Since buying 2 new fish on Friday at my Local Fish Store, Orcutt Aquarium, I have been concerned that the fish I bought wont do well. Ok, you can call it paranoia but I am very concerned with all of the life contained in my Reef Tank. I am sure that I stated this in one of the million blog posts I have typed. Regardless, these animals to include Fish, Clams, Scallops, Crabs, Snails, Coral and my anemone are no longer in their natural habitat. They are in an artifical environment and they are 100…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 14, 2008 at 5:53pm —
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Looks like my Prized Maxima Clam committed suicide last week. Unfortunately, it took about a week for it to die. The clam held on as long as it could before the good Lord took him home. Basically, what happened was that the Clam decided to move from a spot on the live rock to a space right below it. Well, it didnt quite make it there and it landed into the arms of my long tentacle anemone. From there, the damage was done, I hate to say it!!
When I got up for work first thing in the morning, I f…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 14, 2008 at 12:30pm —
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Last night, it took me almost 3 hours to acclimate the 2 Blennys that I bought. So far they look really healthy and are very active. They already found prime real estate to settle down at and to hide in. There are plenty of cracks, tunnels and crevices for them to hide in. I decided to try to feed them along with my Clowns, the Clowns were very hungry but then again, they always are!!!
The Blennys didn't want anything to eat and normally that is enough to get me concerned but they are eating th…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 12, 2008 at 6:30pm —
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As with almost every Friday, I take the girls to the Local Fish Store right after work. It is a good way for me to get started on my weekend and really unwind and relax. I was not really planning on buying anything other than a fish for my tank. I just like to stop by and see what new stuff the store picked up earlier in the week, especially before the weekend. That is when most of the fish and goods are sold. So I like to get a step ahead and see if there is something that I want for my tank.…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 11, 2008 at 1:00pm —
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After I got home from work, I checked the chemistry on my tank and everything is very stable and going quite well!!! One thing that I noticed when I finally fixed the salinity issue in my tank is now the Calcium Levels and the Hardness are quickly being depleted. I was not having this problem when my salinity level was out of wack. Now since it is stable, the corals and clams seem to be soaking up the calcium like a thirsty camel in an oasis!!!
I was at a constant Calcium level of about 480 and…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 8, 2008 at 1:00am —
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Well, I couldnt find the poor Forktail Blenny anywhere in my tank for almost 3 days now. So It is safe to say that the little fella died. Sure enough he did!!! I tried to get him out of my tank but my siphon hose wouldnt reach, neither would my net. Well I got some of my feeding tweezers and was about to pull him out until my Arrow Crab (Sal) snagged him right out of my hands!!!
Well, I let nature take care of things and Sal had one hell of an expensive meal!! I was not about to pull food out o…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 7, 2008 at 11:00am —
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I woke up this morning, made some coffee and sat down to look at my tank. I have to admit that the Corals, Inverts and Fish look great!!! With the Exception of the Forktail Blenny!! I know that this poor guy will not make it!!! I will keep a close eye on him to see for sure!! I fed George and Gracie and they were super hungry this morning!! So at least these guys are doing well!!!
The Corals are looking fantastic and I have to admit that the colors on the Zoanthids that I had in my tank prior t…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 5, 2008 at 11:30am —
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When I came home today to put my fish in the tank to acclimate them, I decided to use my new refractometer to check out the salinity level in my tank. When I check my aquarium in the morning before I left to work, the Salinity level was right between 1.024/1.025. The chemistry looked really good with the Ammonia/Nitrites and Nitrates at 0.0ppm.
I used the refractometer and I was really shocked as to how innacurate the swing arm hydrometer was!!! The swing arm hydrometer said I was at a steady 1…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 4, 2008 at 11:00am —
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Thankfully, I was able to get out of work a bit early today!! So I went and picked up my daughters from daycare early. I promised them that I would take them to the Local Fish Store Today. I was going to pick up some more coral, salt and some supplies. As I stated earlier, going to the local fish store is my bonding time with my daughters, I know they really enjoy going with daddy, thats for sure!!!
Well, when we got there, we spent plenty of time looking around and what not. I bought what I ne…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 4, 2008 at 10:30am —
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My goodness, the Aquatic Gods must be very unhappy with me!!! I bought some of that Epoxy Putty for bonding corals and rocks together. While I was doing that, A rock that I thought was secure fell on my new Open Brain Coral (yellow one). There were nicks all over the edges of the coral. The membrane didnt seem torn or ripped but it didnt look very good. As you can tell, I was pretty upset!! It is not because of the cost, it was only $35.00, it has something to do with me being a good steward to…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 3, 2008 at 2:30pm —
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Well, my package from Marine Depot finally arrived!!! It got to my door right at 9:55am with a cut off time of 10:00am. Not too bad huh??? Well I spent part of the morning trying to open the package and pick up all the packing popcorn!! That stuff can be quite a mess!!! I took off the old cover with the PC lighting and then I took the Current Sunpod and opened her up and replaced the bulb with the Phoenix 250 watt 14000K bulb. I was a bit worried that the problem was more severe than I thought,…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 3, 2008 at 2:00pm —
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Ok, I placed my order before 3:00pm, 3:00pm is the cut off time for over night delivery. So I thought everything was good to go. With that said, I went to bed. When I woke up around 5:30pm to get ready for work, I got online and checked my email. I was hoping that I got an email froom marine depot with my FedEx tracking number and I was expecting an email from Marine Depot saying that the items have been shipped. That never came!! Now I am getting a bit hot under the collar!!
I called Marine De…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 1, 2008 at 1:30pm —
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Right before I crashed for the day so I could go to work tonight, my Metal Halide Blub went tits up on me!!! I just added all of my live stock about 3 hours prior. As I was walking out of the front room to go to bed, I saw the light abruptly shut off!! I tried several things and nothing worked. So I looked at the bulb and yes, it was toast!!! As you probably know, I was really ticked off!!! I just bought this Sunpod a few days prior, then this happens!! Man o Man, I was seeing red, thats for sur…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 1, 2008 at 1:00pm —
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Today I got off of work early along with my wife due to us having to work overtime tonight for a Missile Launch. If you didnt already know, we are scientific and technical photographers for the Department of the Air Force (Civil Service). So our job is to take pictures of Space Launches here on Vandenberg AFB. So when we have to work overtime, they give us crew rest, this allows us to catch some Zzzz's before we have to go to work and work all night long into the wee hours of the morning.
Anywa…
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Added by The Noble Savage on April 1, 2008 at 12:30pm —
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So far, so good when it comes to the Zoanthids that I bought yesterday. They opened up right away, after I added them to my tank. Ok, an update on what I wrote about yesterday in regards to the issues I was having with the heat of my lighting system. I added the fan yesterday and that seems to have done the trick!!
Before I was having a fluctuation of 3 to 3 1/2 degrees due to the heating from the metal halide lighting. With the addition of the fan, this solved the problem!! Now there is only a…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 31, 2008 at 12:00pm —
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Sunday afternoon, we decided to go out and have a great time with the family. On the way home, we stopped by the local fish store, Orcutt Aquarium
. I wanted to try out some Zoanthids, they seem to be hardy and easy to maintain. So I picked up 3 small frags of Zoanthids. Two of them is called Radioactive Green, it is super cool looking. It is a fluorescent green center with fluorescent yellow edges. It glows really nicely under the actinic lunar lights in…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 30, 2008 at 12:00pm —
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I forgot to mention this in my last post yesterday but since I was off of work on Friday to wait for my new lighting system, I asked my wife to do me a favor. I asked her to stop by and pick me up some more snails and hermit crabs for my tank. Well, she really had no clue as to what I was talking about but she wrote down what i was talking about and would give it to the guys at the local fish store. Well, I got a call from my wife and she said she was able to get me what I needed, which is great…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 29, 2008 at 11:30pm —
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Ok, where do I start? Well, by the time I got up this morning, my Anemone was all over my Xenia, stinging the hell out of it!!! So I quickly moved the Xenia to another location of the tank, this is not good!!! The Xenia, looked pretty messed up and the arms were all sucked up inside its body. I have a feeling that these guys will not recover!!! Anyways, I did a 4 gallon water change and hoped for the best.
While I was watching highlights from last nights hockey games, the doorbell rang, "DING D…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 28, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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After reading several articles, PC lighting really is not the best type of lighting for keeping corals and anemones. I want to make an environment that best mimicks the real ocean and having bright sunlight is very important for corals and anemones. So after lots of research I decided that I would do the right thing and buy Metal Halide lighting. I had a bit of a hard time finding the lighting that I needed for the tank. I needed something in the 20 inch range and I would like to have it with a…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 27, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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After work, I decided to stop by the fish store and get some Xenia coral. I got a nice size frag for under $30.00. To say it was a frag is really not totally true. It was actually a chunk of old coral about 7 inches in length with several groups of Xenia. So I was excited to at least start out and see how these guys will do.
When I got home, I did the typical acclimation, that took over an hour to do. I made sure the chemistry was good before I even started the process. All is well and I am hop…
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Added by The Noble Savage on March 25, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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