Photos of my aquarium

[Marvin Hlavac]

I just took these pictures with a new (x-mas present) digital camera.

Happy holidays to all.

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada

[Marvin Hlavac]

http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua1.jpg
http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua2.jpg

....forgot to add the link...

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada

[dam n]

What great tank you have!!
Is that X-mas moss as the foreground and background? Amazing!! Your lotus
looks stunning!! Care to list your tank params?
If you ever do get tired of the moss, send me an email. I would love to
give it a try.

"Marvin Hlavac" > wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...
> http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua1.jpg
> http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua2.jpg
>
> ...forgot to add the link...
>
> --
> Regards,
> Marvin Hlavac
> Toronto, Canada
>
>

[Marvin Hlavac]

> What great tank you have!!
> Is that X-mas moss as the foreground and background? Amazing!! Your
lotus
> looks stunning!! Care to list your tank params?
> If you ever do get tired of the moss, send me an email. I would love to
> give it a try.

Hi "dam n"

I just added three pictures here:
http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua3.jpg
http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua4.jpg
http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua5.jpg

Here are the details:

It is a 90g (360L) which was setup just over a year ago.

Lights: 4 x 55W with AH Supply reflectors. Lights come on at 8am and off at
9pm.

Filter: Eheim 2260 canister. This is an overkill since it is designed for
400g (1500L) but at least I don't have to open it too often. In fact I
haven't yet open it since I bought it a year ago. Also I have a 20g sump.

Substrate: 100% Florite

Plants: Only three species: 1. Red Tiger Lotus, 2. Echinodorus 'Rubin'
narrow leaves and 3. Christmas Moss covers the back, both sides and some of
the bottom.

Inhabitants: Not too many actually for a 90g tank. Only about 20 Tetra
Cardinals, 4 Black Neons, 1 SAE, 6 Oto Cats, about 20 perhaps more Algae
Eating Shrimps and some snails that long time ago were imported with some
plants against my will.

CO2 5lb cylinder is used

When the tank was newly setup I had to battle variety of algae, you name it
I had it. Happily now though, for a long, long time I don't even have to
scrub the inside wall of the front glass. At the moment it is a very low
maintenance setup. I don't do any vacuuming of the bottom. Once in a several
months period I trim the Lotus plant and less frequently even the
Echinodorus. I change 4g (one bucket) of water daily (unless I'm lazy). That
only takes 3 minutes. I feed once a day.

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada

[Eric Schreiber]

"Marvin Hlavac" > wrote:

>http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua1.jpg
>http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua2.jpg


Gorgeous!


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[Marvin Hlavac]

Hi Eric,

Thanks. Here is a picture of the full tank. However I don't like it much
because the areas that look white are supposed to be beautifully light green
fresh color of X-mas moss. I tried to play with WhiteBalance setting on the
camera but I obviously don't know what I'm doing :-(

Here it is:
http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua6.jpg

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada




"Eric Schreiber" > wrote in message
...
> "Marvin Hlavac" > wrote:
>
> >http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua1.jpg
> >http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua2.jpg
>
>
> Gorgeous!
>
>
> --
> www.ericschreiber.com

[Eric Schreiber]

"Marvin Hlavac" > wrote:

>Thanks. Here is a picture of the full tank. However I don't like it much
>because the areas that look white are supposed to be beautifully light green
>fresh color of X-mas moss. I tried to play with WhiteBalance setting on the
>camera but I obviously don't know what I'm doing :-(

Taking photos of a fish tank can be infuriating. I have a *very few)
tolerable shots on my web site, and they were selected from far more
otherwise ruined rolls of film than I care to admit.

One of these days I'm going to get a digital. I've got a decent
mineral and fossil collection I'd like to photograph, too.

Ah, if only I had the money I'm sure I deserve :)


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[Marvin Hlavac]

Eric, my 7 year old daughter would say: "Just write to Santa next year".
:-)

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada




> "Marvin Hlavac" > wrote:
>
> >Thanks. Here is a picture of the full tank. However I don't like it much
> >because the areas that look white are supposed to be beautifully light
green
> >fresh color of X-mas moss. I tried to play with WhiteBalance setting on
the
> >camera but I obviously don't know what I'm doing :-(
>
> Taking photos of a fish tank can be infuriating. I have a *very few)
> tolerable shots on my web site, and they were selected from far more
> otherwise ruined rolls of film than I care to admit.
>
> One of these days I'm going to get a digital. I've got a decent
> mineral and fossil collection I'd like to photograph, too.
>
> Ah, if only I had the money I'm sure I deserve :)
>
>
> --
> www.ericschreiber.com

[Chuck Gadd]

On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 03:23:03 GMT, "Marvin Hlavac" > wrote:

>because the areas that look white are supposed to be beautifully light green
>fresh color of X-mas moss. I tried to play with WhiteBalance setting on the
>camera but I obviously don't know what I'm doing :-(

That's not a white-balance problem. It is simply a case of the
highlights being "blown out". In other words, the camera metered
the light at a darker spot in the tank, and so the brighter areas
ended up being too bright. A lot of times I find that in aquarium
shots, the range of dark shadows and extremely bright highlights is
more than the camera can handle. It's usually better to end up with a
darker shot, to avoid blowing out the highlights. The shadows end up
being too dark, but that can often be corrected afterwards in your
image editing software. Blown out highlights can't be fixed, since
there is nothing but white pixels saved by the camera. With the dark
shadows, there is often enough detail to fix it.

Many digital cameras have several metering modes. Usually they have a
"spot" metering, where the metering is done from the very center of
the shot. In that mode, I will usually put the center spot on an area
that is the brightest, hold the shutter button part-way down, which
locks the focus and exposure on most cameras, then re-frame the
picture as desired, and push the button the rest of the way to take
the shot.

Another common mode is a "center weighted" where the camera takes the
exposure reading from a wider area around the center point. This mode
is more likely to pick a setting that will avoid some of the blown out
highlights.

And finally, most cameras have an "exposure compensation" setting.
All this does is to tell the camera (take your exposure reading, and
make it x.xx darker or x.xx brighter. If I see that the highlights
were blown out on a shot, I'd retake the shot with a -1 exposure
compensation.




Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua

[alex crouvier]

Gosh, Marvin, wonderful tank!
At what temp do you keep it?
Those Xmas moss requires low temp to grow light green like that??



"Marvin Hlavac" > wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...
> http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua1.jpg
> http://www.onehappygirl.com/aqua2.jpg
>
> ...forgot to add the link...
>
> --
> Regards,
> Marvin Hlavac
> Toronto, Canada
>
>

[Marvin Hlavac]

Hi Alex,

Thanks. The water temperature is 26 to 27C (79F).

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada



"alex crouvier" > wrote
> Gosh, Marvin, wonderful tank!
> At what temp do you keep it?
> Those Xmas moss requires low temp to grow light green like that??

[Ben]

Hey Marvin

what did you use (if anything) to hold up the x-mas moss it looks like a
trellis like structure of some sort

Ben

[Marvin Hlavac]

Hi Ben

On both sides and the back wall the X-mas moss grows on a black color
plastic mesh purchased in Home Depot. There is a nice big piece of driftwood
behind the red lotus plant but it is no longer visible because it is now
completely covered by the moss.

--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada




> what did you use (if anything) to hold up the x-mas moss it looks like a
> trellis like structure of some sort
>
> Ben

[PR]

"Marvin Hlavac" > wrote in message le.rogers.com>...
> Hi Ben
>
> On both sides and the back wall the X-mas moss grows on a black color
> plastic mesh purchased in Home Depot. There is a nice big piece of driftwood
> behind the red lotus plant but it is no longer visible because it is now
> completely covered by the moss.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Marvin Hlavac
> Toronto, Canada
>
>
>
>
> > what did you use (if anything) to hold up the x-mas moss it looks like a
> > trellis like structure of some sort
> >
> > Ben

Hi Marvin,
I've never seen such a nice moss before. Would you be so kind to send
me some to get started in my tank? I'd gladly pay for shipping and a
reasonable price. Please email me if it's ok.

thanks!
PR

[Eric Schreiber]

Ben > wrote:

>what did you use (if anything) to hold up the x-mas moss it looks like a
>trellis like structure of some sort

Ah, thanks for asking that, Ben. Marvin's tank must have made a pretty
big impression on me, because here two weeks later I'm still thinking
about it, and was just about to post asking the same thing.

I'm wondering what the odds are that I'd have any luck with growing
that moss, because I'd sure like to steal that general tank design!


--
www.ericschreiber.com