank where you are big on photographing corals, they are terrible! A good middle ground is a cube

 

I agree for sure, and yes Bowfront generally just placed in a room have a more impressive "presence" if you will without a doubt. I think my next tank will be a 180 gallon "in-wall" setup. Go big or go home after this tank for me

As promised, more photos of all the new adds, and how the tank is filling in! My 6line and clownfish are the most annoyingly camera addicted animals every. They know exactly where I am pointing my lens at all times and just swim continuously in front of it as I try to shoot coral, then when it's they're turn they start flying around.


Here is a shot of the two "meters" i dropped into the tank to watch for diatom blooms, coraline growth etc. Luckily only the latter of the two seem to be happening and I am loving it. Look at that purple on the shell, that was all in the last month!

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Alvepora with it's personal cleaning crew on it, he never leaves!

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The new torch just loving his flowy position in the tank...

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

This is a sweet shot of the open brain fully extended looking beautiful. Another funny part of this image is the conga line of clean up crew right by the glass each hermit cleaning the shell of the next, very funny they do this often for whatever reason.

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Attention hog had to have his own shot, he would not leave me alone...

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Here is a shot of my brand new teal /w pink eye chalice! As you see here my 6line and clownfish would not stop swimming in front of my lens. The frogspawn is thriving in the back.

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The tank is filling in nicely, here is a wide angle shot of the whole thing with the AI SOL units peeking in!

Tank Updates... by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

So I'm pretty satisfied with what's in there now for another two weeks. I will complete my dosing cycles, let everything get settled in fully and add some more stuff soon enough! Not to mention I will have the 8 gallon nano to work with soon

 

I would have a serious financial flow problem if that store was close to me. Beautiful frags tanks.

Thanks for sharing.