Upside down tank shot

Just a little change in perspective can mean a lot! Since gravity isnt as much of an issue when you are underwater, up and down cannot be determined in the conventional way. And with the water's reflective nature, it makes sense to explore and make good use of that!

Try take an upside down photo of your tank sometime. You will be amazed what you can see. Make sure to turn the pumps and powerheads off so you get the most serene surfave for a clean reflection.

20150506 Hawaii Vacation Lanikai snorkel- Caution: Strong swimmer alert

panoramic view of Lanikai Beach on the Windward coast

The second snorkel location we took was the Lanikai beach at the Windward coast (Southeastern) shore of Oahu. As you can see from the photo above, this is a much less visited public beach than Waikiki due to its slight remote location, accessibility, lack of public parking and no public shower or changing room. Also, there are no lifeguards on duty so you are on your own.

Lanikai Beach looking Northeast

 There is about 500 meter (1/3 mile) of shallow reef along the entire stretch of this beach. But do not let the crystal clear turquoise water color fool you- the Though the rooftop of most area seem shallow,  unlike the Waikiki beach, once you venture 100ft out, most adults will not be able to stand straight and touch the bottom. Additionally, located in the windward coast, while the water is still relatively calm, it can be more unpredictable. And the water does come in waves of warm patches mixed with cooler patches. For all of the reasons above, you should only consider snorkeling or diving in this location when you are experienced and are a strong swimmer as the current can easily take you off course. There are a few times when I surfaced to find myself way off course from where I thought I was heading- very dangerous situation if I was a weaker swimmer.

Two Islands southeast of Lanikai are bird sanctuaries with strict rules for visitation

The two islands Southeast of the beast are about 1.5 miles off shore. These two islands are bird sanctuaries that has very strict rules for visitation. You may rent a kayak to reach it, rest on the beach then return. But you are not allow to touch anything or venture beyond the beach there. Also, please never attempt to swim there, the current is rough and strong it will carry you off course.

Unfortunately due to the depth of this reef, I was hesitant to bring my camera along with in fear of loosing my grip and to never able to retrieve it should it skips into a tight crack (there are numerous crevices). Based on my observation, the species here are diverse and abundant. Also because of the depth of some of the drop offs, most of the herbivores seen here are reaching good size- sailfin tang at at least 18" diameter, adult yellow tangs at no less than 8" long, adult Achilles tang at 10" long, variety of wrasses so large I almost thought they were parrotfish! The coral system however isn't growing as strongly as it can be due to invasive macro algae species. It also seems that the reef must have been devastated by big waves from storms in recent year as many of the giant pillar pieces of the reef base (at least 10ft tall and each can weight a few tons) were torn off its main structure and were laying on their sides on the sand bed.

20150428 Hawaii Vacation- Waikiki Snorkel

Two weeks ago I revisited my dream destination- Hawaii. And once again we decided to only stay in Oahu as we have not enough time to explore all we wanted to see in our previous visit. But we did recall the wonderful snorkeling experience so we have specifically carved out time to snorkel in various coast lines this time.

The beautify, relaxing white sand of the Waikiki beach at Honolulu, Hawaii

First and foremost we went to the most accessible- Waikiki. It is amazing that with all the tourists, surfing, kids playing, and motorized boats in the near vicinity the Waikiki reef ecosystem remained in a very strong state. The amount and variety of fish in the near shore reef actually had significant increase since our last visit 9 months ago. We were able to see most of all the common species of tangs and wrasse along with a few that would have only appeared in the deeper water previously, but now are also living among the shallow reef. I used only an iPhone 5S with an otter case to shoot these underwater photos.

A goatfish and a two spot surgeonfish patrolling the shallow reef of Waikiki

Really healthy reef system with active growing sps coral such as this porcillapora colony here near shore Waikiki

Moorish idol feeding among the coral reef. Interesting observation: I visited the same area a few days in a row and found that the same group of moorish idol stays within a specific area, no larger than 1000 square feet and feeds only in that area.

Beautiful spotted box fish along the reef edge in Waikiki

A semi adult nano tang, what a magnificent creature and graceful swimmer in the wild.

Water clarity wasn't the best as the waves were quite high that day sweeping up lots of dust from the bottom. 

Live Aquaria- Diver's Den Behind the scene tour: The Corals

In case you've missed my previous posts on the facility's fish and inverts, here are their links:
Fish
Invertebrate
And for you coral fanatics here is the coral section of the facility. The Diver's Den facility of LiveAquaria is also the coral farm for this company. Here is a little background and fun facts of the place: http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=377

The coral display tank by the office in Diver's Den, very impressive and colorful.

A video of this tank:

First I want to show you this beautiful sps and lps coral display tank made of the aquaculture corals here at Diver's Den. This tank sits at the corner where the coral farm meets the offices.

Live Aquaria's aquacultured coral grow out farm

Here is a panoramic video view of the facility:

The coral farm here at the Diver's Den facility are made of numerous 3'X6' approximately 1' deep. The water is crystal clear and each bin houses a few turbo snails and a surgeonfish for algae patrol. Some of them are impressive adult chevron tangs! The corals all sit on a grid of egg crate that's boosted 4" off the bottom. I see the tangs darting back and forth from the top of the corals to the bottom of it. Some bins contain sand as they place lps or sps onto it. Some bins are bare bottom. Each of the LPS corals are carefully placed onto a ring of cut PVC pipe to prevent the sand from irritating it.
All of the corals that I could see had nice but not abnormally large polyp extensions.

A bin with crushed coral bottom housing non-photo synthetic corals

There are 2-3 bins like the one above housing the non-photo synthetic corals. And as you can see from the reflection, instead of Metal Halide or LED lighting, these bins use t-5 lighting for any misc. photosynthetic coral they need to place here. I also want to mention that one of these bins had a school of baby bangaii cardinal fish and it's a perfect environment since they feed these bins heavily with nutrient rich zooplankton to keep the non-photo synthetic corals happy.

A bin of marincultured sps corals

The bin above showcase a group of the marine cultured sps corals. As you can see they sit on a PVC ring with their sky#, price, and ID clearly labeled so you will always receive the correct item. The egg crate is 4" above the bare bottom with a chevron tang patrolling this bin for algae control. Each bin only houses one vegetarian fish, and with a turbo snail to supplement. You can see this bin features a 400W metal halide from the reflection. The halide sits on a track and is moved up and down the bin to provide the corals lighting from all angels instead of creating a "hotspot"
Here is a short "tease" of what these corals look like with the water flow and the light.

A bin with mixed marincultured sps coral and aquaculture frags

This bin also features some beautifully colored marine cultured sps coral, with some aquaculture sps & lips frags. Apologies for the really blue hue of the picture- I believe they use 20K bulbs for all the corals under metal halide.
I'm just going to post a few more photos here without much further description as they are pretty self-descriptive.

A bin with primarily aquacultures corals here in different sizes and shapes.

Amazing group of blasto frags here. I was really tempted to take them all!

How about a garden of hammers? all in different colors too!

Corals are sectioned of for pricing and ease of identification when workers here pick them for order. These lps and soft corals are under LED lighting as you can see from the reflection.

Another bin of amazing hammer corals! raise your hand if you want them all!

Group of long tentacle plates, the cutie at the bottom right is now in my tank!

And lastly a bare bottom bin featuring a garden of elegant corals!

20150111 Coral Frag tank

For those growing coral either as a hobbyist or a retailer, frag tanks is almost a must have as you propagate your coral to grow out in it. For the most part people tend to house their frag tank either at a side or behind the scene but still connected to the main water body of their display tank. The benefit of this is to maintain stable water perimeters as frag tanks tend to hold smaller water volume thus prone to status swings. By linking to the main system not only the water remain more or less stable. It'll be a smooth transition too to transport the freshly propagated coral into the frag tank, or vise versa.
As for the dimension of the frag tank. I recommend something no less than 8" deep but not more than 1' high. This gives you enough room to maneuver also provide room for coral to grow if necessary, but not too deep to prevent light generation and water circulation issues. For the width and length, I guess it really is up to you on how much you wish to keep and how spacious if your set up.
One thing I need to point out is that many people ignored the proper movement in the frag tank. So I have seen many cases of "flow dead spot" in these type of tanks. One smart idea I have seen from a friend is to place buffers so the water flows through all corners of the tank.

20141104 What Light for your Saltwater tank? Part 1.

One of the most commonly asked questions is the choice of lighting. What's appropriate for your critters? What's the best color temperature combination to bring out those colors? All lights seem so expensive, can I just DIY?
First, I must say that without proper training in light, physics, and electrical, everything I am going to discuss is entirely based on observation and real life experience.

LED light reflecting from the surface

Currently some there are many options for aquaria lighting. Among some of the less expensive but least light output are:
Regular T7 florescent tubes, incandescent bulbs, power compact lights
These lights are suitable for fish only aquaria or some of the non-photosynthetic or least light demanding soft corals. But in most cases will not provide enough energy for higher end corals and inverts to thrive
Some of the more sophisticated lightings are:
VHO T5 florescent tubes, Metal Halide bulbs, and LED lights
These lights tend to have a higher cost and drains more electricity, but can sustain some of the most light hungry creatures such as small polyp stony corals (SPS), large polyp stony corals (LPS), clams, anemones, etc.
Another option is DIY- if you are skilled in electrical, you can also design and put together your own lights. You can find many light parts, ballasts that are suitable for your project. Warning, if you do not construct the light correctly it can result in fire.
There are many other aspects of lights such as PAR, light's distance from the water surface, water depth, and light color temperature. We can save all them for the ensuing parts of this series.

In the mean time, there are some good readings I recommend from a couple reputable online livestock retailer:
Liveaquaria Light article
Pacific East Aquaculture Light article

20140724 Waikiki Aquarium 3

My third installment of the Waikiki Aquarium post is the highlight of this facility- the 5,500 Gallon South Pacific Reef tank

 The reason this is the highlight of the facility- well, I think the photos speak for themselves. I guarantee you will not find happier captive fish, coral, anemone, and clams happier than this place. I have visited many high-profile public aquariums in my life. And none of these public aquariums with admission up to 6X the price of this place hosts healthier and happier livestock than this small aquarium.

 The pair of Tridacna Gigas here is the world's oldest, and largest captive grown giant clams. Please also observe the amount of hard and soft corals surrounding it. Also, the tanks houses a large variety of both common and rare marine fish.

 Once again, the tank is lit primarily with natural sunlight with a few 1000W metal halide lights supplementing the light.

Because of the size of this system, once again, it houses many of the species we would normally deem "not reef safe", yet none of them are nipping the corals!

Update

Once in a while, I like to do an update...

2014-05-19 Species Spotlight- Linchia sp. Starfish

Linckia stars are jewels of the South Pacific. They come in vibrant colors and patterns. Yet they are mysterious as we know little of all the species out there, let along the diet of all different species. Like many other marine creatures, just because they are called a "starfish" doesn't mean they are not picking on what they eat.

linty starfish as seen on Live Aquaria

There is this super attractive Linckia star for sell at Diver's Den:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden

Now, I am not saying it's impossible to keep a Linchia star, but it can be tricky as many of them prefer difference diet from another- ranging from easy and simple detritus (left over), coral (dangerous), other stars, fish, crustaceans, sponges, etc. Many of these items are either not abundantly available in a small home aquarium, some of them are too pricy to purchase or to be eaten by the star. The store I used to manage had a 180 Gallon mature reef tank with an abundance of "EVERYTHING", yet we couldn't keep a linckia in there alive for more than 3 months at a time.

If you have a really large tank- larger than 500 Gallon, mature, and is full of a variety of reef creature, you might have a shot. Otherwise, I'd advise saving your money for something not as finicky, or don't get to attached to it.

2014-05-05 Cinco De Mayo Harvest~ Gold wall hammer/anchor

Happen to travel to Chicago over the weekend with my wife to attend Stars on Ice. While in the area, I can't resist but to stop by Beyond the Reed in Schaumburg, IL. If you live anywhere within 2-3 hours from the Chicago area and are looking for great corals, frags, and invert both in quality and price, you cannot miss this store.
The new prize I scored is this beautiful 5" piece of Gold wall anchor/hammer coral. I've seen a comparable coral's online priced at the low to mid $100's. This piece was $98, retail! It is now happily expanding in my tank (shot below), and I am looking forward for this to wow any guests over!

A bit more about Beyond the Reef- Their staff is nice and knowledgable. And the store floor is DRY and CLEAN! The store's crown jewel is a huge (my estimate 1500 gallon) all glass FOWLR tank housing a pair of magnificent foot long uniform tang, along with a foot long Queen angel, 10" orange leopard spotted rabbitfish, full grown harlequin tusk, an almost full-grown black moray eel, along with many other beautiful fish. The only downside of the store I'd say is it didn't offer much of a clam selection. But they have 3 cubic inch acro frags (a full tank of them) for $49 each- a steal. Plus many other corals that you'd normally find 2-3X price in any other retailers, even online.

Even though I hate driving to Chicago area, even though the tax is higher down there, but I am almost getting ready to make this place my go-to store for all future coral excursions!

2014-04-28: Livestock of the Day 1

From Pacific East Aquaculture- This beautiful Gold Wall Hammer Coral is amazing!

I've been seeing more and more Gold Wall Hammer Corals surface the market recently. If you have always had good luck keeping LPS, please take this before someone else does!

For its color and size- actually not a bad deal at $199

http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/Metallic-Gold-Wall-Hammer-WYSIWYG-HP-A2319-Prodview.html

 Some Facts about Wall Hammer Coral-Euphyllia ancora

Hammer Corals are also known as Anchor Corals (the word ancora in its name), it is a large polyp stony coral in the Euphyllia family that includes frogspawn- http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/corals

To successfully keep this coral happy- you must have:

Temperature- 75-80F (23-27C)- I've found them to be quite tolerable to temperature swings, but they will not open up happily if it's too hot or too cold

Calcium-350-450ppm- I've found them to generally inflate more when calcium level is lower

Alkalinity-7-10

pH-8.0-8.4- Higher pH can induce faster growing as Calcium require good pH level to infuse with carbonate and magnesium. Be sure to have high oxygen level to maintain ideal pH.

Nitrate-No trace- This is a duh~

Lighting- High to Moderate-I've found them to be quire tolerant of wide variety of light condition as well. But in general the brighter the light, the better the growth. Personally I believe they do the best under high output T-5 or LED. They do OK under power compact but not much growth. With Metal Halide you need to move them lower otherwise they will bleach from overexposure. And please do not keep them in normal florescent light.

Waterflow-High to moderate- Because of the elaborate tissue, it does require stronger current to agitate the water column to ensure constant oxygen supply.

Acclimation- Honestly, unless yours or the supplier's water is severely messed up in parameters, I have never need to "drip" acclimate these things. I've always float them, make sure the water temp matches up, then simply open the bag and toss them in. I must say that take caution in mixing the seller's water into your tank as you don't know what kind of disease it comes with. So I generally take the coral out and toss the seller's water away. I also recommend a quick dip before you introduce the coral into your tank-Careful not to use too much iodine

Mushroom jungle

My one mushroom on the rock has grown into a jungle in the course of last year

Small tank coming along

Ever since the death of my mantis shrimp, this 24 gallon cube has been in "rebuild" mode while I decide what I put in it. I have decided to keep it a very slow, tamed and relaxed tank with 3 firefish, snowflake clown, randord's goby, a rare purple banded shrimp and a tiger pistol to remind me of the old mantis with its snaps.

I have also included some inverts, besides the standard snails and hermit crabs for maintenance and cleaning, I added a red tip brittle star, bunch of soft coral, and a pair of feather dusters

Reflection

I have always wanted to try a reflection shot of my tabk once the coral growth has adequate coverage. 

Coral growth august 7th

An update of the coral growth on August 7th. Looks like the miami orchid in the middle are starting to form little bumps- a little more protruding than before

Zoanthid in home, abbreviated version

Zoanthids are one of the most commonly found "corals" in the home aquarium. Not only they are brightly colored and have a compact size, they are normally really easy to keep, grows and spreads in a steadily fast pace. They are ideal for new marine hobbyists who want to try their hands in invertebrates.

The reason why I put "" around the word coral is because technically Zoanthids are more anemone than coral. And just like anemone, they can be poisonous so handle with care (Personally I have brushed my hand and handled both anemone and zoanthids and have never engaged any harm from them, but please use caution as some people may develop allergic reaction to certain aquatic lives.).

Zoanthids do come in many many different shades and colors. The price can also vary greatly depends on their color and rarity. Generally a colony about 2 square inches would cost between $15-30. But in some occassions you will find stores or breeders selling rare speciments at "per polyp" price. The most rediculous price I have ever heard was $45 per polyp (and it wasn't even that beautiful). Personally I suggest you use your own judgement in how much you want to pay for them. If they are increadibly expensive, it might pay to just wait a while as these critters grow really fast and once the "rare" types becomes more popular the price will eventually come down.

Caring:

Light: They are the most forgiving of all corals I have ever kept when it comes to light. I have the exact same species of zoanthids placed both 3 inches from the water surface with a 250W metal halide blasting over it and another colony at the very bottom and the edge of the tank. The lighting doesn't seem to make them grow any faster, however they do seem to open more generously with lower lighting. In addition, most of them will show and "pop" with the best coloration if you use more "blue" light such as actinic or 420nm bulbs.

flow: I have seen them thrive and extend their tentacles right next to a powerhead, I have also seen them open up and happy at a very still location of the tank. Again, use your judgement, but with either extreme, make sure you do it slowly so they can adjust to them.

Water quality: Obviously in order to keep anything else in your tank happy, the water needs to be free of nitrate and phosphate, But you might want the water to be "slightly" dirty as the zoanthids do absorb a good deal of nutrients from the water. I can tell that my zoanthids had really good growth (ironically) when they are placed in a quarantene tank without skimmer.

Disease and damages: Zoanthids do have a number of natural enemies in the wild ranging from fish to other invertebrates. If you spot a fish nipping at Zoanthids, you are pretty much left with the option of which one you want to keep more in your tank. If you find some small critters (snail, star, crab) nipping on them, you can carefully monitor and remove them as it happens. One good rule of thumb is to do a "Lugol's dip" when you receive them. To do so, get a bottle of Kemps "Lugol's solution", a super concentrated bottle of iodine. Follow the instruction for a coral dip indicated by the product to kill off any hitchhiking parasites that comes with it.

Best LED color combo for coral color

What is the best LED lighting combo to make your coral color 'pop'? Well, I visited a friend to pick up some coral for trade, and this was what he had 2:1 ratio on 420nm and the magenta. You be the judge!