Anyone ever messed around with time-lapse video?

[StephenP2003]

I just got a cheap security camera (Wyze Cam) from amazon that does timelapse with the addition of a micro SD card. I did a 24-hour test on my betta tank (see below), although it's not very interesting other than watching snails move.

I'm now doing a 7-day timelapse in my big tank. Mostly for fun, but I also think doing extended time lapses will help me observe some of the plant growth/trends in my tank that I tend not to notice until there's a drastic difference. 

The challenge is finding a place to stick the camera where it won't be disturbed for days/weeks. Can't really mount it in front of any tank.

 

[Daniel]

I love watching the snails, they look like Roomba vacuuming my floor. 🙂I thought I saw cat eyes in the middle of the night (do you have a cat @StephenP2003)? The fish really do go to sleep at night, but I guess their circadian rhythm got them up first thing in the morning long before the lights came on, that was so cool to see also.

I very much would like to see more like this!

Edited August 17, 2020 by Daniel

[Kat_Rigel]

It's a little too quick for me, I like more short term ones. I have a tank of magenta mystery snails that I let breed and I love doing time lapses of them. There is some stubborn algae on the glass making the water look more tannin-heavy than it really is, so please forgive me. 😅

I call this piece, "Blep Blep" 😂

Blep Blep cruisin' along https://imgur.com/gallery/pdy8Mrs

[StephenP2003]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I love watching the snails, they look like Roomba vacuuming my floor. 🙂I thought I saw cat eyes in the middle of the night (do you have a cat @StephenP2003)? The fish really do go to sleep at night, but I guess their circadian rhythm got them up first thing in the morning long before the lights came on, that was so cool to see also.

I do have cats, but you might have seen snail reflections playing tricks on you. This tank is not optimally placed for cat access.

I didn't notice this until you mentioned the fish circadian rhythm, but the camera's night vision actually stayed on well after my light started ramping up. It comes on super dim at 6:30am and doesn't really ramp up until 10ish or so. 

52 minutes ago, Kat_Rigel said:

It's a little too quick for me, I like more short term ones. I have a tank of magenta mystery snails that I let breed and I love doing time lapses of them. There is some stubborn algae on the glass making the water look more tannin-heavy than it really is, so please forgive me. 😅

I call this piece, "Blep Blep"

That's a good pace for snail watching. I should try that. This camera lets me set the snapshot intervals as low as 3 seconds between images. Each image is 1 frame of a 30 frame per second video. I think for this video I did 10 second intervals. For the 7-day time lapse, I'm doing 2 minute intervals because I specifically  want to observe the plant growth. That should yield a video just under 3 minutes long.

After that, I want to do a one month time lapse with maybe 10 minute intervals. 

Knowing me, by October I'll have a dozen of these cameras running on several tanks at multiple angles and various time intervals. 

[Kat_Rigel]

Ooh, that would be very cool for observing plant growth. I'm interested to see what you come up with!

[Ben Ochart]

I recently used time lapse to show how the fish were cleaning an "algae scrubber" (mechanical way of growing and harvesting algae to harness it's nitrate reducing and oxygen adding properties. The algae can then be eaten as a treat...whew!).  It turned out okay.  I've also used a lot of slo-mo, like during a feeding video.

[RovingGinger]

I do the opposite (slow mo) to capture fish movements. And snail hops. @Ben Ochart that sounds very interesting! 

[Streetwise]

@StephenP2003, You inspired me to try something. I edited an existing single-angle video, and tried a few speed-up options. I ended up at 12x. This is 29:02 of tripod tub video in 02:25. I didn't plan on it, but the sound is preserved with pitch. Thanks Fast Fourier Transform! Cheers.

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Streetwise
Details

[MattyIce]

With this Thread, Rachel O'Leary doing a time lapse of her lotus, and my Dwarf Aquarium Lily flowering the night before last for the first time, I had to give it a try:
 

 

I encountered a whole lot of issues, took too many pictures too fast and ran out of space on my memory card, it was getting darker so i had to adjust ISO settings at times, and in the end it got too dark to continue before it fully opened.  Probably going to try again tonight, now that i am more prepared.

To note, for this I set it to aperture priority and opened the lens as far as i could, so that the camera could auto adjust shutter speed to keep exposure the same.  I also turned off Auto White Balance, setting it to the daylight setting so that temp and tint wouldn't change as the sun went down.

Edited August 19, 2020 by MattyIce

[StephenP2003]

10 hours ago, MattyIce said:

I encountered a whole lot of issues, took too many pictures too fast and ran out of space on my memory card, it was getting darker so i had to adjust ISO settings at times, and in the end it got too dark to continue before it fully opened.  Probably going to try again tonight, now that i am more prepared.

To note, for this I set it to aperture priority and opened the lens as far as i could, so that the camera could auto adjust shutter speed to keep exposure the same.  I also turned off Auto White Balance, setting it to the daylight setting so that temp and tint wouldn't change as the sun went down.

What kind of camera did you use? The cheapo security cam I used has none of those settings I don't think. I get what I get. Hoping this 7-day one turns out OK. I'm so tempted to stop it and watch the current footage and then reset it.

[MattyIce]

4 hours ago, StephenP2003 said:

What kind of camera did you use? The cheapo security cam I used has none of those settings I don't think. I get what I get. Hoping this 7-day one turns out OK. I'm so tempted to stop it and watch the current footage and then reset it.

Sony full frame DSLR

The one i have has interval photo setting where i can set it to take, for example, 500 photos each one 5 seconds apart.

with it being a DSLR i can set up the photo how ever i want then i use the interval feature to take the photos.

[DaveSamsell]

I remember working on Beta & VHS time-lapse equipment, back in the day.  Actually, the recording quality was decent for the technology of its time.  The camera itself was often the limiting factor.  

[StephenP2003]

The 6 day time lapse in the 90 gallon was uneventful (I stopped it a day early). The Vals grew as usual. I have a light/fert imbalance right now affecting most everything in there. I edited the dark periods out because the night vision didn't work too well.

 

[Daniel]

It is like watching a busy street in New York City.

[StephenP2003]

Something more interesting to me now is observing my bn plecos. I bought a breeding pair in October. They almost immediately produced fry, but within a couple weeks the fry disappeared little by little. Ultimately, one survived and remains alive to this day. But since that one spawn, I've seen only rejected white eggs and never any fry. I think they are about to spawn again, so I've been watching them over a 12 hour period each night since Saturday.

Here is night 1.

Nothing eventful has happened since then, but the male hasn't left the cave so I am guessing he's fanning eggs again.

I just want to see if something is getting in there and messing with the eggs. I wondered if the planaria in the tank were getting to the eggs, but @Corydoesn't think so. 

 

At around the 40 second mark, you can see some activity and evidence that the female was in the cave. 

Edited August 24, 2020 by StephenP2003