Our tank's biology up close

Ultimate Corals
Jump to Last
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Brew12 said:
Great work as always, Jason!

I have to ask. What magnifications do you find most useful for algae and bacteria identification?
Click to expand...


Thanks, more coming from a couple other samples.

As for magnifications that is a range of them.

10x is good for scoping around looking for interesting areas to zoom in on and still see details. 4x was to far out and pulled that from the scope.

20x is great for the larger critters and following them. 40x was just to close up for those that were moving around quickly. 20x was a great addition but it's not common to come with a microscope as standard. I bought mine separate.

40x is a great balance of details and getting up close. Probably one of the best for a balance of magnification and quality.

60x starts to lose some of that quality but still holds on to some of it while getting pretty close. Another add on I bought and I really like and doesn't come standard with most microscopes. Slightly more magnificiation then the 40x but better image quality then a 100x.

100x I'll use briefly here and there. The quality is noticeable here but work it for when I really want to get up close and personal to some bacteria. If you are using 20x or 25x eyepieces the quality is even worse. Problem is the standard 100x that comes with microscopes are oil and spring. So you have to put oil down on the cover slip for best quality. This makes it so you can't go back to another spring lens that doesn't use oil (aka dry). If you do you could damage the objective. So, once I put down some oil I could go back to the 4x, 10x, or 20x lens but not the 40x or 60x that are dry spring objectives. Which 40x is one of my favorites. That annoyed me so I invested in a 100x dry objective which was the most expensive objective I've bought so far. But it's been worth is as I like to switch to the 100x and back to the 40x or 60x quite often.
 
Reef Chasers Aquaculture
Brew12

Brew12

Electrical Gru
View Badges
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
22,488
Reaction score
61,036
Location
Decatur, AL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
jason2459 said:
Thanks, more coming from a couple other samples.

As for magnifications that is a range of them.

10x is good for scoping around looking for interesting areas to zoom in on and still see details. 4x was to far out and pulled that from the scope.

20x is great for the larger critters and following them. 40x was just to close up for those that were moving around quickly. 20x was a great addition but it's not common to come with a microscope as standard. I bought mine separate.

40x is a great balance of details and getting up close. Probably one of the best for a balance of magnification and quality.

60x starts to lose some of that quality but still holds on to some of it while getting pretty close. Another add on I bought and I really like and doesn't come standard with most microscopes. Slightly more magnificiation then the 40x but better image quality then a 100x.

100x I'll use briefly here and there. The quality is noticeable here but work it for when I really want to get up close and personal to some bacteria. If you are using 20x or 25x eyepieces the quality is even worse. Problem is the standard 100x that comes with microscopes are oil and spring. So you have to put oil down on the cover slip for best quality. This makes it so you can't go back to another spring lens that doesn't use oil (aka dry). If you do you could damage the objective. So, once I put down some oil I could go back to the 4x, 10x, or 20x lens but not the 40x or 60x that are dry spring objectives. Which 40x is one of my favorites. That annoyed me so I invested in a 100x dry objective which was the most expensive objective I've bought so far. But it's been worth is as I like to switch to the 100x and back to the 40x or 60x quite often.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. I was guessing there isn't much need for anything close to the 1000x+ magnification settings on higher end scopes. Just wanted to make sure I was right on that count.
 
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sample from the overflow

45a3c9228746f52fe5387c5e65c833d3.jpg


Sliced on the left and pipette on the right
90eacd7d477119228bf2e800adb1994f.jpg
 
Tidal Gardens
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Top Shelf Aquatics
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sunnyside Corals
Nutramar Foods
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Scubabeth

Scubabeth

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 7, 2016
Messages
316
Reaction score
431
Location
Texas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So neat! This may be a silly question, but in two of the stills I saw a star shaped "something." Do you know what that was?
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
OP
OP
jason2459

jason2459

Not a paid scientist
View Badges
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
4,668
Reaction score
3,192
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
They are very cool and this is one moving around with it's cytoplasm.

jason2459 said:
While I was playing around with the darkfield I ran accross the weird overexposed object except it had feelers, for a lack of a better word, stretching out all around it. I went back to darkfield again toward the end of this video. I didn't have it recording when I first ran into in darkfield.











Click to expand...
 

Similar threads

legacy2mj
Frag flat help
Replies
7
Views
128
legacy2mj
legacy2mj
Z
Brown algae, ID of Microscope photos
Replies
3
Views
106
DDenny
DDenny
BigAl07
If attempting the HNSA method, do you add additional biological media in the system?
Replies
2
Views
98
BigAl07
BigAl07
A
Help ID. Microscope videos included
Replies
5
Views
77
Freenow54
Freenow54
T
What kind of equipment/filtration poses the highest risk for "over filtering" a tank?
Replies
9
Views
187
VintageReefer
VintageReefer

Tentacled trailblazer in your tank: Have you ever kept a large starfish?

  • I currently have a starfish in my tank.

    Votes: 63 32.5%

  • Not currently, but I have kept a starfish in the past.

    Votes: 50 25.8%

  • I have never kept a starfish, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 40 20.6%

  • I have no plans to keep a starfish.

    Votes: 39 20.1%

  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
See comments…

New Posts

Tidal Gardens
Dinkins Aquatic Gardens
Nutramar Foods
Deltec
TCK Corals
Top Shelf Aquatics
World Wide Corals
New Posts
Back
Top