I went to my local fish store last week and they had a very healthy looking pair of Mandarin dragonettes for sale. I observed them for a few days and decided to get them. They are the cutest animals, interacting with each other and hopping around the tank. Just got back up to the tank after a long weekend and its so sad.

The male mandarin when I got him in the tank the tail was shredded a bit. I didn’t notice it at the store, so i thought maybe it happened in transport. Well I get home a week later and I notice he’s not bouncing around the tank like the female so I pull up a chair and watch him. After about 20 minutes he gets up and he’s got NO TAIL FIN. Sigh… I think he’s got ich too because his skin looks a little lumpy like pre-stage ich. I hope this little guy makes it. I tested my water and the NO3 is about 20+ its hard to tell..but its weird that I do 32 gal water changes on a 150 every 2 weeks and the Nitrates are still high. I’ve just brought in a larger 45 gal bin to do larger water changes…I’ll keep you posted on if it works.

I just added a double stuffed bottle of Tigger Pods to the rocks while the lights were out, and another double stuffed bottle to the fuge. That’s at least 5,000 pods in the tank now. I also bought 100 live mysid shrimp to start my culture back in my fuge that I lost from the move. They are my favorite things to watch.

Hopefully the male will make it through with enough food and love because I have no hope for him to make it in a QT system with no food source.

I got my order of Reef Nutrition food in this weekend. One huge bottle of Phyto Feast Live, a big bottle of Arcti Pods and those two bottles of Tigger Pods. I squirted some of the arctipods in the tank and everyone (not the mandarins yet) came out to gorge. The anthias especially liked them. They have been spitting out their food alot lately.

In the end of June 2008 I upgraded from a 90 saltwater tank to a 150 gallon tank.

Tank:
Custom build by Charlie @ www.fishtankfactory.com
Glass (not drilled) 48″L x 30″W x 24″H
Rimless, 1/2″ regular glass, Polished edges

Stand aka “The Beast”:
Built by Dave @ Mitchell Construction (davocean on the boards)
49″L x 31″W x 31″H
2″x4″ construction to be faced later. This thing is a tank (as in the army kind with a big gun…the run over you and squish you like a bug kind) A++++ on the construction. As Dave so perfectly put it, “Glued, Screwed, and Tattooed.”

And the story begins…
I called Charlie and got a great quote from him for the tank. Literally 1/2 the cost Leemar wanted. So I ordered and gave him a deadline of the 26th of June which was only about two weeks from the day I called him. There was a chance it would have gotten done much earlier but he had jury duty, but I give him an A+ on communication through the whole build. He kept me up to date on when to expect it the whole time. I specifically ordered the tank just as it is. I wanted it without the trim at the top and polished on the edges. I couldn’t afford Eurobracing, and I don’t mind a center brace at all, so I ordered it with 18″ openings so my equipment could fit in the openings perfectly and HOB. In then end, I picked up the tank on the 25th. I drove up to Alhembra, CA to the factory and got a pretty cool tour of the whole place up there. I’d highly recommend them for a stand or a tank. Really solid operation they have going on up there.

6/25/08 I drop off the tank in Temecula on the way down to SD.

6/26/08 Davocean begins work on the stand at his place and I go pick up 160lbs of sand and a big ol’ bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. (Pics of the stand build from dave coming soon)

Dave finishes the stand about 5pm (Rome wasn’t built in a day, but my “Beast” of a stand sure was) and we load it into my RAV4 (”Tonka”) along with 8 empty jugs of water, 160lbs of sand, and a big ole bucket of salt. That truck has never failed me in fitting an enormous amount of stuff in it and still be able to close the back door.

I make a run to the closest LFS Deep Sea Creatures on the 79 and fill up 50 gals of RO/DI water. Must give huge props to this store for having an AWESOME design and layout. I talked to the owner and I guess the store design was a design final for some student. It paid off. Nicest LFS I’ve ever been in. The livestock was sorely lacking, but that can always be fixed later. I’ll have to go back and get pictures later.

Went back home, mixed up the first 50gals with Instant Ocean salt since that is what my animals are a custom to now, and put the sand to settle in that water overnight with a powerhead for circulation.

Current Stock list from smallest to largest-

1 hecktor goby (that I think has paired up with a rainsford??)
2 rainsfordi gobies
1 blue flasher wrasse
1 osc clown
1 black osc clown (he has no time for her and spends his days far away )
1 cherub angel
2 Mandarin Dragonettes
1 purple firefish
5 lyretail anthias (one is turning to male)
1 Massive Yellow Coris wrasse
1 Copper Banded Butterfly
1 Carribean Blue Tang
1 Blue Hippo Tang

Tank Video as of September 2008

As if a new business, a position on the board of directors of the San Diego Marine Aquarium Society (SDMAS), starting a part time job at Custom Aquatic in Oceanside, CA, and actually trying to have a social life wasn’t enough to keep me busy. I decided to volunteer my time to the noble cause of answering the desperate queries of the distraught reefing community as the newest member of the WetWebMedia.com crew.

New personality trait I’ve discovered, masochism.

MACNAXX started out with a very early morning flight and no sleep the night before. The security lines at the airport were out the door and across the street at 6 am and I wouldn’t have made my flight unless I was pulled out of line and rushed through security. Once on the plane, travel to Atlanta was fairly painless. The train (MARTA) was easy to find in the airport and I got a round trip ticket for about $5. The train ride was great except for the fact that I had to fight with bulky luggage falling over at every stop. Leaving the train I was met with what had to be the biggest escalator known to man. This thing had to run 5 stories up to street level. None the less it took me within 100yds of the door of my hotel.

I spent most of that evening sitting around getting my bearings and trying to see if I recognized anyone walking down through the lounge area near reception. I didn’t.

I got tired of that fast and called Marc (melev) Levenson to see what him and his group of misfits from Texas were doing that night. It turns out they were going out to eat and invited me to join. After dinner we went to the spinning lounge at the top of the Westin hotel where we could relax and enjoy the view of Atlanta at night.

Friday was the first day of the show and the doors opened at noon. At first impression the show reminded me a lot of MAX (Marine Aquarium Expo) and Reef-a-Palooza in SoCali, but that was just because there are a lot of the same vendors, and come on, it IS another trade show in the same industry.

I made quick rounds to get the lay of the land. By this time, I was starving with no breakfast and a bit overwhelmed with where to start. I stumbled across Marc and found out, to my dismay, that my friend has a distinct aversion to eating meals on a regular basis and he firmly declined my request to go grab a bite. Lucky for me, shortly after, my intestinal torture was relieved because the rest of the Texas group was heading to Hooters for lunch.

As a new addition to the group, I felt welcomed immediately and later enjoyed the small reassurance that comes from being able to see at least one familiar face across a room of strangers.

Friday night was the “Cocktail Party” for MACNA and about 7:30 everyone proceeded to the ballroom. I was quite surprised to find that the drinks weren’t complimentary (not even the soda) and even worse were outrageously priced ($4.25 for about 8oz of Diet Coke). The party had a presentation on Japanese Aquariums that I didn’t really pay attention to because Marc and Evan (Quicksilver) set up the recording equipment in the back of the room to record for ReefCast and I couldn’t really hear where I was seated. I had the impression that not many people were captivated by that particular presentation. Looking to make my own entertainment, I lured the first victim, Bob Fenner, to the makeshift recording studio. He kindly acquiesced us with a light-hearted interview and quite a few laughs.

After the interview we decided to pay homage to the tummy gods once again, and 8 of us headed down the street to a Mexican style restaurant. Upon entering Marc and Evan (Quicksilver) see the New Jersey Reef Club (future hosts for MACNA XXI) and decide to try to get on their good side by buying them all a round of drinks. I had created a simple ReefCast sticker for Marc a month earlier and he brought a grip of them with him. Accordingly, twelve bottles of Corona got wiped down and relabeled as “Reefcast Corona” and placed neatly on a waitress’s tray.

Happy with my application skills, we head behind the waitress to the unexpecting MACNA hosts, and that’s when it all went south…literally. The entire dozen of bottles toppled over on the waitress’s tray. The cause of this blunder (EVAN) shall remain unnamed because there is no hard evidence, but with some quick thinking Marc and Aaron were able to stabilize most of the bunch and resituate them on the tray still in the arms of the bewildered waitress.

How the SECOND aftershock happened, is beyond my comprehension. Because after the twelve, more-or-less, full bottles of Corona were stable again atop the tray, they all went crashing to the ground in a clash of glass, bubbles, and ReefCast stickers.

The hilarity that followed is something that mere words could not describe. Needless to say, with quick thinking, I was able to capture the whole thing on my camera.

Saturday, I got a late start, only rolling out of bed at 11am. I made rounds to a variety of booths, stopping to talk to the exhibitors there. A few of my personal favorites were: Habib from Salifert (yes he’s alive and no the company isn’t going out of business), Randy Reed, Gresham, and Richard Ross from Reef Nutrition, Jon Warner from Warner Marine, and Larry from Reef Results Marine (a brand new company selling aquarium additives utilizing a very bold marketing approach). Earlier, I had heard Evan exclaiming his intent to have Walt Smith on the podcast, and seeing him at his booth, I found the nerve to ask him for the interview myself. I spent the next few hours as an onlooker to a string of great interviews by the ReefCast guys and enjoyed myself immensely.

I hurriedly got spruced up for the Georgia Aquarium Tour and the Gala that evening in my room and jumped on one of the buses that were provided to transport the attendees to the aquarium.

Attendees to the Gala were able to browse the aquarium free of charge between 5pm and 7pm. Being my first time there, the sheer scale of the exhibits there awed me. The Whale Shark/Manta Ray tank was by far my favorite. Enjoy some of the pics from that night.

At 7, my feet were very happy to rest at a table very near to the front of the gala ballroom. Dinner started with a mixed green salad and bread. Shocking to me, drinks were NOT included at this event either. To purchase a ticket outright to this dinner was $86 and there weren’t even sodas served free of charge. Hrmph.

The gala was okay…the food was catered by Wolfgang Puck’s Chef, but didn’t really meet my personal tastes, so I didn’t eat much. The speakers during dinner were entertaining enough and the evening was wrapped up with the naming of the winner of the trip for 2 to Figi. Before leaving, we were treated to a surprise presentation from a diver INSIDE the whale shark tank, which was viewable from the inside of the ballroom. She was kind enough to answer any question we could throw at her while dodging the various inhabitants of the 6.2 million gallon tank, including the resident hammerhead shark.

Back at the hotel, we lucked out to be 2 doors down from a party room sponsored by Saltwatercritters. They bought a plasma TV and had the family room decked out with the full set-up of RockBand and free drinks galore (my first diet coke of the weekend that I didn’t have to shell out $3 or $4+ dollars for, THANKS SALTWATERCRITTERS). The atmosphere was lively and fun, helped along by the donning of coconut bras, and mullet wigs while rocking out full-tilt to any songs the partygoers wanted to try their hands at.

Saturday night concluded dangerously close to where Sunday morning began and I pulled myself from the confines of a very comfortable bed before I rightfully should have. Sleep deprived and bleary-eyed, I made my way to the show floor again at about 9am, stopped at a few booths I didn’t get to see yet, like Aquarium Specialties, Red Sea, and Teco. While at Red Sea I noticed a stunningly large acan frag in their tank for sale. Being the addict that I am, I inquire within. I was told it was already sold for about $1,000. FOR A FRAG! Whew, too rich for my blood.

I ventured for the first time to the Raffle area and took a peek at which items I might try my luck at. Tickets were sold in $1, $5, and $10 denominations. One pass through showed me that ANYTHING at all deemed desirable required a $10 ticket. Most mediocre items such as a hardback Conscientious Marine Aquarist book and a matted saltwater animal photograph were $5. The $1 raffles were limited to mostly fish food, additives, lesser-known books and a random bulb or two. More than a bit miffed at the raffle structure and prices, I purchased twelve $1 tickets for $10 and dropped them all into the raffle for a soft cover of Conscientious Marine Aquarist (which I won, w00t!).

I finished my trip by exercising mercy on a few vendors by assisting them with clean up, all-too-familiar with the hassle of wrapping up a trade show booth myself.

All in all, I enjoyed MACNA XX, and will attend the next one in Atlantic City. Each year is different and run by a completely different club, so I have hopes that some of the shortcomings I noted in Atlanta, will be resolved in Atlantic City, NJ in 2009. As always, these trips are made memorable by the people you meet, and for that I’d like to thank all of those wonderful people that made my weekend enjoyable and fun. I won’t soon forget you and hope to continue the friendships I made this weekend.