Diver's Paradise: The Sequel (Vacation Pics pg. 48!)

July 27, 2014

So like a five thousand gallon tank

July 27, 2014

Ok, so I just got back from a crazy loop of the bay to hit up all the LFS. I had to deliver posters and fliers for our local club's upcoming frag swap. I managed to get a bit of shopping in too, of course! It made for a long day though considering I hit 6 stores and drove over 100 miles total.

The purchase I'm most excited about is my new little horseshoe crab! Cutest thing ever. He's drip acclimating atm. Apparently, they're peaceful, reef safe, and scurry around eating leftover food and such off the sandbed. They also burrow down into the sand to hide and sleep. I had a weird obsession with horseshoe crabs when I was young after I got to hold one at a marine park, so I was super excited to see little ones at one of the stores.

The store that had the horseshoe crab also had a pregnant stingray. So cool! You could actually see the baby stingrays moving about inside the pregnant stingray. Look how big she is!

That same store also had literally 60+ blue spot jawfish in stock. All looking super healthy and eating frozen mysis. They were on sale for $69. I resisted the urge to buy one

I have to say, the pictures of the jawfish make me sad. They look like they're in jail

. Worst part about not buying just captive raised.

So...what else did you get?????

July 27, 2014

So like a five thousand gallon tank

I wouldn't go that far, lol, but the footprint of the tank (and therefore the sandbed) would need to be very large.

August 3, 2014

Hi There, hows the horseshoe crab doing? He does look awesome. Love those jawfish, here they`d be sold, gone in a flash. I think.

August 3, 2014

I saw that! I've been lurking on my phone when I have a spare moment, but I just hadn't had time to sit down and post. I commented on your thread tonight finally

Here's a video I took a while back of all the equipment on my tank.

Thank you! I love the dimensions. Being long and narrow makes it look so much bigger than it really is.

I have my Maxspect on 70% blue and 50% white right now. I'm still working on getting the exact right setting though.

I participated in the VIP Reef rock flower anemone group buy that keydiver set up. I organized a bunch of people in my local club so we ended up getting 35 anemones delivered today. I picked up the box and distributed the anemones to all the members of my local club. I was like a kid on Christmas unpacking 35 anemones! I loved seeing all the crazy colors and patterns in person. I purchased 3 for myself and it was so heard to decide which ones I wanted with so many options! Here are some fun photos I took today of the anemones!

Picking up the box from Fedex. It got to ride in style! Yes, I have a moped

Got the box home safely!

Lily had to inspect everything as usual. Then she decided to lay down and watch the whole process.

Repacking the anemones into deli containers for my local club members.

Tons of beautiful anemones!

And here are my 3 settled into my tank. The solid orange/red one, the bright orange with green tentacles, and the pink and light blue striped ones are my new ones. The rainbow one and the bright green one are from a past order with VIP Reef.

And here are some shots of my 3 when they first came out of the box.

Damn! I hope I wish I could go to the swap! But I have no corals big enough to frag!

Ok, so I just got back from a crazy loop of the bay to hit up all the LFS. I had to deliver posters and fliers for our local club's upcoming frag swap. I managed to get a bit of shopping in too, of course! It made for a long day though considering I hit 6 stores and drove over 100 miles total.

The purchase I'm most excited about is my new little horseshoe crab! Cutest thing ever. He's drip acclimating atm. Apparently, they're peaceful, reef safe, and scurry around eating leftover food and such off the sandbed. They also burrow down into the sand to hide and sleep. I had a weird obsession with horseshoe crabs when I was young after I got to hold one at a marine park, so I was super excited to see little ones at one of the stores.

The store that had the horseshoe crab also had a pregnant stingray. So cool! You could actually see the baby stingrays moving about inside the pregnant stingray. Look how big she is!

That same store also had literally 60+ blue spot jawfish in stock. All looking super healthy and eating frozen mysis. They were on sale for $69. I resisted the urge to buy one

What store is that?!

August 29, 2014

Bweeneed MO UPDATES (and kitty pics )!

How's it going Felicia?

Have fun at MACNA! Hope you see some cool stuff.

September 4, 2014

Lovely anemones and a beautiful tank! I'm jumping back into the hobby soon and you're giving me so much inspiration!

Thank you! You're too kind

Hi There, hows the horseshoe crab doing? He does look awesome. Love those jawfish, here they`d be sold, gone in a flash. I think.

He's doing good. He lives down in the sand most of the time, but I see him out and about on top of the sand every couple days. Its fun to watch him scampering around looking for food. He's been doing a great job keeping my sandbed clean and so far he doesn't seem to have grown at all.

Damn! I hope I wish I could go to the swap! But I have no corals big enough to frag!

What store is that?!

That was Baja Reef in Union City.

Bweeneed MO UPDATES (and kitty pics )!

How's it going Felicia?

Have fun at MACNA! Hope you see some cool stuff.

I know, right?! Sorry, I've been swamped with lab work since I had a couple grant deadlines recently. And then now I've got my qualifying exam in just under a month so I've been prepping/studying. Very hectic! But I did take a short break to go to MACNA, so I'll give you guys a photos update on that. It was a ton of fun and I got to see lots of nice coral, all kinds of new cutting-edge technology/equipment, and talk to awesome hobbyists and vendors.

Lily wanted to go to MACNA, but unfortunately she had to stay at home. Erin watched her and the tanks for me

The company I got my seahorses from.

Rock flower anemones.

Longfin clowns

Cool reef-themed jewelry

I got octopus and seahorse earrings.

I also got an awesome hand painted pygmy seahorse hat and a funny T-shirt.

The back of my new shirt

Really cool 3rd Edition of Darwin's Coral Reefs

Tortoise eating cat food during the Denver Aquarium's presentation.

Boa at the Denver Aquarium's presentation.

Me with Redneck from ATM

Me with Michael from Aqua Craft (they put out the magazine that has Eddie/Zia's tank on the cover - that's what I'm holding)

Eddie/Zia's tank on the cover of Marine Aquarist.

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I have a bunch more photos, but NR isn't letting me post them up. I think I overloaded it with photos, haha! I'll wait a bit and then continue my update.

September 4, 2014

Awesome new media reactor that I bought.

The reception...gambling for raffle tickets!

Jokes from the banquet.

Out with friends in Denver.

View from the rooftop patio of the bar we went to.

Awesome whiskey cocktails.

Getting lunch at the Taste of Colorado festival.

This is how I packed up my corals to get them home. I picked them up Sunday during the morning/afternoon and had them in my tank at midnight. I had a small heatpack wrapped in a towel in the tupperware and then put the tupperware in my checked bag.

Opening it up when I got home. Always a good sign when corals are open in the bags!

Acclimating the new additions.

Bicolor Frogspawn

New scoly

Scoly in the tank at MACNA

New acans (ignore the bad lighting and dirty glass)

More new acans and a micromussa mini colony

Superman rhodactis

September 4, 2014

And finally, my favorite booth at MACNA... Coldwater Marine Aquatics! I do the majority of my scuba diving off the coast of California, and most frequently in the Monterey Bay area. Its coldwater diving, so I've always wanted to start a temperate tank so I have what I see diving in my aquarium at home. I've just never wanted to spend the money on the chiller and then I got the seahorse tank and decided not to go coldwater. Well I've been considering taking the seahorse tank down because I've been fighting flatworms and I hate the AIO system. I don't think I'll even do another AIO system like that. Cleaning and accessing equipment is SOOO much easier with a sump or even HOB. Anyways, seeing the coldwater tanks at MACNA made me decide it was time to pull the trigger. One of the friends I was with has a Teco 1/5th HP chiller he isn't using that he is going to sell me for VERY cheap. Also, I already have the stand, light, MP10, media reactors, skimmer, etc for the 30 gallon cube seahorse tank that I can reuse on the coldwater tank. My plan is to have a custom 1/2" acrylic cube tank with overflow built to fit my existing stand. I'll have a sump in the stand, and the guys at Coldwater Marine Aquatics gave me the great idea of just using a hard-sided cooler as an insulated sump. It will be a bit before I can get started on this because I have my qualifying exam for my PhD in a month and I need to get through that. Once that is over, I'll get to work on selling off the seahorse tank livestock and the tank itself. Then I can get my new acrylic tank and chiller to set-up the coldwater system. My plan is to do a Monterey Bay biotope so it looks like what I see when I go diving.

September 4, 2014

Felicia,

Thanks for posting the pictures. Looks like you had a good time.

Did you see a new product or products that you consider outstanding?

Appreciate the cocktail photos. Gena has fallen behind on food posts. I might have to take matters into my own hands!

David

September 4, 2014

Oh, forgot to ask who was the vendor selling the Rock Flower Anemones in your photos?

September 4, 2014

Felicia,

Thanks for posting the pictures. Looks like you had a good time.

Did you see a new product or products that you consider outstanding?

Appreciate the cocktail photos. Gena has fallen behind on food posts. I might have to take matters into my own hands!

David

It was a lot of fun! Brandie and Denzil from BAR went too and we all had a blast. I think the new product I was most impressed with was this new media reactor called the "Resinator" from Blue Life. Its pressurized so that its much more efficient than a standard reactor since the water is all forced through the media. Also its much smaller and more streamlined than most reactors, which is great for nano tanks or when you're low on space. Oh and the media they've developed is dust free and doesn't clump like regular GFO, and they say the media will last 5-6 months before you have to replace it. Oh, and you can just back flush the reactor since it is pressurized to clean out any detritus instead of having to open it up and scrub it like I do with my current reactors. I ended up buying one for $88 including the first set of media. All you need is an MJ 600 or 1200 pump to get it going, which is the pump I have running my current reactors. Mine was supposed to ship out this week, so it should arrive soon for me to try it out. They took a bunch to the show, but sold out on the first day and had to switch to taking orders and shipping out from their warehouse this week. Its definitely seemed like one of the most popular new pieces of equipment at the show.

Here's an article on it by Aquanerd:

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2014/08/blue-life-usa-carb-fx-resinator.html

And the product page on the Blue Life website:

http://www.bluelifeusa.com/resinator-line/

Oh, forgot to ask who was the vendor selling the Rock Flower Anemones in your photos?

That was some coral store that had bought a lot of rock flower anemones from VIP Reef. I forget the name of the store though. If I remember correctly they were local from Colorado.

September 5, 2014

Sweet MACNA pics. You're omnomnomalicious

September 5, 2014

Wonderful pics! These are the times when I really wish I lived in the continental US

September 5, 2014

Longfin clown????

That's just wrong.

Really enjoyed seeing the photos!!!! I love your new scoly .

September 5, 2014

Sweet MACNA pics. You're omnomnomalicious

Thanks! Ha!

Wonderful pics! These are the times when I really wish I lived in the continental US

Thank you! I tried to snap plenty of photos to share with everyone. It was so overwhelming because there was just too much to look at! Its an awesome convention, but then again you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I would love to live in New Zealand

Longfin clown????

That's just wrong.

Really enjoyed seeing the photos!!!! I love your new scoly .

Yeah, those guys are just ugly in my opinion, but they're the latest thing in insanely overpriced designer clowns. Honestly they look to me like bettas with shredded fins or something.

Thanks! I'm pretty in love with the new scoly. I like the unique color instead of a standard bleeding apple or warpaint or something. Teal is my favorite color right now and its pastel teal

September 5, 2014

So... Many... Pictures...

September 5, 2014

Thank you! I tried to snap plenty of photos to share with everyone. It was so overwhelming because there was just too much to look at! Its an awesome convention, but then again you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I would love to live in New Zealand

Yeah, living here has its perks, sadly reefing is not one of them

September 5, 2014

Thanks so much for posting the pictures! Looks like a lot of fun

September 5, 2014

Thanks so much for sharing the MACNA pics and information with us! Weirdly I haven't been able to find much online about it yet.

Very interested in some of the livestock from your stunning seahorse tank, I'll send you a PM.

September 5, 2014

Yeah, living here has its perks, sadly reefing is not one of them

Do you scuba dive? That's what I'd be doing all the time if I lived there

Thanks so much for posting the pictures! Looks like a lot of fun

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed them! It really was a very fun weekend

Thanks so much for sharing the MACNA pics and information with us! Weirdly I haven't been able to find much online about it yet.

Very interested in some of the livestock from your stunning seahorse tank, I'll send you a PM.

You're welcome! It seems like the articles on MACNA with photos are starting to trickle in, but it does seem slow.

I replied to your pm. You have a beautiful tank and perfect timing. I'd love to make you a good deal on some of my livestock since it would look amazing in your tank.

September 6, 2014

Do you scuba dive? That's what I'd be doing all the time if I lived there

I did it once, here. But didn't have the chance to do it again because I have an irrational fear of great whites

September 7, 2014

Nice pics from MACNA! Thanks for sharing.

September 8, 2014

Ok so would you guys like an actual update for once? How about some photos? I snapped these really quickly with my iPhone, so they're not amazing, but not too bad!

New scoly from Exotic Reef Creations at MACNA

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New acans from Gonzo Corals at MACNA. My photo doesn't show it, but its a pretty nice mini colony. It has like 7 big heads and a ton of little babies.

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Hulk acans from Gonzo Corals at MACNA. I love the teal color of these.

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Purple, baby blue, and green micromussas from Gonzo Corals at MACNA.

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Green fuzzy mushroom and the new superman mushroom from Gonzo Corals at MACNA.

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Some of my zoas.

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Tiger Derasa

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Hammer