Update Some Pictures

  Neon Green Poly added June 23rd

 New picture takedn July 26th 2012

 Turbo Snail added on June 23rd 2012

 Jerry Rice a black Occelaris Clown

 Steve Young and Jerry Rice

 Hammer Coral Added in July 2012

 Xenia Coral added in July 2012

New Tank in a New Town

Well we have moved to Pullman WA, and down graded from a 90 gallon with 30 gall refugium to a 29 gallon biocube. I went with the biocube because I wanted to buy a system that had everything in one package rather than having to try and piece everything togther. I bought the tank on 5/22/12 with 40 lbs of sand and 18 pounds of live rock. I also started with 8 hermit crabs to get the Nitrogen cycle started.

After 2 week of checking Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, temperature and overall look everyday accompanied by doing a 4 gallon water change every saturday, I decided to add a fish. We drove down to Lewiston Idaho to the fish store I had bought the tank from and looked around for a couple hours before I finally made a decision to buy an occelaris clown fish that we named Steve Young. When we got home I quickly drip acclimated Steve and placed him in the tank.
Up to this point our tank was on our kitchen counter and we were using a card table to eat off of; however, we had purchased a stand from marine depot online and it arrived on Teusday June 5th. I rapidly assembled the stand and try to decide exactly where I wanted to put it in the front room. My wife and I finally agreed on putting in the corner next to the TV stand. Now was the tricky part of getting a filled tank from the kitchen table onto the stand. Luckily the stand was the exact same height as the kitchen table so after a couple of phone calls to some friends I just had to wait a couple of hours to get some help. This would have worked great if I was patient enough to wait for them. I wasn't so I drained a whole bunch of the water out of the tank and talked Josie into helping me carry the entire kitchen table over next to the tank stand and slide the aquarium onto the stand.

I have been doing a lot of research on discussion boards and the internet and found out that the bioballs that came with the tank are more for freshwater systems and if I left them in my saltwater setup I was just setting myself up for disaster in the future so I started taking a few out everyday. I got to a point where everytime I would take some out my tank would go through an algae bloom so finally I just took all the remaining balls out at once and did a big water change. Well we are headed to Seattle so I will continue to updating my blog a little later.

NEW LIGHTS!!!!!

So my mom got me a new setup of lights for my fish tank for Christmas she ordered the lights so that they would arrive at our apartment by Christmas day, well a couple days later she called me and told me that the company that sent the lights had returned her payment. I guess they won't send product to an address that is different than the billing address. Well two weeks after Christmas the fixtures and end caps finally came. Now I just had to order the lights that I wanted and put it all together. The actual fixtures that you buy are like 900 dollars so I got a retro kit which comes with waterproof end-caps super high quality reflectors and a ballast. So I had to order new lights. Well a couple of days ago they arrived and I haven't had a second to work on putting it together at all. Well this morning I finally had time and the motivation to start working on my hood. I got the brackets cut and attached and then I was stuck trying to figure out how to wire the ballast so I called a couple of different people before a friend of mine came over and helped me figure out and wire it all together. Once the new lights were on, it completely changed how my tank looks. Everything pops and coral that didn't look like they had any color are now bright and beautiful. I really can't believe the difference that it made. So if you look at these pictures the white looking pictures are before and the blue are the after pictures.

Well worth the wait!!!!!

So before today the only fish that I have bought for my tank were the two oscellaris clown fish and a copper banded angelfish. Of which, only one nemo is still alive. The other three fish in the tank are one of my friend's fish. He is from australia and his name is Robert Burdzy. He has been a big help in getting my tank up and going. Well, last week Robert and myself put in a fish order from a big company in L.A.. I ordered a lawnmower blenny, blue hippo tang(dory), fox face(yellow fish with a mow-hawk of spines), a new oscellaris(nemo), a cleaner shrimp, and a whole bunch of snails to keep my substrate clean. Well soon as the fish came in the lawnmower died and the company different have one of the species of snails that I ordered so they sent my backup plan a green anemone. Well the entire order went to Roberts house where last week we setup 3 holding tanks for our orders and so that he can start ordering fish for other people. I couldn't stand the waiting. They arrived on thursday and I finally picked them up yesterday late afternoon. I was so excited I probably didn't allow them to acclimate long enough before adding them all to my tank. I was just so exstatic all I could think about was finally stocking my tank with my own fish. I have done a lot of researching and looking around at what fish I wanted. Well enough of the monologue here are some pictures of me and the family adding the fish from the acclimation bucket to my display tank.

Here is Dory and Nemo. The other clown we have is named elmo because that is all Bailey can say when she sees them is "My ELMO."

I went to feed my anemone this morning and I guess I needed to be cleaned.
I forgot to mention I also got 3 chromis. Mybuddy Robert ordered them and thought they would look good in my tank.

The foxface hasn't been out much since I put him in the tank, so this the best picture I have gotten


DORY


The green anemone.
Bailey wanted to play with the new fish really badly so we were looking at them.


Then Aunt misty came to help.

They are HERE!

The new fish are here! Check back tonight or in the morning to see the newest additions!

New pictures 1/21/10

Here are the newest pictures of our fish tank. I tried to take pictures of the snails, crabs, shrimp and everything so you could see- enjoy!





Here is one of my favorite pictures that I took. It is nemo in front of my hammer corral and one of my mushrooms that is red with blue spots on it.

This little guy decided he wanted to get in on the picture action.

Nemo has been hosting this hammer coral for a little while, but I have yet to be able to get a good picture of him laying down and getting a good rub down.










My first mushroom has now become 6 or 7

These little zooanthids have not really taken hold yet.






Just a couple of the 15 or so hermit crabs in the tank

Well in a couple of days we will have a new blue hippo tang(dory), a foxface, a green anenome, and a ton of snails.I am sooooo excited. They are currently at a buddies of mine that is putting them in a holding tank for me. I also got my T5 retrofit light kit