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Mr. Microscope's JBJ Picotope

Mr. Microscope

By Mr. Microscope,
in Pico Reef Journals

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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Tank looks good Mr. M B)

 

Those Magicians look a lot better, they look great!

 

Thanks AM! I'm going to the frag swap on Sunday. We'll see if I add anything.

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straydog

straydog

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Woohoo! I'm at the Manhattan Reefs Frag Swap! Pics and stuff to come.

Have a great day , don't forget to get contact info for when the cube is cycled.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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Manhattan Reefs Frag Swap!!!

 

Alright y'all. So, I went to the frag swap on Sunday. It was my first swap. I gotta say it was AMAZING! It was like visiting your favorite LFS, Christmas, and a symposium (scientist geek meeting) all in one! The cost was $25 to get in, but it was well worth the price. There were great deals on corals, an amazing raffle, and they even served lunch!

 

I'll start with the location. The swap was held at the Pace University Student Union in downtown Manhattan. A great location for me 'cause it only took 20 minutes on the express subway to get there. Here's a quick shot of the venue. You can see the crowds of people in front of all the glow.

FragSwap01.jpg

 

There were vendors there from all over the country selling some of the most amazing frags I've ever seen live. I'll admit that I'm a zoa freak, and this place was like going to some sort of mythical place where zoaid.com was a physical location. Though, I saw quite a few zoas that zoaid hadn't caught up with yet. Pumpkin Head anyone? No I didn't get any Pumpkin Heads, but almost. You'll see what I mean when they make it to the site in a year.

 

Here are a few shots of the vendor frag tanks:

fragswapcorals03.jpg

Got me one of these.

FragSwapcorals01.jpg

LOTS of Acan Lords.

fragswapcorals04.jpg

Some cool red Goni.

fragswapcorals02.jpg

As you can see, everything was exceptionally blue. All the frag tanks were lit by LEDs and pretty much everything looked stunning.

 

Speaking of LEDs, there was a demonstration on DIY LEDs that I attended. In addition to that, Todd Gardener of Atlantis Marine World gave a talk about Non-Photosynthetic Corals. There were also fragging demos. I got a bunch of great tips on mounting stuff that I had never thought about like leathers.

 

I might as well show off my spoils. So, here they are:

Newzoas20101010F.jpg

Everything new is in front. I'm starting everything on the sand bed and hoping that nothing loses color. On the left is a genuine Valentine's Day Massacre. Next to that is two polyps of something close to Lunar Eclips, but with some sparkles in the middle. Behind the Lunar morphs is a pretty green and orange Ric. Behind the Ric is a leather that I got for free from the fragging demo. Next to the leather is a decent sized frag of Organisms (along with something that has a green skirt on the same colony??). In front of the Organisms are some BamBams! I can't believe the color on these. There are three nice sized polyps and at least three more popping up. Finally, in front of the BamBams is a big colony of Kedd's Reds.

 

Here's a close-up of the BamBams. (20K left, Blues only on right)

bambamswhiteandblue.jpg

 

Valentine's Day Massacre (blues only)

VDM20101010.jpg

 

I'm always tempted to try something else like Acans or SPS, but I just can't help myself with the zoas.

 

I mentioned the raffle in the beginning. There were a lot of people there, but also at least 60 raffle buckets. So, pretty much everyone walked away with something (myself included). It took upwards of an hour and a half to call all the tickets. I ended up winning a $25 gift certificate to Got Frags and a set of B-ionic two part Alk&Ca dosing.

rafflespoils.jpg

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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Sounds like an awesome time!!

 

Nice zoas, and let us know how you like that RSV B-Ionic.

 

Thanks am! It was a blast. I'm not really sure what to do with the B-ionic yet. I don't like the idea of having to dose daily. Also, I stopped testing my water a little while ago (when I ran out of testing stuff and didn't want to shell out $80 to replace them). I've just been putting a little Kent Alk/pH buffer in my ATO and doing my weekly 35% water changes. Everything has been happy. Maybe I'll start using it in my ATO. I'm also thinking about saving it for my next tank, or maybe selling it.

 

sounds like a great time, I wish I could go to something like that :)

 

There's got to be one around you somewhere sometime. Where do you live? Check out your local reef club. Mine has them seasonally, but I imagine most would have them at least once a year.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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i live around waldwick in Bergen county. nothing like that here lol.

I didn't realize you were in NJ. You could have come to this one. It's only a 45 minute to an hour drive to downtown Manhattan from Waldwick (according to google maps anyways). There were people there from all over the tri-state area.

 

There's a NJ Reefers Club. They have a swap coming up on Nov. 6th. It's on the south side of the state though. So, a little farther than NYC for you. You're also pretty close to PA and CT. There's got to be something you can go to.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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ninja-disappearing-smiley.gif

What does this ninja thing mean? I see people post them a lot, but I don't know their meaning. Cool imoto BTW.

 

Your new additions look pretty sweet Micro.

Thanks! I hope they stay that way. I've never had a ric before. I just kinda got it as a throw-in with another purchase, but I really think it's cool. I understand now why people like them so much. Also, that leather freebie I got about doubled in size after settling into my tank. I'm really enjoying that guy too.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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there needs to be one of these in upstate ny!

Here, check out these:

 

http://www.upstatereef.com/

 

http://www.hvreef.org/

 

http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Local_Fis...ubs.htm#NewYork

 

There's got to be something going on within driving distance of you somewhere. Maybe there would be something in Binghamton. Also, you're not too far away from PA. Check them out too.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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it means surprise. i haven't been on in awhile. had a bad month. still dealing with crap. but i missed my nano-reef family.

Sorry to hear that. I hope everything turns around for you. :flower:

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ap123

ap123

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Beautiful pico B)

 

I was there last Sunday, and it was a fantastic swap. I was very impressed with the range of livestock and pricepoints.

 

Glad you won something at the raffle, I wish I could have stayed for it--there was an awesome clam I would have looooooved to win. Ah well, next time.

 

Your new zoas look fabulous, congrats!

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pyronus

pyronus

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there needs to be one of these in upstate ny!

There are some really nice reef stores in the Buff/Roch/Syracuse area's. I am from Rochester but I would drive anywhere in state for a good fragswap.

 

The pico is also coming along really nicely. I am starting to develop a small problem with zoa's as well, but I saw some Acans this week that nearly made me drool into the frag tank.

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Mr. Microscope

Mr. Microscope

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i dont even know what thats all about lol

Dimming control options for LEDs. A potentiometer is a variable resistor. Usually people just use the kind that turn like a volume knob. Slidders work the same way, but in a linear fashion (like on a mixer board or dimmer switch) instead of round.

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