Maintenance: Sunday Jan 30, 2006 (20G SW Tank w/Sun Corals)

Salinity: 1.028
Ammonia: 0mg/L
Nitrite: 0.1mg/L
Nitrate: 10mg/L
pH: 7.9
Phospate: 1mg/L
Calcium: used: 0.8 --- 400mg/L
Alkalinity: used: 0.8 --- 3.2meq/L

Heater Blows Up in the Tank!

OH MY GOSH!

On Sunday, we checked the newly migrated 20G SW tank in the basement and we noticed the AC heater blew up...It literally blew up! It broke or in other words, it popped into at least 2 pieces... I am still wondering whether there are small pieces of glass in the tank, floating around maybe... :( I hope not! It will be so dangerous... :( :(

Anyways, the xenia has melted to the bottom of the tank and is probably still there...They are definitely not standing up and 'hupping'...

Also, the snails look like the have been electrocuted and it appears they may have become stupid because they got stunned... One of the cleaner shrimp is also stunned from the shock and all the sun corals appear to be alright...

Thank goodness, nothing too serious happened...

We hope everything will be back to normal soon...

Hope hope hope hope hope...

Migrating of the 20G SW Tank from the Kitchen

So on Saturday night, vapo moved the 20G SW tank from the kitchen to the basement... :) At last, it is moved...

The 'rare' branching yellow sun coral came apart into 2 pieces now but it is still pretty big... :P

I heard from him that it took him at least 4 hours to migrate the entire tank and its population...Hehe... Unfortunately, I wasn't there to help so it might have taken that long... :P It was a big project but it is moved now and I think this will be its permanent position from this day on...

2oG SW tank is officially in the basement now...

OC and BA NM

Today, after lunch, we set out on another fish trip but this time out of town... :) We headed out to Newmarket...

We wanted dto visit OC since we haven't been there before and might as well since we've been to most LFS in the area and out of town already...

It took us aoubt 30mins from my house to Newmarket... Along the way, we ended up seeing more and more snow on the ground... :P ...until we got to Newmarket did we (still) see a lot of snow on the ground... I guess the snow there didn't melt yet... :P

Anyways, OC wasn't hard to find and it wasn't a big store so we only stayed for about 15mins... I must say, they had a lot of flatworms, juvenile anemones (aka aiptasias) and bubble algae... All in all, the fishes and corals were alright and the prices were a bit on the expensive side...I guess it wasn't too impressive that we would go there again... :P

Next, we went to BA NM since we were already in the area...BA NM is only about a 5mins drive from OC... BA NM was definitely a lot harder to find since it was situated in a rather big plaza... The store itself wasn't too small... The only very good thing and rather impressive as well is their display tank... :D Evertyhing looked well settled in as if they were growing for years... I can literally say that it looked like a reef in the sea... :P They had a few gonioporas and they were thriving except for one... No flatworms or aiptasias or bubble algae that we can see... The design of the refugium was impressive too and it had mangroves growing it in and the design would allow them to grow and grow... Vapo says this display tank is the best...out of all the other BA stores... :P

We wanted to get the cleaner wrass there for $8.88 but it was a bit on the small side and definitely wouldn't be able to eat pellets which is what Vapo is planning to feed too all the fishes.. LOL

BA NM didn't have a lot of fish specials and it wasn't posted up in many places so it was difficult to know what specials they had...

All in all, it was an okay fish experience...

So we went back to BA Ken to see if they still had the any cleaner wrasse left... since they had 2 left when we went there yesterday... They did have one left and they had sold the other... We wanted the one that was sold since it looked a bit more healthier... :P Oh well, next time... Maybe the less healthy one would be alright in a few days so we can bring it home... LOL

Another fish watching day ended... ;)

J's Corals...

So today we went to NAFB to see if they had any more purple tangs and to see how the corals were doing and especially to check out the Red Sea fishes... :P

The corals were doing ok, not bad at all but nothing over eye catching that would make us want to buy... :P As for the purple tangs, there was only 1 left but as we kept looking around a fellow fishperson self-served himself and caught the last on the purple tang! That's alright, we weren't that interested as they are too big and too agressive for our tank...

Next, we went to BA Ken to see what specials they had and to see if we can find any cleaner wrasses... :) They are on special for $8.88 each... :P We saw 2 cleaner wrasses there but they didn't look too healthy so we didn't get it and they still had about 5 flame angels left even though they were on special for $47.88... :P

After that, we went to Chapt. inside Kennedy Commons and purchased a book called 'Diving the World' for $19.97 + tax! :P There are many breathtaking pictures of the sea and seaforms as well as other natural wonders... The book was on sale, of course, or it would have cost over $100 (which we woudn't buy for sure)... ;)

After that, we went to J's to check out his shipment of corals and fishes and to see if there are any interesting things to buy... :)

We did notice a purple goniopora that was opened and looked relatively healthy... :) and a blue trumpet also caught our attention... While we were there, another fish couple dropped by to check out J's corals and they purchased several items including a very green zoo frag that i like... :) Of course, they left before us... LOL We seem to always hang around for a long time... :P Finally, we purchased the purple goniopora for $40 and the blue trumpet for $30 for a total of $70.

Total Purchases of the Day:

1. Diving the World book: $21.37
2. Purple Goniopora: $40
3. Blue Trumpet: $30

TOTAL: $91.37

Next, we went back home to put the corals in their rightful places...inside the 120G tank... :D Vapo put the previous purple goniopora we got from NAFB at the bottom of the tank because (it seems) gonioporas do not need a lot of light... :) Amazingly, at the bottom of the tank, it looks BLUE! :) A very sharp blue. Vapo also placed the purple goniopora we got from J's at the bottom too but it remained purple. It will take some time for it to get use to the new environment and to open up... As for the blue trumpet, it separated into 2 pieces on the trip home and now we have 2 blue trumpet although one is bigger (has more heads) than the other... ;)

The salinity seems to be ok too...1.026...

Maintenance: Friday January 20, 2006

120G SW Tank in Basement:

Temp.: 78.1 F
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0mg/L
Nitrite: 0.1mg/L
Nitrate: 5mg/L
pH: 8.1
Phospate: 0.25mg/L
Calcium: 440mg/L
Alkalinity: amount used - 0.8, 3.2meq/L

Goniopora Food?!

In order to have a better chance for the purple gonipora to survive, we got some samples called Polyp L., which is literally food for goniporas...and is a new product... :)

It is a powder-like substance that you mix with the tank water and fed directly to the gonipora and other corals using a turkey baster or syringe... :)

So we fed that last night to the gonipora and surrounding corals, hope it will survive and open up beautifully... :)

We will keep our fingers crossed... :)

Pick your corals...

The morning of Saturday January 14, vapo and I woke up at 7:30am to go to NAFB...because their shipment came in Friday night... :) so of course we had to go there and check out the corals... The prices of all the corals are the same...a big eye-popping $40!!!!! Now that is too tempting to miss out... :P

It just so happened that on that same day, RR was selling their shipment that came in too...Coincidence? I think not... :) NAFB's prices were more tempting...

So at 8:00am we arrived at NAFB only to see there were people hanging outside the store and in the parking lot already! :O Wow! These are really determined and dedicated fish people... :P Of course, vapo and I had an advantage so we decided to go to McD's for breakfast and just relax before the action begins... We even went over our plan of action... :P

At exactly, 9:00am the doors to NAFB opened and people literally poured right in... I went and did my thing and vapo went and did his thing and in the end...we succeeded...in getting 4 corals... :) plus one abalone... :P

CORALS:

(1) Purple Goniopora
(2) Frogspawn
(3) Blasto
(4) Green Mellon Mushroom

LIVESTOCK:

(1) Abalone

Each of the corals were only $40 and that is one deal that can not be beaten anywhere else! :) The abalone was a spontaneous purchase since it was only $15 and oh so cute... :)

We did encounter a few minor problems such as one of the tanks was a bit tall and vapo had to literally drape himself and put all his weight on the tank in order to reach the green mellon mushroom... :P Luckily, it didn't break... I think we we would have run right out if it did... ;)

So the total spent was: $175.00

After that we went back home to put the corals and abalone in their rightful places... :)

Next we headed to RR to see what they had there... As it turns out they had a lot of ricordeas and I must say, their corals look nice... :)

Hopefully, the gonipora will survive...

Let's see how it turns out later this week whe n vapo comes back... :)

Tank Maintainence....

Water change for:
120G - 1.025
Kitchen 20G - 1.025
Tall 20G - 1.025
10G - 1.025
WTR LR curing tank - 1.026

DIY LR is soaking in saltwater from water change, to start seeding it.

Blue/Queen junvenvile angel added to K20G tank.
Fungus zoo removed from display tank into K20G for recovery.

OMG .... pgymy angel become giant angel~!!!

So we went to our weekly weekend fish watching trip. We happened to went to BA Kennedy, they do not have the weekly special listed on website as usual. However they do have marked down corals ... however it seems only 20% or so, but their corals are not that cheap comparing to RR not to mention NAFB these days...

.... so we were watching fish and we suddenly see this very beautiful angel, it was marked as "flavicauda pygmy angel" and looks very pretty. It was only $29.99, so I was really surprised to see such a pretty pgymy angel for sale at that price; flame angel is $69.99 and coral beauty is $34.99 normally at BA..... so we kinda debated for 3 minutes or so and decided to try our luc, plus the angel actually looked pretty healthy no ich or stress. So we made a quick decision and bought it for $34.99.

So when we come back and tried to give an ID, found out that it's either a blue/queen angel in junvenile form. MY GOSH, I really wish it is a pgymy angel as I am not ready to have large angels in my reef.... I still wanted to keep corals. Right now it is only 2" long, hopefully it does not grow too fast. So far,it has been nibbing at rocks and stuff, so I don't think it will have any problem eating, it did tasted some brime shrimps and dead zoos.


Blue/Queen junenvile angel..
$34.99

Boxing Week Recap :)

So here are the figures for Boxing Week 2005! :)

Corals from NAFB:
$285.00

BA Stores:
$159.82
$134.54
$402.38
$64.66
$60.92

Online JL Aqua.:
$650.58

RR Violet Anemone:
$63.00

WTR? Rock Purchase:
$120.00

Can. Tire:
$11.23

H. Depot:
$6.08

Da da da! The grand total for this year's Boxing Week is..................................

$1958.21

Eye Popping Number... :)