boydo

Man your fish look great! Your gold bar is getting ridiculas.....the real 24k. Awesome pics dude!

Awesome Jay! These are really good pictures!

WOW! Great job Bret. I am starting to think it may be the water in Red Deer with you and Ryan having such awesome looking Aros! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! We actually do have great fish keeping water in Red Deer!

Thought I would shoot a few more pictures to take my mind off the winter storm outside.

P13 rays...

P13 rays...

Snakehead and K Bass

K Bass

Gold Crossback

Red and some friends...

Thanks guys! I have pampered this guy from day one, he eats like a tank...lol. He has even bitten me on several occasions.

Two years from tag date and about 22 inches.

Thanks for veiwing!

ya i just went to the shine website they are closed thats sad.

I think it was just used to make a quick buck and to stock up his personal tank!

I think you have no idea what your taking about!

Shine was closed beacuase I have a demanding and well paying oilfield job and a family that deserved more of my time. I worked over 100 hrs a week trying to keep up with Shine and my day job. So before you go shooting your mouth off you should have your facts straight.

Happy fish keeping.

Hey Matt

and is their a reason why you have to talk down to me and be a dick

First off please don't disrespect RD or other member here. RD is an extremely knowledgeable person and we should all be thankful that he is around to steer use in the right direction not matter how hard it hits our ego and our experience. There are very few that have this knowledge let alone are willing to spend time on forums to help us all.

Mountain run off contains natural occurring co2 in the water which will lower the ph right out of the tap due to carbonic acidulation. Like RD mentioned if you let the water sit for about 24 hrs it will return to 7.8-8.2. The water before it hits ambient air conditions will be at this Ph until it is aerated through a tap and exposed to atmosphere conditions then it will drop until these gases leave the water. After the gases leave the pH will return to it's normal range. All water piping needs to run a high pH and cites will even add caustic soda to maintain this pH as it greatly reduces corrosion and protects the pipelines.

I believe like I have mentioned before that some of your trouble is with the pre-filters you use. I have been experimenting with drip systems for years (Blocks, active carbon, RO, DI). I have come to the conclusion that carbon blocks and active carbon filters do not work well in our environment. I found that besides the chlorine or chloramines these filters remove other trace elements that buffer our water. I have no scientific evidence other that my experience. I run over 3000 gallons of aquariums and now I trust only dosing systems regardless of chlorine or chloramines. I had major issues with pH and stress on my fish while using filtered water, everything changed all the time I could barely keep up. I have been dosing with safe (prime in bulk) using a aqua medic reef doser for several years now with incredible success. You could use premixed sodium thisulphate with distilled water in Calgary for the same results. We have hard water here as our water comes from High Mountain run off and glacier sources. This water is very similar to all cites that take water from the foothills. This water although hard is balance very well for fish. I believe that when you run this water through a carbon blocks etc that you not only remove the chlorine but trace mineral or elements that buffer the water. This is why I think you struggle to control your pH.

If you find that your Ph is low before a water change in the aquarium it is caused from a build up of organics and tds(large bio-load or over feeding). As these decompose it will drive your pH down until you perform a water change - Hence reducing the organics. If you are experience this you need to perform larger and frequent water changes. Some people have also had success with adding crush oyster shell to their filter media to help buffer the changes.

I hope this helps you matt and feel free to contact me for more details... I will help you the best I can.

Gorgeous! My favourites are the rays...in one pic it looks like the pattern on the ray is a happy face...so cool!

Thanks!

very nice, have you tried white sand with the rays ? i think the colour would compliment them.

Thanks! I have tried white sand a long time ago, but I prefer black rays on dark bottom tanks.

White sand would hurt the aros look! That diablo is a savage! What a beauty.

Thanks! You raise a good point as well, red aros and blue base aros imo look better over dark bottom tanks.

Vincent's show piece from Imperial!!! (NAN lights used)

Some superb super reds in competition - NAN lighting on all reds.

More XB'x and Full Helmet pieces in the competion - very poisonous!

A unique shark mouth Golden Head - not my taste but very rare!

Fa Fu Long XB!!!

One of Pang Longs Full Helmet Golden Head pieces at their show both - My favorite!!!

Aquarama was a blast! I had a difficult time dialing my carmera into the scene. I was forced to use new techniques so I hope your all pleased with the out come I have put togther for you. These fish and their tanks all had optimised lights to showcases them as best as possible ie: NAN(multiple bulbs for reds), 4500k-7000k(for golds - my assumption of temperature)

Aquarama 2011 was at Suntec in Singapore. There were several aro farms present including Pang Long, Rainbow and Imperial. Huge variety of hardware and dry good suppliers from all over the world. Fish show competitions for arowana, planted, flowerhorn, discus, goldfish, etc.... There was more then I could photogragh in the time I had there but here are some of my favorites.

Overveiw of the show.

A Flowerhorn that caught mt eye - about 5-6 inches.

One of my favorite XB's in the competion - I love the dark base color!

Looking very good Neil! :smokey:

Wow those are amazing Koi Angelfish! :drool:

They are the nicest I've seen - by far!

Been way too many years since I visited Don's fishroom. He had an amazing collection of different cichlids at the time....looks like he has done the same with discus now. :thumbs:

He has a great setup and the discus are incredible.

Yes the Discus are very nice / looks like the adults have very round bodies... just the way Discus should be .... Great looking Pictures

Thanks.

how do you get photos like that with no distortion form the glass? looks like you put the camera underwater

Overhead flashes seem to help alot.

Great shots Bret, and always a pleasure touring the masters fishroom, Don.

Thanks!

Wow those are some great looking fish!!! :drool:

They look much better in person .

Nice pics Bret, it would be great to check out his stock.

Thanks!

Great shots! I love them red scribbles very nice.

The scribbles are my fav's too.

Wow, some of those look so perfect it is hard to believe they are real!

Thank you!

Fantastic Pics.

What kind of equipment did you use to take these photos?

camera type and settings

lens and settings

lighting used and placement of same. Ring flash?

I've got an L46 sitting on eggs and would like to document the process. Since this is the first time time I've had any success with this species, I would want to proceed with caution and not disturb him if at all possible. Would you have any suggestions in doing this?

Thanks again for sharing the pics and it has been some time since I saw Dons fish room and it is a dream setup.

Paul S

I was using 2-3 overhead wireless flashes.

The camera is an E3.

I used several lens and combinations to shoot these pictures:

12-60mm 1:2.8-4 SWD

50-200mm 1:2.8-3.5 SWD

50mm 1:2.0 Marco

1.4 x Tele converter

As for the settings, they change with each picture I take.

The best thing to do is put your camera in manual and practise, trying all the different settings until you find a point where you camera responds to what you want.

Great setup! The plants are nice addition. :smokey:

Now your using your camera to its potential!

Great pictures and great looking Premium Super Red. :thumbs:

And a few more pictures of the golds tank mates.

Thank you for all your generous comments.

Here are a couple more pictures.