240 Gallon Build

Looks great! What kind of camera and macro lens?

thanks. I’m using my Panasonic LUMIX GX85 that I’ve had for 4-5 years. This is a micro four thirds camera. I’m using a Laowa Venus 50 mm macro lens, which is the equivalent to a 100 mm lens on a full frame camera.

I think I like the macro lens, but I’m still getting used to it. I used a telephoto lens with extension tubes or diopters for many years and thought that setup worked great. I’m not sure the $20 vs $400 upgrade was worth the slight improvement in photo quality?
 
I’ve had a rough go for a while with the tank. Discovered I had AEFW that I must have moved from my old house….because I hadn’t added any coral for about 18 months. I think I got them when I shared a tank with a friend at a swap and put the unsold acros back in my tank. Should have known better. I chiseled all acros off rockwork and bayer dipped multiple times per week for many weeks. I lost some stuff in the process, but all good now.

Then, I removed my chaeto ball, which seemed to set off a Dino explosion. I’ve been battling that for about two months, but it’s kinda under control.

I still need to work on some equipment and get my stand and light rack clad. Just lacking the time to do it.

Somewhat recently, I restocked with about 30 new acro frags. Not much to look at yet, but I’m excited to watch them grow out.

anyway, here’s some low quality photos of new frags:

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I’ve had a rough go for a while with the tank. Discovered I had AEFW that I must have moved from my old house….because I hadn’t added any coral for about 18 months. I think I got them when I shared a tank with a friend at a swap and put the unsold acros back in my tank. Should have known better. I chiseled all acros off rockwork and bayer dipped multiple times per week for many weeks. I lost some stuff in the process, but all good now.

Then, I removed my chaeto ball, which seemed to set off a Dino explosion. I’ve been battling that for about two months, but it’s kinda under control.

I still need to work on some equipment and get my stand and light rack clad. Just lacking the time to do it.

Somewhat recently, I restocked with about 30 new acro frags. Not much to look at yet, but I’m excited to watch them grow out.

anyway, here’s some low quality photos of new frags:

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oh man sorry to hear! glad you're back in the saddle.
 
I’ve had a rough go for a while with the tank. Discovered I had AEFW that I must have moved from my old house….because I hadn’t added any coral for about 18 months. I think I got them when I shared a tank with a friend at a swap and put the unsold acros back in my tank. Should have known better. I chiseled all acros off rockwork and bayer dipped multiple times per week for many weeks. I lost some stuff in the process, but all good now.

Then, I removed my chaeto ball, which seemed to set off a Dino explosion. I’ve been battling that for about two months, but it’s kinda under control.

I still need to work on some equipment and get my stand and light rack clad. Just lacking the time to do it.

Somewhat recently, I restocked with about 30 new acro frags. Not much to look at yet, but I’m excited to watch them grow out.

anyway, here’s some low quality photos of new frags:

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What acro is on 3rd photo?
 
What acro is on 3rd photo?
Not sure. Tenuis obviously. I traded a bunch of torch heads and cashed in on some IOUs with a local guy. He was just snipping away and loading up my bag with unmounted fresh cuts. Told me he tell me later what everything is. Some are obvious ( like the homewrecker) others I’ll have to hit him up for an ID.
 
Not a ton to report. Things move slowly when my only opportunity to work on the tank is after the kids go to bed.

I cut my light rack down so it’s easier to work on the tank and tonight i built a canopy around it. I’m in the process of surrounding the stand with the same material (IKEA cabinet panels).
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Wait, did you go back to bare bottom? Judging by the last pic that's an attachment.

Yes, for the time being. I don’t love the bare bottom look. I had dinos for a long time and could never beat them. I thought maybe removing my substrate would eliminate a lot o contact space and sure enough, as soon as I removed my substrate, they’ve been gone! I think I had them for at least 6-8 months and that was after I had AEFW. I’ve got both of those issues fixed and corals are really taking off.
I picked up 7-8 really nice acros a couple of nights ago…even though I don’t have much room for them.
 
Also, you may have noticed that I changed my avatar. I’ve become obsessed with playing around with AI image generation. I gave it some prompts to create some “SawDonkey” images and I’ve been blown away by what it created. Here’s some of my favorites. It clearly has no logic, but makes some awesome happy accidents. I really like telling it to make butter sculptures….and it does it so well!

If you’ve got a few minutes to burn going down a rabbit hole, I highly recommend googling “Microsoft Designer” and playing around with it. It’s free.


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Also, you may have noticed that I changed my avatar. I’ve become obsessed with playing around with AI image generation. I gave it some prompts to create some “SawDonkey” images and I’ve been blown away by what it created. Here’s some of my favorites. It clearly has no logic, but makes some awesome happy accidents. I really like telling it to make butter sculptures….and it does it so well!

If you’ve got a few minutes to burn going down a rabbit hole, I highly recommend googling “Microsoft Designer” and playing around with it. It’s free.


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Pretty cool. I call this "My Home is My Castle"
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