This BLOG is MOVING to www.reefdisorder.com

Hi all!

So, being a techno-wanna-be, I am constantly playing with new technologies (some are new, new) and some are new to me.

And I wasn't really happy with the single-threaded feel of my blog anymore. There are a lot of pictures here and some good information on reefkeeping. But, I also have another site that I was starting to build using Joomla that had my Reefkeeper Elite stats and graphs and more pictures.

Well, I trashed that too over the weekend and I have combined that site and this blog into www.reefdisorder.com!

Its all of the stuff here, plus more! And I hope to expand it greatly over time.
So, I will not be blogging here anymore.

This is my last blog post here. But, there is a new one with pictures of my pinkface wrasse over at www.reefdisorder.com. So, go check it out!

Pseudo Macro shots of my coral

Its been a bit since I posted.  Sorry for the delay.  Over the holidays I got a set of Kenko Extenders for my Canon XSi and so I finally got a chance to play with them last night.  These pictures were taken with my 18-55mm lens and the 20mm Kenko extender.  Also, they were taken in RAW format and unedited.  I simply loaded them on my computer and then had Picassa load them up to my web album.  You will notice that some are out of focus.  That's okay.  You get the idea.

Clownfish Laying Egss (with video)

The clownfish laid more eggs last night and I was lucky enough to be there to capture it on video!

My New Addition... Torpedo Wrasse

I picked up this torpedo wrasse from NY Aquatic last Friday. It is such a rare and beautiful fish. So far, it doesn't do much other than bury itself in the sand. But, it is still alove and I am hoping it becomes social soon!

Clownfish at 4 weeks

All clownfish are doing well. I have not lost any since just after metamorphosis.

Here are some fairly recent pics, but I think they are even bigger than this now!

All Clownfish ALIVE!

Unbelievably, all of the clownfish survived the trauma of the severe temp drop. My wife called and went to the basement to check if any of the babies had made it. She says, "There are like 50 fish swimming around. What died?" There were no fish on the bottom and they were all orange again and swimming. She gave them a little extra food and they were eating like crazy!!!

Incidentally, I have switched form live baby brine shrimp to the Ocean Nutrition Instant Baby Brine Shrimp. It is a small jar of baby brine in a fluid. The babies love it and they are really starting to grow!

I am also crushing the New Life Spectrum Grow food and putting it in there. Some of them eat it, but they are not fans. I have to start weaning them off the brine.

Woo hoo!!!!! Disaster Averted!!!!

Bad News on my baby clownfish

Bad news.

I think I may have lost all 50 of my remaining babies (which were approaching 1 month old). My heater died last night and when I went to feed them this morning most were immobile on the bottom of the tank. 2 or 3 were swimming barely. And their color went from bright orange to a pale pink. Tank temp was around 70.

I got a new heater in there and fed them, but I think all is lost on this batch.

Will post an update tonight when I get home and check on them....

Lost a lot of baby clowns last night

Well, I hit a wall with my baby clowns last night. Two factors led to the downturn.

1. Both of my brine shrimp cultures crashed the other night, so I was not able to feed them baby brine shrimp at all since Monday morning. I fed them rotifers and crushed flake food Monday night, and twice yesterday.
2. The salinity was rather high in the tank so as part of my almost daily water change I added a lot of fresh RO/DI water. I wonder if the salinity change was too much for them.

Regardless, I lost about 10 babies. The brine shrimp were ready this morning so I fed them a lot to help them catch up. Their color was not good.The bright orange was now pale. I am hoping I still have some babies when I return home this evening.

In addition, the new batch of fry should be born this evening, but I am not prepared for them and so I will let them go.

And finally, it is entirely possible that my bangaii cardinal fish are also breeding. More on that later

Some updated pictures of the reef tank

I managed to snap a few decent pictures of the tank last night.  I really like the way the tank is progressing, considering I almost lost everything 8 weeks ago!

These are all taken after the metal hailde lights were off, so its just actinics (8x39w T5 - 420/460 nm from UVL Lighting)

 

 

You can see the rest here:

My Reef Tank