A Box of [Salt]water

I moved into my apartment!  College owned, that is.  So I took a few pics of what I did to set up my tank.  Enjoy!

A mess!!  Got a lot of work to do…

Experimenting/planning for a future HOB refugium, DIY style

More mess!  Oh and the hotel-esque bathroom!

Coral not open yet!

Some openers!  Seems like the LPS take a bit longer to adjust… hope they’re okay!

Some softies open, some not quite yet!

Fish are fine!

Shrooms not open yet!!

So I embarked on a bit of a journey the past couple of days before and during move in at school.  I was looking at a Nano-Reef post and came across some excellent DIY skills by pxiong85, a convert to saltwater!  His thread is probably more informative than mine, but take a look at my nasty attempt.  In theory it will work, but I used gorilla glue instead of aquarium silicone, and sprung a leak :(.  Soo I ordered a water pump as well as some silicone in attempts to make this badass fuge!  I don’t mind how it looks as long as it’s behind the tank!  It’s more or less just a fun project!  Anyway, here are the pics for everyone to enjoy :).  Any questions?  Comment!

The “prototype” with a dry run!

Since I’ll be moving to college soon, I have been thinking of totally redoing my aquascaping to a more simplistic design, one with less live rock.  There are a couple of tank ideas I have in mind, both winners of Nano-Reef.com’s Tank of the Month!  Below are the gorgeous images of the two I am going to base my rock off of!

Sushi’s 20G Setup

Sandeep’s 5.5 Gallon

I always enjoyed minimalist designs, whether it be iPhones or Zen Gardens.  I know that Sandeep has been doing Bonsai trees for years and years, and based his creation off of those techniques.  I hope to do the same.  Got suggestions?  Let me know!

I took a couple of photos whilst I was waiting for something, whilst I was water changing.  So here you go :)

Deionizer/Tap Water Filter, so far I’m a bit concerned, I paid $42 bucks for this thing and I still have red slime algae.  Going to the store tonight to pick up some phosphate test supplies.  If phosphates are running rampant, I might return this to LiveAquaria, if they’ll accept it that is.  Using some old SeaGel as well, so I might replace it with some new stuff if this doesn’t work out.

Some Deionized water for top offs, riveting I know.

Maroons being curious about the water change.  I apologize for the blurryness, I took it in haste.  The Maroons are never scared of my hands, water changes, or rock movement.  They’re pretty relaxed.  Though they host the heater so far :.

I know this looks grim, but he was moving!  His torso didn’t disappear magically!  Water is all messed up from WC, but I’ll take some after shots later :)

The happy couple once again :)

Action Shot!

That’s all for now, hope you all have a great day!  Show me your tanks!  Send me an email or a tweet :).

-Pat

While checking Twitter yesterday, I noticed that there was a tweet about a particular goby being put up in the Diver’s Den section of their website.  Of course this is the place where they overprice sell their rare and exotic catches. Some of these are legitimately rare, like this little guy from Cebu. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Lotilia gracilosa, or the White Cap Goby. This little guy is mottled brown with white spots and looks to be a shrimp goby (meaning it should pair with symbiotic pistol shrimps).

Sure it’s a cool looking fish and I doubt many have it, but would you pay upwards of $1000.00US for it!? Well, it’s going for $899.99 on Live Aquaria, and I don’t know anyone crazy enough (well, maybe I do actually) to buy this little guy. Sure he’s cute, not to mention rare, but what if he jumped out? Didn’t survive shipping? Or your little brother or niece cracks the tank whilst playing?

There’s about a zillion bad things that could happen, and if only one of these occurs, you are out almost $1000.00 buckaroons! Crazy. If I had a LOT of money (think millionaire), I’d gladly stock my tank full of these guys and take a bath with them, but unfortunately this is not the case :)

Here’s a few pictures of the little guy for sale.  NOTE:  This is not the actual LA one :).

My favorite one, and probably the best image!

I have, in general, mixed feelings about ornamental shrimp in the aquarium setting.  There are certainly beautiful ones, such as the Fire Cleaner Shrimp, the Bumblebee Shrimp and the symbiotic Pistol Shrimp, but there are also harmful ones that eat coral, like Camel Shrimp and Peppermint Shrimp. 

Recently, I was looking on some random Japanese aquarium site and came across a shrimp known (in Japanese anyway) as the Reddobishurinpu Hakata.  Doing a bit more digging thanks to Google Image Search, I came up with a Dutch forum, that dubbed it a “Red Bee Shrimp.”  I quickly looked this up, and to my disappointment, they turned out to be Freshwater :(.  This is great for freshwater folks, though I’m not certain where to find them.  They’re GORGEOUS though, and are simply selectively bred regular Bee Shrimp (Caridina sp).  Rumor has it that this was a shrimp bred long ago by a Japanese villager who noticed that there were some Bee Shrimp who were more red than usual.  Selective breeding is AWESOME.  Check out the comparisons below.

Normal Bee Shrimp

It’s different-colored-brotha, the Red Bee Shrimp!

In a post from Glass Box Designs, there have been confirmed spottings of a rare Angelfish, known as the Masked Angelfish, or Genicanthus personatus, lurking around the depths of the Hawaiian coast.  Usually a fish native to waters around Japan, the Masked Angelfish has been said to retail in Japan for $30,000.  Take a look at a couple of pictures I found at fishbase.org, they are GORGEOUS.

Beautiful Male Masked Angelfish, contains nice orange and yellow hues with pearl white torso.

The female, in my opinion, is nicer looking, as it’s got a black and white simplicity to it that I enjoy :)

Enjoy :)

Hey all, I couldn’t find a decent place (ALL IN ONE) to find Do It Youself skimmer builds, so I compiled a fun list here.

Tupperware Skimmer

PVC Airstone Skimmer

Skimmer Design 101

YouTube Video

Surprisingly, EHow’s description isn’t too bad

Find a cool design?  Comment or send me an email, marineoceania@gmail.com