Click here to view my photos of the Academy

So I finally got to go to the California Academy of Sciences last weekend. It was a lot of fun. We drove up from San Diego up the 5 and stayed at a friends place. We went on a Saturday when it wasn’t too busy, but when I arrived I was told that the Planetarium was sold out for the day. big bummer. I was really looking forward to that most of all.

My evaluation of the place. The building is wonderful and just great in its design. The exhibits were nicely done. The rain forest was an unexpected surprise for someone who enjoys photography like I do. Lots of cool flowers and butterflies to capture there.

Steinhart Aquarium left me torn. I think the exhibits were some of the best I’ve seen in all the aquariums I’ve gone to. They have great aquascape and plenty of exhibits for you to see. A nice selection of fish, though there was nothing breathtaking like the huge fat morish idols of the Long Beach Aquarium. The coral selection however was dismal. There was this amazing “reef caves” exhibit (the picture in the album with the black wall and circular tank viewing window) that could have been amazing. There were a million and two places for suncorals, dendros, scleronepthias galore…but they just left it empty and you stared at nothing but an empty overhang of rock. In the reef exhibit there were a few softies and some other LPS, but nothing looked flurishing. It looks like there could also be some more light added to the tank.

I can’t wait to see what the place looks like in 5 years if they really get some reefers in there to stock the tanks and care for them. This place will be a million times better than the Long Beach Aquarium which happens to be one of my favs.

Reference to California Academy of Sciences

http://www.my1uplife.com/2008/10/california-academy-of-sciences-steinhart-aquarium

The most recent shots of my tank.

I drove up to my tank today and decided to do a 45 gallon water change. I started to clean the glass first with this little Easy Blade contraption from heaven.

It gets all the hard little algae that grows on the glass and makes it look new again. Anyway 45 gallons later and some new carbon and I swear I’ve never see my tank look so good. There was just something about the water that looked crystal clear and everything looked so happy. For the first time I just sat in awe of my own tank. Made me remember why I love it.

Photo By: Juniors Reef

After seeing the article in this month’s ReefKeeping magazine, I fell in love with the NightSea photography style and immediately wanted to buy the equipment for my camera.

I contacted the owner and he agreed to do this group buy for us and offer about a 20% discount!!!

There are three packages that can be ordered based upon your needs and camera lens size. Each one comes with the glasses that look like these pictured here. They fit over prescription glasses or can be worn alone.

First Package: Group Buy Price $119.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $149.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light and Viewing glasses (VGA2) only

Second Package: Group Buy Price $154.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $194.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light, Viewing glasses (VGA2), and the Filter for your camera lens in any ONE of the following sizes: 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, and 58mm

Third Package: Group Buy Price $169.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $214.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light, Viewing glasses (VGA2), and the Filter for your camera lens in any ONE of the following sizes: 62mm or 67mm

Schedule: Declare Interest by December 6th

Please email me at jessica@creativesoup.com with your name and package you are interested in so I can keep track of how many we are going to order. I will allow emails from interested parties until December 6th to try and get the word out there.

I will email everyone who is interested with the paypal address for payment that weekend, and you can begin payment to Night Sea directly on the 7th. YOUR ORDER IS NOT CONSIDERED COMPLETE UNTIL YOU SEND YOUR MONEY IN TO NIGHT SEA WITH A CONTACT/SHIPPING INFO AND PACKAGE INFORMATION.

Order cut off date is December 12th @ 9pm pst.

Group Buy pricing will not be valid anytime after 12/12/08 21:00 pst and if orders are placed after that, your money will be refunded to you. No exceptions. Shipping is by UPS GROUND in continental US only.

Please check back to this post for further updates. It is your responsibility to contact me if you have not been emailed that you are on my list for the group buy by Dec 7th. I’m just organizing this group buy and not am responsible for any orders that didn’t get placed or if you weren’t proactive in checking this post.  I also am not profiting from this group buy nor do I have any information for answering product questions. Please direct any questions to the manufacturer. Thanks!

Related Articles & Links:

http://www.nightsea.com/aquarium.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-11/feature/index.php

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1404110&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/ac/index.php

Photo By: Juniors Reef

Photo By: Juniors Reef

I had the chance to take a drive up to Orange County today and visit a few of the fish stores there. Normally I would hit up Tong’s and OCAquatics, but I’m very happy that I added two other stops in on the way. First I went to Ali’s store Amazing Aquariums & Reefs and was pleasently surprised. The store is very nicely done with a great layout of tanks that blow anything the stores do in San Diego away. He’s got a lot of nice corals and you can tell he puts thought into his fish selections, resulting in a nice wide selection of highly desireable livestock.

After that we stopped at Coral Oasis. It was a small store up front with not too many interesting corals, but the back!!! OH MY! I’ve never seen such large holding tanks for fish… there had to be about twenty 150gallon tanks back there. I also liked the display tanks that were developed each from a different region of the world.

I ended up picking up this little guy at Ali’s shop.

Pseudochromis Elongatus

$500 million later: San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences has solar panels and a living roof. By Tim Griffith

The Cal Academy of Sciences opened this September after their remodel and I absolutely can’t wait to go. Before this year I had barely visited one aquarium and now I’ve seen 4 going on 5 this year alone. But what I’ve always wanted to do and have never done is go to a planetarium. I don’t know why… maybe it was all those years of Star Trek that did it to me, but i’ve always wanted to see what the universe can look like.

So what do Star Trek and Finding Nemo have in common? Why the Cal Academy of Sciences of course! That place is like Disneyland for nerds of all kinds. Planetarium, rain forest, huge saltwater reef tank….it goes on and on.

I met one of the guys that works there, Richard Ross from The Daisy Cuttle Fish Farm at MACNA this year and he seemed like a really great guy. Needless to say I fully intend on shamelessly trading in on any good graces I may have with him to obtain a behind the scenes look when I get there.

Read more here:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-10-16-cal-academy_N.htm

So here’s how I made my light bars to hang my lights above my aquarium:

Shopping list (this is to make two bars to hang a 48″ lighting fixture)

2 -10′ lengths of 3/4 conduit pipe (get a 3rd because you’ll make mistakes on bending)
2 - sets of “Sunlifts” from sunlight supply (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt…915~tab~2.html) Got mine from SWI much cheaper
4- 1″ hooks
4- Decorative nuts (got mine from a current light fixture set, but I’m sure they sell something like it at HD)
4- 3/4 brackets for attaching to the wall or stand
1- Bag of end caps (1/2″) see picture for type **optional**
Screws for mounting to the wall/stand

Tools-
Drill
3/4 Pipe bender ($40 @ HD) –gonna return mine
Pipe Cutter

To make these light bars I needed them to hang a 14″ light fixture 16″ over a tank. (I chose to hang it slightly closer to the front of the tank)

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I measured 18″ to start my first bend. That gives me 2″ extra on each side of my fixture of dead space.

If you’ve never worked with a pipe bender before, you have to line up the little star with your line.

Bend your first 90 degree angle by stepping on the pedal and forcing it up.

I needed my light bar to extend 15-16″ out from the wall.. so I made my next mark 12″ from the top of the perpendicular pipe. Bending with the 3/4 in pipe bender adds about 4″ extra to the finished bend. Thus a 12″ mark becomes 16″ finished product.

Bend your second 90 the same way as the first.

Cut the excess length off the foot of your pipe. I cut 7.5″ off the end for my purposes.

Drill holes straight through the pipe to screw in the hooks

I finished mine off with a decorative nut, but any nut will do.

I went the extra step and capped the pipe for a finished look. This is the bag for these caps…Notice they are 1/2 to fit inside the 3/4 pipe.

This is what the final close up of the hangers look like

My pipes sit on the floor behind my tank because I couldn’t access behind my stand to attach them to the stand (my first choice) so I attached them to the wall

Final Product

Update with the 48″ light fixture I use now

If you’re looking for any information on sumps, saltwater critter ID, or aquarium photography, Marc Levenson’s site www.melevsreef.com is a great resource. He also sells RO/DI units that are second to none. I bought one from him for my reef needs and I couldn’t be happier with it.

My RO/DI Unit from Melev's Reef set up above my washer/dryer

You can check it out here:

http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html