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Cultivated Reef

Diver's Paradise - The Original


Felicia

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I can type about 50wpm on my iPhone keyboard. I've had one for almost 5 years. I'm just comfortable with the layout. Plus the screen is really nice.

:eek:

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So if we named the fish in your tank after your N-R friends, your updates on your thread would kind of be like playing Oregon Trail. Instead of "Brad dies of dysentery" or "Gena wanders off and is bitten by a snake" it would be "Brad dies by mass jumping suicide after joining a fish cult" or "Gena is sacrificed to a bloodthirsty Mayan aquarium god". :lol:

:haha:

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Just wanted to give you all a heads up that I may not be on much at all for the next few days. My department at school is having our visit weekend for the prospective new students and I got put in charge of planning all the activities so I'm pretty busy. I'll be back on Sunday (hopefully with some new tank pictures I keep meaning to post :D ).

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I went diving today!

 

I went diving at Whalers Cove in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in Carmel, CA today with a couple friends. Here are some of the photos I took using my new camera in its new waterproof housing. :D

 

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A feather duster.

 

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Cabezon.

 

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Feather dusters

 

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Nudibranch

 

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Nudibranch

 

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Me and my new camera

 

On the way home we stopped at an artichoke stand for some deep fried artichokes fresh from the farm. Sooo yummy!

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WOW! What an awesome dive! And I thought we had it good here in South Florida! How deep were you? Nice Pics too. Mine never come out that vivid, I haven't figured out underwater lighting yet.

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WOW! What an awesome dive! And I thought we had it good here in South Florida! How deep were you? Nice Pics too. Mine never come out that vivid, I haven't figured out underwater lighting yet.

I love diving out here, although I used to dive in Florida and you guys are lucky to have the warm water. The water was 48 degrees the day I took those photos. My photos never come out that nice if I'm very deep, but the area that those photos were taken in was only around 35 feet deep so there was still plenty of sunlight. I also turn on the underwater setting on my camera, which tries to add back in some of the reds. Then when I upload the photos, I adjust the colors a bit in iPhoto to make them more vivid and not so blue. A nice strobe would help with the lighting issues, but its just not in my budget yet. :)

 

Ok, so I'm temporarily back from being crazy busy. We were entertaining the visiting students for 3 days straight, and they stay with current grad students so I had one sleeping at my house. So I had absolutely no time to work on my tank or post on N-R. I'm also crazy busy with some research deadlines the next couple weeks, and my sister is coming to visit this weekend followed by my parents the next week so I'm swamped. So if I'm only on sporadically, don't be too surprised.

 

Tank Updates

1) I no longer have any cyano! Red slime remover is amazing. Thanks for the recommendation Joel!

 

2) I realized its been a little over 6 months since I started the 10 gallon tank. :D

 

3) Both of my cleaner shrimp are carrying eggs!

 

4) I found a 3rd blue porcelain crab! All of them have been hitchhikers, yay!

 

5) I was worried about my pom pom crab because he had been MIA for over a week, but then he was out and about last night and tonight and he's getting big. He still has both nems and they're getting huge!

 

6) Now for some bad news :( I'm pretty sure my mandarin died. I was worried about his weight for a while, but he seemed to be doing a bit better in the 30 gallon but then all of a sudden I stopped seeing him out and about. I haven't seen him at all for about 2 weeks, so I assume he died and his remains were consumed before I saw them. Poor little guy. Now I'm trying to decide if I should replace him with another fish or just stick with what I have since everything seems really happy and healthy. I'd love a second orange fire fish though since a pair of them would be cool. What do you guys think?

 

7) In further not so good news, my original open brain is acting angry now. It never seemed to adjust to the move into the 30 gallon because it wouldn't fully expand anymore. Now in the last few weeks its got a bit of skeleton showing. I've tested all my water conditions and they're pretty much on par and I've tried changing the flow around and everything. I finally decided to move it to a new spot the other day, but so far it looks just as pissed. It was always so happy and puffed up in the 10 gallon, so I don't know what the deal is. All my other corals look really happy except that I still can't get good PE on several of my SPS frags. Its weird though because they're all growing and starting to encrust over the superglue, so they must be pretty healthy. Any ideas would be helpful...

 

Water Parameters from Tonight!

I did a water change tonight and then tested all my parameters.

pH - 8.2

Amm - 0 - 0.25

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 0

Ca - 380

dKH - 9

Mag - 1200

SG - 1.025

Temp - 78F

 

The Ca and Mag were just a bit low, so I dosed B-Ionic 2 part Ca and Alk buffer as well as Brightwell Elemental Reef Building supplement which contains Ca, Mag, Potassium, and Strontium. I also added 1 drop of iodine tonight to see if that would help the open brain at all. I broadcast fed amino acids and oysterfeast for the corals tonight as well.

 

I was going to snap some new photos for you guys tonight, but I did so much dosing that I got my water all clouded up. I'll try to get some new photos tomorrow if I have time.

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Well, since I don't have any tank photos to share right now, I figured I'd post a few photos from this weekend. We took the visiting students up to Sonoma for wine tasting and we had absolutely gorgeous weather. We went on a tour at one winery followed by a picnic lunch and tasting outside and then at the second winery we did a tasting out on their patio which had a gorgeous view of the vineyards.

 

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Bruce, the winery's dog that followed us around during the tour.

 

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French oak barrels.

 

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View from the patio of the second winery.

 

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More of the view from the patio.

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Just beautiful Felicia! I've been to Napa but never to Sonoma, in fact I don't remember the last few winery's in Napa!

 

Sorry to hear about the mandy, but a lot of folks seem to have problems with those guys. Do you need to worry about the fire fish fighting?

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Very pretty, that would work on me to decide that I wanted to go there. :lol:

 

And sucks to hear about the Mandy. :( I don't see why you couldn't add another firefish though.

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Just beautiful Felicia! I've been to Napa but never to Sonoma, in fact I don't remember the last few winery's in Napa!

Sounds like you had a bit too much wine! I love going to both Napa and Sonoma, although Sonoma is more of the small wineries so they're usually less crowded and touristy than the big wineries in Napa.

 

Sorry to hear about the mandy, but a lot of folks seem to have problems with those guys. Do you need to worry about the fire fish fighting?

Yeah, unfortunately the Mandarin was sold to me as eating frozen shrimp and that didn't really seem to be the case. He'd eat some, just not enough to keep him at a healthy weight.

 

And yeah, I was wondering that about the firefish. If I add in a second orange firefish, is there going to be a risk of them fighting or what?

 

Very pretty, that would work on me to decide that I wanted to go there. :lol:

 

And sucks to hear about the Mandy. :( I don't see why you couldn't add another firefish though.

I think we sold the prospective students on how awesome the bay area is. :D

 

My only worry with adding a new fish is that I seem to have a perfect balance right now and everything is happy. I'd hate to add that one more fish and introduce a disease or something. I'm in no rush to add another fish, I've just always liked the idea of a firefish pair. I may wait a while to decide.

 

It looks so peaceful. I want land like that :happy:

 

I think 2 firefish would be really cute!

I know! Going up there always makes me want to make a bunch of money as an engineer and then go buy a winery and live in Sonoma.

 

All abord the wine train! Toot toot!

It was more like wine vans. We rented 2 12-person passenger vans to take the students up there. Luckily I didn't get stuck driving one, so I got to enjoy the wine. I love wine :D

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It was more like wine vans. We rented 2 12-person passenger vans to take the students up there. Luckily I didn't get stuck driving one, so I got to enjoy the wine. I love wine :D

I always get confuse on how much to drink. I usually end up poring it like beer and get all ripped. :happydance:

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If you add the second firefish, they will more than likely fight a bit. My gobies still haven't stopped their occasional fighting. They still have to figure out who's gonna wear the pants :lol: You have a bigger tank though, so there would be much more room to separate from each other. My gobies are tiny, so even though I have a small tank, there's still plenty of real estate for them to be "alone".

 

I would also be concerned about upsetting the balance of the tank. What fish do you currently have? I can't remember everything off the top of my head.

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I still want a blue spotted Jawfish, like real bad. :(

Have you looked into the yellowhead jawfish? They seem just as cool, but cheaper, and more hearty! Hrvanni ( I probably spelled that wrong) has one. Check out her thread!

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Your dive pictures are always amazing, what beautiful diversity in those waters.

Thanks Kat!

 

I always get confuse on how much to drink. I usually end up poring it like beer and get all ripped. :happydance:

:lol: One of the wines we tasted over the weekend was 16% alcohol. That will get you in trouble!

 

If you add the second firefish, they will more than likely fight a bit. My gobies still haven't stopped their occasional fighting. They still have to figure out who's gonna wear the pants :lol: You have a bigger tank though, so there would be much more room to separate from each other. My gobies are tiny, so even though I have a small tank, there's still plenty of real estate for them to be "alone".

 

I would also be concerned about upsetting the balance of the tank. What fish do you currently have? I can't remember everything off the top of my head.

A little bit of fighting is ok, but I just hope they wouldn't try to kill each other or something. Right now I've got my 2 clowns, coral beauty, starry blenny, YWG, and orange firefish.

 

I still want a blue spotted Jawfish, like real bad. :(

Those are way out of my price range for fish. They're very cool though.

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Firefish are da bomb :) I love them. How does your coral beauty do with corals? I really like them but it's so hit and miss...

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