Self introduction

[tomeiningen]

Howdy all!

Just thought I would say a little bit about me.
Friend of mine (coworker) told me about this site.

I just recently moved back from Japan and restarted my old aquarium hobby I have had since early highschool.
(Been over 10 years now since graduation.  Man I can't believe that)

I am a big fan of natural looking aquariums and strive to recreate a "natural" environment in my tanks.
In general I go with the community style of aquarium. (even if all my inhabitants wouldn't naturally occur in the same location)
I have always tried to grown plants with limited success in the past.  
I recently upgraded my lighting to approximately 2 wpg and things are looking better now than ever before on that front.
Going for the semi-planted perhaps headed towards "planted" tank status now.  
Currently I have a single 30 gallon which as you know is never enough.

One of my other hobbies is photography and so far I have not managed to get any good shots of my fish.
Sure is hard to get a whole fish in focus with my DSLR.  

Well that's about it for now,
Travis

[fishboyt]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome to the HFB!  :)

[Zulaab]

Re: Self introduction

Travis,

Welcome to the fish box...
It took me 22 yrs to get back to the hobby I loved.  It was hard to leave it but like you I moved from one country to another.
I am not much into planted tanks...  Hope actually one of these days to get completely out of it, but for right now I have one which is a guppy tank...

there are a couple of us who takes pictures with DSLR's -- look for any picture I post or iamgirlgeek her pics are all DSLR's for sure.
I am sure there are others they will raise their hand soon enough I am sure

Both Her and I have found that you really need a good field of depth ie running with something like a 5.6 or greater F/stop on the camera to get most of a fish in focus.   Since you are doing most of the time a close up shot, you need that high F stop to get the fish in focus.

Have fun and welcome !!!
Jesper

[Leprae]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome to the Box! :)

I'm just jealous that you HAVE a DSLR, so I have nothing further to say on that subject. :)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome back!

Looks like the Amano craze is full blown in Japan like they say it is from you post!

[PlanB]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome! Didn't happen to bring any japanese koi back with you?  

[tomeiningen]

Re: Self introduction

I didn't think it was legal to carry livestock of any kind into America.

I am hoping to get to visit Japan in late June for a friend's wedding.
Maybe if it is possible I could bring some back with me then?

The problem with DSLR's is you always need more glass.
I couldn't get enough DOF even with F8.  
The shutter speed at F8 ISO1600 still wasn't high enough for me to prevent blur of the moving fish even when I used a stabilized lens.
More technique is needed I think.  Or maybe I could train the fish to sit still?

[Zulaab]

Re: Self introduction

Travis,

F8 with a 1/80+ shutter speed you should get most fish you are aiming at clearly.  If you dont have enough light for that try to add more light to the tank to obtain that.  ISO1600 on my camera and the picture gets to be to grainy.  I shoot no higher than 800.
If you have a Canon D40 or better then you can do shoot 1600 (one of the things I love about the D40 is that the light absorbed on the new CCD is SO MUCH better than the old CCD's of the D30's and prior camera's.  I have not had a chance to see the quality on the Rebel XSi at 1600 so I dont know if it has the same CCD as the D40.

I shoot my fish primarily at F4-5.6 and generate enough light somehow to get me at least a 1/60th shot exposure.

Keep smiling
Jesper

[CichlidFan]

Re: Self introduction

Howdy Travis......

Welcome to the box, hope you get that tank from Chris, sure sounds like your somewhat interested in it. Sounds like a great buy ...He told me it's an Oceanic too....

thanks for joining the HFB, can't wait to see some of your pictures, I'm excited to see your backgrounds and or aquascaping...

CF

[fishlady]

Re: Self introduction

welcome to the box travis......you should talk to immagirlgeek....she's sort of our resident fish photographer on here.....she has taken some breathtaking shots of fishies so far....check out the thread

http://houstonfishbox.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5217&start=0

it has some really awsome shots of the trophs that some members have....
hope to see some of your shots soon too....
as i said....welcome......it's great to have you here.....

[Fire_chair]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome

[tomeiningen]

Re: Self introduction

Thanks everyone!
I appreciate the welcome.

I spoke to Chris and setup a time to pick it up already so hopefully that will work out.
Being an Oceanic is what peaked my interest.

Being a bit over twice my tanks current size should be a relatively big step up I think.

I hope to get my water parameters down and get something worthy of sharing with everyone at some point.
RIght now I am still fighting a battle with algae.  

Dang Kribs keep breeding no matter what though! =)
Too bad none of the spawns have left me with viable fry.  
(Not sure what happens to them, they are there one day and gone the next).
Maybe the kribs can have the 30 all to themselves sooner or later.
I did manage to get a few blurry pictures though.  

-Travis

[Mzungu]

Re: Self introduction

 Welcome to HFB!

Be sure to post pictures when you can, even if they're not the best, we'd love to see your tank(s)!

[Philbert]

Re: Self introduction

tomeiningen
Good choice to be here...fun in the sun with fish!
On the algae problem...unless it's Hair Algae, just the regular green slime on the glass stuff, you do know Plecos are easily found on the 'Box ( they do keep my 7 tanks clean)? I've never seen any algae in my tanks with my herd of Plecos.

[Spot86t]

Re: Self introduction

Welcome to the box!

My kribs are the same way - reliable as father time.  I pull the young out after 3 weeks or so, otherwise they slowly vanish.  About 2 weeks later there will be another batch on the way.