My Reef in a Box

A Place for Rare Zoanthids

2008-10-09T08:52:00.002-04:00

If you're interested in zoas like I am, you should check out Rare Zoanthids, a website dedicated to showcasing rare zoas and possibly helping you find out where to find them. Even though I am taking a temporary (yet extended) break from the hobby, this site really brings back a lot of memories for me.

In addition to the colorful pictures, there's also descriptions on how to ID the zoas as well as how to care for them. It's definitely a cool resource if you're new to the hobby.

More Pictures of the 29... Close-ups!

2007-12-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

Contents of the 29 Gallon for Sale

2007-12-02T09:54:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if these pictures will help or hurt the sale, but a bunch of people have been asking for them. Basically, since work and chores have gotten in the way of the hobby, I am now forced to get out of it completely for awhile.

The photos below show the tank as is today. Even though the pics suck, there are certainly some diamonds in the ruff in this tank.

Among some of the zoas that are in there, green death, purple death, peach rainbows, AOG's, reds, blues, galaxies, etc. There are also some nice ricordias with neon green mouths in there. Their coloring have changed somewhat in the 20K bulb... I think my preference is still 14K but I wanted to test it since I didn't have actinics over this tank.

Anyway, I'm asking $240 OBO for everything inside the tank. (Which also includes 2 clowns, a well behaved damsel, an urchin and all the live rocks) I think if better cared for, these things should bounce back bigger and better within a couple of months.

The end of an era... or was it just a year?

2007-07-21T17:04:00.000-04:00

Well, the wedding has come and gone and now we are on the hunt for our next house with a yard. We decided on a place in East Atlanta that has pretty much everything we're looking for so we're now in the process to clean up the house and hoping that both the offers and the timing will work to our advantage.

The condo market right now isn't too great in Atlanta... so to help sell the house, we are looking to get rid of any access furniture that we don't need and unfortunately, I've decided that the fish tank is one of these things.

So while it's sad to have to sell off my 90 gallon tank... I'm hoping the next upgrade will be bigger, badder and less expensive. I'm pretty sure it won't be less expensive but one can dream.

Some good have came out of this though... I got some money to help pay down wedding debt and this will be one less thing to worry about in the coming months as we get ready to move. Also, it was good to get a bunch of people seeing the tank and all of them only had positive things to say about it. *Whew*

In the end... if it only took me a year to get all these awesome corals, the second time around should be a lot easier.

Bacterial Bloom and another new fish!

2007-06-23T23:27:00.001-04:00

A couple of days ago my tank randomly turned very cloudy... besides for the tang, I didn't really add anything else over the last few days. Needless to say, this is strange. The last time the tank turned this cloudy, we were cooking something in the house that smoked up... carbon took care of it last time in a day, but again, it did nothing for the tank this time even with two bags.

After much reading, it seems like I have a bacterial bloom. Since the haze is gray/white and not green (algae) or yellow (ammonia?) that seems to be the only logical conclusion. I guess to back track just a tad bit, I even took my water to the store to get it tested and everything came back and I quote: "perfect!"

Ah well... with perfect but cloudy water, this was good enough for me to add yet another fish. Although my first two tangs suffered ill fates maybe due to high nitrates or bad collection habits... I was REALLY glad to see that my Mimic Tang was healthy, eating, and not fighting with the existing inhabitants.

Well, I wanted to push my luck and decided to add a Clown Tang into the tank. I've always loved the colors and the patterns on these fish and so fargood to see that he too is getting along with the other ones in the tank. Now all I have to do is wait for the haze to be gone and I'll be back to my happy self again.

Tang Attempt #3

2007-06-16T14:26:00.001-04:00

I went to the Buckhead fish store after work yesterday to pick up a couple of clowns for my new tank. Yeah, I realize it's a bit soon but the cycling time for my tank has been minimal mostly due to me filling the tank with dry rocks and live rocks from my 90. Well, I ended up not getting the clowns but walked out with some more rocks and a mimic tang.

My favorite tangs thus far have been the red sea sailfin desjardini, achilles tang, the purple tang and some of the powder blue and browns. Most of the others have not been of interest to me but for whatever reason, this one REALLY caught my eye. Apparently, according to the store owner, this particular Mimic Tang was mimicking a Eibli Pygmy Angel like the one pictured below... which must have been it cause I remember liking those as well.

Well, the crazy store owner quoted me $110 for this fish... after much MUCH debate, I ended up getting him. This was probably a bad decision b/c the two tangs I've tried before had not fared well at all. The purple tang died. The hippo tang also died mysteriously after a week due to not eating.

Also, the flame angel I bought was terrorized to death by the Potter's Angel and MUCH to my dismay, didn't make it through day two.

So here I am, buying a tang which doesn't stand much of a chance living (apparently)... as well as mimicking another dwarf angel which may cause issues in itself... I dunno; almost everything about it smelled fishy to me.

But the funny thing was... while I was worrying about this fish, the owners were worried about this tang terrorizing my current tank mates. I guess we were on different pages.

Well, I'm glad to say this story has a happy ending so far... when the fish finally rang up, it was only about $55 w/ the ARC discount. At first I thought I got a killer deal but I was just misquoted the price. Also, since the introduction to the tank, it seems like it has taken on the dominate role. The other fish are cautious, but no one has even tried to harass the tang yet (which I guess they didn't harass tangs before either). Vice versa, the tang hasn't decided to pick fights with anyone yet. I'm not sure if the colors will continue to stay as the Eibli, but I hope so... I really like the way this one looks... but I guess time will tell.

Can anyone ID this?

2007-06-10T12:20:00.001-04:00

Could this be a new baby plate coral about to form? It looks awesome but I have no idea what it is. Can any of you ID it?

From Hobbiest to Addict...

2007-06-09T19:00:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if I've been trying to avoid wedding planning or if it's something else that's urging me to procrastinate and not think about work... but these past 2-3 weeks I've been on a craze looking up new zoas, new corals, new deals to trade, etc. Nevermind the fact that my tank is SOOO crowded right now that I'm actually a little pissed at it. Believe it or not, there actually is a fine line between looking like a true reef to looking like a junkyard for corals and I'm pretty sure I crossed over onto the dark side.

So what would a sensible person do? Probably sell off some frags, rearrange the tank so every piece would have a good chance to grow out, etc. What did I do? Start looking for the next tank that's under 75 gallons and trying to find a place for it. At first it was a 40g breeder... then maybe a 58 gallon (I think I saw a good deal on Craigslist) then progressively it got bigger and more expensive and so on... ACK!

Alright, so my senses compromised a bit. I went downstairs into my garage where the unsold 29 gallon is still chillin, cleaned it up, painted the back, and I'm now going to put it to work. So far, luckily I have yet to spend a dime besides for more black paint. I guess lucky me I just happened to have a spare tank, stand, 150w MH light, heaters, sand and of course salt and water. I will need to get some more rocks I think but I haven't quite figured out how this new frag / zoas and ricordias tank will be aquascaped.

So now that I'm finally jumping over from just having one tank to two tanks, I'm now officially an addict. The sad part is... I'm setting up the second tank in the guest room, a room that I maybe visit once a month. If anything, this just screams MORE WORK!

Coral Pics! (mostly Zoanthids)

2007-05-29T23:25:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've taken and posted pics so I figured I'll give you guys an update.

Superman monti... finally growing bigger

Supergirl? Rainbow monti...

Zombie Eyes in the back... birds nest in the front

Armageddon Frag

Armor of God... mmmm armor

True Eagle Eyes, not dem fake googly eyes

Possible Golden Eye? These are VERY orange in my tank though...

Jade Sumthin... or Miami Hurricanes

Fire 'n Ice Zoas (classic)

Blue Zoas!

PPE's

Zoa disease part 3

2007-05-29T23:19:00.000-04:00

It's been about a month since I last updated... everything in the tank has matured but more importantly, the colors of my Armageddons are now coming back! I can't say I've successfully treated this disease because I honestly haven't really done anything to this colony other than fragging away some of the healthier polyps prior to the disease taking over completely. In the picture above, you can actually see one polyp in the lower right that was not infected originally.

Anyway, it's good to know that DNA is working and that this didn't morph into some dull looking brown polyps. These should recover completely in about another month.

Zoa disease part 2

2007-04-20T18:07:00.000-04:00

Sooo... since I last posted. I fragged a few polyps off of the dying colony only to have them fall between the cracks of some rocks and disappear somewhere in the tank. Some others are still around, but it'd be nice if I can find the missing frag. Anyway, the zoas seemed to have recovered from whatever they were suffering from except that some of the more damaged ones seemed to have lost their mojo and colors. I'm still not sure what the disease is or if this has been observed before but this is definitely not one of the more common issues where zoas get irrated by flow and decided to close or if they were bothered by nudi's.

Here's the before pic.

Zoa disease?

2007-04-08T13:50:00.000-04:00

Not sure what this is... but over the last couple of days, my Armageddon zoas started closing up, thinning its stalks and look like it's throwing up or something. It started with a couple of polyps and proceeded to turn the whole group like it.

I fragged a few healthy polyps out but I'm not sure if the rest are doomed or if it's something they will get over. Right now only two other small colonies in the tank seem irritated but everythig else is opening fine and there doesn't appear to be any nudibranches or other stuff eating it.

Have any of you seen anything like this?

Frag tank from GlassCages.com

2007-04-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

So about a month ago, I ordered a frag tank from GlassCages.com. The tank is 24x18x12" and has a hole drilled on the side. While my 90 gallon still basically looks like a frag tank, I am hoping to actually grow some colonies in there as the tank matures. Part 1 of that process is to clean up my sand bed and move the frags on the plugs over to a separate propagation tank.

The tank finally came after about 3-4 weeks of wait time. All in all, I had the tank made for about $150 drilled and delivered. Funny thing is... a pre-made 90 gallon tank for them is about the same price before delivery.

The tank looks pretty sturdy but I haven't filled it with water to be sure. Looks wise, the trim for this custom tank looks pretty ghetto. I want to reiterate custom made since this is probably the reason why the black trim looks homemade and ghetto... but I'm honestly not sure how it would have looked had I ordered one of the more standard sizes.

My next steps are to build a stand and get this puppy plumbed and setup. I really hope that process won't take another month but I guess we'll see. Overall I am happy with the order but I'll write another post about once it's actually setup with water in it.

Feelin Clammy

2007-03-31T11:20:00.000-04:00

Ack... so less than a month from the day I purchased my first clam, it has for whatever reason deteriorated and died. On its last day, it pretty much closed up shut and was holding the position for at least a full day.

I don't think water parameters were an issue but maybe lighting was? Maybe something else was irratating it as well, I can't pinpoint it quite yet. I guess I'll hold off on the next one until I upgrade my lights or see if I can do some more research on what may cause the problem.

I do have potentially harmful snails in the tank but I feel like if they were indeed the harmful kind instead of the look-alikes, they would have eventually migrated into the clam instead of staying on glass like they have been even after introducing the clam into the tank. *Sigh*

When Ideas Backfire...

2007-03-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

I'm REALLY trying to go for a colorful tank in my 90. After seeing some pictures of brown tanks from some of the local sell off threads, I'm starting to appreciate my tank more seeing how my corals for the most part haven't browned out on me yet.

I wouldn't say I have the most exotic fish collection, but the colors do cover a wide spectrum between my 9 fishes. Also, while I'm not sure if this is right or wrong, I now have three (blue, orange and purple) lankia stars in my tank.

So anyway, after going on Reef Central and seeing a number of tanks with multiple angel-fishes in a tank, I thought it'd be a great idea if I got a flame angel to add some red to my fish population. My main concern was that my Potter's Angel wouldn't be happy but I figured if they can co-exist for a day, then things would be good.

Well, my thought process pretty much mirrored Homer's thought process when he thought he was smart in the following episode...

Let's just say the Flame angel is the most expensive sushi I've ever bought for my Potter's. Maybe next time when I have a 500+ gallon tank and I learn to put all the same kind of fish in at the same time, I'll try again.

More Coral Pictures!

2007-03-11T23:45:00.000-04:00

So this weekend I pretty much did nothing except for chillin, partying and learning how to use the camera. (Oh, we bought a cake too; just because.) By learning the camera, I mean reading the manual and pretending to understand and taking a whole bunch of pictures until a sharp one came through... below are some more pics from the cam and my collection.

Red / orange / pink monti cap from Big D. More orange now than the other two colors.

An acro that's slowly turning from brown to green and purple.

My red zoas. I just like the mix in this shot.

My peach zoas. Possibly rainbow? I dunno.

My tri-color tort from Kayla. This is a good one. I've been trying to get the tri-color in the pic for like 2 weeks now. All the pictures thus far have been all blue but I'm getting closer to capturing how cool this piece is.

My new clam from Capp Bay.

Artist (wedding day style) pic of the dog.

Ahh... and here's my favorite, the Mandarin.

Pics from the LFS (Cappuccino Bay Aquarium)

2007-03-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

One expensive hobby into another... *sigh*

So I recently bought myself a Canon Rebel XTi. With the new website launching and me trying to sell and trade frags of my stuff, I just got tired of not being able to take nice pictures of my collection to show the world. So yes... after a quick research into what's new in the world of DSLR cameras and getting recommendations from local reefers who are MUCH better at taking pictures than me, I opted for the Canon one due to their reputation in the industry for good equipment as well as cost vs. other cameras in the market.

Anyway, I'm still trying to learn the whole white balance, focus, light, aperture and yada yada things... but below are some pics I took from one of the LFS in my area whose been known to have great selection in terms of corals and clams. Don't let the poor pictures take away from the quality of the corals. The pieces here are amazing...

A pic from their baby clam section.

White balance is off, but still a nice piece!

The owner told me what this was... but I forgot. It's kind of like a goniopora I think. (I should have bought it!)

Blue zoas... though these didn't look like they were for sale.

I REALLLLY want this one. (Anyone know what it is?)

This pic doesn't do the acro justice... the tips are almost tiffany blue.

Anyway, hopefully I'll learn to take some better pics in the near future as I figure out the 140,000 buttons and settings that are on this camera.

Frag tank ordered!

2007-03-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

"Cheddah comin!"

Hopefully that's what I'll be saying in a few months... I just ordered a new custom tank from GlassCages.com; it's a 24x18x12 frag tank. I think they recently got a new customer service woman to help make the business more friendly. If I remember correctly, the first time I researched the company the general consensus on the forums were that the tanks were decent, but customer service could be better. I guess they're working on it.

The tank should be here in a couple of weeks... luckily they just happened to have an Atlanta delivery scheduled 2 weeks from when I want the tank. I will do another review once it actually gets here.

Water changes... what are water changes?

2007-03-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

I admit, when I only had a couple of fish and my bio-load was way low... water changes came as common as a lunar eclipse. However, having recently added a couple more to my list, I now do them about once a week. If you cringe when hearing the phrase "water change" but like your fish and your investment, then this picture is for you. Can you see which one of three buckets below is used water?

This is your water in five gallon buckets.

This is your water after your fish have peed and poo'ed in it.

Any questions?

How To: The Tunze Nano Stream Mod

2007-03-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

As mentioned previously, I recently picked up a pair of Tunze Nano Streams (model 6025) to add some flow to my tank. While these power heads have been troopers so far, reefers are always looking for ways to improve a situation if anything can be done. Much like the iPhone, I think Tunze really did themselves a dis-service by announcing new models of the Nano Stream but failed to meet the demand of the public at the peak of our interest. What I mean is... the 6-8 months between the iPhone announcement and when they will become available, the idea will most likely be copied a few times and as a result sales will suffer. The same goes for Tunze... we are shown three versions of the product so we now know the Nano Streams can in theory, pump out so much more. However, so far we've been watching the carrot dangle in our faces and can only sporatically (at best) find the base version; guess what? Sales will suffer or mods will be done!

So what do you get when you combine a bored teenager with some tools and some free time to break things? You get the Tunze Nano Stream mod. I can't take credit for this since some guy with much more free time than me thought of this... but I do thank him for it.

So basically the idea behind the mod is simple. Chip off a part of the inner tube so more water can be sucked up at one time to be propelled through the tunnel. Sounds simple enough. While Tunze claims the inner tube is needed to prevent the propeller from breaking or starting up backwards, no one who has attempted this mod thus far has had any major issues.

The easiest way to cut out the inside is to use a Dremel tool. For this project, I used the saw attachment.

While cutting the inner tube away, you can try to smooth it out so that the curve matches the inside of the sphere and that no misc. plastic bits are still half attached to the protective sphere.

This is what it looks like after you cut away the big pieces and smooth out the inside. It's nothing spectacular to see but the results are phenomenal! Most people that have done this mod (including myself) are seeing about a 50-70% increase over the designed flow output. Seeing how my Nano Streams don't have a permanent restarting problem, I do highly recommend doing this mod if you own the Nano Stream. If you mess it up or end up not liking the mod, you can buy a replacement cover from Tunze for $10. Also, since the mod will generally give you output of the mid-tiered model, you've just saved yourself $30 and the anguish of waiting for the release 6045 model. Want to see the original thread that started it all? Have more questions? Let me know.

DOH! Disturbin the peace! Zoa eating nudibranches

2007-02-24T12:32:00.000-05:00

So this past week I've noticed a few of my zoas were not opening like before... by before, I mean last week when they were open pretty much 18 hours a day. At first I thought maybe some of my levels were off and that the weekend water change would fix it, however, it seems like the issue is actually a lot worse.

I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture... but there is a nudi crawling over the closed zoas that it's disturbing. Not only has these nudi's mysteriously appeared, their ruffles or feathers have started to take on the metallic florescent colors of the zoas they've been eating! It's kind of weird but I guess it makes sense. The nudi's on my dragon eyes have a yellow glow to it while the ones on my orange zoas shine orange. If you click on the picture to get the bigger version, you can actually see a yellow nudi on the red zoas. Stupid nudi who thinks he can grab and collect all the colors of my collection...

Reading online, it seems that people have been successful getting the population under control via fresh water dips but I don't think I want to go this route. First of all, it's a lot of work and I'm personally just not a fan of taking something out of its element for dips. Can you imagine a higher being saying... hey, that girl over there has pimples, I'm pretty sure we have to pick her up and put her in space so the pimples will pop. Yeah... I guess that's a viable solution... but the zoas have already been stressed, there has to be a less stressful way. However, this is my personal preference and I'm sure most if not all of you will prefer the dip over doing nothing at all. Secondly, many of my zoas are on large pieces of rocks that make up the foundation of my rock work, I'm not rearranging the house to get a couple of pests out...

Other solutions I've read online included getting a certain types of wrasse that may hunt the nudi's and possibly using flatworm exit to poison it. I searched online for a bit for more information on the Sea Grass Wrasse and that seemed to have worked for a few people... (Blue Zoo Aquatics was the only online store I found that sold it) but I haven't found any locally, so I guess that will be my plan B.

So today I'm testing out plan A: Flatworm eXit by Salifert. (By the way, why is it cool to type it eXit instead of Exit? SAiLfERT, YOU gOT iSSuES.) Anyway, I took the carbon out of the system and poured some of this stuff into the system. Surprisingly, I saw some flatworms floating in the water columns now... very interesting... I did not know I had a flatworm problem... but can't worry about that for now. I'm still monitoring the nudi's that are crawling around and unfortunately they still seemed fine; hopefully things will change in a few hours.

On an unrelated side note, if you try to pick up a nudi with your bare hands, you could rub some of this glowing stuff on your hands. It's kind of cool, assuming I don't have to go to the ER in a few minutes. =P

Christmas in February!

2007-02-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

Whether it'd be some prized rainbow tort or just some plain xenia, the best frags in the world are free frags... Ever since last year when I joined Atlanta Reef Club, February has turned to my holiday season. (Yes, forget December!) Last night at our club meeting, it was our annual fragging demonstration meeting, a.k.a. free frags for everyone! The turnout was crazy and even better, the corals that were being fragged were awesome.

Even though I went to the meeting not expecting anything too fancy, I still walked away with like five or six frags of various zoas, chalice, maze brain, acro's, etc. Alright, so what if my tank is stacked? Now, they're stacked even more.

If you are currently in the hobby and do not belong to a local club, I highly recommend you look one up, join, and then tell them to do a similar frag demo meeting. I think a huge part of my tank's success this past year has been due to my interactions with the community to learn and dispense advice on things I've picked up. If you guys only knew me three years ago back in college... you'd be shocked at the stupid things I've done to get my tank going... (but that's another post.)

Anyway, in the pics here, you can see the sea of frags, and not just frags, FREE frags! Needless to say, all of us are happy campers right now.

Anyway, thanks Chris for taking these photos and thank you ARC for the free frags!

Tank Flow 201 - Maintenance & Upgrades

2007-01-21T13:50:00.000-05:00

We all know tank flow is important especially in reef tanks. Actually, tank flow is important in all tanks. You can't very well imitate a river in a tropical tank if all you have is some bubbles floating through carbon. Likewise, you can't very well imitate an ocean if you only have a couple of weak powerheads in the tank. In the world of reef tank keeping, water body movement is more important than having a tiny focused jet stream aimed in one direction. Because of such, many reefers like using Tunze and Seio powerheads due to the way these powerheads propel water vs. the traditional pumps that shoots them like a firehose. (But you already know this stuff... so why am I writing about it 9 months after my tank is already established?)

Well, as a budget reefer, I opted for the Seios when I first started. Being that my tank is only 90 gallons, I didn't feel the need to splurge on a wave maker or controller based Tunze's if this is what I have to live with for a few years; of course, some people like to get the right equipment the first time around, which is also a good thing to do.

Welp, over the last few months, my Seios have slowly built up gunk and various debris in the intake valves such as chaeto, algae and baby snails have found their doom in the intake... This on top of me initially running them at half capacity due to not wanting a sand storm lead to a visible degrade in the tank after 9 months. Before I know it, the flow dropped drastically and the results were black and maroon cyano algae patches in the tank, droopy corals and some corals even stopped opening up. I knew my setup worked before the clogs so something had to be done.

Part 1: Maintenance

The first thing I did which I've put off for about a month is taking the pumps out and cleaning them. People say you should clean the Seios as often as once a month... but I say it really depends on how they look. Mine had coralline algae growing on them and some intakes even had bubble algae clogging up the holes. Many others had baby snails stuck in the vents; all of this was brushed away. Then, after that was done, I ran each pump in a heavy solution of vinegar and RO/DI water to get build up and the salt out of areas I can't reach with the brush. I don't know the science behind it but think of it as mouth wash for your pumps.

Once the pumps were cleaned and placed back into the tank, improvements were immediately noticed. The pumps worked as well as they had previously and over the next few days, coralline deposits that were previously on the powerheads either fell off or were disposed by the snails.

Part 2: Upgrade

While the clean up revived the old pumps, I wanted to also upgrade the tank to have more flow. While the Seio's are nice, if I had wanted some major upgrade, I would have needed to buy the large ones, which I don't like due to them creating whirlpools and bubbles every so often. Tunze recently came out with the Nano Streams which upon further research proved to be one hellova substitute. I order 2 of the $62 version from My Reef Creations and plugged them into my system as soon as they arrived!

So far, I must say I am happy with the purchase. The Nano Streams are well designed and their sphere shaped casing allows you to pretty much aim the stream in any direction you like. The included magnet mount is also a bonus as it allows you to place the power heads as high or as low as you would like in the tank without worrying about the mount's distance in relations to the top of the tank. Due to the intake area being 4-5x bigger than the Seio's, you also don't get the whirlpool effect as you would with the Seios which are annoying during water changes when the water is low.

I would say right now, my tank's flow is in the best shape it's ever been and with five power heads in my tank, the flow do bump around and cause some chaotic currents. If for some reason I feel this is still not enough, you will probably see a third installment of this article where I upgrade the Seios and get a controller for variable output. Hopefully that won't come until after the tank upgrade though... (date TBD).

Hippo Tang no more...

2007-01-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

The hippo tang mysteriously disappeared a few days ago after the (non-related) party I had. Either I'm not feeding enough seaweed or the ones I'm buying are too small to get along with the current inhabitants of my tank. Either way, I think that will be my last attempt on tangs until I upgrade to a new tank. Losing hundreds of dollars in live stock sucks... and that's all I have to say about that.

R.I.P. - You will be missed...

Still Alive!

2007-01-16T00:23:00.000-05:00

Good things today... I thought my sea urchin had died even though I never found remains, and the same goes for the tiny emerald crabs that I had purchased a few weeks back, but as of this past week and today, I spotted both groups alive and well. The sea urchin only comes out at night when it's pitch black and it only stays in one spot... this seems unusual for me since sea urchins can be spotted near sea sides during the day but I'll take it!

As for the mini crabs, I guess as long as they're doing their jobs, I won't complain even if I don't see them around. I just wanted them to be okay.

Thanks to Tony, I also bought some more stuff shortly after the new years. Since I still had worries about the red cotton algae, I went ahead and ordered 15 Mexican turbo snails to resolve the issue. Luckily, they are actually doing something this time around unlike the lazy batch I got last time. I also replaced my yellow clown goby with a baby one, who has been very entertaining to watch. Pictures to come soon, I promise.

Edit: Here's a pic I grabbed.

New Additions! Hippo Tang and Sea Urchin

2006-12-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

As my Seios slowly die out due to algae sufficating their input vents, I am now looking towards other options to suck up all the alga in the tank so flow can resume. Now I know there are at least two options to increase flow: 1. buy another Seio powerhead 2. dip these in vingear to reverse the calcium deposits (or something like that) but since one involves $$$ and the other involves work and both do not involve new livestock, I've opted to turn to more livestock instead.

To add to my diversity of algae eaters, I got a black spiney sea urchin with white tips. I'm not sure why this particular one has white tips but it looks cool and it was cheap and it isn't one of the long black spiney ones but rather just black and spiney. I do have an coralline algae problem building up in my front glass so hopefully once he discovers those he will chomp down... but honestly, I have not seen him since the day I got him. Maybe he likes the dark or something.

I also got for the first time in my reef keeping, a lettuce nudibranch. Honestly I have no idea what it does but it looked cool. I got two but I think one perished as soon as he got into the tank. Luckily, the other one is still going strong, and fast too.

Finally, to add some colors to my fish collection, I got a hippo tang. Most of my fish leans towards the orange and purple side so I wanted some blue for contrast. There is one store in this area who is now charging $75 per hippo tang! Yikes! I remember the days when they were like $25-$30... the LFS guy claims that they are now harder to catch with global warming and stuff, but I seriously think the cause is probably Finding Nemo, who made the fish famous and now probably a must have in most salt water aquariums.

I think when the tank is ready again, I may get another yellow clown goby to finish the tank off. I had one before but since I only had like 3 SPS's, they ended up stressing out due to the goby favoring them as perch spots so the corals endd up retracted for the good part of the day. Now that I have several more colonies of SPS, maybe the goby won't favor just one. I guess we'll see.

Oh yeah, happy new years everyone!

Clean Up Crew Replenishment

2006-12-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

So slowly over the last year, my snail and hermit crab population have somehow wiped each other out like the on going eternal battle between vampires and werewolves. As of earlier today, I only spotted two large hermits and 3-4 snails where as a few months ago I had at least 20 of each. I figured 8 months into this tank and now a year into the hobby, now is probably a good time to replenish the tank.

One sign I did notice within the last few days is that my tank has gotten dirtier (a.k.a. more mature). I haven't been feeding more or anything but I guess with the clean-up crew being picked off, I've just been having less help recently.

Right now, I'm scoping out Reef Package number 3 from ReefTopia.com. I think this time around I will be skipping the blue legged hermits since they seem to be the instigators of the battles and this package seem like the perfect fit for my 90 gallon tank.

In addition to this, I think I'll need some more Mexican turbos to clear my algae problem and if I can find one easily, I'll also need a sea urchin to clean the coralline algae off of my glass.

Happy Holidays!

Purple Tang no more...

2006-10-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

So the purple tang passed away about two weeks after I got it. It never really ate and hid a lot; I guess leaving it at the store for a week of observations is a good idea.

My theory on the dying fish is attributed to high ammonia from the dying chromises. I guess I was just a tad bit too late on the water change by a day.

Frag Tank? What's Involved

2006-10-03T10:01:00.000-04:00

In this hobby, you should always share the wealth. That is true both in knowledge and unique corals.

While my main tank still resembles a frag tank with the mini coral pieces, I am actually thinking about setting up an additional 20 or 29g tank to exclusively house frags I would trade or sell with.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of space to work with so right now I'm debating between setting it up in one of the rooms I have or to setup a small tank under the 90g to house the frags. The latter is preferred assuming that I can organize the cabinet in such a way that it would not be a hassle for me to change up auto-top off water and get access to the frags. Yeah, it would be nice if I can move some ghetto looking stuff around so the general area wouldn't look so bad.

More to come...

Bully Eviction Program: Part II

2006-09-30T12:07:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems like part 2 will be a lot less exciting than part one. For whatever reason, my second large emerald crab was found dead a couple of weeks ago just chillin in his cave. Since then, various shrimps and hermits have had a piece of him and now his giant claws sit laying on the ocean (tank) floor (substrate). Now, if I can only find someone else to eat my giant clumps of chaeto in the main tank.

Lighting Upgrade: Part 1 (The Moment of D'Oh!)

2006-09-28T22:20:00.000-04:00

250! 250!! 250!!! That's the number I've been eyeing for the last month when the guys came over for poker and discussed how one of the way I can improve my tank is. The plan was to upgrade my Outer Orbit setup by replacing the ballasts and changing to bulbs to 2 x 250w MH's + the existing 2 x 130w PC actinics. I think that changes my 560w Outer Orbit up to 760 watts. That is some serious crazy shit man. For this much in lights, I may as well grow pot, at least that may help me get some money back...

Anyway, I scoured the web for some great deals on Hamilton 250w 14k bulbs and some IceCap ballasts and I finally got them (the bulbs) in today. My moment of DOH! came when I opened the box and realized: A. The bulbs are significantly bigger than the 150w MH's and B. The connectors aren't even the same style! So for the poker guys (a.k.a. club president and lighting expert) THANKS FOR LETTING ME IN ON THIS ONE!

Now, to see if I can work past this hiccup...

Upgrade Plan - What's to Come...

2006-09-27T08:07:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I've recently become aquarium obsessed (yeah I know, more than now?) or what... but I've been eyeing a lot of upgrades recently to try and make my tank look even better than it is now. While the tank doesn't look bad by any means, I think I want to take it to the next level for both my corals and my fishes.

So what's to come? I think over the course of the next year, I may be eyeing at lighting upgrade to boost my current 150w MH's to 250w MH's. I'm pretty sure the moment I do this, LED lighting will be widely available and probably become a lot cheaper than the current PFO version; such as the one below by Current USA supplemented by PC's.

Then again, who knows... this is a never ending money pit cycle. The other thing is, Current-USA just came out with a HQI/T5 version of the Outer Orbit lights which may run cheaper and may be brighter than the current PC duel compact solution. I'm seriously debating this light over my current one so I can make the 250w upgrade there instead of on the current light. Why? Well, one for the monthly bill reason but also, I've always thought the PC's run a bit too blue for me, therefore if I have the T5's, I can maybe run 3 tubes of 420nms and 1 tube of 460nms to get more glow and less blue.

I'm also waiting for the new Seio multi-controller so I can simulate a somewhat erratic wave pattern in my tank. While this may or may not be necessary to make my corals look any better than they do now, it seems like it would be a good upgrade just because.

Another thing I'm looking to upgrade is to get a HOB calcium reactor for the tank, which is probably the first or second step to getting REALLY crazy with this hobby. With over 30 SPS frags in my tank, I think this may be the only way to get them to come out looking great, but who knows? Grass is always greener on the other side and maybe it won't make that much of a difference from what I'm dosing now.

Last but not least, The ReefKeeper 2. This gadget looks cool, is convenient, but not sure how much I actually need it. Nevertheless, it's now on my want list... do you think this is something I can register for on the wedding registry? I would think only a select group of my friends would understand and actually get me this if it happens to sneak on that list, which it probably won't. D'Oh!

More Purple fishes!

2006-09-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

When it rains, it pours. I finally got my purple tang from the LFS and BTW, if you're in Atlanta, make an effort to check out Pet Supplies Surplus on Piedmont Rd. near Fat Matt's. The people there are awesome and are some of the nicest people I've EVER met in Atlanta, period. Also, they order fish from the same local supplier as the other LFS's in the area but sell them for a bit less. You can get baby clowns for $4.oo.

Anyway, I got my purple tang and while I was there, I decided to buy another small Chromis to make my blue greens a treo. Sadly, by the time I got home, apparently one of the Chromis fish had already been killed. Weird, considering I didn't even know there were any predators in my tank... It's actually been about 3-4 days now since the purchase and the Chromis count is down to one. My theory is one of a few territorial fishes that are now showing their true color.

The other thing that's been bugging me is that the Tang is not yet eating and it has a tendency to hide in one corner of my tank. While I'm not seeing a deflated stomach or any indications of ich yet, it's worrying me. I did catch the cleaner shrimp doing some cleaning though.

Edit: I take that back... even as I'm writing this, I'm now seeing a strand of chaeto in the tang's mouth. I guess he's finally decided he's hungry enough to eat. WOOHOO! Hopefully he'll eat all of the chaeto in the main tank cause right now they are growing out of control. I have about 2.5 baseball sized clumps in the main tank that can use some natural pruning.

3 NEW Fish! (or is it fishes?)

2006-09-19T20:02:00.000-04:00

It's been about three months since my last Potter's Angel died and after being so busy working on other things, I finally got around to replacing the beautiful angel in my tank over this past weekend. On top of the Potter's, I also got two baby Chromis fishes making the stock count in my 90G a whopping eight.

I know some of you out there are ready to get your permanent markers and start marking signs for picketing. However, before you all get too worked up, you should know that I will probably be adding one last fish into this line-up, a tang.

I know it probably isn't conventional to have a high bio-load in any marine reef tank; but with the amount of live-rocks and macro-algae that are present in the system I'm hoping to be able to make my tank be the exception rather than the rule. However, only time will tell if this will work out... In the meantime, I'm hoping my system will benefit from the high bio-exchange in this system.

Only YOU Can Prevent Fish Suicides

2006-09-16T16:32:00.000-04:00

Fish may not have long memories, but they do have instinct. While most fish values their own life and will hide behind rocks when scared, some tend to freak the F out when you walk past the tank late at night like a giant predator ready to chomp. Now, some of these freaky-fishes are some of the most beautiful specimens in this hobby and of course, everybody knows we ALL want to own the pretty fishes. I mean, why else would there be justification for spending thousands of dollars MORE just so you can maintain a habitat to keep the more colorful saltwater fishes? Anyway, since you have decided to take the plunge and you are now the caretaker for these fine animals, you should know how to keep them in the water so they don't unexpectedly go carpet surfing or be your dog's late night snack.

For those of you with canopies, you can probably skip this post. I have an open top with a light on stands so for me, I had to find a way to cover up the top of the tank while allowing air to circulate and not to trap the heated air in the tank. The picture here shows a light eggcrate which you can buy from Home Depot. My girlfriend thought it was hilarious that I called it an eggcrate since a few of the employees had no idea what I was talking about, but they are actually called eggcrates and labeled as such on the shelves. One sheet allowed me to cut two pieces for the openings I had over my 90 gallon while still having some extra smaller pieces for frags or whatever usage I may have for it.

Eggcrates are pretty easy to cut, in fact, any needle nose plier should be sufficient for cutting out the sections you don't need. For my tank, I measured out the length from front-to-back and side-to-side on the top where the eggcrate would fit and then I cut out a giant rectangular piece to fit the opening. If you're doing this for a similar sized tank, make sure you cut it in a way that will allow a second piece to be cut from the main sheet after the first one is cut out.

Once the main cuts were done, I slid the eggcrate over the top to make sure it'd fit, but I'd imagine many of you like myself would have pipes and stuff near the back that would prevent the eggcrate from having a perfect fit; so the second step in this process is to cut around the tubes in the back so the eggcrate can sit on top nicely.

For measurement, I pretty much eyed everything and used a sharpie marker to mark the points where I would make the snip. Once things lined up all the way across, I cut away all the back sections and slid the eggcrate all the way back to make sure it'd fit. I can gladly say everything was a perfect fit.

After a couple of days or so, I got the feeling that the eggcrate was reflecting too much light away from the tank. While I couldn't really tell visually if the PAR in the tank had dropped, I could tell on my ceiling that a good portion of the light was reflected onto it; at least a lot more than before. You can also see in the first two pictures the areas where my MH lit up and most of that I feel was wasted on the eggcrate instead of it being on the corals. Therefore, as part three of my project, I decided to take a chance and cut out just the middle where the lights are and hope that if by chance my fish jumps through the surface in the middle that it will at least hit the light and fall back straight down.

The finished product is basically a tight fitting hood that allows gas exchange, temperature regulation, fish safety and a piece of mind. While I did not expect my wrasse to jump at all, there were a few times that he freaked out for no reason and was saved by the hard safety net.

Overall, if you are in this hobby and have some expensive livestock AND have an open top, I would highly recommend adding an eggcrate top to your setup. It doesn't look ghetto and most people don't even realize it's there but you'll sleep soundly knowing that your dog won't randomly walk up to the tank, scare the fishes and land himself some unscheduled snacks. Mmmm speaking of snacks... I should get some.

Lazy = BAD!

2006-09-12T16:09:00.000-04:00

Things have been going crazy around here. Well, busy in terms of personal life, but not so much on the fish tank front. However, even without working too much on the tank, there are lessons to be learned.

The good news is that I managed to go through about 21 days without even putting my hands in the tank. I'm sure for some of you, that sounds like an eternity. However, with the big crabs gone and no big fish to disturb the peace, the tank inhabitants were happy and no aquascaping was needed. What can I say, my fishes make me proud.

However, while I was still doing the bi-weekly water changes, I did get a little lazier during the interm. Even though I did have a ghetto auto-topoff system setup and I do have RO/DI water crankin it in the garage; for some reason, I just decided not to take the effort of going down a flight of stairs, get the water, and then come up a flight of stairs just to top off what the ghetto topper couldn't do right in the first place.

At first, nothing too bad seems to be happening. Aside from the slightly increase use of the glass cleaner magnet, no ill was done. However, over the course of three weeks, I began noticing some of my SPS starting to bleach, and that's when I screamed DOH! and realized that I probably did some permanent damage to the tank.

While nothing ETN'ed, the tank is still slowly recovering from semi-bleached corals. Had I only got the pure PURE water instead of the human grade water, things may have been better; but then again, I'd probably have nothing to write about. So, let my mistakes be a lesson to you. Don't be lazy and use the good stuff.

Interesting Fish Blogs?

2006-08-03T16:36:00.000-04:00

Do you have an interesting fish/reef blog? Send me a message and I can try to add you on the right hand menu here. Please note the word "interesting" and the phrase "fish/reef blog." You must meet 2 of 2 criteria to be listed.

Thanks for playing.

Bully Eviction Program: Part I

2006-07-30T00:13:00.000-04:00

There once was a cute lil emerald named Alexa, who was named after a dear friend of the family. She worked hard to clean and grow but to my public dismay (but secret approvals) never molted in the tank. Well, one day, she walked through the valley of the shadow of death, met some bad company and things got ugly.

As you know, I'm not a fan of big crabs and today, one of them finally broke my trust. At first I thought the big crab wanted to pick the algae off of the smaller crab to clean her as a mother would. I soon learned that it was not the case when the crab pulled apart one of her legs and proceeded to pull out her underarmor. To my horror, this is what I saw when I was checking out my tank today.

Sorry for the bad video but I figured if the quality is as good as COPS it would be good enough to capture this incident. Needless to say, I fished out this guy as soon as I could and traded him in at the LFS. There is still another monster crab in the tank but until he does something wrong, I will keep him in for algae control.

Let's get this straight boys... in this house, there are only two members that can eat crabs; and they only do so with Old Bay. Good bye Bully Crab!

Note: Thanks Capp Bay for trading me smaller crabs for the bully crab!

Tank Shots! (and other goodies)

2006-07-25T13:54:00.000-04:00

Tank on June 6, 2006
Okay, so I've been saying and saying for the last month that my tank is now a real tank. There's water in it; it's past the cycle stage; yada yada. Now I guess I should prove it with some pictures.

The first pic above is the day after the long long night I spent awake trying to fill a 90 gallon tank with about 45 gallons worth of rocks and water. Unfortunately I couldn't just pour RO/DI water than scoopfuls of salt and hope that the primordial soup mix will do right on its own. There were a significant amount of life being transferred from the 29 and after several hours... maybe even a full day, the tank finally cleared and so was my pic. Now, you would think with about 50lbs of LR that I'd be satisified with the tank, but boy were you wrong. This tank ain't for water, fishes or corals; it's for rocks! So off I went to pile on the rocks!

Tank on June 6, 2006 (afternoon)
Sadly, I simply could not stay away from my tank... even though I was working on like 4 hours of sleep and was working, I had to rearrange... I ended up building the first half of the wall during my lunch break, which you can see in the picture above.

Tank on June 8, 2006
Not satisified with the amount of rocks that were currently in the tank, I went and made a haste purchase with International Marine of Suck. Out of 55lbs, only one piece of rock made it pass the inspection (on the left). Yo, I'm as harsh as Gordon Ramsey when he's hungry. I expect fast but good work (rock) and as hungry as I am for rocks, I still won't accept it if it looks like sh*t.

Tank on June 17, 2006
So after getting rid of the 50lbs of bleh rock, I ended up getting another 50lbs from a local reefer who was tearing down his tank. The rocks here were so much purpler and prettier than the first batch that I was almost glad I waited the extra week to get them. At least this time, I wasn't producing raw sewage trying to cure some mail ordered rocks. YUCK! (Remember the word yuck?)

Tank on June 18, 2006
Just in case you thought my tank was a piece of art, this is the FULL MONTY shot of how ghetto it actually is. Auto topoff from a gravity fed 5 gallon jug... ain't technology grand? I guess I could have hid all the ugly equipment if I had gotten a sump, but at this point, I just don't roll like that.

Tank on July 3, 2006
Here's the tank over the fourth of July weekend. At this point, I've spent millions of dollars on frags from ReeferMadness and Marine Fish in Marietta. Thousands of gallons of water had been used and switched and hundreds of fish had been killed to feed the 2 or 3 that are currently in the tank.

Unlike the other more experienced reefers who preach critter kindness, my first fish that survived the ich cycle and the new tank cycle is technically my mandarin fish. I guess if you're a n00b, don't try this at home since dragonette fish are one of the hardest species to keep alive; I sometimes wonder why they are sold so cheaply... maybe it's because they are slow and are easy to catch. However, with my CPR HOB refuge and the 150,000lbs of live rock I have in the tank, I'm quite confident that there will be enough food for Mr. Mandarin for years (4) to come.

I'm now slowly trading frags and trying to grow out all the coral pieces that make up my frag tank, but hopefully sooner than later, this work of art will grow and mature.

Now, for the goodie... being a pro Google fan, I recently discovered that they do photo hosting online! If you're sick of snapfish or photobucket or other providers that sometimes will pull your picture due to bandwidth, I invite you to check out Picasa Web by Google. You get 250 mb of photo storage for free with an option to upgrade to 6 gigs of storage for $25 a year. Now, I'm not pro Google on everything they make because they do charge companies up the ass for some of their advertising solutions; but if there's one thing they do well, it's giving general consumers good tools for free/cheap.

Anyway, I know my tank pictures are probably not exciting to anyone except me, but if you've read this far, you may as well check out the web hosting tool for photos if you have a bunch of your own tank shots. Picasa is phototastic!

Help Me FEED You

2006-07-16T02:01:00.000-04:00

Per anonymous Gwen's request... I've now added a few RSS feed options to this blog. Just so you know mysterious Gwen, I aim to please even though this is cutting into my 32 cents a year profit with AdSense.

Note: An extra 32 cents a year could have allowed me to feed my family... but instead, we all have to share one slice of pizza.

Cool Things at the LFS

2006-07-16T01:59:00.000-04:00

This is a huge blue carpet anemone at the LFS. Everytime I see it, I want to eat the Nemo sushi off of it. (btw, I'm testing the blog by email feature on the phone.)

Edit: Blogging from phone apparently does not include pictures I attach in the email. BOOOO!

Ugh... the bi-color blenny is NOT reef safe!

2006-07-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

With now about 40+ types of polyps and 25+ frags of SPS, I can now say my tank is fragtastic! (Hey! If Comcast can butcher a word then so can the rest of us.) So when my tank first thrived in the 29 gallon, I bought a bi-color blenny baby to add some color and personality to the tank. My first bi-color was great. As far as I know, no nips to the corals and it even found a number of areas where it liked to hide and perch which made the tank interesting to watch.

Unfortunately, my bi-color died during the upgrade to the 90 gallon when the ammonia levels were too high. (Damn you new rocks!) In fact, it died the same day as my Potter's Angel which turned out to be a really sad and expensive day for me.

Well, since the first blenny died, I've now tried two bi-colors and both seemed to have taken a liking to my SPS corals. My first replacement was mostly purple instead of a cool purple and gold, which was already a strike for me. It also hid a lot instead of coming out which meant it was probably evil... but with that in mind, it was kind of a waste of money to buy a fish that only hid, so that was strike two. The final straw was when he proceeded to mow down most of my SPS frags nipping at the small polyps in a matter of four days; that's when I decided dead or alive, that blenny came out of the tank. I should have let my dogs take care of him when he hopped out, but trading him away live got me a free bi-color from the LFS.

My second replacement so far has great colors. I wouldn't say he's an angel but he's not as bad as the all purple bi-polar blenny. Anyway, if you have monti's and millies and acro's, unless they are already huge colonies that won't be bothered with a small nip here and there, I probably wouldn't recommend bi-color blennies. Of course, I'm hoping someone can tell me if more frequent feedings will curb this behavior, so if you guys have any tips on how to get the fish to behave, I'd love to hear some ideas.

Live Rocks Revisited... My International Marine Fish Order

2006-07-06T23:42:00.000-04:00

I'm going to rewind a 'lil bit here... My tank is now stocked with live rocks and some corals and it's definitely beyond the initial cycling phase; (or so I'm claiming). However, during this upgrade that was filled with headaches, I failed to blog it as it happened so I'm going to go back and revisit some topics that I skipped over during this somewhat rushed upgrade.

After I filled up my 90 with rocks and corals from my 29g and my 10g, my tank was half full, literally. While my fishes enjoyed the open ocean for a slight period, I was busy looking for alternatives to fill that second half with rocks, instead of water. During your stupid journey to drop hundreds of dollars on rocks and saltwater, the thought of buying it online will most certainly cross your mind. Well, before you jump on all the websites claiming to sell PREMIUM rocks, let me learn the lesson for you and you can judge for yourself if it's worth it or not.

Before I dive too deep into this topic and hit my head on the rocks again... for those of you who want the moral of the story early without pictures of bland rocks, let me just say that during my research on this topic after receiving some lame rocks, two stores came highly recommended for great live rocks. These are ReefScience.com and Premium Aquatics. While Reef Science's rocks are not cheap by any means, the people who ordered them all seem very happy with them. I did not have the chance to do business with either of the companies above, but trust me... random guy on the web here would not steer you wrong. Anyway, on with the show...

So like any Googling fool, I went online, typed in "live rocks" and see which merchants are paying out their wazoo to get my business via the search result ads. One ad that stood out was International Marine Fish who had cheap, cured and uncured rocks for about $3.25/lb. I had debated eBay but the choices and selection were inconsistent... many online stores do sell live rocks but as much as I read, no one sung their praises... so based on pictures alone, I decided to buy from the Int Marine place.

Int Marine sells premium caribbean rocks... I guess I honestly should have done more research because this meant that the rocks were not as porous as kaelini or other types... but the pictures on the site looked good and it looked like Figi rocks so I said "what the heck!" Well, maybe I should have did some more research...

As you can see in these pictures, the rocks weren't necessarily bad. The reason I was disappointed was because I asked for rocks with lots of shapes; which the store did deliver, however most of the pieces I got were chalice skeletons and coral skeletons and the styles of the rocks did not match any of the existing rocks I had in the first picture.

There were however, a couple of nice pieces like the one above which looked pretty good as a brick with life, but unfortunately was not what I was looking for. I guess if I wanted street thug Nemo hanging out in marine alley's soliciting prostitutes then I could build a brick wall with pieces like these. I know... I may be a bit too harsh... however...

I bought the live rocks from this site based on pictures like these... tons of purple, tons of macro algae... tons of life.

So the lesson here is... don't let the pictures fool you. If you are interested in buying LR online, then you should check out the forums (linked on the right) and ask for opinions before you drop any money. Hey, you found this blog which means you are at least 60% net intelligent... so use the forums and don't waste money.

I'm not necessarily bashing Int Marine since the guy I talked to was nice and he shipped the same day I called AND gave me the discounted price even though the advertised period for the discount was over... however, when you have stock photos of nice live rocks and the shipment is no where close to the pictures, that's when the disappointments begin. At least I did learn (while curing the rocks) that my Remora skimmer kicks ass. There's always a bright side right? Oh... lesson number 2; if you can find a local reefer breaking down his tank and are selling LR for cheap, jump on it. That's what I ended up doing after this fiasco and I will post some pictures next time of the result. In the meantime, if you have had a bad experience or a great experience with the online stores selling live rocks, feel free to post a comment!

- Thanks.

HOLY CRAB IT'S HUGE!

2006-07-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, so a lot has happened and I haven't had the time to do all the updates yet. However, my emerald crab has grown to such a mutant size that I MUST blog about it since I am now afraid for my life, and the life of my critters. Within a couple of days, both of my larger emeralds (I have three) have decided to molt to go into a "who has the bigger claw" competition. I must say, I am impressed and shocked at the same time.

See the shell size of the average astrea shell? Well, the snail jumped out of my tank so the crab is picking its remains... but still, it's HUUUGE!

Hopefully, one of my LFS will take em in and trade me for some smaller and cuter emeralds. Do any of you want em? On another note, what's the biggest emerald you've seen? I'm curious as to how big they can get.

Check out the above... my regular emerald on the right, my monster emerald on the left.

My Reefer Rocks order!

2006-06-20T16:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been waiting for this purchase for a loooong time. Everyone said Reefer Rocks is great, but until I experienced it for myself, it's just hard for me to confirm and spread the tales. Well, I can now finally, GLADLY say that the link I placed on the right side of this page to Reefer Rocks' website is because I'm a satisfied customer.

After a few emails to Cap'n Jer (who was as pleasant as Cap'n Crunch) on a Saturday afternoon, I managed to work through their online order process and order myself 10 lbs of rubble and about 35 lbs of base rock. The whole order came to about $100 but what was the best part was that I got to see the rocks before placing the order.

After filling my tank up with my existing rocks, it appeared I only had enough rocks to fill up about 50% of my tank. So in addition to getting some more live rocks, I needed some dead rocks to help me build my pile up. Below are the rocks I got in my order.

I'm glad to say that the rocks all have great shapes and holes to them and over time they should look a lot better than the rocks that came to me live. There are tons of tunnels within these rocks which will be great if you are trying to keep pods and not have them all get picked off by your mandarin. The rocks do come somewhat sandy since they were dug out of the ground instead of picked up from the water, but I assume all the sand/rubble is clean so nothing to worry about there. In addition to the rocks, I also got a couple of pens (that I desperately needed in my house) and a keychain which I didn't need, but it's still cool to have.

I would HIGHLY recommend these rocks to any reefer who needs to build up their column.

Ouch, spikes hurt!

2006-06-20T16:24:00.000-04:00

The transfer of critters into the new tank unfortunately have not all been smooth sailing. While everything did survive for a few days, I did manage to lose my Potter's Angel and Bi-color blenny on the same day. Ouch. The Potter's Angel did show signs of stress for a couple of days as her colors started fading and stayed there for 2-3 days. She also went to the skunk shrimp's cleaning station a lot during those days for some cleaning. I guess right now it seems like I have a case of ich even though the clown goby seems fine. All of this was about a week ago.

The water bug bit hard! It's time for a upgrade.

2006-06-05T23:44:00.000-04:00

R.I.P. 29 gallon tank! You were great and you were definitely the best tank I've ever kept to date... but you have just been phased out for the new 90 that I've always wanted. Now, I am a big fan of sump setups but since I had to compromise and upgrade with as little money as possible, I decided to opt for more real estate inside the tank and recycle my HOB fuge and my Remora skimmer on the new tank.

Thanks to Capp Bay (LFS) and Tony for the stand, I managed to quickly grab up my 90 gallon setup.

The last time I painted my tank I found the tape-off technique rather easy, so this time around I went with the same painting setup. After discussing it with my two reef friends, I decided to do this one with a black background instead of blue.

Just in case there was any doubt on what size this tank is... I tagged it.

Here's the tank ready to take place of the 29g. Bridget and my reflection got in the way.

Here's a pic with the new lights! I can't wait to use it.

Unfortunately this time I wasn't able to avoid the sand storm because I had to transfer sand from the old tanks to the new. The tank did clear up within a day with the skimmer and fuge running though.

I've already ordered another 50lbs of LR from International Marine Fish since my tank looks bare... er white. (http://intmarinefish.com/) Anyway, I hope the rocks that come will be full of life and shapes.

I will say, the move was not easy... after transferring both tanks into the main one, it was only still half full. DOH! I also had to make a bunch of salt water and wait for it to be ready to get the tank done. It only took me till... hrmmm 5am! On the second day, as I proceed to put the fuge light onto the back fuge, I realized I was too ambitious and shoved the tank too close to the wall! So, I ended up emptying about 65% of the tank so I can shuffle the tank about 1/2" away from the wall. DOH #2. At least the hardest part is over and now I just have to wait and aquascape...

The importance of drip loops

2006-06-03T13:21:00.000-04:00

You never think your tank is going to overflow... but 9 out of 10 aquarium owners have probably had some spillage at one time or another. This is the tale of mine, and I must say, it's great that I learned the lesson with only some minor damage. The alternative may have been my house burned down or something worse.

If you remember from my last post, I placed a large Mexican turbo snail in my HOB fuge to combat the red cotton algae problem that's currently in there. For whatever reason, this snail wanted to graze on acrylic instead of the ball of chaeto and cotton algae. Well, when I took a nap but before dozing off I started hearing the low water sound of my pre-skimmer struggling. Knowing that I had the auto-top off system, this should have made me get up, but it was a Saturday and I was tired and lazy.

Well, about 5 minutes afterwards, I heard my UPS beeping as if the electricity was off. Seeing how the rest of my house was fine, this could have either A.) been a brown out or B.) something wrong with the aquarium. I had to go turn off the beeping so I finally got up.

Well, it was unclear to me at the time, but somehow, somewhere my tank either started leaking or there was a flood somewhere. For the time being, it stopped but there's definitely a puddle in front of the tank. I checked behind the stand and it was relatively dry so after some further investigation, it seemed that the snail went towards the return flow hole, my HOB refugium overflowed, the water trickled down the heater wires and went straight into my power strips. It shorted out my timer one and tripped the GFCI switch of my dining room.

After some cleanup, I tried to start the electricity again and my day/night timer strip started smoking. Doh.

I guess the good news is that I only lost a cheap power strip to learn this lesson cause had I used the drip loop the first time, I could have lost a lot more water before I realized what went wrong. The HOB pump was about 1/3 of the way into the tank and a much bigger flood (10 gallons) could have happened if I didn't get any warning signs that got me up from my nap.

So lesson learned, don't put a giant snail in your HOB that could block the flow and use drip loops so you don't start the fire, that was always burning... since the world's been turning.

Red cotton algae, the curse is over!

2006-05-29T23:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, so the point of this blog is education... well, education and pretty pictures. ...but the reason I started this blog is to help the newbies who are reading it from repeating newbie mistakes.

I don't remember if I've mentioned this already but recently after purchasing some LR from one of the LFS, I was struck with the red cotton algae plague. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as the red tide they are experiencing down in FL coasts, but this thing was nasty. Even with optimal water parameters, the red cotton algae grows like crazy. It seems like their growth is encouraged by light but other than that, not much is known about them. All I know is that the algae takes over tanks in a relatively short period, its bits and pieces float in the water and grows wherever it lands and it seems to choke out any kind of corals and algae that sits underneath it. In the picture, you can see three large pieces of rock that have been affected by this plague.

After a tid bit of research on Reef Central, I came across a thread that talked about this issue. Advanced reefers were worried and panties were all up in a bunch everywhere. Luckily, by the time I was reading this, someone had found a cure for the problem. While it seemed too good to be true; (everyone I talked to said to take the rocks out and scrub it by hand or with a toothbrush), I knew nature MUST HAVE provided a natural solution for this problem.

The cure not too surprisingly are snails. Now, I don't mean stock up on your clean-up crew by 3x load and I don't mean just any snails... what you need to get are the Mexican turbo snails. Not too many clean-up crew includes this kind but they are easily recognizable as they are HUGE and fat and luckily not lazy. I ended up dropping two of these snails in my 29 gallon and within a day or so, I could already see a difference and seeing trails of clean rock where they had grazed.

Last week, I went to Maryland for a week to a friend's wedding and by the time I got back the main tank was spic-and-span clean except for a couple of tiny patches.

The picture below shows the tank today (in actinic) and I can happily say that the main tank is now fully free of the red cotton algae. My HOB fuge is another story seeing how the chaeto is now infused with the red cotton algae. I dropped one of the Mexican turbos back there to see if he can help clean up but that's another story in itself... (yes, actually more newbie mistakes and lessons for you all). That will be in the next post though.

My Reefer Madness order

2006-05-22T19:07:00.000-04:00

Most people in the hobby have probably heard of Reefer Madness (www.reefermadness.us). I know I'm obsessed with zoas but unfortunately zoas aren't one of Reefer Madness's strong points so instead, I went on a montipora splurge.

I got these frags about a couple of weeks ago and I was just able to mount them onto rubble rock last week. I must say I was actually quote pleased with the packaging and the online notifications sent out by this company. The frags I received were all great sized too. As much as I love my LFS, the frags here were probably all bigger than what my LFS offers. The pictures below are all promo pics but I must say the frags look just as good.

More zoas!

2006-05-06T23:18:00.000-04:00

Got some new additions into my zoas family. There are still a few that the camera can't quite capture but hopefully in time when I get my own camera to tool around with, I'll be able to get them. Enjoy!

My new blues!

The blues rock.

This one is called Eclipse

Melon? Not quite sure but the color combination is very cool.

Nuclear Peaches - this one really glows in actinics.

Gotta love the pinks. So classy.

Purple/blue with a red ring.

I think these are called red hearts.

My new teal zoas that came on the blue zoas rock.

This frag was from Tony... still not quite sure what to call it but it rocks.

Cleaning up the skum...

2006-05-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

After recommendations by Tony to clean up my act... I went ahead and purchased the Aqua C Remora Protein Skimmer with MJ1200 Pump from Marine Depot. So far, I have nothing but good things to say about this skimmer. Not only does it fit on my 29g setup even with a medium sized HOB CPR fuge in the back, it's also very cool looking and it looks like it belongs there.

Because a LOT of gunk was floating to the surface of my water, I decided to buy the pre-skimmer box that can be purchased and installed it into the tank. Unfortunately due to the size of the pre-skimmer box, I've had to re-arrange my rocks so this thing can fit; on the bright side, the surface of the water is now crystal clear!

I did the recommended warm water dip to rinse off chemicals that may be on the unit. This supposily helps break the system in as extraneous chemicals may prevent good foam from forming in the unit, which is understandable. It's only been in there for two days (without any sort of adjustment) and already the unit is pulling out a good amount of gunk from the water. The good news is that I can tell the difference! Most of my zoas that have been closed over the last few days are now opened up again. Just in time I guess.

Research is doing me good so far. All the equipment I bought can be upgraded when I upgrade the size of the tank, which is great. Plus getting the right stuff the first time around means I won't have to re-buy the equipment again.

On a sadder note, I had my first fatality. For whatever reason, my decorator arrow crab likes to hang out on the Seios. Unfortunately it seems he got too close to the inlet holes and got himself stuck there. By the time I pulled him off, he was already a corpse. Doh.

Fishes and cycling update

2006-04-29T20:03:00.000-04:00

Blogging is hard without a great camera... well, blogging about your tank certainly is. The tank is currently cycling and like many nasty looking tanks during the cycling stage, the tank right now has tons of bubbles and overgrown algae. If the corals haven't already been moved over to the big tank, I may have been able to cut theg period down, but like a true Wei, patience is just not my best quality.

So in the past couple of weeks, I guess you can say a lot more has happened to the than it should have. I got a yellow clown goby and as of today, I got a bi-color blenny. Both are of course, the tinyest fish out of the tanks but still, I know it's a bit premature.

The good news is that the skimmer is coming in on Monday. After much research, I decided to go with an Aqua C Remora. I was going to get the Remora Pro but decided I didn't want to spend the extra money when the Remora should be more than enough for my tank. As an addition to the skimmer, I also got the pre-skimmer box which will hopefully do a great job in skimming the surface of the water and stop microbubbles from flowing back into the tank.

On a somewhat surprising note, the two montipora frags that Tony had given me are REALLY coming along great, despite water conditions. One dark green frag is really coloring up to a nice lighter/neon green while the other brown one's skin is now changing to a nice tone of purple. Hopefully the success will continue as the cycling comes to an end at some point in the future.

Oh yeah, I also bought a blue tipped acropora frag from the Buckhead store today... but since that's a huge no-no, let's just not talk about that for now; at least not until I can get a good camera to show it off or show off its carcas.

Zoos! Zoas! Zoanthids!

2006-04-22T11:39:00.000-04:00

Mark finally came over with his COOL Nikon D50 camera so of course I had him take some pics of my tank. Actually, I requested his photography skills so these can finally be presented in the way they're supposed to be on the web. Hrmm, I guess I need a new camera! Anyway, below is the beginning of my zoanthid collection.

These are one of my more striking green zoas with a neon skirt and pretty neon centers. I call these the green dragon eye zoas even though I'm not sure if they're the same kind of green dragon eyes as described on the web.

These are my green zoas where I've placed together in my green zone. Among them are some Shamrocks (aka The Hulk) and some other ones that I haven't named/or found the names for yet.

Orange skirt zoas... I really like these cause they have neon skirts.

These were given to me by Tony which are still one of my favorite zoas in my tank. The triple colors plus neon skirts is just too cool.

...and finally, white zoas with brown skirts that came with my decorator arrow crab. I must say, I've NEVER seen these before even on the popular zoa trading websites. Does that qualify these as unique or rare? I hope so... cause these are totally cool.

Definitely more to come...

Uh oh, first spontaneous purchase... a decorator arrow crab

2006-04-20T00:02:00.000-04:00

I went to the LFS today not really intending on buying anything except a peppermint shrimp. Yes, my aiptasia problem is getting really bad. Well, the particular LFS I went to was selling them for $14... That ain't so cool. So instead I looked around and spotted this beauty.

First of all, I didn't even know there was a species of arrow crab that likes to decorate themselves... but I guess this particular one feels the need to do so. Well, the good news is, for $12, not only did I get this crab, I got some really cool zoanthids to go with it. I think one opened up and it has a white center and brown skirts. That would make my current zoanthid collection to about 13 different types of polyps. (I still need a blue and pink!)

I must say, in the dark, he seems like a zoa branch. Maybe this is his trick to get food at night. Hopefully when I do buy my peppermints, he won't be finishing them off like they're the meal of the night.

Do as I say, not as I do...

2006-04-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

Well, it's now day three of the tank fill experiment and everything looks good so far. Unfortunately I only have one small pump in there but the small amount of current is keeping everything alive.

The tank finally cleared up yesterday which I attribute to the live rocks. I know this camera phone picture doesn't say it but it truly does look AWESOME.

Even though I have chaeto in the fuge and new live rocks that I think should be cycling, I really have nothing to test the water with right now. Yeah... I think the test kits are a rip off plus most tanks can be kept alive and great with careful watch unless you're trying to take care of some unique species. Of course, I do have some experience under my belt so I know what to look for, but you should totally get the test kits if you're new in the hobby.

On another note, I am officially starting my zoa obession and I'm trying really hard to wait till the tank is cycled before I dive into any stocking. At last count, I have 12 different kinds of zoanthids + yellow polyps in my small tank. Yikes! I know... but of course, I'm looking to get like 10 more different types before I'm settled. Actually, I would just like some pinks, reds, blues and purples to finish off my collection. I don't necessarily need 10 more types. (yet)

Impatience, the good and the bad

2006-04-16T17:10:00.000-04:00

Geez... the pumps, the heaters and the temperature gauge that was supposed to show up on Friday did not show up and aren't due to be here till Tuesday. This is supposed to set me back, but I have a different idea.

It's really hard to stare at a full tank and not have anything in there so last night I threw a couple of zoas in there to see if they will survive. I know, I know... but I'm impatient. The good news is that they seem to be surviving and they also seem to be loving the new light, even though the flow has been decreased a lot in this new tank.

This morning, I decided to drive up to Petland Duluth to get some rock. I heard from Tony that they have some decent selection in there and their website shows a pretty healthy selection of fish. Well, the rocks were okay... I saw some thick slabs that were fit for a sidewalk. The prices were a bit high at $8 per pound to $13 per pound. Well, after some digging around, underneith the slabs, they actually had some pretty nice Fiji rocks. Well, I ended up getting about 14 lbs of rocks... more spontaneous buying considering they weren't covered in coralline. Overall, I am pretty happy with the decision though. The rocks were porous and they stack pretty. What do you think?

Please no leaky...

2006-04-12T00:39:00.000-04:00

So I decided to move a lil faster than previously considered. I ordered 2 SEIO 620's, 2 heaters and a temperature sticker from Dr. Foster's this week. I was going to wait till they arrive to setup the tank but honestly, no one wants a 29G tank on their dining table nor do they like seeing it empty.

So tonight I decided to fill the tank up to run a leak test. Leak test normally consists of water and maybe some pumps... I have the water and the only pump I had was to the Aquafuge... so that's currently running for now. Don't ask me how the sand and base rock got in there though; those shouldn't have been part of the leak test.

On a side note, if the tank does leak or knock on wood, bust up, my career in this hobby is over. The good news is that the show piece base rocks look great and so does the dark blue background. So far I can hardly tell the black equipment is there... hopefully that still holds true when the water clears up.

The somewhat unfortunate news is that I'm now used to the Caribbean sand in my 12G and this new southdown sand is a lot finer and feels like quicksand. Will that harden up over time? I hope so...

edit: by having the base rocks in there and pouring the water in via the top of the base rocks, I was able to avoid the dreaded sand storm. Yay me!

The 29 gallon setup

2006-04-10T07:04:00.000-04:00

In my fish tank world, this is very close to the "best weekend ever!"

My SunPod arrived on Friday. My medium sized Aquafuge arrived on Saturday. While I was going to buy a used 29G from a local reefer who seemed to have disappeared, I ended up getting a new one for about $40; so I can't complain.

Besides for the heater, and a circulating pump which I seemed to have conveniently forgot, I'm almost set for the upgrade. Of course, a weekend isn't complete without a DIY project so I decided to paint the background of the tank.

Now, the debate between blue vs. black has been forever ongoing... One thing I knew for certain is that I did not want the background clear and red, which is the color of my dining room. While black allows the pumps and other equipment to fade into the background and disappear from direct view, it does have the minor disadvantage of sucking in some of the light into its abyss. Since I knew I wanted to use black for my 90 gallon tank some time down the road, I decided to try something different for the small tank at hand.

I ended up buying a deep blue Satin finish Krylon Fusion spray paint to hopefully achieve a nice marine blue background. One thing I dislike about blue backgrounds I've seen at some LFS is how bright the blue is. If you buy a regular blue, that high end light setup you have will make it a ton brighter, therefore, go dark. DARK = GOOD.

After many many coats and then a few more, the tank is ready. Well, you have to clean it first and wipe down the paint dust... but minor accident of spilling a quart of water on myself aside, the tank is cleaned and ready.

Now, once I get the pump and heater this week, the tank swap on that stand will be ready to get on the way! After the tank swap, frag swap. (FINALLY)

P.S. Metal Halide rules so much more than PC!

So what's next? Can someone say 29G?

2006-04-06T20:56:00.000-04:00

Okay, so not too much has been happening on my end partially due to the recent increased workload and partially due to stress. Well, that's not exactly true. I did but two frags of zoo's from the local fish store and I have been watching patiently as they grow.

The other reason why things have been slowing down is the adoption of my new dog Lily (the tan dog).

For the most part, this past week was just filled with learning her schedule, making sure she got along with Chloe, my other dog and of course, vet visits. Now that we've pretty much nailed down her schedule as well, the reef upgrade can continue.

I've decided to hold off on the 90G upgrade for a short period of time until I can catch up to the potential vet bills. Instead, I am upgrading my 12G Eclipse to a 29G softies tank. The good news is most things I've purchased in anticipation for the upgrade can be parted out to this 29 gallon. Also, my 12G can now be a frag tank if I so choose.

So far, the proposed upgrades include:

29G tank (it may be AGA or some cheaper brand)

A 30" SunPod 150W HQI MH light

A medium sized CPR HOB Aquafuge to serve as my small refugium

As soon as the items above come in, I will snap some shots...

Should I use a skimmer? My current setup doesn't have one and this will, for the most part, be a softies tank. Things to ponder on I guess...

I can see clearly now the impurities are gone...

2006-03-23T23:19:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do things right this time around and that meant getting at least two things which I didn't have the first time to make things better. 1. a refractor instead of the float value salinity tester. 2. an RO/DI unit so I wouldn't use crappy water from the tap.

Well, tonight I finally got the second thing plumbed!

I'm flushing the system now so I can rid the first 5-10 gallons of water that's coming out but I'm so glad it works! I was worried for a bit about splitting the lines behind the washing machine but thanks to teflon tape, it's working pretty well so far. Anyway, I still have to install the float value so it doesn't dump water into my garage but hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out!

FINALLY! Some Southdown down south.

2006-03-09T22:25:00.000-05:00

Finally, what seemed like an exhausting month of tracking down this argonite reef sand, I finally got about 100 lbs of Southdown in my hands from a local reefer. I won't lie, most of the hold up was due to the local reefer who decide to hoard the sand and sell for profit to people he doesn't know. While I am all about capitalism, what I didn't understand was why all this shit went down for just a few dollars.

Anyway, this stuff isn't impossible to get and in fact, argonite based (live) sand is available at most LFS and online stores, they're just not too cheap when sold as live sand. The dry version of this sand may be a bit more difficult to find, but if you're lucky, you can usually get sand for cheap or FREE if you find local reefers breaking down their tank. In fact, someone else around here was giving 100lbs of live sand away for free. If I could only have seen the future, I would have avoided all of this shady mess.

For those of you who are new reefers, make sure you do not get silicate based sand (e.g. QuikCrete from Home Depot). As far as I know, it promotes algae growth and in the long run it's just not a good thing.

So now that this dark chapter in my reef setup is over, let's move on to BIGGER and brighter things.

Shameless Plug - ReefTraders.org

2006-03-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

Okay... many of you reading this will not know my website related background but believe me, I have good ideas. While the idea of trading, selling, giving away coral frags on the web isn't new, my friend and I are in the process of creating a new frag trading site that will out do frags.org. Anyway, if you're interested in being in the loop on its developments and stuff, please check out http://forums.reeftraders.org for now.

The forums section isn't much but it actually has a lot of good participation. We're not looking to replace ReefCentral or anything but once completed, this new system will rock your frag trading world. Anyway, just thought I'd get that out there. ETA to completion is about 6 months.

Stand prep... and paint.

2006-02-26T00:04:00.000-05:00

The aquarium hobby has matured a lot over the last couple of decades but one thing that remained the same are stand colors. I feel like everywhere I look I see the same black, cherry and maple choices. Occasionally there's some white cabinets but let's face it, that's not a good choice. Gray isn't particularly pleasing either as it looks quite dull.

The stand I bought from the local reefer looked great, but it did not match any of my furniture that currently sits in the dining room; where the tank will be. My first thought was maybe just spray painting the stand black seeing how the tank itself will most likely be black and that would have made things extremely easy. Upon further deliberation, I decided to try to match the color to my current dining set. Now dark dark brown is not a color you see often on aquarium furniture, infact, I don't recall ever seeing one. It is pretty common for modern furniture though. Go figure. Maybe All Glass will catch on soon.

To get the stand ready to be repainted, I first went and bought a powered sander so I can strip off all the old paint and the wear and tear on the wood. What do you call the spots that turn black on the wood from just being exposed to elements? Well, whatever it is, it's gone now. As you can see in the pic, the sander did a great job of getting the wood pieces ready for painting. A "live-and-learn" note for you guys; try to do this outside. I sanded this stand in my garage and now there's a fine dusting of paint and wood particles all over everything in my garage. It kinda looks like pollen but Spring is not quite here yet.

After a couple of days of sanding, cleaning the garage and trying to minimize the dust particles in the general area before I paint, I finally sweeped enough to my satisfaction and wiped the stand down to make sure all particles of dust were gone. After it was dry, I started my first coat of the stain on the stand. This particular stain is rather thin (very liquidy) but it also made it very easy to work with.

Unfortunately, the last few days in Atlanta have been raining so right now, 24 hours later, I am still waiting for the first coat to dry so I can do a second coat. I guess cold and wet weather is not so great for painting or paint drying... ah well, when this whole thing is finished, it should look great.

On another note, I just realized that all larger tanks have their mega overflows on the left. I wonder if spacing will be an issue with getting the plumbing down with all those power plugs there.

The foundation of a solid reef. No, not the sand...

2006-02-20T11:24:00.000-05:00

Collecting the pieces to form a nice home made reef is fun, but man... I seriously wanted this to be setup yesterday. If you ask me on any other day, you will get the same answer.

A good foundation to a home made reef is research... but once you have that, the next solid foundation for a reef is the stand. Stands are important unless you're a midget. I really wouldn't know what you'd do if you are one. I guess if you get a large enough tank you could go snorkling but sadly that's a fantasy only you can fulfill. (Please, no hate mails; I envy you.)

Unfortunately for the consumers, the manufacturers of the tanks will low ball you on the tank but list outrageous prices for their "custom stands." I'm not sure what kind of vigorous stress tests they run their stands through but painted particle board cabinets are really not worth THAT much money in my opinion. But I digress...

So this past week (2 months) after waiting, searching, waiting some more, eating ice cream and finally waiting and catching a message that someone posted for a "tank and stand for sale" I finally bought a custom made stand for $160.

Okay, so MAYBE I have to swallow my words about what I said about a stand is just a stand earlier. The stand this guy built was actually pretty cool.

At the bottom we have a solid wood stand. This particular one has been in operation for about 10 years. Very impressed. There are no clear signs of warping and it seems like there are enough electrical plugs for my needs. Not quite sure how a timer would fit with it but we'll see once we get there. Ignore the black thing in the back as it just happens to be my folded up poker table top. (For sale BTW)

Although I won't be using the canopy supplied with the unit, the whole setup was very well thought out. There is a groove in the canopy to slide over the plastic trim so it can be hidden. Also, check out the moonlights! Jon was years ahead of everyone else. As you will see on the blue pillow, there is also trim available for the bottom portion to hide the plastic trim there. I told Jon he should build these professionally and maybe sell it for $150. Ha... well, I know that won't fly but honestly, anything can be made out of real wood and can be sold for $300 or less; you got yourself a market there.

Anyway, I'm really glad this part of the search is over. My only dilema now is whether I want to paint this thing black or sand it down and paint it a cherry/almond color to match the cabinets in my house. Almond is a nice color and one that none of the current manufacturers use so it would make it different. That's so much work though... and will I really be looking at it if I'm looking at the fish tank? *Sigh* Decisions... decisions...

Bad LFS and M.I.A. Cleaner.

2006-02-14T16:13:00.000-05:00

This past week/weekend I went up to Raleigh. My girlfriend had a sudden and unexpected death in the family and to show my support, I took the Jeep and drove it 400 miles to meet her and her family for the funeral. The trip wasn't completely bad. She learned some nice stuff about her dad and we saw and stayed with some of our friends while we were up there. Of course the trip could have been made for a better reason, but overall, it is what it is.

While I was there, I took a short break to visit Fish World of N.C. which is located in NE Raleigh. Does it sound insensitive? (She WAS taking a nap...) Anyway, while I was there, I thought maybe I'd check out the Raleigh scene but unfortunately I didn't know much about the town and my Google search only pulled up a couple of locations. Anyway, Fish World (www.fishworldnc.com) is really a terrible store. The website said they moved to a new location which is supposed to be all cool and large but I got there and was shocked by almost everything I saw, in a bad way.

First of all, the staff was less than friendly. One person acknowledged I was there and the rest kind of just ignored me. Was it the color of my skin? Hrmm, let's not go there. Anyway, the tanks there were definitely built with people in mind. By that, I mean the tanks were all about 10 gallons each filled with some sand and 2 fish in each tank and that was about it. No rocks, no lights, nada. Most of the fish I saw were breathing heavy, laying on the sand, or hiding behind the single outflow pipe that was in the tank. This was not a good sign.

About half of the tanks there also had cleaner wrasses which as far as I'm concerned means they could care less about owning a responsible store. This was also the only store I've seen that had 5 sea apples (the ones that will wipe out your entire tank if dead), and they also had a tub of snails of which, the tub had no algae for them to feed on.

I won't even get into the coral selection... Let's just say they pretty much had nothing that impressed me besides for what an LFS shouldn't be doing.

Yesterday, a day or two after our return, I realized that my cleaner shrimp is no longer in the tank. This is funny because I didn't see any carcass or shrimp bits, just the lack of white antennas that I am so used to. Okay, so I didn't feed my tank for three days cause I don't own an auto feeder, but I totally didn't expect this. The dottyback (my primary suspect) is going to have to go soon.

Let there be LIGHT!

2006-02-02T23:28:00.000-05:00

I swear... Craigslist is starting to become my favorite site. I picked up one of these today. This is the 4 feet long Current-USA Outer Orbit Metal Halide with actinics and moonlights setup. For you non-reefers who are like "WTF is he talking about?!" All I can say is, this is one heck of a light! The reason I went with this one is because it literally covers all the spectrum and it has an individual switch and timer for each of the 3 sets of lights. Now, all I need is a tank and a few buckets of water to absorb all of this energy.

Edit: In the meantime, maybe I can design a cheap tanning bed contraption.

Pay-It-Forward Frags and Anal GSM

2006-01-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

The second time around anything always seems better. Though careful research may prevent you from some financial mistakes the first time around, it may not prevent all of it.

Yesterday, Bridget and I drove up from Atlanta up to Acworth (somewhere 10-15 miles north of Atlanta) to get a couple of zoo frags from a local reefer. Darren, the guy who owns the amazing 40G breeder reef has one of the cleanest and nicest reef I've ever seen. (Darren, you really need to get some pics up on the web!) I've actually thought about keeping a 40G at some point but in this stupid hobby, the bigger the number, the larger the craving. Anyway, Darren was kind enough to give me two of his zoo (zoa) frags for the price of driving up to Acworth. This pay-it-forward tradition is one I will definitely help continue after establishing my bigger tank.

On the way back, we stopped at two of our LFS (local fish stores) that are north of the city. I'm still yearning for the Oceanic 70G tank for $300 but I also saw at the second LFS an AGA (All Glass Aquarium) 65G tank for about $212. They are exactly the same size but I think Oceanic is padding their numbers. The cheaper tank sounds nice except that the glass is thinner and because of such, there is a center brace on the top. If I want to get any kind of cool Metal Halide lighting, that center brace would deem it useless. Of course, the other option which I am now debating is running a 75G Oceanic or AGA. The 75G has a center brace up top as well but at 4 feet wide, most MH lights would come in two instead of one, thus making the center brace shadow a non-issue. There are several used 75G being sold in the area so hopefully this second time around, I can learn to be a bit more patient and get the best deal on one that I like.

On another note, I just learned that my GSM (gold stripped maroon) clown fish is every bit as anal and as protective of his clan (friends) as I am. His home/friend the anemone has been slowly moving from his spot. The xenias which have been waving around their arms like they just don't care (about taking over the entire tank) is now getting close to the anemone. In an act of chivalry, the clown is now nipping at the heads of any Xenia stalks that is waving and taunting just a tad bit too close to the anemone. Frankly, I think this is kind of cool as he will now help keep the xenias in check. The xenia heads literally shrivel up like it's been punched in the face! But I guess we will see in the long run if I will keep this fish. As much as I like him, I would really prefer two false perc clowns. The GSM has been doing a great job of fattening up this anemone though. They really seem like they're now good buddies.

In other news... World's Smallest Fish Discovered

2006-01-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

Wed Jan 25, 5:40 PM ET (Associated Press)

BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists say they have discovered the world's smallest known fish in threatened swampland in Indonesia.

The fish, a member of the carp family, has a translucent body and a head unprotected by a skeleton.

Mature females grow to less than a third of an inch long. The males have enlarged pelvic fins and muscles that may be used in reproduction, researchers wrote in a report published Wednesday by the Royal Society in London.

"This is one of the strangest fish that I've seen in my whole career,' said Ralf Britz, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum in London. "It's tiny, it lives in acid and it has these bizarre grasping fins. I hope we'll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely."

The fish are found in an acidic peat swamp on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesian peat swamps are under threat from fires lit by plantation owners and farmers as well as unchecked development and farming. Researchers say several populations of the tiny fish, Paedocypris progenetica, have already been lost, according to the Natural History Museum.

The previous record for world's smallest fish, according to the Natural History Museum, was held by a species of Indo-Pacific goby one-tenth of a millimeter longer.

"You don't wake up in the morning and think, 'Today we will find the smallest fish in the world,'" Swiss fish expert Maurice Kottelat, who helped discover the fish, said in a telephone interview from his home in Switzerland.

According to researchers, the little fish live in dark, tea-colored water at least 100 times more acidic than rainwater. Such acidic swamps was once thought to harbor few animals, but recent research has revealed that they are highly diverse and home to many unique species.

Rocks, the building blocks of the reef

2006-01-22T23:14:00.000-05:00

Reef rocks made of calcium, or dead coral skeletons and coralline algae is one of the basic building blocks of a successful reef. Unlike the rocks you can skip on the water or those big round stones found in streams, rocks from the reef are often light, porous, filled with beneficial bacteria and interesting hitch hikers including corals and invertebrates. The live version of the rocks, or live rocks do not look like the pictures here. They are much more interesting and for the most part, purple.

Anyway to save costs, I've been wanting to start my next tank with part live rock and part base rock (old and dried live rock that's dead). Basically, mixing base rocks with live rocks for 6-8 months will make the base rock just as alive as the live rocks pulled out of the ocean. Granted it won't have as many hitch hikers or new surprises (which could be a bad or good thing). However, it will still have all the beneficial bacteria, which is the most important part. My first choice for base rock, after scanning the forums for praises was to order them from www.reeferrocks.com. One of the things I thought was cool is that they will send you pictures of the rocks before shipping them. That's the definition of customer service right there! However, a local reefer here was selling 100lbs of show size rocks for $50; a deal I couldn't refuse. So Reefer Rocks, you will have to wait...

Honestly, if there's something I learned this time around getting back into the hobby, it's that it pays to shop around for the best deals; preferably from people in your area who are getting out of the hobby. So far this has saved me a ton of money even though I will still end up spending thousands of dollars by the time this ends. However, buying used from local reefers is the smart thing to do. Take live rocks for instance... chances are you will not encounter a mantis shrimp and most bad hitch hikers will probably be plucked out (from a experienced reefer). Anyway, the pictures here are of my new addition... the rocks are really huge and amazing and it's hard to say how cool they are without examing them close up. However, if you're not into salt water fish, there's just no way you can get excited about $50 worth of rocks so it's pointless to try.

I will say this though... I took one of the more porous pieces and soaked it in a fresh water bath a couple of days ago. After I cleaned it tonight, I threw it into the 12 gallon to "seed" it with bacteria from my current rocks. While I know there are some cool nooks in this piece of rock, what I didn't realize, and what the dottyback showed me was that there are actually two tunnels in this rock which allow the fish to go in one hole and come out of another. This is so much fun! It's like giving my fish a McDonald's play gym. Well, I'm sure I look like a geek now, but you reefers will appreciate it. =D

Nemo demands clean water!

2006-01-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

You know in Duece Bigalow.. alright, you may not have seen it since Rob doesn't make the best movies... but you've heard of him, right? Anyway, in the movie, there's a scene where he returns home from his day job, give his fish fresh water while he drinks... well basically sewage. As sad as this seems, this appears to be the direction I'm heading towards as I dive deeper into the hobby.

The last time I kept salt water fish I was living at school so while water quality wasn't so great, I really didn't have a choice or a place to plop down a RO/DI unit. (I was also a n00b.) As a result, I ended up with a lot of nuisance green algae that I had a constant battle with. It wasn't the end of the world... but scraping the glass every couple of days with a razor blade so I can look inside was no fun.

In the world of salt water fish, reverse osmosis deionized water (or RO/DI) is pretty much considered a necessity for keeping your fish happy. Yes, the fish swim in their own crap, but they prefer to do so without your human chemicals added in there. RO/DI units are commercially available for your homes if you care about the quality of your drinking water, but most of us leave the water purifying job to the city and really don't think much about it. Anyway... you can buy RO/DI units with anywhere from 4 to 7 stages (or "chambers") and for the most part, these can run a pretty penny. If you pay your own water bill, I'm sure this could add up in the long run as well since it takes about 4 gallons of wasted water to produce 1 gallon of purified water. (Luckily in Atlanta, condo communities share one giant water meter and spread the cost throughout the whole community... Guess who is going to get their share of the water buffet and THEN some... =D )

In the end, after you get it all setup and stuff... you'll get absolute pure water with nothing added in so you can pour your salt and other additives to fool your fish thinking it's real ocean water. Of course, the other option is going to your local fish store (LFS) and buy RO/DI water for about a quarter a gallon or pre-mixed salt water for about $1.25 a gallon. Whatever you decide, purity is appreciated by your 'lil pets whom you can never actually pet.

Here's a tip though, eBay has sellers that offer six stage RO/DI filters starting at $60 and up. These work just as well as the $300 systems plus you'll have money left over for a giant trash bin to store your water and other accessories for your new addiction. As far as how good they are, people seem to like them.

As you shop for RO/DI filters, you will notice some RO units with clear casings and some with white casings. These are for the most part, both the same and they do not affect how the RO units work. The clear casings are good because you can get a visual indicator on when you should replace your filters which normally should be replaced every 6 to 12 months depending on the chamber. The bad side of the clear casings is that the plastic used to make the clear casing is a bit more brittle than the white ones. If you have butter fingers, you could very well crack one if you drop it. The white casing although blind, are as tough as the Chinese food soup containers. or so I've heard...

Anyway, hopefully within the next month I will have this part of the process checked off. In time, maybe I'll accept the fact that drinking pure water from a giant trash can is okay.

Catching up...

2006-01-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

Okay... so, some quick dates so I can get things in order...

January 5, 2006 - Bought Eclipse Nano from a guy named Andrew who is moving back to Florida.
January 11, 2006 - The gold striped maroon clownfish found the anemone. Surprisingly, I only realized that this tank had an anemone inside a couple of days prior.
January 10, 2006 - Joined the local reef club (www.atlantareefclub.org) and went to a meeting. The highlight of the meeting was listening to the marine biologist in charge of the health of the jellies from the Georgia Aquarium speak. Did you know there are jellies with a 6 feet+ disc and 100 feet+ tenticles? HOLY CRAP!
January 15, 2006 - It could have happened previously, but today was the first day I witnessed the clown actually taking a piece of food and dropping it off at the anemone so it can consume it. Needless to say, I think this fish will be well trained for any American Gladiator events if that show is still on.

On another note, I bought a fish stand from another guy who happened to be named Andrew in the ATL area. This stand however, will be used for either a 58 gallon or 70 gallon reef tank whenever I can scrounge up enough loose change to sum up the parts.

The journey begins...

2006-01-15T18:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's 2006. Bridget and I just bought a condo in late November and of course, after finishing some of the initial house work, my focus now shifts over to the fish tank setup/display/shrine. Let me just say, this hobby is expensive. If you are thinking about starting a salt water tank, make sure you do your research and know what you're getting yourself into!

We actually thought about getting a dog for awhile and while I love dogs in general, I realized that I would not have done nearly as much research into various breeds of dogs and their personalities as I would have with the different species of fish and their personalities. I mean, you could adopt a nice dog and/or one that may have been abused. Either way, you would probably gain a loyal friend for life. With fish, it's a bit different... no research leads to mistakes and one little mistake means your new purchase may be eaten by the current tank mates and/or one of the fish will show off like its a dolphin and go carpet surfing after it jumps out of your tank. Most marine fishes are at least $15 - $35 dollars so these displays of show-off are not really welcome... but I digress...

If you're currently thinking about buying "Nemo" fish and/or "Dori" fish please make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Did I say that twice already? Make sure it sinks in... Some good resources I've been hitting up on the web are the forums at www.reefcentral.com, the forums on www.thereeftank.com, and for livestock references, I've been using the store www.liveaquaria.com.

Okay, so on to the picture... After about a month or so of scouring the forums above... checking out the "For Sale" section on Craigslist, forums of for sale items at local fish/reef clubs, and even eBay! I finally found a deal I was happy with to jump back into the hobby. I didn't want something too high maintenance at first as I wasn't sure if my budget would allow it and I didn't know if I was ready to handle all the issues that come with keeping lives-in-a-box living. So after much research, I decided I wanted to do a nano tank.

Yes, nano is the new big! Nano is hot right now... but nano for a fish tank is a bit different than a iPod nano or nano-technology. Anyway, I thought I would start by getting a JBJ Nano tank and/or the Aquapod nano tank. Both tanks come in 12 gallon and 24 gallon sizes and both come with pretty much all the accessories to keep marine fish alive in a small space. For laymen purposes, the JBJ Nano tank is the first generation and the Aquapod (which is still being released as of this writing) would be the second generation. The Aquapod is supposed to have been developed through learning and fixing the mistakes of the JBJ Nanocube, but it seems like the Aquapod is still prone to cracking, leaking and it also has electrical issues. This is where research paid off... while the first impressions were great, further research showed that these tanks were cracking and lives of both fish and humans were destroyed. That's no good. I think the verdict is if you buy something with bended glass corners, you better make sure that nothing was stressed during shipping.

Anyway, what I ended up buying was a used Eclipse 12 nano from a guy moving away from the area. I must say, this guy knows his stuff and he had a beautiful tank when I bought it. Hardly any hair algae and lots of purple (coraline) algae. I bought the whole setup for $200 and this is what it had:

- Eclipse 12 gallon system with PC lighting upgraded via a Sunpod retro-fit thingy. (Basically it has better lights)
- A gold striped maroon clown
- A blue damsel (will be gone when upgrading)
- A yellow and purple dottyback (will be gone when upgrading)
- A skunk cleaner shrimp
- Various mushrooms on live rocks
- 2 species of toadstool coral, 4 small pedestals
- A bubble anemone
- 2 headed candy cane coral
- Various snails
- Various blue legged hermit crab
- Orange sea star
- 3 stalks of xenias
- 2 Floridia ricordias
- Various zoas
- Green carpet coral? I forget the real name or friendly name...

The one thing I was surprised about was that the guy doesn't use his heater and that this tank did not have thermometer on it. Guess what I ended up buying the day after I got this tank? Anyway, this is a long post so I'll continue a bit later.

New in Box...

2006-01-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Like many proud "parents" of their pets whether it may be a dog or a mantis shrimp, I'm starting this blog to document the growth of my babies and interesting things/events that I will encounter along the way. I'm hoping this blog will be entertaining if not helpful to those of you that happen to find this 'lil page on the net and want to keep salt water fish yourself. So please... feel free to tag along if you too find having an ocean in a box entertaining.