new site

well we've made a new site...it can be found here!

google search

fyi, i've added a google search at the bottom of our blog. it allows you to search the web or the three message boards listed. this should help as one of them has a tendency to not be search friendly ;o)

world's fastest

Check out this great presentation by Sheila Patek on the animal with the fastest prey capture mechanism in the world. thanks to nanoreef.co.uk where i found this great video

octo-squid?

A half octopus, half squid like animal was found off the cost of Hawaii's big island. It got stuck in a pipeline filter at 3,000ft deep. you can read more at boingboing.net

color & form

not relating to our aquarium, but i thought i'd share a new artist we recently stumbled upon - francoise nielly. her understanding of color and work speaks for its self. you can check out more at www.francoise-nielly.com

nano pics

saturday, we got hit with a little snow and had a short power outage...when the power came back on our tunze's starting shooting water out of the tank...the jerking motion from restarting cracked the C clamps that holds them in place. one of them is too cracked to work at all, so an MJ1200 is taking it's place. As for the other, it's zip-tied until a replacement can be had. waiting to hear back from roger@tunze, he's been great in the past. if it werent for his customer service i'm not sure i'd still be using the nano streams.

here's some new pictures of the nano reef. the a.horrida (chip's) , has turned a bright turquoise under the halide spots.

frags

got these great frags from a local reefer Racenrich. big thanks to Jose for picking these up.

stream loop

we've been intrigued lately at the use of closed loops and mj1000 "loops" used by many japanese reefers. it allows flow to be directed towards the coral (front to back) without actualy viewing the pump. the black triangle flow directors seem particularly popular.

becoming just as popular on many japanese reef blogs is the use of mj eco-mods. taking a normal maxi-jet power head and creating a propeller stream type pump. by doing this you are able to get 1600gph @ ~20watts. these kits are inexpensive and energy efficient, the problem though is they are large and unsightly. after some trials with our tunze 6025's i've found that the flow isnt significantly reduced by directing it via tubing. the wide dispersed flow is then channeled to a smaller stream, but it is still a powerful current and better than a typical powerhead.

possibly in our new tank we will use a mj1200 eco-mod kit hidden in the rock work. however, at the output we will use ABS pipe and channel the flow in different directions; this will help eliminate dead spots and be more energy efficient and less hassel than a closed loop. below is an image showing a reef with closed loop plumbing hidden withing the sand bed. i have also seen where powerheads are hidden and directed via plumbing under the sand bed so they are "invisible" to most users. a pic below shows the "triangle's" used.

lighting

with the new tank coming soon, we've been looking at more lighting options to supplement the halide spots. we stumbled across a few...what do you think?






for some eye candy click the link below for a great video!

aqua online angels video

Rhynchocinetes durbanensis, the cure?

Korallen Zucht was posted on their home site and forums the recent success had with Rhynchocinetes durbanensis, commonly known as camel shrimp, eating acropora eating flatworms and montipora eating snails. here is a quote from the site...

"Very annoying the small beasts! Acropora and Montipora are becoming pale, colorless and the tissue is getting thinner and thinner until it completely dies. Acropora flatworms and Monti snails are dangerous enemies for our corals!

As iodine bathing of the corals is rather time consuming, have to be repeated several times and are highly stressing the coral which is already damaged by the pest we tried something new: A cleaning station for the corals!

Within 30 to 60 minutes the shrimp Rhynchocinetes durbanensis cleans the corals completely in our separate shrimp tank. Acropora flatworms as well as their eggs and Montipora snails are eaten completely.

Caution: We recommend to keep the shrimp separately in another tank, because the shrimp will eat the coral tissue as well after all flatworms, eggs and snails are eaten. If the coral remains a whole day in the shrimp tank, the complete tissue also is munched! The coral hence should remain only 30 to 60 minutes in the cleaning station and then back into the coral tank."

test results

we've been using the elos kits and two part with good results so far. boosted the alk 1.5 dkh and the numbers are shaping up.

ph 8.1
No3 0
Ca 425
Alk 9 (with seachem's borate this is closer to 8)
Mag 1600


mag is high, but before a large water change it was at 2000...a slight OD you could say. the pocciliporas are not liking the switch from the two-part....they've been closed up now for 5 days. color is still good but no PE. we're not too worried, but would hate to lose them.

the lights....are just awesome. a bit too far up right now, but should be just right for the rimless. the stand for the new tank will be about 6in taller and the tank itself will be 8in taller. there is no glare from any angle and the glitter lines are stunning. i wish my camera could capture the glowing corals from the blue spot....we'll have to call over some friends to snap some nice shots.

teaser shot

light rack is up. 150w MH spot and LED spot for supplement. we need to complete the wiring up in the lofted space...wiring will all be hidden, that's next weekends project.

new stuff

we received our orders this week. i am most excited about the lights, both the halides and LED's came in. The halides are beautiful to look at when turned off. they have a dichroic coating that gleams this violet-blue color...it reflects the infra-red heat out the back. the LED's are suprisngly intense and bright. I put them over the tank and my pocci's just glowed.

Jose (dohc97 on RC) should be swinging by today to help me with some wiring and other good stuff...then tomorrow it's off to home depot to finish the light rack. we hope to have the lights over the nano by this weekend.

we also received our order from twopartsolution.com. we've been dosing it now for two days and i can already see a huge increase in growth...the corals actually have cal/alk to use! we'll continue to drip kalk, but at night for evap. we are currecntly dosing 30ml of each part. I know the tank consumption is more, but we dont want to OD.

we received the elos test kits this morning and will be fine tuning the dosing according to those measurements.

iwasaki 50k

just got some bad news....sounds like iwasaki/eye will no longer be making the par36/38 in the mediteranean blue color. this really is a shame for the aquarium world...especially those with SPS reefs. most people on the boards refer to them as 20k or 50k. i got my hands on 2, and will test them out.....may have to stock up. i received my ballast, just waiting for the bulbs to arrive, they should be here early next week along with some LEDs, halogen, and other goodies.

the power to my building was shut off yesterday, ran 2 battery powered air pumps for the day and suffered no losses. just a huge mess from the popping bubbles. a little tissue necrosis on an encrusting monti, but that's all...i can live with that.

tank+home

no real updates for the tank. i've been adding kalk slurries 2x's a day to help with cal/alk. growth rates have again increased but levels havent budged much. cleaned out the deltec and it's again performing at it's best. i'm back to c-dosing a small amount of sugar+vodka. the skimmate production was been incredible for such a small tank, it's great to watch certain algaes just waste away. below is today's skimmate shot. still waiting to hear back from AO on the tank. the rest of the components for the lights should be in this week, i hope.



the furniture was delivered yesterday. the chair is very comfortable, i love it. well we wanted to be able to sit and enjoy coffee, so we decided today to get a new espresso maker over at w-s. we went with the best looking model hehe. already made some drinks and it's great...

hmm...

hmmm...what could this be?

...will be missed

this morning i woke up to my Paracentropyge multifasciatus stuck to the intake on one of my tunze pumps. he was doing very well the past few days so it's a bit frustrating for something like that to happen. he was on the top of the intake and probably got stuck grazing. he was always picking algae from the pumps but i never thought of them as a threat. when i found him he was partially exposed to air, and with no water to tread he could not get himeself free. he lived a while longer, and erradictly swam around after removing him from the pump, but didnt make it through the day. if only the pumps would have been an inch lower...

Leo as he had been named, was probably my favorite fish i've kept to date. here's some pictures the little guy.

busy day

well we just got back from a bit of a spree. went and picked up two of the lights. they look great up close and were exactly what we were looking for. we'll be re-wiring them to properly power the higher kelvin bulbs.

on the way to the store flint and i were talking that we wished we had a chair to sit and relax and enjoy our current tank. the pleasure gained by viewing our reef is a huge part of why we have one, we both knew what we wanted.... so we swung by the furniture store and picked up a nelson table and eames plywood chair. they should be delivered next week...i cant wait to wake up have some coffee and just sit and enjoy the tank. since we ordered the table, we needed a little something to put on top so we picked up some cool mercury bowls for that and around the house too.

fyi, muji just opened up a store in NYC (GQ was actually useful for once) so there stuff should be easier to get in the states now. they make simple things like pens and pencils seem cool. check them out at muji.com.... it's as clean as it gets. here's a quote from their site...

"Because there is complexity in purity.

Elegance in plainness.

Intricacy in streamlining.

Richness in reduction.

Depth in minimalism.

Surprise in uniformity.

Innovation in re-use.

Cool in the avoidance of cool.

And there is true
sophistication in simplicity."


we couldnt agree more. enjoy.

nano 10/20/07

the tank is doing well. kind of too well. corals are growing so fast that i cant keep my cal and alk up and i've stopped trying...right now cal is at 340 alk is at 6.8dkh...i've stopped worrying about it...the corals look fine ;o) here's a shot before feeding time.

glass box build

here's the latest on the new rimless tank... this shows the dimensions, sump, and the spot lights i'll be using.

MCE600

this skimmer continues to impress me. today while cleaning out the collection cup, i came back to a nice foam head without the cup on. this was due to feeding fresh seafood earlier in the day, but still shows the power of this great HOB. if you'd like to read more regarding this i have posted a review on the forums at reefcentral dot com. so far it has reduced nutrients dramatically and acropora coloration has improved. i believe it will perform even better on the upgrade tank as oils from foods etc. will be diluted and have less of an effect on the foam head.

lighting

here is a look at some popular japanese lights... notice the emphasis on spot lights and the ability to use lens covers and gel filters. i will be using spotlights exclusively on the rimless build, metal halide, LED, and halogen.

japanese reefs

when you get a chance check out logan's site http://prodibio.climatestudios.com/ to read his updates on prodibio in his system.



here are some pictures taken from the links posted to the right. as you can these reefers spend a tremendous amount of time on design and color. i also appreciate like their interest in the unusual... they have tremendously influenced me and it will be apparent in my next display.