A REEF KEEPER'S DILEMMA: HOW TO HAVE AWESOME CORAL IN YOUR TANK + BE A PART OF THEIR CONSERVATION/PRESERVATION

so let's get this straight right now...we're no angels!  in the beginning, i'm sure we bought wild-caught coral w/out even thinking about where the coral came from or whether or not it had a negative or positive impact on the environment and used products detrimental to coral growth/health, such as non-biodegradable sunscreen while frolicking in the ocean.  however, we've come to love this hobby and have thought to ourselves, "how can we help in the conservation/preservation of corals?"

as consumers, we should take it upon ourselves to use our buying power to let the coral farmers/coral exporters/retailers/travel agencies/excursion operators know we want to do what we can to conserve/preserve reefs in the wild:

1) buy only aqua-cultured or mari-cultured pieces from your LFS

2) buy only biodegradable sunscreen

3) don't buy jewelry or souvenirs made out of endangered black/red coral skeletons, unless it was legally harvested from an environment where the coral population is known to be plentiful + healthy

4) do research before you buy those wild-caught pieces!  that rare austrailian LPS you just bought could have been imported illegally b/c it's endangered, which makes you liable for the demise of the species!  know what's endangered + avoid the temptation to buy these pieces, which will send a message to retailers/exporters that harvesting/exporting/selling endangered coral is not OK!

5) join a local reef keeping club!  not only will you learn a thing or two from other people in the hobby, but lots of reef keepers frag their colonies + put the frags up for sale in the reef keeping forums.  by buying from other reef keepers you know that the coral is aqua-cultured and is tolerant to aquarium conditions.

i wish there was some sort of reef keeper's pen pal service where you could send a frag to, let's say fiji or the caribbean, and there would be a volunteer coral farmer or even a snorkeler/diver ready to receive the frag and would properly acclimate it to ocean water then plant it back on to some rocky outcrop to start a new, wild reef!  how cool would that be?  :)

CHEAP CORAL PROPAGATION TOOLS

just wanted to let you in on a little secret.  those $40-50 special stainless steel coral propagation tool kits are really just re-packaged toenail cutters w/ gel superglue you can get at your local drugstore for like $20!  hope this tip helps!  happy fragging!

almost forgot!  if you're shopping around for a dremmel tool, why not go w/ something super cheap?  keep in mind: 1) saltwater causes metal to rust + corrode so that spiffy little non-stainless steel rotary tool you just bought is going to get junked sooner rather than later and 2) who wants to spend $30-50 when you only have to spend $10-15!  here's one on sale for $5: http://www.harborfreight.com/12v-rotary-tool-set-with-30-accessories-94076.html

KILLER NUDI PIX

just wanted to share a photo spread by david doubilet of nudi's i found while cruising nat geo.  beautiful + deadly in a little package!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/doubilet-photography

WTF! "THE FAB FIVE" IS NOW "THE FAB FOUR"

we started out w/ 6, which was whittled down to 2, then bought 3 more to make "the fab 5" and now we're down to 4.  wtf!  seriously, our tank isn't that big!  we have absolutely no predators in the tank --- no more lobster, no predatory crabs, not even a single bristle worm!  NONE!  i'm not sure where the chromis are going, but there's no sign of the 5th wheel anywhere + no carcass in sight.

UPDATE: 

not long after i noticed the fab 5 dwindle down to only 4 i found chromis no. 5 swimming around in the sump when i was topping off water!  how he got in there i don't know, but am very thankful he's still alive and kicking.  caught him + put him back into the display tank that same day!  yay for the fab 5!

BABY FIRECRACKER DENDROS

our dendros were big + healthy last week, then receded over the weekend up until today. i thought something was wrong then noticed all the new little buds around their perimeter. yay for new polyps!

DEATHMATCH: PURPLE HAZE VS CAROLINA

looks like the carolina acro packs a punch. all the growth of the purple haze within the last month was pretty much lost, but hopefully it'll make a full recovery.

ps: i made sure to glue the carolina down so he doesn't fall onto the purple haze again.  i jammed it into the rock thinking it would stay put, but of course, one of the snails or crabs must of wriggled their way under the frag + knocked the acro into the monti causing all sorts or carnage.  cross your fingys that it makes it through.  *sigh!*

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP NOOBS?

are you a reef keeping nOOb?  

we've got 2+ years of reef keeping under our belt.  while we're no experts, we do know a thing or two that we'd like to share w/ you.  let us know what kind of things you want to know about so we can write + help you!  also, look for the tag "tips 4 n00bs" --- we'll start posting more reviews/results, DIY tutorials, etc soon!

WHAT DO VOLCANOS HAVE TO DO W/ NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART LED AQUARIUM LIGHT FIXTURES?

NOTHING!  except that the volcanic ash from the eruption in iceland caused air travel in europe to come to a halt, which includes air freight, so that means no spiffy new LED light fixtures for brad until mid-may.  :(

APRIL INVENTORY

- ora birds of paradise - tan w/ yellow polyps turbinaria - green pipe organ - mint green monti - orange acans - aussie orange rainbow acans - pink rainbow acans - ora unknown acro (brown bushy) - purple digitata monti - bleeding apple scoly - green spongode - raspberry mille - green frogspawn - baby blue stag (frag) - pink stylo - br ziggy stardust monti - green slimer - unknown stag (green) - strawberry patch monti - blue sponge - atl rommel's exotic blue acro - purple w/ blue polyps monti - candy canes - unknown acro (yellow) - green blastos - pink hammer - orange cap monti - sun coral (babies) - misc acan + zoo frags - silver xenia

- green w/ purple tips nana acro - cyphastrea (original) - ora unknown acro (brown bottlebrush) - ora unknown acro (purple w/ green tips) - superman monti - firetip monti - ora borealis - (dying) yellow mille - ora unknown acro (blue w/ green polyps) - live aquaria green bushy acro - purple chalice - pink chalice - pink lemonade - fhi unknown acro (green w/ blue rim) - cb loripes acro - green w/ purple tips nana acro (frag) - cyphastrea (frag) - rainbow monti - ora hawkins echinata - unknown bottlebrush acro (yellow) - cb selago - firecracker dendros - cb german blue - atl undata monti - green stylo - baby blue stag - green pagoda - ora unknown acro (green fuzzy thing) - cb carolina acro - purple haze monti

lil' chief + pocahontas duke it out on a regular basis.  i really wanted them to pair up + mate, but i don't think pocahontas is having it so let's cross our fingys that she doesn't end up killing him.  :/




soda's all better now! he was quarantined for about month w/ almost daily water changes + salinity drops b/c he looked like he picked up ich from mariah carey, nick cannon's (false perc) deceased mate.  luckily, we haven't lost any fish to ich in the main tank.  we did lose the fathead anthia i recently purchased, but he was in the quarantine tank when he kicked the bucket.  also, oscar, our mccosker wrasse, got sucked up into the return pump + was all cut up --- i made sure oscar was humanely euthanized.  :(


lastly, a mb50g fishy montage...

BARRIER REEF AQUARIUM SPRING SALE HAUL

UPDATE: 2010-04-26

check out pix of our new frags from our april inventory photo shoot...

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we picked up a few prize pieces over the weekend.  had to re-aquascape to accommodate all the new frags.  :)

+ ora's borealis (aquacultured)

+ ora's birds of paradise (aquacultured)

+ cb's german blue polyp acro (maricultured)

+ cb's acropora loripes (maricultured)

+ emerald crabs x2 <----asparagoose + asparageese

+ blue chromis x3  <-----plus the 2 we already had so collectively they're known as "the fab 5"

GARRETTS-ACROPOLIS.COM: REALLY GREAT SITE FOR ACRO INFO/IDENTIFICATION

really great site if you need help identifying those unknown acro frags!  check him out!

NEW EMERALD CRABS: KIWI + BROCCOLI + AVOCADO

brad read that emerald crabs were good algae eaters so we picked up 3 over the weekend from blue sierra.  they're fairly big, w/ their body about the size of a dime/nickel, so i'm a little afraid for the smaller fish + our tiny little acro crab.  they're supposedly reef-safe, so cross your fingys that they don't end up snacking on the little guys.  :)

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UPDATE: 2010-04-26
broccoli + kiwi died 2-3 days later.  not sure why.  avocado is doing well so i don't think it wasn't a case of improper temp/h2o acclimation.

Americas second least visited National park

national park of American Samoa

Seen all fifty states, why not check out some of the other US territories?

The National Park of American Samoa is a national park on the American territory of American Samoa, distributed across three separate islands: Tutuila, Ofu-Olosega, and Ta‘ū. The park includes coral reefs and rain forest and is popular for hiking, snorkeling, and scuba diving, although the primary purpose of the park is that of preservation of Samoa's unique natural resources. Of the park's 10,500 acres (4,200 ha), 7,970 acres (3,230 ha) is land and 2,550 acres (1,030 ha) is water. It is the only American national park south of the equator.

The National Park of American Samoa was established on October 31, 1988 by Public Law but the National Park System could not buy the land because of traditional communal land system. This was resolved on September 9, 1993, when the National Park Service entered into a 50-year lease for the park land from the Samoan village councils.

In 2009, the park encountered major damage from a tsunami. The visitor center and main office were destroyed and staff were reported missing.

The U.S. Congress established the National Park . .

“ . . to preserve and protect the tropical forest and archeological and cultural resources of American Samoa, and of associated reefs, to maintain the habitat of flying foxes, preserve the ecological balance of the Samoan tropical forest, and, consistent with the preservation of these resources, to provide for the enjoyment of the unique resources of the Samoan tropical forest by visitors from around the world.”

Visitors to American Samoa have the unique opportunity to explore a U.S. national park at its earliest stages of development. If you want to visit a world-class national park before everyone else does, now is the time. What the park currently lacks in facilities, it makes up in spectacular South Pacific beauty, and some of the world's most scenic beaches. With a bit of adventurer spirit, you can find secluded villages, unusual plants and animals, coral sand beaches, and highly scenic seashores.

http://www.nps.gov/npsa/index.htm

Census of Marine Life

Explorers Inventory Hard-to-See Sea Life.

Ocean explorers are puzzling out Nature’s purpose behind an astonishing variety of tiny ocean creatures like microbes and zooplankton animals – each perhaps a ticket-holder in life’s lottery, awaiting conditions that will allow it to prosper and dominate.

The inventory and study of the hardest-to-see sea species -- tiny microbes, zooplankton, larvae and burrowers in the sea bed, which together underpin almost all other life on Earth -- is the focus of four of 14 field projects of the Census of Marine Life. 

Identifying species within these hard-to-see groups, where they are and in what numbers, and the environmental role of each, is critical for understanding the size, dynamics and stability of Earth’s food chain, carbon cycle and other planetary fundamentals.

At the other end of the hard-to-see scale: microbes form mats on the sea floor off the west coast of South America that explorers recently found.  The mats cover a surface comparable in size to Greece and rank among Earth’s largest masses of life.

The research will be showcased October 4 at ceremonies in London to conclude the Census and its historic decade of exploration, research, recording and logging of marine life past and present, with predictions of what will live in the ocean in the future.  The Census involves more than 2,000 scientists from 80+ nations -- one of the largest global scientific collaborations ever undertaken.

For more information and to check out some great photo galleries hop on over to http://www.coml.org/.

CERITH SNAIL EGG SPIRALS + NERITE SESAME SEEDLINGS/EGGS

it's that time of year again! i've heard from other reefers that egg laying is a sign of happy snails. glad to see they're thriving despite the periodic magnesium dosing to keep the bryopsis @ bay.

Ordered: Pacific Sun “Black Python” 160W CREE LED

Barrier Reef Aquariums, our local premiere saltwater aquarium store, setup a group buy for Pacific Sun LED fixtures.

I had seen these LED fixtures profiled on ReefBuilders.com previously and was very intrigued to learn more about them.

<DELETED BIG LONG POST ABOUT HOW I DECIDED WHICH MODEL TO BUY.  IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS POST A COMMENT AND I WILL REPLY>

Stay Tuned!  I will be sure to post pics and a review once I get my hands on the new toy.

Features of the Black Python 160 include:

• Bluetooth programmability.
• LCD screen for displaying lamp settings including: total power, actinic channel power, daylight power, moonlight power, core temperature, date&time, status - auto or manual override.
• CREE LEDs: XP-G 3W, XP-E 3W Royal Blue and XP-E Blue 475nm 3W
• Variable speed temperature controlled fans.
• Built in controller supporting:
  - date/time
  - setting turn on/off time, dimming time
  - total brightness setting - for ex. for coral acclimation
  - setting brightness for moonlight
  - color temperature changing - between 14.000K-25.000K
  - Set the time sunrise and sunset times from 1minute up to...
  - simulating the lunar illumination (28 days full period), Natural Sunlight Simulation, Overcast Days Simulation
  - changing brightness during the ligth period - like on nature, where insolation depend of hour. For the whole cycle of lighting, you can define up to 40 individual points of which is set by the brightness of the lamp, This gives the opportunity to simulate the lighting just like in nature:
  - Natural Sunlight Simulation - lamp is able to simulate cloudy and sunny days - when using this option, the lamp simulates the effect of temporary cloudiness - as is the nature. For the summer season the days are longer and brighter, for the winter season - shorter and somewhat darker light(in the future the computer will be able to wirelessly control the heating in the tank, so that in summer the temperature in the tank will be higher in the winter - lower)

For more information about Pacific Sun LED fixtures check out http://aquariumled.eu/ or http://pacificsunusa.com/

Captain Arrested after destroying 2 mile stretch of Reef

Follow up to the story we posted a week ago about the ship that grounded it self on the Great Barrier Reef.

SYDNEY (AP) -- The master of a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground and cut a long gash in the Great Barrier Reef didn't alert Australian authorities to the crash for an hour and a half, investigators said Thursday.

A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the Shen Neng 1 slammed into the reef and shuddered to a halt just after 5 p.m. on April 3, but noted it was not until 6:40 that the master reported the grounding to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

The gap in time - and whether it was reasonable - is just one factor the bureau will examine in its investigation. The crash tore a two-mile (three-kilometer) gash, damaging the shoal so badly experts estimate it may need up to 20 years to heal.

Amazing underwater photography

You NEED to check out PatsOn @ LiveJournal.com. His site contains some of the most amazing examples of underwater photography I have ever come across. http://pats0n.livejournal.com/

Use Google Translator if you’re like me and unable to read Russian. >>  PatsOn in English

Coal Tanker grounded on Great Barrier Reef

Reuters

Salvagers were struggling to prevent the Shen Neng I breaking up in pristine waters off the country's northeastern coast, potentially spilling hundreds of tons of oil over the reef, which is one of Australia's top tourist attractions.

The ship slammed into Douglas Shoal on Saturday traveling at full speed and significantly away from normal shipping lanes.

"I think the book should be thrown at this organization," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"This is a very delicate part of one of the most precious marine environments on earth and there are safe, authorized shipping channels and that's where this ship should have been."

NEW HOT-PINK STYLO

that's w/ no MH or actinics. just moon + ambient room lights. pretty spiffy eh? :)

NEW BLUE SPONGE

i believe it's of the non-photosynthetic variety...

brad corrected me. apparently, it is photosynthetic. i guess sponges are just like soft corals, just a tiny bit more fragile. the slightest exposure to air can kill it. cross your fingy's that i didn't f-up when i was putting it in the tank!

NEW DIY TANK COVERS!

brad realized that the white egg crate that we were using as tank covers were reflecting too much light so he made some DIY TANK COVERS out of bird netting + pre-packaged window screen kits. looks all super pro! :)  


if you have questions leave us a comment + brad can hook you up w/ how he got this done!