Getting ready for laser tag?

After three long weeks, the 2000mw laser pen i purchased online, shipped from China has finally arrived! It comes in a kit the laser, batteries, charger, and the protective goggles you see here

Here is the kit in the box

And the contnets inside the box

I purchased this because of all the buzz of using laser to kill aquarium pests such as anemones, majano, aiptasia, overgrown soft corals etc. i experimented with this last night and boy do i have some nice videos to share!

A photo of me holding the laser for scale

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. 

20150329 Janesville Fragswap

It is amazing that the Wisconsin are has so many aquarium clubs with multiple fragswap or similar community events each year to provide vendors and hobbyists a fair trade platform for quality, and inexpensive experience to fill up their tanks. The event took place at the Janesville convention center, a small venue but sufficient for this function.

Before the event begins, all venfors busy prepping for their start.

Some sexy corals from one of the vendors

 Though there weren't as many vendors at this event (still an impressive 15 or so) as the Madison fragswap event, the quality of livestock and corals is definitely no lesser than the Madison swap.

Torch coral of variety colorations

Coral pricing divided by glowstick

One of the vendors provided some diversity with sea-pen, and a large group of lyre tail anthias

Cool looking nudibranch, though I don't recommend the average hobbyist keeping these difficult to maintain animals

20150329 180 Reef Tank update

A video update of my 180 Gallon Reef Tank after a couple weeks of intensive stocking effort.

Below are some of the new additions from this weeks fragswap at Janesville Wisconsin.

Middle of the 180 tank

New 4" Squamosa Clam

New Rose Bubble Tip Anemone about 3" disk, 6" open

Elegant coral in the process of swallowing some food

The Clarkii clownfish ditched the long tentacle anemone to host this rose bubble tip within 10 minutes of the anemone's introduction!

Live Aquaria Behind the Scene Tour part 1- Fish

panoramic view of Diver's Den's Aquacultured coral display tank

LiveAquaria is an online aquatic retailer operated under Drs. Foster & Smith, one of the largest and reputable pet supply online retailers. Three times a year LiveAquaria opens up its doors for passionate hobbyist (like myself) to tour the facility in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and purchase livestock at a discount price in person. The Rhinelander location is one of the two LiveAquaria facilities, all of the Diver's Den livestock are kept and shipped out here while most other "generic" items are kept in a California facility. This facility is also LiveAquaria's coral farm where they propagate and grow out coral frags in the aquaculture corals section. If you have not been there or seen anyone posted the behind the scene photos, here is a glimpse of where your livestock was once kept and grown while you were ordering them online!
To see some fun fact about their facility, click here.

Diver's Den uses Reef Crystals exclusively, these are their massive holding vats!

Fish holding section, there are eight walls like this

The guy in charge of the fish section was very friendly and explained the fish holding, catching (they did not use net to catch the fish, which is amazing), and bagging process. I also asked some questions regarding the fish's health- The fish are held for at least 14 days before they are available, and the fish are also only available when they are actively accepting frozen food. He dosed just thawed frozen brime shrimp into at least 4 or 5 of these large tanks and I swear all the fish, even the anthias were eating like pigs! In fact I did pick up a MFF trio of bartlett anthias. The one thing I do need to mention is the fish are only lightly medicated so when you order from them I would still recommend a thorough quarantine- without the worry of getting them to eat though!

The legendary conspicuous angelfish, the most expensive fish, that I know of, in the world at $3,000!! happily mingling with other fish here in this holding tank, and happily accepting food too!

A larger group of bartlett anthias male and female mixed along with a Tinker butterfly, some rabbitfish and copper band butterfly

Two of my dream fish- Blueface Angelfish and Powderblue Tang, though I will not be having them anytime soon due to space limit in my tank

Here is another gem- the super rare candy basslet at $699 (see the price tag)

Even though the tag says "Giant Angler" this guy is really small seen in real person, about the size of a quarter. They seem much bigger in their photos online.

One interesting to note is that many of the fish does seem a bit "different" in person versus seeing them online. Most of the common items like tangs, basslets, and angels don't have much room for difference since most hobbyists have pretty good ideal what they "look like" already. But some of the rarity and novelties tend to be a bit "surprising" to see in person. For example, this angler in the photo is really tiny in real person, but it looks much larger on the photo displayed in website. I think this fish is no longer available but here is a similar fish I also saw that was tiny. That said, don't be fooled, these anglers do get big and won't thrive in a nano system.

Couple more coolfish- Achillis Tang and a Redtail trigger

An Emperor Angelfish with a half black Foxface Rabbitfish

If you purchase multiple fish of the same species, such as a trio of anthias or a group of cardinals, the fish collectors here scoop the fish out with a container instead of net (at least that's what they did with my bartlett anthias, and you know how tough and fast they are to catch), they then separate them and bag each fish individually in dark bags to reduce stress.

One of the bagging stations

Their Bagging station is kept very clean and sanitary. The floor is surprisingly dry (you would expect this place to be a swampy mess!), and each bag is inspected for the correct item at bagging. They inject oxygen, clamp the bag with metal clamp and place the bags in appropriate sized foam box with a heat pack and peanuts for shipping. I honestly cannot pick on anything about the entire process. Although the 5 layer bags you will eventually receive can be a bit troublesome to open and acclimate fish with. But it's all worth it for a stress free journey.

One of the two boxes I came home with. The larger bag has one of the anthias with the smaller bags containing corals and invertebrates.

20150317 Camera is back

Without turning this into a Tech blog, I just want to say I take most of my photos published here using my iPhone5S. And when that camera goes out of commission it becomes very difficult for me to take photos and post them.
After a long and hard battle with Apple I finally found a replacement and now back!
Here are some tank update! While I was away, I added two anemones!

7" Squamosa Clam

This is the new long tentacle anemone I found. I am a true believer now in the symbiotic relationship with specifically the Clarkii clownfish with the long tentacle anemone. I placed the bubble tip anemone in the tank two weeks before I introduced the long tentacle. It took the Clarkii about 3-4 days to settle into the bubble tip compare to 30 seconds of me introducing the long tentacle.

The new Long Tentacle green anemone, hosted by a Clarkii clownfish

And a new bubble tip anemone, not so bubble tip right now though

20150217 Real Reef Rock

Many saltwater/reef hobbyist might not realize how devastating the removal of liverock from the ocean can be.
Liverock from the ocean is essentially the coral fossil in the ocean. When coral calcify and dies more coral grows onto it. The results of this layers upon layers of coral, clam, and oysters growing and forming calcium carbonate structure results in liverock, which all corals grow on today in the ocean.
Ever since I have learned of this, I have stopped purchasing liverock collected from the wild such as Fiji, Tuvalu, Tonga, etc. The fact is these liverock forms important foundation for coral and many reef dwellers to survive, by removing a cubic feet of liverock we are ripping as many possibility of corals to grow and thrive on it.
For this reason I have been purchasing rocks strictly from other hobbyists torn down tanks, as well as Florida dry rock- rock that has been dried and buried on land, not in ocean to be cultured into liverock.

Real Reef Rock artificial liverock with beneficial bacteria

A company called Real Reef Rock also provides a sensible, eco-friendly solution- they offer artificial rock that looks, and feels just like real liverock with the same porous structure. They have also packed these new pH balanced rock with beneficial bacteria to get your tank kick started in cycling without the nasty curing and dying off process of wild collected limericks!

The cross section of a real reef rock liverock showing the porous structure

Real Reef rock liverock comes in variety of size shape, and even coloration to fit your tank landscaping desire

20150203 Jellyfish Tank

Recently my mother told me a story that sounds quit horrible but is undoubtedly happening at most developed and wealthy nations- A girl whom she calls daughter but is not related to me, lives in Beijing and has quite a wealthy family. One day the girl's husband felt inspired to purchase a Jellyfish tank despite having no previous experience in keeping anything saltwater, not did he do any study on it. So the natural course of this sequence is tank bought, something got put in, and then died within days, then the tank just left unattended and dried up.
So the point of this story is- Jellyfish is not impossible to keep, in the contrary, they are quite simple. But- like keeping any animal, one must either have adequate knowledge or some experience to successfully keep them thriving. And here is a great set up that I thought I would get- if I wasn't already so committed to the amount of fishtanks I am attending!

Jellyfish Art comes with a complete kit and option to ship the jellyfish separately until you have successfully set up and cycled the tank. It is compact and doesn't take up a lot of room. The tank also comes with pretty illumination to accent the translucent creatures!
But before you commit, once again, I suggest doing some thorough study on keeping these beautiful creatures: Jellyfish keeping

20150130 Seachem

Seachem is a pretty popular company among aquarium trade and hobbyists alike. They have a wide range of products crossing the freshwater, planted, and reef spectrums.
Since I use and test out a wide range of brands and products, I am not writing this particular post to promote Seachem or praise their product. In fact, I find most of the products, regardless of brand, to perform in the similar range. What's really important is the hobbyists own husbandry and keeping up with maintenance.

That being said, I am impressed with some of these tools designed and distributed by Seachem. I have always wanted to have a more complete snipping and trimming tool for planted tanks with precision and also to be stainless! Check out these snippers! Most of them retail for range of $7 to $20ish.

Seachem also provide a wide range of readily prepared food for your fish and coral. I have rarely used these products since I produce my own fish food for the most part.

20150116 Swallowtail angel painting

I have decided to start a new painting series this new year. I am using acrylic as me medium and painting on square wood panels.
The first of the paintings is the newly acquired swallowtail angelfish- female

20141224 92 Gallon Corner Reef Revision

I was going through some of my older photos and videos. I found a video of my 92 corner reef from a while back. This was over a year ago, possibly two years because not only I have not acquired the big clams, I also have not added some of the fish I later have.

Flame angel pair

It's not easy capturing the two flame angelfish I have swimming together in the tank. Primarily because they swim rather speedily. And also likes to dart in and out of the rock work. But after three weeks of mixing the two together in my 180 reef, I am confident they have not bonded as a pair as they follow, not chase, each other.

the one at borrow is female, with a more rounded anal fin. The brighter red one on top.

flame angelfish hanging out together.