Goondoo

Try www.Clubsnap.org

The one that is selling underwater photography equipments in Adelphi is Sea and Sea. Personally, I would prefer to visit Oceanic Focus because they carry more Ikelite, Inon,Epoque and 10 bar items which are cheaper than many other brands. And they are based in Singapore. Cheers, Goondoo

Sorry I missed this point. If you are using Autofocus underwater, most of the time, you can forget about sharpness. Most Consumer/Prosumer camera will 1st set to the biggest aperture (example: F2.8) then select a suitable shutter speed based ambient light. The internal flash are more of a compensation light. I had seen great pictures taken with A95. (Though I am a Oly C-5060 user)

99% of the flood incidents are caused by human error regardless what housing were used, One example is not doing predive checks and leaving the housing under the sun is another. All O-rings need to be replace yearly (as recommended) Few main consideration selecting a camera for UW is 1) the possibility of opening the housing as little as possible though out the day, example: replacing batteries, change memory cards etc. 2) Cameras using AA rechargable batteries tends to fog up a housing more (due to off gasing of the batteries) than one using lithium. I forgot my silicon packs during my Sipadan trip and I am surprise that there are no fogging at all. When fixing the camera into the housing, try to do it in a very dry area, like aircon room. 3) Shuttle lags - All consumer/prosumer cameras have shuttle lags, it just a matter of how much. 4) Not all blur pictures are caused by shuttle lags, most of the time, its due to off focus or insuffient light when using higher shuttle speed, as the light resistance underwater is many times more than air, keep your current camera and get a external strobe if possible. 5) Remember to always half focus before you press fully. Try to master Manual mode, push your Aperture as low as possible (F8) for macro pictures and mid level (F5-F5.6) for Wide angle pictures. Always remember to half focus on the eye first, then pull the focus compose your picture while half pressed. 6) Upgradablility- no doubt many cameras today comes with housing, the more popular upgrades are the ones with 67mm thread. Inon, epoque makes macro and wide angle lenses for 67mm. 7) Many recommended manual white balancing. However, remember not to use flash else your picture will turn all red. 8) Experience- just keep shooting...... PS: DSLR is not that friendly underwater, imagine you jump down with a macro lense and a manta swim pass with a whale shark..... A95 is a very decent camera for UW. I had seen a friend taking videos with it with a red filter and it really rocks! Hope these helps. PM me if you need more information.

Hi, I am interested with the chiller. Can I view it first? At the same time, is your chiller the 1st, 2nd or 3rd version?

When I dive Bunaken Manado, the viz was like 30m....

I still think 90% of dive shop sells stuff at ridiculous prices to first timers. Consult your diving friends, ask them to intro you or get for you. Will be cheaper that way.

public as in?

Not much silt compare to hantu. Mostly normal sand and gravels.

about 5-8m. Corals are all in great conditions as it is rather shallow and less people anchor there for fishing.

Its a Gorgonian Shrimp BTW, I noticed my typo. I shd be Pulau Salu, not Palau Salu. Its an island off Singapore

Just few shots made it...

like this? Incase you dunno, I am a macro guy

Here is another

We was having our honeymoon (+diving) in Berjaya not long after the announcement. I spoke to the dive operator we were with, and he actually assured me that there will not be much destructions to the reef and corals as the constructions will be on the existing yacht parking area. However, the operators near that area are not happy and had been making lots of noise because they will either need to bare with the noise, dust etc or relocated at their own cost.

wah! free sales man?

Yea, I do I was enjoying the sunny weather there then, not knowing a storm was brewing here . Glad you like the pics.

Comments welcome.

I've seen bigger in Manado while diving off Bunaken It does taste great, especially when dip in black vinegar. I tried it in a village in MY some years back. They call it urine prawn or something like that.

I remember vividly that the MCB current rating use for power sockets is 20A, lighting 6A and water heater 15A? Something like that its had been like 17 years back when I did my Electrical Your fuse in your power plug should blow first before the MCB. I remember my lecturer did mentioned that the danger normally wasn't the power/current ratings. It is the number of raw connections like plugs, extensions etc which are connect based on overlapping or touching. The brass and metals etc on the plugs and sockets of your circuits might oxidize over time and form a layer of insulation on the metals limiting the connectivity. The current will soon try to "hop" over the insulation, creating a spark which may result in a fire hazard. So the more raw connections you have, the higher the risk, and not forgetting adding on a multiplier to the risk factor if you are using those cheap power extension you buy in pasar malam using inferior metals. Cheers, Goondoo

btw, for my current planted tank using 4x36w FL and 4x36w PL, I ran 2 DC fan and 2 AC fan consecutively and are able to maintain the maximum temperature below 27 degrees. I really have no idea how much warmer MH is going to get but the MH pendants I saw is said to be running on E-ballast which is suppose to be cooler than my existing lights that are running on iron core ballast. Anyone running MH lights without chiller kindly advise me here please? Cheers, Goondoo

After using FLs for my planted tank for the pass few years, I am rather unhappy with their short life span. I am not sure about T5 (guess I will read up about it 1st) but normal FL tends to go dimmer and dimmer after 6 months. Hi Barn, I guess its the same thing I saw in IKEA the other day then. Need to drill the ceiling too I think. Thanks Cheers, Goondoo

A point to share. Make sure you are buying Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda-Potash) and not baking powder. I had using Redman brand from Phoon Huat(the shop that sells alot of cake making ingredient) to maintain my KH on my fresh water tank too. I got a 500gm bottle from them few years back? so can't remember the price. Cheers, Goondoo

Interesting..... I think the better way is to organise a trip to SP for you pros to "TEST" their water parameters. I know nuts about marine tank and such publishing could have easily won me over. You never know, they might have something really new that are suppose to be a "trade secret" since the whole research was sponsored and "buy over" by Coral Reef? I might be able to arrange a visit if you guys are interested. About the biological filtering itself, its nothing new at all, planted tank owners, like myself, tends to use alot of bio rings to host the bacteria that is suppose to do such tasks of converting from ammonia/ammonium(NH4/NH3) to nitrite(NO2)to nitrate(NO3). From what I understand, NO3 itself is totally harmless to fish, but are one of the main elements required for plants(including algaes) to grow well. I know nothing about its affects on corals though. Cheers, Goondoo

Hi bro, Thanks for reply. Just went IKEA today looking for ideas to hang the lamps without drilling the ceiling. Think quite hard to get a cheap stand, even building one shelf out of those DIY woods will cost me a few hundreds. Happened to passed by those lighting shops today. Went in and check out their customised hanging MH pendant. Each pendant is about $160 and comes with E-ballast built in. They have 70W and 150W, are these suitable for marine? Anyway, from I-Aquatic website, I saw these stands, any idea where I can get them? As for the sumps and overflow, I think will need to take sometime to convince her.