animoto test run: mb50g

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mb50g is back in business!

UPDATE: the fathead you see in this picture is the one the brain ate (as seen in the header).  :(

starting over really sux!

••• oscar (mcosker wrasse)

••• lil' chief (tailspot blenny)


••• nappy --- short for napoleon (harlequin shrimp) and his meal-on-wheels (chocolate chip starfish)

••• open brain

••• firecracker dendros

everything died during the move...

now i know why everybody sells off their livestock whenever they move...  :(

new ro/di unit from bulk reef supply!

brad says this puppy will crank out x2 as much h2o than our last unit + produce 50% less waste! yay for less waste!

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL REEF KEEPING CLUBS!

i've been meaning to take a pix of these cards for a while now. they're pretty neat looking.

FORMULA ONE FLAKES

super stinky but kind of pretty...

PSAS JUNE BBQ

my friend asked me what were were doing this weekend and i told her we had a puget sound aquarium society event to go to.  her response was "aquarium society...lol!", which i replied "i know we're nerds!"...

we made quite a haul @ the psas june bbq + made nice w/ lots of cool new people!  here are the raffle items we won:

• frag plugs + glue pack (courtesy of barrier)
• seachem reef plus 
• koralia nano 
• idaho grape frag w/ stomatella

we also made sure to pay it forward and auctioned/raffled off a few tubb's blue zoo frags (x3) + a frag of pink panther zoos + a purple/green nana mini-colony (the coral you see in our header), with all proceeds going back into the psas fund.  :)  we figure we have gotten a lot out of the past meetups + wanted to contribute to continue to make psas awesome like we've experienced!

UN-BELIZE-ABLE FLICKR FISH!

awesome set of marine fish pix on flickr!  check 'em out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/sets/72157607254072541/

NEW ORA RED GONIPORA

our newest acquisition:

yay for aquacultured corals!  it's pretty rare from what i gather.  haven't seen many specimens @ our LFS so i'm pretty stoked i got my hands on one.  :D

NEW BLUE TUXEDO URCHIN

no name for him yet, but i'm sure we'l come up w/ something suitable...

WTF! ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST...

avacado is still romping around the tank somewhere. this is either asparagoose or asparageese. bummer!

NEAT TIME-LAPSE SPS GROWTH VIDEO

found this cool time-lapse video on one of the RF threads. def want to give this a try w/ our reef setup!

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